re: coolant woes

["David B. Kase Jr." <desmo888@mindspring.com>]

Luke, 
I have just completed a timing belt change on my '90 90Q.  While my engine
is different (5cyl 200v) I believe the cooling systems are probably similar.
Anyway, did you open the little valve on the heater hose where it goes into
the firewall?  You must open this when filling the system.  If the bleeder
is not there, unhook one of the hoses from the firewall. I had to start the
car before I could get fluid to come out.  Once the fluid came out, I just
closed the valve (or reconnect the hose).
Sounds like you had air in the system, this should help.
Good luck,
Dave Kase
'90 90Q<<<71k, timing belt was shot!


you wrote:
Somebody may have btdt and be able to help me out.

The vehicle in question is an 88 4cyl 80.

Recently I ran some Prestone radiator cleaner thru the car as the
previous owners had sadly neglected the poor old girl.
I adhered closely to the instructions and ran the car for about 6 hours
with it in. I then drained the cooling system totally and added pure
water as per the instructions for 4 hours. I then refilled the system
with water and anti-freeze and went on my merry way. Today (1 week
later) the car overheated on the way up the road (2 km approx) 110 C
Flashing light etc etc. I let the car cool for a while then drove home
slowly. I turned the heater on to facilitate cooling and no heat came
out. But yes there was still water in the system, in fact it was nearly
full. When I got home I looked under the hood, all appeared normal
except the bottom radiator hose was stone cold. I Let the car cool then
started it up again and everything functioned as advertised. However
when I returned from my test drive a nice little geyser was erupting
from the expansion tank.

I have several theories.

1.    Flushing removed so much s**t from the system that it all
collected to block the thermostat which is conveniently placed at the
lowest point in the system. And a coincedental failure of the coolant
resevoir cap

2.    The combination temperature sensor had magically failed and set
off the light and gave a high gauge reading, it then repaired itself
when I got home (but the fuel injection was working fine) and the car
hadn't actually warmed up enough to open the thermostat (it is summer
here)

3.     Water pump has s**t itself and is only just providing enough flow
to cool the engine.

4.    Head gasket has gone (please god don't let this be it)

Any ideas

TIA

Luke