[s-cars] overheating dilemma -- the saga continues

[Tony Guttmann]

Thanks for all the suggestions as to possible causes of the overheating
of my daughter's Audi 80 2.6litre V6 quattro as posted last weekend. As
I kind of expected, my mechanic was aware of, and had tried to rectify,
all those possibilities.

After somewhere between 30-40 hours of labour (which happily he largely won't
charge for), he is convinced that the fault lies inside the engine, either a
blocked water path somewhere in a head or the block, or possibly even a cracked
block, though there is no other evidence of the latter. Rather than do an engine
strip down, he is testing a thermostat bypass system with a temperature sensor
that will kick in when the water temperature gets above 90C or so, and turn on the
electric fans. Any insights, or good ideas as to how to deal with this situation?

To add to our woes, the increased pressure in the system has damaged the core of
the heater, which involves 6-7 hours labour puling the dash apart to get to the heater
core! Fortunately it's summer here, so that task can be delayed!

TIA as usual.

Tony Guttmann