Been out in my car 3 times recently and after abit of booting it steams coming out of the water bottle cap and pipes are solid and red hot?!? Cap seal is fine too????
Have I made a booboo by putting just water in? Have no coolant at all in there! I blistered my hand trying to get cap off on the stainless cover too it's that hot!
Cheers guys

 

yep, coolant is there to increase the boiling point, water will boil and increase pressure at 90-100 isn, coolant with a 50 mix coolant and water will exceed this, thats why its there

look at a product called evans waterless coolant thats good or just 50/50 of normal coolant, also having just water increases corrosion caused by oxygen in the engine and radiator

you should really know this

 

Lucky you haven't cooked it mate. Bottom hose off, drain that water out totally and refill with a 50/50 mix of coolant and water. Run her up to running temperature with no header tank cap on, make sure the fan kicks in. When it does you'll likely have to top up the header tank as the thermostat will open and drag more liquid through.

 

Cheers guys and that's another thing. I need rewire thermostat as fans are on a switch. Any ideas on how to do it? Is it easy? Cheers

 

All the switch should do is bypass, so trace it back and remove it. As for how difficult, that can depend on how well it was fitted.

 

I'm going to check thermostat is working and wire it up how it should be. It's a full efi xr3i loom but have the whole fiesta RS turbo engine loom running via two yellow relays. Will the fan wiring still work off the xr3i loom or do I need ti use the fiesta engine loom?

 

One for the boys who know far more than me mate, sorry !

 

Fan will or should still run from the 3i loom

 

Cheers mate. I'll have a look at it this week

 

Also think the water pump takes a hiding when theres no coolant, i think the coolant acts a bit like lube for it..

 

Just picked up some coolant so I'm a step closer .

 

Think thermostat is broken :-/

 

Time for the good old string ,bucket and kettle test.
1.Fill a bucket of water from a boiling kettle.
2.Tie string to thermostat like a concker
3.Lower stat in bucket and see if it opens.
4.If you need a new one,I would highly recommend GUNUINE FORD ONE.

Have had some trouble in the past with cheap spurious ones.

 

It had corroded really bad and rusty etc. Prob coz just had water in.

 

JMO
I run mostly water in our dagenham dustbins / alfas and they don't run hot.
It sounds more like pressurizing in the expansion tank / radiator.
Anti freeze makes the water less able to expel heat than straight water. The Anti freeze does stop corroding of aluminium bits, but only for the guaranteed time of the anti freeze (eg the inhibitors in it last 2 - 5 years before corrosion starts).
I've been through this with our Ford V8 for last few months. Ive used K-seal in the coolant system to stop the pressure of the cylinders from going into the water system - causing a rise in pressure.
I tested ours by borrowing mates pressure testing kit, you take off rad cap / expansion bottle cap and connect a pressure gauge where cap was. As you rev the engine you should see about 0.5 - 1 bar of pressure. If it goes above 1 bar then the system is pressurizing.
I don't want to be a panic merchant, just giving you the solution to our problem.
Cheers
Kevin

 

Put a new thermostat in for £7.50 and it's solved the problem.
Obv was circulating through the radiator properly and not getting cooled. sorted :-D cheers for help guys