The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Fitted the new thermostat today, made my own gasket and very nice it was too. I flushed the system about 5 times, it was bloody horrible. Dark brown water+++. Now flushed lovely and clean. 50/50 mix of coolant and water now circulating. The temp guage grudgingly nudged itself about 2mm over the cold mark and I thought I'd sorted it...... and then it promptly plummeted again. Lovely hot air circulating and all seems well in that respect.

However........ as the car was idling (quite nicely), a small amount of a light frothy substance popped up out of the hole at the top of the rad. It looked a little like white soap bubble froth to be honest (looked foamy, like on a sponge scourer that is laden with soap and you squeeze it). Don't know what that was about.

Any ideas? PLEASE don't say anything about head gasket, otherwise, well I don't know really, but it wouldn't be good. Frankly that would just see the car sitting there until I got rid of it.

Last time I looked, the oil was lovely and oily. No mayo to be seen anywhere. Doesn't appear to be pressurising.

Thoughts?


Ta.

Ken

Purplebargeken wrote: However........ as the car was idling (quite nicely), a small amount of a light frothy substance popped up out of the hole at the top of the rad. It looked a little like white soap bubble froth to be honest (looked foamy, like on a sponge scourer that is laden with soap and you squeeze it). Don't know what that was about.

Thoughts?


Ta.

Ken

Probs just the cooling system "burping" the air out I'd say. If it was H/G related you'd either have streams of bubbles or a horrible gunky film on the surface. My Kawasaki did similar to me last year when I had cracked the drain screw on the waterpump housing to check there was coolant and not ice in the engine..

Don't forget, the hoses would also be rock hard, too..

Looks like a lovely purchase mate - well done

Phil

Regarding the gauge and its low reading: This thread may yield a solution!

Then again it may not

Swine!

Now called Snowdrop as I can't remember Snowflake.

Having been absent from these pages for many months, I hadn't been aware of your changes Triumph-wise Ken. This looks like a great little car! I hope it does you proud.

She would do if only I could get the sodding temp guage to register

Cheers for that though

Snowdrop went for her first MOT in my ownership today. The last one was passed with a clean sheet and so was todays!!! No advisories!!

Yay!!

Ken

ps: the temp guage has started working (along with all of the other guages). Go figure

Purplebargeken wrote:Snowdrop went for her first MOT in my ownership today. The last one was passed with a clean sheet and so was todays!!! No advisories!!

I should hope so too!

Well done to Ken and Snowdrop.

Cheers John

Well done Ken...nice one!

I'm glad your's passed without any advisories. Becky II needed nearly £200 worth of welding in addition to the work I did to get it through.

If I still had my Dolomite 1300 I wouldn't have been too happy with your's being called Snowdrop but with mine being long gone good on you to carry the name on.

SD spent the day at my mate's place yesterday. I finished off taking as much of the inner wing and turret down to bare metal to erradicate the minor but untidy looking surface rust that was in evidence. No holes whatsoever and everything was covered with Kurust rustkiller. 3 coats of primer were laid down and baked dry in the blistering sunshine. Then there were 4 coats of topcoat laid down and the car wheeled into the sun again. Who needs an oven. Result: a vast improvement. Just got to tidy up a bit of overspray. It seems like the best match of paint that the local paint should could get was Ford Davos White. It is a good match however.

The plan could well be to slowly work my way round the engine bay. Not ideal, but I am not taking the engine out, oh no.

Had to go to B & Q to pick up a bag of topsoil, as I drove out of the car park, a young blonde lady B&Q worker waved and shouted out 'nice car'. As I waited at the traffic lights, she crossed the road if front of me and gave me (the car) a big smile and a 'thumbs up'.

Made my day that did. It's official, SD is a babe magnet........ wooh whoo!

You've obviously still got it Ken!