I opened the radiator cap for the first time on my mini and took a look to check that the coolant levels were all good.... to my horror I found that there was no coolant, there was only water. But even worse I found a decent layer of crud coating the inside of the radiator and the bottom of the cap.

Now, being an owner of a Cressida (a car notorious for blowing head gaskets) the first thing I did was diagnose it as a blown head gasket because for Cressidas that'd be correct 99.9% of the time. But since speaking to a mate he said that it's possible that the crud may be just the result of neglect (no anti corrosion stuff in the water) and may not be a BHG after all.

I'm still thinking it's a BHG because the crud feels kinda greasy and there seems to be a fair bit of it in there. It's not acually in the water that much, the water seems reasonably clear but all internal surfaces of the radiator have a decent coating of crud.

What are the opinions of you fellow mini owners? Do I start mourning the death of my 3rd head gasket in as many years or do I simply whack some coolant in the water and carry on motoring?

Here's a pic... sorry about the quality, it was dark when I took it and my finger partially covered the flash.

no expert whatsever, but is the oil still black/brown, cos if its milky at all you definately have a blown gasket. mind you, with a complete gasket kit only $40 delivered at http://www.minis.com.au (I bought one tonight myself.)

I wouldn't mess around, replace it

I would drain it hot, then flush it, refill with some Loctite radiator cleaner, run 30 mins then drain/flush again. That'll clean it.
Then, keep an eye on it. If it stays clean for a couple of days then put some coolant in. But if it gets cruddy again, or is blowing bubbles into the top tank- pull the head.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

The actual head gasket is cheap... but replacing it takes a lot of time and effort. And having never actually done one personally it'll be a stressful thing to do. If I take it to a mechanic, expensive.


I'll take your advice drmini... It seems like the logical step. The oil being free from water gives me hope, I knew that. But the radiator just looks so nasty inside. And it's a reasonably new radiator too. It has a Natrad sticker on the top with "5.5" as the date. I would assume that means 5th month of 05.

hmmmm....assume nothing!

Although, if the PO had replaced the rad, there was obviously concern over something. Maybe they were concerned about the same thing as yourself, and simply replaced the rad???... not looking deeper for the cause (head gasket?)


Good luck with it.

That "crud' you talk of - is it kinda slimey and oily and it collects on the radiator cap???

I was chatting to a bloke at the pub some time back, said that when they get a customer with that slimey crap around the rad. cap, they put a teaspoon of soap in the rad, let it circulate for a while then flush it out several times with clean water then refill with green coolant.

I'm not saying to do it, but............any thoughts doc.............have you heard of this one??

Cheers

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Rod
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v607/Rodney/

I had the same problem with my Moke when I first got it Molina but all I did was flush the radiator out a couple of times, taking the Moke for a quick run and flushed again.

All clear after that and have had no more problems with it. Yes, I did put some coolant in afterwards.

According to the mechanic that services the car (Toby from Tovon Auto): The owner before the one I bought it from had fitted the Metro radiator fan backwards because that was the only way it would fit in the mini engine bay. This resulted in the engine overheating and apparently the radiator didn't survive the experience and was replaced with a new one and a new mini fan was correctly fitted. Prior to buying the mini I rang both the original owner of the car and the mechanic who services it to get some unbiased opinions on it's condition/quality.

The owner I bought the car from told me he replaced the radiator quite recently... He volunteered the information and made no secret of it. He knows very little, if anything, about cars and relies on his mechanic to do everything so I didn't bother asking him much more than that. I contacted the mechanic directly.





Yeah it's kinda slimey and oily but it doesn't confine itself to just the radiator cap... It's on the cap but also on everything else as well. The stuff on my finger (in the pic) came from wiping my finger on the inside upper surface of the top tank.

Haven't heard of the soap trick. A bush trick for tractors used to be drain & fill the rad with kerosene, hang a bag over the front, get it good & hot then drain it.
Haven't been desperate enough to try it though.
I've found the Loctite cleaner works really well.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I bought some of that Loctite Radiator Cleaner and did two flushes of the cooling system... I don't know if it was right but I used half the bottle each time because of the size of the mini's radiator being approximately half the size of my Cressida's and I thought two flushes might be better than one. (My Cressida's cooling system takes about 9L of water/coolant)

I poked my finger in the radiator hole and there's still a layer of crap covering the upper surface of the tank. It appears that this so called "cleaner" did not actually clean.

Also, how what is the total volume of water in the system? I'm gonna add coolant this time and am unsure of how much to put in to get the correct concentration. I didn't buy cheapo premix stuff because I object to paying for water, I bought the concentrate.


Oh, and a tip for you guys... don't leave the radiator cap sitting on the rocker cover when you start up the engine... I did it three times and each time it nearly fell somewhere nasty. The last time it took me a good 5min to find it.

you said the engine overheated previously....overheating can = warping of the head......which blows head gaskets....

still waiting on an answer... how much coolant do i put in? anyone?

...as much as it takes till it's full...

So I have to drain it again to measure do i? All i want to do is add the coolant concentrate. There should be specs on stuff like oil volume and cooling system volume somewhere. I don't have an owner's manual or workshop manual.

took the words right out of my mouth JAM

if its concentrate there will be mixing instructions on the bottle, fill it with mixed coolant

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