Callum-VR6 10 Posted February 20, 2017 Looking for a little help... Just had the VR in the garage with what I thought was a head gasket problem as it was losing water from somewhere I couldnt find and there was some creamy gunk under the oil filler cap. Got it back and was told that the cylinder head was fine as it was not giving any tell tail signs "oil in coolant or coolant in oil" and that they had repaired a small leak from the hose at the bottom of the radiator, pressure tested fine and lost no coolant whilst there. Told gunk was from some short runs that I do in it. Since running it I have found that the top radiator hose is going rock hard when car has been up to temperature, bottom rad hose is warm but no way near as hard. Also the expansion tank is gaining coolant and seems to be pressuring. Also appears to be getting warmer quicker than before but not overheating. Fans are cutting in at the right temperature, heater gets really hot really quickly and stays hot (hotter than before I think but hard to tell). Any ideas guys? The cooling system on my VR seems to be its achilles heel. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
seanl82 23 Posted February 20, 2017 Reservoir will look a little like its gaining water as it gets hot (just like normal water when it gets near boiling point) although not quite as much as it is supposed to be pressurised. The top hose should go quite hard but I wouldn't say rock hard. Just keep an eye on water and oil temps, and take it for a good half an hour run once a week which should burn off any moisture in the system and keep the creamy residue at bay. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jekel 10 Posted February 21, 2017 Have a look at the post next to this, the one way valve in the coolant hose that goes to throttle housing on mine seized and caused expansion tank to back up and overfill, worth a look for how cheap and easy a fix it is. Got a brand new Suzuki wife drives mainly, 5000 miles on it now, which was horrified to see that white gunk on inside of oil filler cap. My mechanic assures me normal for mileage it's doing. Never seen on any of my cars, VR6, Capri V6's, even old UR quattros. Old VR6 engine had 140 000, new one now bout 5000 and never any hint of gunk, that would worry me a bit. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Callum-VR6 10 Posted February 21, 2017 Cheers for the reply's! :thumbleft: Yeah mine has 140,000 on the clock, seems to be running fine though. Looks like it is wanting a new rocker box gasket soon. Another fault that it has generated is that the low water level light has started flashing as soon as I turn it on even though there is plenty of water in the expansion tank. Going to replace the expansion tank and give the whole system a good bleed in case its an airlock that is expanding, will make sure that valve is not seized as well when I do. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
seanl82 23 Posted February 21, 2017 The VR6 expansion tank is obsolete now and doesn't seem to be available anywhere. You can splice in the connector and use a tank from a mk4 Golf though (and any other VAG car from about 1999 - 2010 actually), and they're pretty cheap too. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Callum-VR6 10 Posted February 21, 2017 Yeah had a read about doing that. Is there any major modification to the mounting needed to do it? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VAG-hag 0 Posted February 21, 2017 Yeah had a read about doing that. Is there any major modification to the mounting needed to do it? No just extend screw hole in bottle with a drill. Very easy and worthwhile modification. You need to extend top hose too :D Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
