Rover 45 cooling stsyem

Rovertoyou

Rovertoyou

New Member
I know this is in the wrong place and not about a P6! But I need any ideas you may have so I've gone for maximium covarage!

My P6 has poped its head gasket, needs some welding and some new suspension bushes. So I've taken it off the road and tucked it away in my dad's garage awaiting me to find time to do the work. So I bought a cheap Rover 45 1800 IXE from the dreaded e-bay, to tide me over (the P6 was/is my main car). Its had a modified head gasket fitted, along with a new rad, water pump and cam belt. Unfortunatly the heater only gets hot when the engine is revving/being run at higher revs. I have bled the system to the best of my abilities but I think there is still air in there, any ideas or neet tricks for teasing it out. I think its a cracking car! Goes well, easy to drive, handles well and with a leather interior is a very comfy pleasant place to be!
 
If this is anything like the metro with k-series engines fitted, it may be worth checking the water passage through the inlet manifold. When we checked ours it was blocked with all the crud from the cooling system. As for the heater, is the temperature guage stable or does it rise and fall with the temperature coming out of the heater? It may be worth checking the thermostat is opening/closing correctly.

As the engine is almost certain to have overheated then blown the headgasket in the past, you could have some partially blocked waterways in the engine which could be affecting the operation of the cooling/heating system in the cold weather.
 
Most likely cause of the heater not blowing hot air is the valve on the bulkhead, or the hose that is attached to it. If the hose attached to the heater control valve is fitted with a Saab valve, then this is the most likely cause.

Another possibility is the water pump. These seem to have a life expectancy of around 80k miles (plus or minus 20k miles).
 
Thanks for your replies chaps. In answer to your questions the temperature guage stays stable (the fan does kick in and out to maintain temp as normal). I thought the valve could be faulty too so have removed the pipe to inspect it and can confirm it does open and close as it should. The water pump was replaced along with the rad and cam belt when the new head gasket was fitted. The chap I bought it off runs a workshop and buys Rovers with dead gaskets and fixes them to subsidise his living, he says he is very thurough and I have no reason to doubt him. It could have been a duff pump even though it was new when he fitted it!

Either way I don't use the car during the week so I'll have another try next weekend and see how it goes.
 
I've replaced the inlet manifold gasket another common K series waek point and although I haven't used the car much early signs are good! Thanks again for your ideas. :wink:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top