Bedford 500 diesel help!

Hi everyone I stumbled accross this forum whilst trying to get some info on my Bedford.

I have recently aquired a 1968 TK? Bedford truck it has a 5 speed gear box and 2 speed diff.

It is fitted with a 500ci diesel engine.

The truck runs and has only recently been taken off the road. However I am having some trouble with the cooling system. No matter what I do it overheats after a while. When cold the water is very slow to drain from the expansion tank into the radiator/block. It also seems to have far too much pressure building up inside. As in after a few minutes idling the water is trying to come back out!

Does anyone on here know if these engines are prone to cracking heads or blowing head gaskets?

Any help replies would be greatly appreciated! I will also have a few TK bedford bits for sale when this one is on the road again!

Cheers

Remove the thermostat and try this ,sounds like the thermostat may be stuck.The petrol engines had a habit of this happening ...Good luck with it!!!

Hi Steve thanks for the reply. The thermostat has been removed and still I am having the same problems! I have a suspicion that the radiator may be "clogged" and not allowing any flow. However running a garden hose through it, it appears the flow is O.K?

May just have to bite the bullet and pull the head off. Any ideas were one can obtain a VRS set or gaskets for these engines?

On the topic of petrol engines I have one available out of a TK if anybody is interested.

Cheers

1968TKBedford
With thermostat out out it is very easy with good pump to suck lower radiator hose flat at working revs restricting flow if no spring in side,one length 2mm tig wire wound in side fixes problem ,original hose had them.
Not blowing bubbles in radiator.
Peter

From memory as an apprentice, these had copper sleeves around the injectors, and if they leak it allows compresssion into the water jackets. Hope i,m not correct.

Hi guys thanks for the replies! It seems to bubble or boil after it has been running for a while as soon as it is turned off? you can hear the water bubbling in the hoses/expansion tank.

Will have a look at the hose next time I start it and see if it sucks it in!

Thanks again cheers

work on a 6 cyl bedford motor once ( can`t recall what model ) that was fitted onto a irrigation pump. had to remove head because it was leaking water from under it . one thing that struck me was that the water could only get up into the head by two tubes at the back left which is were the water was leaking . the rubber gromits had gone hard . after getting it running again it would build up pressour and blow hot water out the radiator say every 4/5 min .
had to go to convession after what i said .
but what it turned out to be was that it was not getting the water flow through the motor because the thermostat was left out .
this motor needed the thermostat to get the water flow to the back of the motor through the two tubes
thus keeping an even temp within the motor
so i make sure the thermostats are fitted and operational now

Hi thanks again for the replies. I'll grab a thermostat and throw it in this weekend! Fingers crossed.

Thanks again!

Well I tried a thermostat and it certainly "helped" however stii getting hot. Noticed though after filling the system the water would take ages to drain into system. My thoughts are that the radiator is badly "clogged" Further more after running the engine for 30mins or so the top of the radiator was boiling hot and the bottom was stone cold! So either the radiator is working very well or I am not getting any flow through it. Noticed a few beads of water coming from around 2 of the injectors? Tightened whilst engine was running and this stopped!

Anyone have any clever ways of flushing/cleaning a radiator with out removing it? I have compressed air ordinary garden hose at my disposal.

Once again thanks for all the tips advice.
Cheers

If the tubes are clogged, you probably wont do much good with pressure hose bcause you cant get to them. Try reverse flushing - hook a hose up to the bottom outlet and see what comes out the top. Put some washing soda into the system and let it sit for a couple of days, this may loosen the gunk a bit. If not, buy some flushing compound from Repco and run it for a while.

When the engine has been sitting for a while the crud gets compressed and solid in the tubes and is very hard to break up again.