is overheating a bodywork issue?

We are doing the NC500 our radiator fan has packed up but with care we have not boiled.
Look at the front of my van - the radiator grill includes the area which is behind the trim plate between the lights on a standard 1.3 HiJet. This gives me the idea if you convert this plate into a grill maybe overheating will not occur.
BTW where is the fan relay?
Jon

Looking at the photo you are restricting airflow around the bottom third of the radiator just to the side of the number plate on each side. This will reduce the cooling effect when moving and a little less standing I think. No idea where the relay is for a 1.3. I changed my 993 front end design to increase airflow as 5he original has the blanking plate near the top of the radiator and bits of bumper as well. The bodywork will not cause overheating but could be a contributing factor to inefficient cooling.

That is my point - the bottom of the radiator does the least work as by the time hot water has flowed to bottom it is comparatively cool. Whereas on original layout all direct air flow is to lower part of radiator. With no fan we have been over mountains on more than one occasion. So my modded layout appears to be efficient.
Jon

Ahhhhhh! See what you are saying now! You are just saying that opening up the top area on other vans may help cooling. On 1.3 and SE versions that area is a grille anyway but on the 993 it’s a blank panel, and I agree a daft idea to cover the rad even only a part of it, hence why my 993 has the 1.3 grille installed to aid cooling.

the carry is totaly closed and the rad is placed further back to, its between the front wheels.
Carrys almost never suffer from overheating
but it has a fan that runs constant and increases in speed the more you press the gaspedal.




Its not ment to show how superior the carry is offcourse  
I just wanted to ad some info to this subject

Good info Scotia, think the main thing is that cooling is a preventative measure rather than a fix.

There are so many factors it is crazy to say. But a Hijet from the factory doesn't overheat.

So one would assume there is enough air displacement as they are manufactured.

So maybe, don't everyone weld scrap to the front of their noddy box just yet as the cure is not conclusive.

Many don't overheat because they don't have a thermostat

Many don't overheat because they don't do 80 mph round the peak district.

Many don't overheat because they haven't yet  

And many don't overheat because the temperature gauge doesn't work

HighlyJetted wrote:There are so many factors it is crazy to say. But a Hijet from the factory doesn't overheat.

Until you get it home. Or an unspecified time later. Or, if you're exceedingly lucky, never

HighlyJetted wrote:So one would assume there is enough air displacement as they are manufactured.

So maybe, don't everyone weld scrap to the front of their noddy box just yet as the cure is not conclusive.

Many don't overheat because they don't have a thermostat

Many don't overheat because they don't do 80 mph round the peak district.

Many don't overheat because they haven't yet  

And many don't overheat because the temperature gauge doesn't work

I might be tempting fate here, but my two 1.3's are both fine. One temp gauge is always just under max, which is a tad scary. This was Waz's van and it files, faster than the other, newer one. It might not have a thermostat in but it's easier not to investigate and thus provoke trouble. There was no change after fitting a new rad (kindly supplied by HJ) a while back. The other one's temp gauge usually just stirs itself just off the min mark, and the fan comes on when it gets up to about 15% of the way up.

Am not going to prod a snoozing Fido with a stick, but just keep a close eye on them.

everytime i hear somebody say but my hijet doesnt overheat
is like an 88 year old smoker who didnt get cancer and than says smoking isnt bad for you

if you read the other guys responses it sounds logical to me that.
its not a design thing because like hj said new ones dont overheat
the only difference between an older and newer one is probably maintenance related like raggy said
and the coolingsystem has lots of weak points and once you start fiddiling along with it you might do work to it that actualy causes more problems.

1 hijet overheats.. reason=metal pipe corroded and lets air in the system
2 you are not aware of that being the fault and you replace youre thermostat because hey who doesnt want to fix it by only spending 15 euro.
And youre friend who knows a guy whos nephews neighbor has a friend who is a mechanic and he says overheating cars often have bad/sticking thermostat
So you start with that but you put the thermostat in the wrong way and didnt bleed it correctly after that.
3 hijet overheats again in time..
4 you think ah wel i will spend some money and let the headgasket get replaced by  youre friend who knows a guy whos nephews neighbor has a friend who is a mechanic.
5 he replaces the hg but knows nothing about hijets and doesnt use the correct torqeu to fasten the head and doesnt use the correct coolant and doesnt bleed it the correct way because "aaalll cars bleed themselves by looking at when the bubles stop comming up at the pipe were the radcap is on beneath the seat"
6 it overheats again a couple of weeks later... you now have got several things that cause it and are treuly f**##.. youre tired of it after spending that much money and put it up for sale.

