escort woe's,, please help.

[dango1]

heres the story so far since October, mk2 escort with 2.0 8v S.I.E.R.R.A engine and head gasket blown. changed the head gasket and didn't get more than a mile down the road before it went again. found number 4 cylender cracked so ebay, £60 later and a trip with the trailer to get another engine.

 

Engine was stripped by a mechanic and found to be low milage so just a set of new gaskets all round, water pump and stat cam chain and put back together.

 

Just put this engine back in over the last 2 weekends and started it today only to find after 5 mins of idle that the temp gague hadn't moved at all. header tank and top bottom rad hose are cold but the heater matrix hoses where red hot so i shut her off.

 

Mechanic says change the radiator which i will do but i checked it before i put it back in with a hose pipe. it took 30 seconds or so to fill it up and it was flowing out the other end nicely so i would have thought this would be fine? (i did notice that when i had the problems origonally that the rad was cold then and we found the old stat was goosed)

 

any other ideas apart from the stat which i will just remove completely at the same time?

 

thanks Danny

[Andrade]

on pushrds the head gasket should block one set of water holes on one side to aid waterflow, dont know if its the same on pinto's and perhaps the one youre using has holes where it shouldn't?

[Andrade]

where is the temperature switch installed?

[Vista]

I can't say from your text what's going on with your engine but can say that the issues with your temperature gauge will probably be down to the sender unit on the engine. Especially if it's come out of a different car. It does sound to me as if your thermostat hasn't opened yet if both hoses to the rad are cold. The heater hose (I think) comes off the engine circuit on the water pump so will probably start getting hot before the thermostat opens and allows water flow to the radiator.

 

Check the gauge by earthing the temperature gauge lead out onto the engine block and check the temp gauge swings to full scale deflection. If not the problem is with the gauge or wiring. If it does it's the sender unit in the engine. They're specific to the dash they work with, not to the engine itself.

 

Though I have to say that I doubt 5 mins at idle would be enough to get any reading out of your gauge anyway.

 

I wouldn't run it long term without a thermostat, they're there for a reason.

[Tom]

I think it sounds like you've got an air lock in your cooling system mate. Is it definitely bled properly?

 

I've got to pull a heater hose off of mine to bleed it properly

[dango1]

thanks for the replies.

 

the sender on right next to the stat and i know it was definately working before the problems started.

 

i'm fairly sure theres no air lock as i had the header cap off the whole time and squeezing the hoses etc

[dacar]

I agree with Vista, 5 mins is not long enough for the stat to open and the top hoses on my RS takes way longer to heat up when idling. I'd try running it longer or testing the stat with boiling it in a pot as per the haynes manual. Good luck.