Rover Good News and Bad

[tommytwo]

I took my 1992 Rover 820SI for a retest today and it passed. The certificate was headed "Pass with Defects" I dont remember seeing that on a certicate before.  When did that start I wonder? The bad news is that the car overheated when I got home, it has never done that before. I had a cooling sustem leak somewhere and I used some K2 Leak Sealer in the system last month.  Anyone else tried this stuff, it is made in Poland. I womder if it has blocked my radiator.

[sierraman]

Doubt it. When you take a leaking component out and it’s had K seal in you can see the tiny copper particles grouped where the seal or whatever was failing. I don’t know how much you’d have to use to actually block a coolant passageway. 

Its worked for me loads of times when I couldn’t be bothered or the leak was going to be a pig to sort out. 

[wuvvum]

There used to be a warning on Radweld bottles "Do not use in Rover 827s or nuns and kittens will die" (or words to that effect), but I think the 820 was fine.

[eddyramrod]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

There used to be a warning on Radweld bottles 

Only on AS would somebody know that!

[tommytwo]

Thank you gentlemen, I thnk it was K seal that should not be used in 825 or827 engines, it was OK for the T series 820.  I wonder if the thermostat sticking would cause the overheating,  last changed in 2006. Once the steam and coolant had stopped erupting from the expansion tank, I felt all the hoses and they were hot. Normally, my temp guage shows a quarter but this time, it was well over 3/4. I hate working outside in cold weather but it looks like I have little choice this time. Its sods law that this has happened on the day when I have got a new MoT on the car.

[mercedade]

Was it overheating, or just bursting water out of the tank?

You'll know the coolant reservoir on the 800 is balls - they split for fun - but the cap is also a known weak point.

Unusual for the T series to overheat (but not unheard of - mine did it, and ruined the head at the same time). 

[wuvvum]

On 1/27/2022 at 7:38 PM, tommytwo said:

I thnk it was K seal that should not be used in 825 or827 engines

It was any of those gunk-type repair potions I think.  Something to do with extremely narrow coolant passages in some parts of the block.

[tommytwo]

  I finally tracked down the cause of my overheating. It turned out that the switch in the radiator which tells the fan to run had failed. Probably failed a long time back but I did not notice it. Running the engine for an extended period for MoT purposes showed up the fault. I thought I might have blocked the rad by using K2 rad sealer but it was not that.  The engine was probably getting hot and expelling coolant but not enough to boil. Hence why I thought I might have a coolant leak in the first place. The rad is fine and I just hope that the overheating will not cause me head gasket problems in the futue. Fingers crossed on that. I cant do anything for the moment until my replacement switch arrives and also the Glycol coolant that I have ordered.

Thanks for all your responses and thoughts, much appreciated.

Regards. Thomas.