Gt Problems Starting And Cooling

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

right so as people may know my roland garros was written off a little while ago so in the search for a replacement i came across a gt on ebay which i ended up winning for £87. although it is not without its faults!! when i got to the place to pick it up i was planning to get it running and drive it home (the guy i bought it from told me that it would idle but dies on exceleration) so i assumed it was an electrical fault.

when i got there i changed the:

plugs

leads

dizzy cap

rotor arm

ignition coil

(was planning to change the carb for a known good one i had but i couldnt get to the place it was stored to pick it up)

checked the fluids and tried to start her up....

and tried again...

and again... eventually got the thing to start up (i had to have my left hand on the key and my right hand on the carb pushing it to full throttle just to get it to start and idle) then after about a minute the revs picked up to about 2k so i backed of the throttle a little bit back down to idle, another minute, same again, another minute same again untill it got to the point where the second choke was closed then it went vrooom and reved as normal.

i then went to get in the car to drive of and the revs dropped and it died again, after trying this many times and not managing to make it back into the car in time, i managed to wedge an oil bottle on the throttle to give me those extra few seconds to get in the car.

and it worked! i had plenty of trouble keeping the revs up whilst negotiating roundabouts and junctions as i was in a built up area then to my horror i realise that the fan isnt working and the temp is increasing swiftly, and as im trying to go relatively slow i wasnt getting enough airflow to keep it cool. i had no choice but to pull over, and found that i was loosing water (only about 1 drip every 2 seconds) from the passenger side of the bottom of the radiator, i had to sort out the fan which unfortunately meant pulling a wire out of the boots inside light to bridge the connection and keep the fan on constantly to keep the temp down.

when it cooled down some more i topped up the water and tried to start again using the method before. it worked but only just! i got through a few more roudabouts before then same thing happened and i pulled over onto the hard shoulder of a dual carraigeway. temp guage was now flicking like a madman, so i left the bonnet open for a little while whilst i worried about how i was going to get the other 50miles home.

topped it up with water again once the temp was down and thought screw it! if i keep going at aconstant speed the revs should stay up and the engine should stay cool (i hoped) so on i scamper onto the m1 (yes i am that stupid) and stayed in the slow lane for a fair few junctions, all was going well (apart from the temp guage which i was ignoring) and just before i get to the junction for luton somebody pulls in front of me, the revs drop and the engine dies.

 

f**k

 

so i give in and call a recovery truck to take me home, and im not with aa or rac so it cost a lot!!

 

so now hopefully if you've read all that you must be feeling pretty sympathetic and willing to throw advice at me

 

firstly, is the radiator screwed or was that an overflow valve or something?

did i get air in the cooling system causing the overheating?

what could be causing the sarting and rough running issues?

could the carb be shagged?(im gonna put on a rebuilt spare just in case)

any other advice?

 

thanks for reading my rant, i needed to get that off my chest!

replies appreciated as usual

john

[steve@cornwall 100]

I'd suspect that the car has been run out of coolant, overheated and cooked the head gasket, which is now leaking water into 1 or more bores until the engine 's hot enough to evaporate it at idle - 'till you put your foot down a bit. I'd have the plugs out and check bores for water. Still- 87 quid's pretty good

Edited February 4, 2009 by steve@cornwall

[Anthony 1,000]

Stupid question, but when you topped up the coolant, did you do so into the expansion tank or into the radiator?

 

Certainly my XS you have to fill the radiator up with coolant directly, and then fill the expansion tank as normal. Filling the expansion tank alone doesn't work unlike say a GTi, as the coolant doesn't seem to flow properly into an emptyish radiator and would explain the overheating whilst on the move. The radiator fill point is the 19mm hex on the passenger side of the radiator, underneath the hole in the slam panel.

 

(or certainly that seems to be the case on TU3S XS/GT - no idea about the early XY8(?) ones if that's what you've got as I've never looked closely at one)

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Sounds very similar to a C reg 1400cc XY engined 5 door 205 me and a mate bought from a car auctions about 10 years ago for £50! The head gasket was mullered on this, cause turned out to be the water pump impellor had fallen off the shaft, meaning the water wasn't circulating.

 

As Anthony says filling the expansion bottle does bugger all on these, on the one we had the bottle was secured by bungees so you could free it froms its mounts, and then hold it up in the air to fill the system and bleed the air out.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

sorry should have been more precise, it is a tu3s G-reg

i didnt notice any water when i changed the plugs, also didnt see any mayo in the oil filer cap

i guess i'll fill up the coolant again straight into the radiator and pop the fresh carb on and see whats what

i suspect a headgasket is quite a possibility

thanks for the replies, keep them coming

john

[Guest Mallaby106]

Hiya, i bought a Daihatsu Sportrak a while ago with similar problems, it was hard to start but would idle ok but would die after driving a few metres. I stripped and rebuilt the carb, new plugs, leads and an air filter but nothing. I located the in line fuel filter and it was pretty manky, changed it and it ran perfect. Might be worth a try if u haven't checked it already.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

i did think that to start with, but i had a look at it and it was clear plastic type one and looked nice and clean, although i am wondering if maybe the fuel pump is a bit sketchy??

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

i had similar problems with my GT, was the in line fuel filter... does the car run better with the choke fully out? id go along the route of replacing that and the fuel pump (i got one for £7).

 

rad is prolly shagged... but there cheap too

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

seemed to be worse with the choke on, ive got a fuel pump off my old gt, i was gonna give it a clean before sticking it on, and see how we go. i wouldve put the new carb on by now if it wasnt bloody snowwy as buggery over here!! i'll get a feul filter tomoro as although it looks clean it may well not be!

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

i have finally resolved the running issue with this!! i was ready and prepared to yoink the head off to check whats going on in there, so i went the lock the fly wheel and cam pulley.....

 

and hey presto, it was running like a bag of spuds because the timing was TWO TEETH out, i would have thought this wouldve scrapped your average engine but, i timed it up (first time doing it and was much easier than i thought!) and first turn of the key away it goes

just need to sort out the cooling as ive found a few leaks, causing the overheating, ive also wired up a manual switch for the fan and i need to get the idle mixture sorted as it mustve got fiddled with when i was stripping down the carb

 

it is getting there!!!