Got a bit more work to do on the engine, the injectors weren't in right.
Heres a few more questions I want to throw at the fourm
Do you know what size socket the injectors fit in?
will they fit in a regular 29mm deepsocket?
Basically i was loosing compression and I noticed there was leaks at 2
injectors when the engine was running.
The coolling system was also not primed properly, so in the workt case
scenario, Ive blown the gasket, and ive got to replace that too. . .
is there anyway to know if the gasket has blown? for example does the
engine sound differently?
Im going to tighten the injectors and run the engine again, hopefully
that way I can feel a compression loss.
What tips do you have for the cooling system, im a novice at engine
repairs, so im stumbling along, and I need some concise instructions.
Im not 100 percent on how it works, even how to fill it.
Do i need to use distilled water? and what kind of additive to i put in.
. . just normal antifreeze? Im in Sweden so it can get -15c in the
winter, though the car is usually stored in a garage at 5c
How much is the capacity about 2 litres?
Still trying to get it work right
Still trying to get it work right
'91 BX MkII 1769cc Turbo TZD Break
running on RME/SVO
IF it aInt BrOKe dON't trY 'n FIx iT.
running on RME/SVO
IF it aInt BrOKe dON't trY 'n FIx iT.
Can't help on much, but I'm sure its WAY higher than 2 litres. I seem to remember it being closer to 6... My radiator alone holds about 2.5l.
To bleed the coolant I first loosen off all bleed screws. Take a 2 litre bottle and wrap the neck in tape to build it up. Fill it with water and quickly turn it upside down and jam it in your filler neck. Squeeze the bottle, tighten up bleed screws as the water comes out. Helps to have an extra pair of hands
. Run the engine on idle for 10 minutes - watch the temp gauge, feel the pipes as they go and you should feel them warm as the water flows. After 10 mins (or when you hit 90c on the gauge) shut the engine off. Open the bleed screws slowly and carefully one at a time. Start at the highest point and work down. You should hear the air hiss out. When it turns to a solid strem of water tighten it down and move to the next. You should repeat this at the end of each drive of the car until you are getting water and no air out. Remember to top up the water when the engine's cooled off - NOT while its hot.
Probably (definitely) not the best method, but its what I do and it seems to work fine.
To refill use distilled water and anti-freeze (50/50 for you if you get as low as -15c). If you cant get distilled water then boil ordinary tap water for at least 15 mins, tip it into 2 litre bottles and seal them tightly. This is about as pure as you can get from tap water, but you'll still get build ups in your cooling system if you use this permanently. Corrosion inhibitors in the anti freeze are supposed to prevent this and let you use pretty much anything, but I wouldn't take the risk. Get distilled water if you can.
Matt.
To bleed the coolant I first loosen off all bleed screws. Take a 2 litre bottle and wrap the neck in tape to build it up. Fill it with water and quickly turn it upside down and jam it in your filler neck. Squeeze the bottle, tighten up bleed screws as the water comes out. Helps to have an extra pair of hands
. Run the engine on idle for 10 minutes - watch the temp gauge, feel the pipes as they go and you should feel them warm as the water flows. After 10 mins (or when you hit 90c on the gauge) shut the engine off. Open the bleed screws slowly and carefully one at a time. Start at the highest point and work down. You should hear the air hiss out. When it turns to a solid strem of water tighten it down and move to the next. You should repeat this at the end of each drive of the car until you are getting water and no air out. Remember to top up the water when the engine's cooled off - NOT while its hot.Probably (definitely) not the best method, but its what I do and it seems to work fine.
To refill use distilled water and anti-freeze (50/50 for you if you get as low as -15c). If you cant get distilled water then boil ordinary tap water for at least 15 mins, tip it into 2 litre bottles and seal them tightly. This is about as pure as you can get from tap water, but you'll still get build ups in your cooling system if you use this permanently. Corrosion inhibitors in the anti freeze are supposed to prevent this and let you use pretty much anything, but I wouldn't take the risk. Get distilled water if you can.
Matt.
The risk with tap water in the UK is largely limescale which comes from those lovely white cliffs at Dover and other places. If you don't have a heavy mineral content in your tap water it'll do fine.
Water only carries one lot of minerals - so once its dumped them that's it - no more will be deposited. Of course if you top it up or add more tap water then a bit more mineral will be deposited.
I have never filled or topped up a car with distilled water - or for that matter anything other than tap water and anti freeze. I did have a BX radiator start weeping about 4 years ago but it looked more like external corrosion and it was about 13 years old anyway.
Water only carries one lot of minerals - so once its dumped them that's it - no more will be deposited. Of course if you top it up or add more tap water then a bit more mineral will be deposited.