Hijet for sale, recently had lots of work done... needs a new thermostat

This is not my story of my own experiances at all offcourse

^^^ That's the truth right there.

Rotten metal coolant pipes that are pitted, knackard rotten rads, crack end caps on the rad, cracked thermostat housing, broken hose clips, knackard rad caps, the small coolant pipes that clog with the rust/radweld, and finally the head gasket fails in the end.

You can replace everything, but it that metal strangled octopus pipe is pitted and weeps (which they always are buggered), it was a waste of time and money.

So in the end it’s a maintenance and age thing....sounds like me these days

"time is a healer" is only true in love songs Raggy.

In reality, entropy will prevail.

Excellent HJ "the second law of thermodynamics says that entropy always increases with time" so the struggle to exchange heat into something else other than destruction of the engine is only a matter of time before it happens in plain English....but good maintenance etc could delay that, which could be same with any engine...although the Hijet and its design may make that point sooner than others...oops

Well that certainly provoked some debate.
Maybe the thermostat has been removed on my truck - not by me but it makes sense.
I did not risk daytime running saturday or sunday - on friday we drove down from Loch Lomond to Carlisle - had some sleep then a night drive to Cheshire - spent saturday at my sister's - we don't see each other that often! Saturday night we drove down to Cornwall taking 2 breaks - a 2 hour and a 3 hour home by 11 o'clock on Sunday morning. Still no overheating.

In the last 3 weeks we have covered 2462 miles - the van is still a puzzle engine light on will not clear beforer we went the reader said it has multiple misfires No signs of the misfire or any other performance problems. Despitre at times being overloaded myself (I weigh over 100 Kg) my partner (she is not Twiggy) and a lurcher who weighs nearly 40 Kg add on water tank 30 L , full fuel tank and all our stuff! The spring assisters were invaluable!

In total we used less than half a litre of oil and about a cupfull of coolant. A few weird creaks and thumps but overall the van is fine.

Jon

Glad it all went well and a great journey. Did you take any photos?

Raggy wrote:Glad it all went well and a great journey. Did you take any photos?

Hi Raggy, Good to know you are in "God's Country"

We took a thousand plus photos plus some video. I am sorting out a slide show and video to upload onto Youtube. I hope the stunner of videos will be Bealach na Ba - Bealach Pass 11.5 miles single track zig zag road - leave Applecross at sea level climb to 2053ft and drop back to sea level at Shielding.

We stopped about halfway up to let the engine cool before completing the climb. The whole 500 is great, but go anti clockwise - up the East coast from Inverness - then across the top and down the west - it is like a film -
East coast is impressive - the North fantastic - the West gobsmaking culminating in Bealach and a gentle wind down back to Inverness - got the T Shirt van has the stickers!

on

Be good to see those pics, yes loving it down here at the minute. We are based in Looe for this break. And theres me thinking Gods Country was Yorkshire where we travelled from ... but then again I was born in Lancashire so have a foot in both camps

Raggy wrote:Be good to see those pics, yes loving it down here at the minute. We are based in Looe for this break. And theres me thinking Gods Country was Yorkshire where we travelled from ... but then again I was born in Lancashire so have a foot in both camps

So sorry to dispel that myth about Yorkshire, but Cornwall is definitely "GOD'S COUNTRY"

Sometimes it doesn't take much to make a car overheat. When I was in the trade the MGB's came out with rubber bumpers and in those days trade plates were In rubber mounts with straps to helpnold them on the cars. The bumper has 2 holes in it and the trade plate was hooked on the bonnet latch and around the end of the bumper covering one of the holes. That was enough to make them get quite hot.

An overheating problem heading this way or not?

Raggy I think you are correct - most of the grill is covered by the badge. It looks like one of the Paragon ? Happy Camper front ends - No doubt Woodie will have an opinion.
Where did you find it - in Looe? A company down here hires them out
http://kernow-kampers.com/minidubs/
Jon

Found it on the FB Hijet owners page I think it was.