Having problems with the cooling system on my 1600 X-flow.
I have fitted a header tank and have filled the system using this and bleed it to the top of the thermostat housing - highest point on the engine, which is also when the header tank in on minimum level.
On starting the engine the water level rises. The faster the engine is running the higher the water gets.
Can anyone explain what is going on and how I might be able to sort it.

The level always rises a bit when it gets warm because of the expansion, the could be some air still trapped somewhere which is causing more expansion, you dont say if its boiling over or for how long you have run it, they say that the fan should cycle a few times befor you can say the engine is at running temp, when it is at running temp try bleeding again but be careful, its under a lot of pressure & will boil instantly if you dont carefully control the bleed rate,
OR much safer is to bleed it again when it has cooled & keep doing it every until the problem has gone away

You dont give enough information - where are all the connections to the header tank taken from and go to.

+ if you are viewing the level movements with the cap on or off.

As a complete guess it sounds to me like you have the connection to the header tank connected to the pump pressure side rather than the pump suction side. That will account for an increase in "head" when the engine is revved.

Volume of water expands about 4% from 0 to 100C by the way - and as it does not compress it will expand

Are you running a pressurised cooling system, or just an overflow/recovery system?

The first tends to clear air out, the second can be a swine! Guess how I know...

David

There are 3 connections to the header tank.
2 x 1/2" at the bottom and 1 small connection in the top.
The 1st of the larger goes to the waterpump, with a bigger hose going from the pump to the bottom of the radiator.
The 2nd of the large hoses from the header tank to to the bottom of the inlet manifold.
The small pipe is connected to the top of the thermostat housing with the main hose from the thermostat going to the top of the radiator.

The level in the header tank alters with the cap both on and off.
The water level alters with engine speed, the change in level is very dramatic and is not due to the expansion.

[Edited on 11/2/06 by danfrith]

Sounds like the tank is on the pressure side of the pump then - I would use only one of the connections and tee it into the rad bottom hose. leave the air bleed from the t-stat the same.

Andrew

Did you manage to resolve this?

I have the same symptom on my x-flow. My bottom header tank pipe is tee'd into bottom hose feed side of the water pump (actually tee'd from the 'cabin heater' feed) Have I done this wrong? - Where should it be connected?

Have a look at Dave Andrews' site

CLICKY

He describes how an overflow tank is set up very well (he's talking about Pintos, but the idea's the same)

The X-flow is very good (very bad?) at trapping air, as I know too well - last time I drained it, it took 3 or 4 attempts to re-fill before I got all the air out. If you do a search on this site you'll find the whole sorry (soggy?) saga.

Don't give in, drill a small (2mm) hole in your thermostat plate, and fill the system SLOWLY. Worked for me.

David

If you get an oem thermostat from the likes of Burton Power, They've got a small hole in the flange anyway.
I don't have a header tank and have never suffered overheating problems, even in a traffic jam in St Tropez!!

Marcus