Barney Paull-Edwards
06-28-2008, 08:50 PM
After two weeks wandering round Europe and three race tracks (take students out first in TDS to show them, most throw up!) all seemed well with TDS,at lights in Pamplona gauge moved up and then all hell broke loose, jet of steam, pulled over opened hood and cracked cap to lower pressure,went for a coffee and ten minutes later looked for problem.There was a split three inches long on second row down,two hours to go to ol` Chief engineer so help at hand.Jammed sponge in area filled up and left cap loose, regular top-ups and got there. Next day Chief got knife into crack, enlarged it,went to plumber, got epoxy, filled crack, two beers later hard as rock, topped up and it held for another two weeks of gentle driving. Back home new rad £122 and fun started,read threads but none on TDS`S, rad is clipped to intercooler and thats bigger than gap, condenser to fan, if condenser had flexy pipes easy but no,got in with Dremel and cut rad/cooler clips, out she comes. Problem is replacing, solution,cut clips on new rad,put layer of rubber below and on top of cooler,rad in easy. Next lesson, if the top clips break for no reason years ago there IS a reason, rad had grown two inches in total breaking the clips. Lesson, nothing happens for no reason,dont ignore a clip bust or needing a water top up, work out why! That said the abuse these engines will suffer is incredible,every top-up took three litres of water so it was running nigh on dry,oil came out like water but still runs fine, last fill was Jet A1 and still runs fine!