Hi all. New to the hijets

Hi all. My names steve I have recently purchased a day/camper van. It’s a 1.0 P reg and currently off the road. The first project was to get radiator fit and sort the blown head gasket, see my post in the overheating section, any help would be welcome! Once I have the van all cleaned and some ideas carried out to better the camper side of it I will post some photos for you all. Getting it running is my main goal at the moment!

Just a hi to say who I am!

Thanks.

Welcome Steve, am sure your questions will be answered soon, but it's helpful if you let us know where you are - there may be an expert just round the corner from you.

Hi cheers for the welcome. I should have thought about that. I’m from halifax, West Yorkshire. Mechanical wise I’m fine. Just wondering on people’s experience with blocks on these as any other car that I could get a block for I would get a block but that doesn’t seem to be a option for this van so just wondered if anyone else has had blocks in similar or worse condition than mine that have come out ok.

welcome steve.
i wouldnt put any effort in the conversion before you fixed the overheating.
its not that easy with hijets and their number one problem.
hence the complete overheating section on the forum..

i do have a nice website with an awesome conversion for you
its in german but it has a lot of pictures.

https://woodkali.wordpress.com/

In mine opinion is the 1.0 more sensitive for overheating compared to the 1.3. But what I never understood: is this a true engine problem or a engine-in-combination-with-a-Hijet problem.

i think it has to do with the coolingsystem mostly.
those cb engines are pretty good and the hc engines are especialy verry good in other cars.
its just the combination of a hijet and either of those engines.. so its deu to the coolingsystem i would say

I agree Scotia, it’s just a tiny radiator, a front end design that blocks half the air flow and a bit of bad design on the whole cooling system. Think some comes down to poor maintainance, wrong coolant, leaks not attended to, rad caps in poor condition etc though.

It is due to the fact that there is a great big bulkhead directly behind the radiator and the huge plastic undertray designed to stop water getting on the front of the engine and fan belt which also dramatically stops the flow of air through the radiator. With that alone removed the engine will run cooler. The air cannot pass through the rad efficiently to cool the water in the radiator. Simple as that.

The 1600 Grand Move has two sizes of radiator the smaller one is actually smaller than the Hi-Jet but air passes through it and out around the engine and underneath and I thrash the hide off my 1600 Grand Move and it, and all the other Grand Moves I have NEVER have overheated. Several of the Grand Moves I have, have got double width rads and they would be great for a Hi-Jet - if you could find somewhere to put it. The engine will sit all day ticking over as if in traffic and the fan cuts in and out and the engine still never overheats.

I don't know how many times I have had to say this in the past 5 years but if you bleed the system correctly and fit new radiator caps every 6 - 9 months and fit an Overide Switch on the Rad fan the engine is fine. Keep overheating the engine always leads to major problems like head gaskets causing seepage across the water ways and rusting the block and eating the Head.

Provided the engine of the Hi-Jet you buy hasn't got a history of overheating it is down to making sure there are no leaks on the hoses, 2 good radiator caps and the seating of the cap on the metal pipe underneath the passenger seat is good then you should be OK.

It letting idiots from garages loose on your Hi-Jet that have never worked on one before that is going to get you into trouble.

thanks al for the warm welcome, I have been helped by many on my other two posts and looking forward to posting updates on my camper/day van.