Hi there,

I noticed last weekend a couple of drips (and I mean just that) from a coolant hose going to the heater. I tightened up the clamp and all is good (no drip all week).

Whilst I am sure that the loss is tiny I would like to check the coolant level. How?

I don't have a resiviour as per "modern cars" so I assumed I would take off the radiator cap and then fill until coolant from the "overflow pipe" close to the radiator cap started to flow out.

I turned the radiator cap and it seems to reach a "stop" but I cannot lift it up/off. I don't want to force it.

Where am I going wrong?

System looks like this: Click Here for Graphic

Many thanks in advance!

R.

Richard, on my first 76 Morgan, the cap had to be pushed down to release it.

Spot on - exactly that! Many thanks.....

Did you ever top the coolant up? Is my thoughts the right way to go?

Thanks,

R.

With a cold engine you just need the water up to the bottom of the filler neck. When it heats up it'll expand and any excess will be dumped out of the overflow.
Regards

Great. Thanks.

On mine Richard I fixed the overflow tube into the screw on lid of a plastic cyclists water bottle low down on the bulkhead . That seemed to work.

I am going to put my 2pence worth in again as i feel this advise from my experience is not quite right, if you have a standard old type steel radiator that does not have a seperate expansion bottle, you should not be filling this up to the neck, the Top of the radiator is actually the expansion area, remove the Rad cap (when engine is cold) you should see water just above the finns inside the radiator, if not top up until just above these. re fit the cap, if you fill the water to the top of the neck,ie approx 1 1/2 to 2 inches above finns it is possible the excessive water when up to working temp will push out of the overflow, but it is also possible it will start syphoning and not stop this will mean more water will exit the radiator than required and overheating can occur.

Hoping not to offend
Dean

Quite right if there wasn't a pressure cap but his attached schematic shows there is one.
Regards

Richard, been in Aus with higher temps than in Britain, iam curious as to whether you have overheating problems in general, ie how does the car cope in traffic jams etc

Thanks Simon, Dean and Meabh.

My radiator cap, as per the diagram is set back from the radiator so you can not see anything inside the radiator. I topped up the car last night to the filler cap and ran it to 'N' on the temperature gauge and then left it running a bit longer. All seemed ok. A little bit can down the overflow tube but not much (in to a cup I had placed underneath it!).

As to normal operations it's fine. Temperature gauge seems to hover at the top of 'N' when at traffic lights etc. despite the warmer ambient temperatures.

I got stuck in traffic last weekend and the temperature did start to rise, so I put on the car's heater and this stopped the rise.

Generally I would say all is OK with it. Sin e I put a reasonable a,punt in (about 400ml) I'll keep an eye open and check more often. I got the impression for other owners last weekend that these cars tend to go through a fair bit of coolant due to the system design.