as you may know, i'm having overheating troubles. last time we changed the head over i was using water not coolant, and as a result my motor was getting a but of rust inside. this caused the bypass hose to clog up with rust coloured dirty muddy s**t. unclogged it band put the new head on, but ever got around to flushing out the motor. so i reckon the bypass hose is full of crap again. i want to clear it out.

will this be possible without removing the head?

and this time i promise to flush it out!

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78 Leyland Mini - Prince

Your overheating problems will be because of the rust in your system and it will most likely have clogged up the radiator fins.

You can replace the bypass with bellows type bypass which means you don't have to take the head off, but these are very prone to bursting.

The fact that the bypass is clogged will not necessarily make your engine overheat as it only moves a very small amount of coolant through it. If there was enough rust to clog up your bypass hose last time, then i am certain your radiator is just as clogged...

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

What I've always done is remove top and bottom radiator hoses, and the thermostat - a hose with good pressure should do a reasonable job, but won't actually remove the scale stuck inside the galleries. You can buy radiator flush stuff that helps, but I doubt gets rid of all of it. Certainly don't need to remove the head!
You can stick the hose in the bottom outlet for a while, then the top outlets to reverse the flow. Be prepared to make a mess, but it's nothing you can't clean up.
Hope that helps.
Peter.

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1969 Mini Cooper S MKII (1330)
1972 Honda 750/4 (his),1976 Honda 400/4 (hers)
1982 Honda CB1100RC (ours)

Alot of people (myself included) don't run a bypass hose so I doubt this on it's own would be causing overheating issues.

What concerns me is that you said it was full of crud and you cleaned it but not the engine. Does this mean that the radiator is full of crud too?

Regards

Daniel

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Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

Undo all the radiator hoses and and try running a garden hose at full blast from the bottom of the radiator (hose side) then the drain off valve (front of car side) then flush it from the heater take off (if you have one) and then finally from top of radiator cap.

Not that I endorse wasting lots of water in a drought

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

On a similar line , undo and remove one end of all the hoses , put a garden hose and the nozzle of an air duster into the bottom hose and plug the remaining space as best you can with hand/rag/whatever . When the radiator is almost full of water give it a blast of compressed air (being careful to avoid all the crap that will come out the top hose/outlet ...) , refill and repeat . Less water used than Chongs (well , a little less ) and much better job at loosening the crud off the tubes .

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Good idea, never thought of that...

If you still have overheating issues after that, check your thermostat that it is not stuck closed. If that is also ok, time to refurbish the radiator...

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

Was shown that on a crappy workhorse landrover that a mate used to push caravans around in his parents park that was overheating , the amount of crud that flew out of the radiator wass incredible . Took the thermostat out too and did the same to the engine but I'm not sure how healthy that would be to the motor , best just do it to the radiator ....

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You can just cut the old bypass hose off and when done flushing use a lenght of that high temp blue silicone hose (the only blue silicone allowed in my engine bay as its invisible behind the head). Its much more flexible and will slip on and off the fittings much more easily.

yeah I got this goochy kevlar reinforced piece for like 2 bucks from minispares UK.
I figured if I'm there, I'll make sure that the time between dicking about with that hose is as long as possible.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

ah bewdy cheers for the tips guys, i reckon that it is very feasible that the rad is also clogged, however not time to refurbish as its less than a year old![/list]

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78 Leyland Mini - Prince

I used the water pressure cleaner with a bit of hose attached and it cleaned up quite nicely, also took out the inspection bolt at the rear of the engine and put the hose through the hole and gave it a blast, worked quite well

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