I have never filled or topped up a car with distilled water - or for that matter anything other than tap water and anti freeze. I did have a BX radiator start weeping about 4 years ago but it looked more like external corrosion and it was about 13 years old anyway.
You must have far better tap water than we do out here in the colonies.
When I had fish tanks, we had to keep a constant check on the Ph of the water and this varied in the extreme with tap water always coming in highly acidic and rainwater tank water as alkaline so we had to ad chemicals to match the requirements of the various fish.
Acidic water can cause electrolysis when a mixture of metals is involved and when there is added chlorine, aluminium hydroxide, fluoride and passing through copper pipes, particularly aged ones, it's a bit of a lethal cocktail IMO.
The suppliers of premixed coolants, use water that passes through a reverse osmosis process to neutralise these effects and there are reported cases of people fitting newish alloy parts such as thermostat housings, that have been eaten out within 12 months in regions not far from me.
Not knowing the chemical content of tap water in Sweden, I'd be a bit sceptical of flying in blind and using it in a cooling system particularly if there's a chance that the coolant may be in there for over 2 years, the normal anticipated life expectancy of ethylene glycol coolants before they begin to break down into an acidic form.
Alan S
When I had fish tanks, we had to keep a constant check on the Ph of the water and this varied in the extreme with tap water always coming in highly acidic and rainwater tank water as alkaline so we had to ad chemicals to match the requirements of the various fish.
Acidic water can cause electrolysis when a mixture of metals is involved and when there is added chlorine, aluminium hydroxide, fluoride and passing through copper pipes, particularly aged ones, it's a bit of a lethal cocktail IMO.
The suppliers of premixed coolants, use water that passes through a reverse osmosis process to neutralise these effects and there are reported cases of people fitting newish alloy parts such as thermostat housings, that have been eaten out within 12 months in regions not far from me.
Not knowing the chemical content of tap water in Sweden, I'd be a bit sceptical of flying in blind and using it in a cooling system particularly if there's a chance that the coolant may be in there for over 2 years, the normal anticipated life expectancy of ethylene glycol coolants before they begin to break down into an acidic form.
Alan S
By the time you're old enough to know it all, you can't remember why you were learning.
Didn't realise that there were acidic considerations over time, just thought that it's effectiveness diminished. But I suppose that for it's effectiveness to diminish then it must mutate towards something else and this something else is an acidAlanS wrote:2 years, the normal anticipated life expectancy of ethylene glycol coolants before they begin to break down into an acidic form.
Alan S
What acid is it 1991 BX19GTi Auto
Couldn't tell you but it's pretty savage stuff by the looks of some of the things I've seen.
There's a certain brand of coolant out here now that has something added to it that causes it to change colour as that begins to set in. It starts off a bright purple colour which changes to a goldy yellow as the coolant begins to break down with age.
I would suspect it may be some kind of litmus as the yellowy colour is the acid indication when doing tests in fish tanks. Blue is alkalyne.
Acid seems to be the catalyst for electrolysis and the idea of the coolant is to neutralise that acid thereby reducing the electrolysis and hence the corrosion.
There are ways of testing for stray currents in the cooling system and as an example of how bad they can get, I once saw the results of tests carried out on refrigerators by a klarge company trying to discover why they were rotting out internally in seaside areas such as the ones I used to work in.
After 72 hours, one of them, a cyclic defrost was shown to have 39 volts of static electricity passing through it.
Alan S
There's a certain brand of coolant out here now that has something added to it that causes it to change colour as that begins to set in. It starts off a bright purple colour which changes to a goldy yellow as the coolant begins to break down with age.
I would suspect it may be some kind of litmus as the yellowy colour is the acid indication when doing tests in fish tanks. Blue is alkalyne.
Acid seems to be the catalyst for electrolysis and the idea of the coolant is to neutralise that acid thereby reducing the electrolysis and hence the corrosion.
There are ways of testing for stray currents in the cooling system and as an example of how bad they can get, I once saw the results of tests carried out on refrigerators by a klarge company trying to discover why they were rotting out internally in seaside areas such as the ones I used to work in.
After 72 hours, one of them, a cyclic defrost was shown to have 39 volts of static electricity passing through it.
Alan S
By the time you're old enough to know it all, you can't remember why you were learning.
Diluted Ethylene Glycol coolant has quite a high pH - about 10 IIRC - and the corrosion inhibitor part keeps the pH there. Trouble is, over time heat breaks down the EG into acid species, which tend to lower the pH. Whilst you haven't used up the corrosion inhibitors they keep the pH up, but once they are used up, the acid specied begin to take over and the pH drops - leading to corrosion. If you put in water with a high mineral content, then this may well use up a proportion of the corrosion inhibitors, reducing the effective live of the coolant.
I NEED a BX TD.