Help! Bad car = :( wife.....

[teeb]

mmm,

where would you get a thicker gasket? Do you get gasket paper and make it yourself?

Am back in wilts to console wife, and will pop in to see mechanic tomorrow and ask him why he didnt use new bolts. If he isnt frightened of me, then he should see my lovely wife angry...

hope it is water pump though, would be nice n easy.

He also queried the head that i gave him to put on, off ebay, 80k, but before the probs he said it looked fine, think i may rebuild the old one and plop it on myself.

aah well.

will update tues/wed with idiots findings......

[teeb]

just back from garage, he did compression test in front of me, put 150 psi through each cylinder when at tdc, no air leakage.

took off thermostat, was new, does work, tested it in boiling water, hose from thermostat contained cold water, when we took off thermo hot water came out through pump, so looks like pump was buggered, poss due to old thermostat not opening more than .5mm.

he did hand crank of pump in water and there were no bubbles, so not pumping i guess. watch this space, really hope it is pump as missing having a car as wife has 8valve now. doh!

[teeb]

well, have car back,
 
has new water pump, secondhand rad, with two speed fan, which he  
has wired on slow speed constantly as without this after 30 mins it  
boils, how weird is that?
 
car working though so musnt grumble.
 
any ideas about why it wants to boil so easily?

[rubjonny]

Is the radiator the right size for the engine?  Does the radiator and all the pipes warm up (i.e. blockage, clogged pipe?) Does the temp sensor that makes the fan kick in work?  What does your temp guage say when the water starts boiling?

[teeb]

hi again,

no access to comp during week, doh.

rad is bigger than last 1, i thought 8v size but he said it came off 16v.
Water now swirls in expansion tank so i guess travelling through well.
before he hard wired in slow fan speed, all pipes warm up as far as i know. temp guage reads just over half when it boils.

Temp sensor for fast fan speed works, not intermediate as i recall.
temp now only just gets over white even in traffic, great for africa, which is nice.

Thinking of handing it over to vw specialist, as i dont have much time (weekends) to get parts and the like.

Also have weird prob, which it had before new head fitted, when idling it stays around 900rpm but sounds like it is about to cut out for a fraction of a second, it does this constantly, when cold and not so cold. This is obviously a fuel prob? It has new coil, dizzy, timing is good, new leads, plugs etc.

Aah cars...

Still does 100 up the m3 nicely officer.....