John Vine Posted October 16, 2001 Share Posted October 16, 2001 My 1.8K is becoming incontinent. It's started to dribble fluorescent green coolant all over the driveway, road or wherever. The liquid appears to come from behind the crank pulley. I've checked all the hoses and connections, and they seem fine -- not a hint of a leak. My prime suspect is the water pump, but no leaks are visible in that area either. Maybe it's leaking into the darker recesses of the cambelt cover? Does all this indicate a dodgy pump? It seems too much of a coincidence that only last week I had the engine out to replace a duff clutch release bearing. Perhaps I was hamfisted and my lifting gear damaged the pump mounting? The only other variable I can think of is that I also flushed out the cooling system. I used Holts Radflush(?), and then drove the car for about 20 miles (as recommended) before draining the system and refilling with a pukka water/antifreeze mixture. JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Bees Posted October 17, 2001 Share Posted October 17, 2001 Erk. Let's hope it's not the head gasket. Are you sure it's not coming from the J-tube connection to the thermostat housing? Out of interest, which brand/type of coolant did you use? The standard glycol-based coolants aren't recommended for a K-series. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Green Posted October 17, 2001 Share Posted October 17, 2001 I think you might be wrong here Mike. When I was looking into this a couple of years ago, I acquired a copy of a Unipart manual which, amongst a bunch of other stuff, specified all the different coolants they would supply. It explicitly stated against one of the glycol-based jobs, that it was the Rover-recommended one...Erm, but I can't remember if it was the 2 or 3 year one.... For the record though, the 4-year propylene-based one (cf Comma Coldstream) was stated as being the top spec. Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Bees Posted October 17, 2001 Share Posted October 17, 2001 AFAIK the premixed 3 & 4 year ones aren't glycol. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vine Posted October 17, 2001 Author Share Posted October 17, 2001 Mike, I've just checked the J-tube connection to the thermostat housing, and it seems to be fine. I've also checked as much of the head gasket at the front of the engine that I can see, and that seems fine too. The car's not been run since yesterday, and there are now some tell-tale greenish-white streaks on the lower half of the cambelt cover. Some appear to emanate from under the water pump, and the rest are all over the timing marks behind the crank pulley. So, if there's a head gasket leak, it looks like it's on the front face. I'm about to strip off the cambelt cover and explore... Re antifreeze, I used Unipart Super 2 GEC 2002 (2-litre pack) "2-year protection", as supplied by my local Rover dealer as suitable for a K. I diluted it in a 1:2 antifreeze:water ratio, and have been using the same product since I first assembled the kit. The container says "contains pure ethylene glycol for maximum protection, prevents corrosion in all engines, is suitable for all petrol and diesel engines, and contains no alcohol or methanol". That last bit is intriguing, though, given that ethylene glycol is itself an alcohol! Having just perused the parallel thread "Cooling a 1.8K", however, I'm now seriously worried that I'm using entirely the wrong thing! But if it's wrong, why would a Rover dealer recommend it? JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Bees Posted October 18, 2001 Share Posted October 18, 2001 It's never a simple case of "right" or "wrong". My info came from someone who had experience of many hours of K-series dyno tests, during which the only engines which did not experience head/gasket problems were those using Superplus 3 year coolant. Given that a Caterham-installed K-series is likely to get a rather harsher usage pattern than a Rover installed one I don't think there's any point it skimping - so it's Comma Coldstream or Superplus 3 or 4 year stuff for mine. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vine Posted October 18, 2001 Author Share Posted October 18, 2001 Well, it was the water pump (and not the head gasket, thank goodness). I ran the engine with the cambelt cover off, and watched contentedly as coolant spurted out from under the toothed pump drive like the Mannekin Pis! The gland seal was leaking in a big way. I rang Dartford for a spare, but they had none in stock (hardly ever need to replace those, they said). But they did give me the Rover p/n, and my local dealer came up trumps. Re antifreeze, I consulted the Unipart catalogue, and Super3 GEC30xx was the top spec (propylene glycol rather than ethylene glycol). Unfortunately, they had no stock, and could order only in 20-litre lots! The local Comma stockist had Coldstream though, so I've gone for that (although it doesn't say what it actually is). JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Bees Posted October 18, 2001 Share Posted October 18, 2001 Oh well, you were right to start with then smile.gif I've never heard of a failure of that seal before. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vine Posted October 18, 2001 Author Share Posted October 18, 2001 Tony at Dartford said much the same thing. But the Rover dealer said, "Oh, we've got plenty of those. We use about 15 a year. In fact, we change them as a matter of course whenever we change the cambelt (and vice versa)." When I said that that must be a nice little earner, he smiled a bit sheepishly... JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave H Posted October 19, 2001 Share Posted October 19, 2001 Now change the Cam belt - its very suseptable to breaking after having antifreeze on it, and it won't give you any warning before failing. Dave H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vine Posted October 19, 2001 Author Share Posted October 19, 2001 Thanks for the advice, Dave. So that's my job for today! (It's lucky I'm between contracts. Otherwise, how would I find the time to do all this extracurricular stuff?) JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vine Posted October 19, 2001 Author Share Posted October 19, 2001 Dave H: I forgot to add... The problem you report is a new one to me. I don't doubt it for a moment, but where did you pick up the info? Not from personal experience, I trust? JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave H Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 It was from personal experience - not on the Seven. The engine is in a Rover 214. It started leaking while I was away from home - drove 250 miles home, booked it in to the garage to have leak etc sorted. "Sorry Sir, can't fit you in until next Friday" (10 days away). Used the car for the next 8 days, about 1000 miles worth, and 4 or 5 pints of coolant top up. Then it stopped - broken cam belt. Got it to the garage - "Oh yes, if you get anti freeze on the cam belt it makes it far more likely to break. We get a number of these after the water pump leaks...." If it looks like the cam belt has had anything on it - change it, soon, its the cheaper option. Dave H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vine Posted October 22, 2001 Author Share Posted October 22, 2001 Did it yesterday! The old belt looked pretty well perfect (18K miles), but there were great splashes of dried coolant all over the inside of the cambelt covers, as well as under the bonnet and over some of the offside chassis tubes. So,thanks again for the timely advice. JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domster Posted October 24, 2001 Share Posted October 24, 2001 That is indeed useful advice - about 6 months ago on my Rover 414i second car, I had a leaking head gasket that used to dribble coolant on the block, and so I was cursing myself that a head-off job was coming up. No more than a month later the cambelt had snapped, and a new head was added to the bill! Ouch. I'll need to check my coolant now as well, as I don't know what the garage put in. Needs a service anyhow. Rgds Domster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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