Another overheating Hijet

Well after 40,000 miles of trouble free motoring the Hijet is chucking its water out of the expansion bottle. The head is now off and goes for skimming tomorow.

Gra

Welcome to the club.

Well Henry the Hijet is back on the road again now and has covered around 150 miles. Did the guides as well whilst the head was off. The real test is a trip into London tomorrow.

Head gasket failure seems to be very common on Hijets but I thought mine would be OK as it is very well maintained. So I'm now wondering just why gasket failure is so prevalent on Hijets. The old gasket actually looked as if it was rotting away but the actual leak was quite small. The temperature gauge on mine normally sits to the left of half way but it is well over to the right when the fan kicks in. Is this normal? If so has anyone taken a temperature reading wheen the fan kicks in?

Gra

Henry really did well today in the very heavy traffic. I've fitted an override switch for the fan and I cut the fan in as soon as the needle hit half way on the temp gauge. I'm thinking of fitting an in line switch into the top hose, one with a variable temperature setting so that I can set it to cut in when the gauge is at half way.

Gra

In my own experience of running Hi-Jets for 12 years and buying and selling dozens of them and dismantling well over 100 of them.
I have found that most of the suspected "Ed Gasket gawn mate" is not that at all. It's so many times been down to leaking Radiator Caps and lack of knowledge by the Garage on how to bleed a Hi-Jet's coolant system.
I have replaced the Radcaps and bled the system they have been fine. I love it when a Garage misdiagnoses the symptoms. It has made me quite a few quid buying the "Ed Gasket gawn mate" vehicle for peanuts and putting a couple of caps on and pressure bleeding the system and then selling it for a handsome profit. Love it !!
It's constantly overheating the engine that cooks the head gasket. I appreciate that wasn't the case with your one Gra.
If Hi-Jet Owners regularly check the coolant levels, check the condition of the seating on the metal pipes under the passenger seat and both Radcaps then a lot more of them would have survived.