How time fly's! 2020 is the year where the world got thrown into a tumble dryer and nobody has managed to turned it off yet. Everyone on the planet has been affected in one way or another sometimes times tragically.
Whilst we all become accustomed to the new 'normal' I've been getting out and about in BART around the local roads weather and restrictions permitting! He's been running well and seems to be better the more he's driven although he does run out of breath around 5500 rpm which I *think* I have a solution for (more on that in a future post). Driving BART and being able to get back on the road has in some way saved my sanity...and being able to get out for a pint and a pie!
We've had a good summer although August was a bit pants and with the elevated temperatures I noted BART was starting to get warmer than I recall. The fan would come on whilst driving at 30mph for instance especially after a spirited drive, so some investigation was required.
I noted the top of the rad was not fully warm indicating air in the system, that's easy enough to correct by opening the bleed screw on the top of the rad to let it out. However I wanted to make sure that the system was fully bled so set about bleeding the system from cold and running the engine up to temp with the expansion cap removed.
This is best done with the back of the car slightly elevated above the front, the expansion tank does sit higher than the rad when on the flat but I wanted to make sure it really was.
I noted a lot of bubbles appearing in the tank and air had made its way back into the rad, easy enough to correct I thought I'll crack open the rad bleed and let it out....no problem there until I retightened the bleed, it started to tighten and I must have put a bit too much force on it and it continued to turn, bugger! Now I've done this before when the rad was cold and not had an issue but I must have been hamfisted this time with the rad up to temp.
The bleed now just turned in either direction with no effect. I'd managed to strip the threads in the radiator bleed....
There was nothing else I could do except to let the car cool down and pull the rad and get it off to a specialist to take a look.
I found a local rad specialist in Denham (Viking Radiators) and spoke to Frank, we agreed to have the rad re-cored as it made most sense so I dropped it off to him the following day.
Just over a week later it was ready to collect. Frank had done a great job and fitted a slightly larger (25 vs 23) core with a slightly better flow rate.
However, there was an issue. That bleed screw had obviously caused Frank problems as well as it was now misshapen and had a small split in the head. I could not get an 8mm Allen key into the screw to undo it.
Fishing through my tool box I found a 7mm Allen key bit which I managed to gently knock into the head of the bleed with a small hammer. Just enough to be able to undue it, phew!
I tried to repair the bleed, first by squeezing the head in a vice so it was round enough to just get an 8mm Allen key bit started and then with a bit of hammering I managed to drive the bit home. Repeating this a number of times made the bleed usable again, however, I wasn't 100% happy with it and started to look for a replacement.
Eventually I settled on using an M10 x 1mm brass brake blank from Carbuilder Solutions. I drilled the centre out and cross drilled as per the OEM bleed and found some suitable washers...
It fitted well. With that done I cleaned up the fan assembly and the bottom support bracket and reinstalled the radiator.
With the radiator out I'd already flushed the underbody pipework and engine, I refilled with a gallon of blue antifreeze and a gallon of clean water. I ran the car up to temperature with the heater on and the expansion cap off...topped of the water level and went for a short drive. All seems well, of course the ambient temps are now lower than earlier in the year and I didn't drive too far but it seemed that BART was now running cooler than previously, the temp gauge needle hovering just under the midway 180F mark, so finger crossed for next year when I can test again.