GTV TS Overheating Big Time

Ive got a slight problem with my GTV, was cruising down the motorway earlier when the temperature guage shot from 90 to 130 degrees and the car emptied all of its water over the road

Its fine sitting at idle but as soon as u drive it it boils all the water out!

The fans working fine switching on and off as it should but its not keeping it cool

Not got any white smoke out the exhaust andI dont think its the headgasket

Any ideas anyone?

Most likely causes are either a stuck closed thermostat or a faulty expansion tank cap.

When the engine is at 90 degrees or above, feel the large bore rubber pipe going into the top of the radiator on the right hand side looking into the engine bay (this pipe comes out of the thermostat housing). If it doesn't feel hot or if it feels hollow when you try to squeeze it then no water is going through your radiator an this will eventually cause the engine to overheat as water won't be passing through the cooling part of the water system.

If the expansion tank cap isn't sealing properly then the water system won't be pressurised as intended resulting in the water boiling at 100 degrees celcius and causing the car to overheat.

fantastic, the top hose did feel a bit empty, ive got a new thermostat that I plan on changing this afternoon so ill update then.

BTW I hate you, give me your Intergrale :P

its had a new thermostat but is still over heating, its been checked for a headgasket and it showed a tiny bit of leak (hydrocarbon test) but i find it hard to believe its enough to cause the extent its over heating by

A couple of questions.
Is the temp at 130 when the header tank is still full?
Have you had the system pressure tested to check for head gasket failure.
If the answer to both is yes then there is a circulation problem. Possibly a blocked rad, air lock or water pump fault. Its not unknown for impellers to come loose on water pumps but I'm not sure if it happens on TS engines

It does sound like it is pressurising - high revs - more pressure = head gasket. You don't always get an oil/water mix - a "tiny" leak does sort of confirm this - sorry (bad news).

ass, looks like im doing the headgasket then any idea how difficult its gonna be, never done an alfa one lol

I assume ill need a locking tool for the camshafts any other tools ill need?

Originally Posted by alfafamily

A couple of questions.
Is the temp at 130 when the header tank is still full?
Have you had the system pressure tested to check for head gasket failure.
If the answer to both is yes then there is a circulation problem. Possibly a blocked rad, air lock or water pump fault. Its not unknown for impellers to come loose on water pumps but I'm not sure if it happens on TS engines

by the time its got to 130 the water has left the car

its had a new stat and the waterways have been flushed thru with clean water (hose pipe) to make sure theres no air locks or blocks anywhere

You'll need camlocks yeah.. Do you reckon the head will need machining? Or just replacement gasket and re-seal?

afterthe result of hydrocarbon testing i dont think its warped just a new gasket

im going to do a pressure test on the coolant system tomorrow so hopefully it will say headgasket is fine, which would leave waterpump (pain in ass) or header tank cap

I agree about the head gasket being the likely culprit,sorry. I always get heads skimmed as a matter of course in cases like this. Chances are it would be ok but you will kick yourself if it happens again in 6 months time.

Not sure how much help this will be, but I recently had problems with my car overheating and loosing water. To start with it was very gradual and harddly noticeable, but inside 2 weeks it got to the point of overheating within minutes and loosing all it's water. Changed the rad and everything has seemed fine again since.

Maybe I'm just clutching at straws in the hope of finding you a easier/cheaper fix!!

its definately the headgasket pumped the systeem to 40psi and it stayed at 40psi, pumped it up to 80psi and it dropped back to 40psi

Heads coming off later and going to be checked and skimmed

Just the fact that the pressure drops is not a sure sign of H/G failure.
Fit the tester to the header tank and see if the system pressurises itself straight away when the engine is still cold and being revved.This would indicate a blown head gasket. As the engine temp increases the pressure will increase naturally but should come to a maximum of around 15psi .If it goes way above this it also can be the head gasket but often an engine that does not pressurise when cold but gets excessive pressure when hot could have a cracked cylinder head (the crack gets bigger as the engine gets hot).This is another reason to have heads pressure tested then skimmed. Hope this helps.

hi, im having the same problem with my gtv..what a headache.. cant find solution for this problem......
the car has been conected to a machine..and guess what, nothing has appear to be faulty..everything is ok (its what ive been told..)
but if i get the sensor on the thermostat disconected, the fans will remain on all the time, and the temprature wont be more than 50 or 60 dg.
checked the oil and dont appear to be any water mixed with or on the water dont look like to have any oil in......
have you find what was the problem with yours?

Right update time, did some testing, didnt bother taking head off did a 2nd pressure test and it dropped from 100psi to 90 in about 2 hours so that doesnt look like a HG, so I next looked at the rad and discovered it had no fins

I then started car up and jammed throttle at 6k rpm and left it revving its tits off for a few mins and watched the temp climb to 90 and stay there.

To me it looks like the radiator has lost its fins and therefore isnt slowing the airflow enough to get heat transfer from the water in the rad to the air when its moving but when stationary it can cool its self enough jus using the fans!

Any way old rad is out and new one should arrive today from ebspares, going to switch em over after work and see whats what!

Hi - did the radiator solve this?

J