Hi all the head gasket went on my punto sporting 1.2 16v so i did the head gasket as in new gaskets had the head skimmed new oil belts plugs the lot started the car and it is running and sounding soooo much better than before but the only thing is it is still losing water and over heating i really dont get it
any help would be fab thanks

Did you establish why the head gasket went originally.

Things I would check.

Does the fan kick in at the correct time, is the thermostat opening at the correct time, is there good flow through the rad.

Personally I would drop the coolant and flush the rad and check the thermostat in a pan of boiling water. If all of this comes back ok then run a compression test to check the new head gasket has not failed again.

Hi,

Did you establish WHY the head gasket went in the first place? Head gaskets rarely fail of their own acord and are usually a secondary factor, ie dead rad fan, stuck thermostat, lack of anti-freeze in the coolant etc.

If you are still loosing coolant, is it a visible leak? Check the hoses and the rad carefully, as not all leaks will leave a drip on the floor. Some will only leak when under pressure (hot) and the heat in turn will evaporate the coolant, resulting in no drips on the floor. If you have sufficient anti-freeze mix, you can often see "crystals" the same colour as your coolant forming around a leak sight.

The most important thing though, is to stop driving the car untill you have worked out WHERE your coolant is going and WHY its overheating, otherwise you will need a new head gasket very soon AGAIN.

Alan

EDIT: darshen beat me to it!

Hi thanks for your reply i will take the thermostat of tomoz hopefully had test it and let you now how that goes

i agree, check stat,
Me & corky as just done c/h on his and stat was in a right state,
best to throw it and replace with a good quality one,

Worth checking heater matrix and Rad too, flush these out with hosepipe,

A simple coolant pressure test is all to tell where its leaking


See my guides (may be in mk1) on making your own pressure tester

Max of 15psi and check fornit dropping quickly or a slow leak overtime

Ziggy

compression test is very worth while,
coolant system test also useful ..but a bit subjective..,

worth remembering that the 16V can be a git to bleed well, it's possible you MAY just be shifting air pockets from the rebuild..

worth changing the stat though ..,
and then following one of the guides on Bleeding ( tip-up method)

charlie

Hi all well i couldn't wait till the morning so took the stat of and well it dont look the best really i did test it in the hot water and it opened just fine but when it was time to close it did but there is a slight gap if that makes sense i put a touch on one side and you can see the light come through the other side is that normal for it to have a slight gap in them woooo and the gasket was hell of a mess to

Louannerees said:

Hi all well i couldn't wait till the morning so took the stat of and well it dont look the best really i did test it in the hot water and it opened just fine but when it was time to close it did but there is a slight gap if that makes sense i put a touch on one side and you can see the light come through the other side is that normal for it to have a slight gap in them woooo and the gasket was hell of a mess to

Click to expand...

if you have alook inside it,itwill have a seal, abit sandy coloured looking,
it will have perished,

these stats can fail in all differnt way's.
EG, over cooling ..noticed by temp gauge falling going down hill,

you can get the yo-yo effect too, (gauge up and down)
worst one is a stuck stat, it preasurises the system ..and weakest link is Headgasket,

clean the surface for the stat, wear gloves and clean off old sealant/gasket goo with a stanley blade. and paper gasket does the job,

RTV sealant seems good too,

Avoid cheap stat's dished out by car shops, buy good quality one ..only a couple of quid more, and it shouid last years, cheap ones can fail in weeks or months,

All my stat's have failed because they weren't closing up properly

When cold they should allow a small amount of coolant to flow, but mine - it just gushed out when cold....

It'd open and close fine tho
But i'd loose heat and take forever to regain it via several cheap stat's for example Q+H - Halfrauds etc

I fitted a Quality Fiat part and - Boom problem gone

Ziggy

Hi all i bought a new stat from gmf this morning fitted it and bleed the pipes and hay presto the temp went up to half so i kept it running for 6 more mins and it just stayed on half the hole time and the fans didn't even need to kick in and yes the fans are working as they were kicking in every time with the old stat in it. so i think problem solved so thanks to every one for all there help with this fingers crossed it will pass m.o.t Monday lol

the only other thing is tho im still not getting hot air from the fans in the car but the speed 123 dont work only 4 and i now the person i bought the car of had the number 4 running all the time to try keep the engine cool cause of the over heating so i was wondering if it was possible they my of burnt out the element what do you think
thanks again

Fan only running on 4 is usually the resistor pack or the plug and wiring to it has burned out or all of them.
No hot air is probably down to air still trapped in the system. It could burp itself to an extent but you'll probably have to bleed the thing again. If there is air in there you will hear a gurgle at start up.
Another possibility is that someone used radweld type stuff in the past which is now restricting flow to the matrix and you might have to disconnect hoses and try to back flush the matrix.

Hi yes i have blood the pipes again and i have a lil hot air now woop woop but like you said i can hear water but not just on start up its every so often i can hear it so def still a lot of air in there do you now the best way to bleed the pipes as i think i may be doing it wrong

Get hosepipe out ..and stick it in the rad, cover with a rag and get some some one then to turn hosepipe on ,

You couid always take little water pipe off metal water rail too and flush it from there
You will need new jubilee clips if you take pipes off matrix..

Look for copper/brass coloured flakes in the water..if you see any
Then matrix will be full of k-seal.

Louannerees said:

Hi yes i have blood the pipes again and i have a lil hot air now woop woop but like you said i can hear water but not just on start up its every so often i can hear it so def still a lot of air in there do you now the best way to bleed the pipes as i think i may be doing it wrong

Click to expand...

look in guides;

https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-mk2-2b-guides/348260-thermostat-change.html

Louannerees said:

Hi yes i have blood the pipes again and i have a lil hot air now woop woop but like you said i can hear water but not just on start up its every so often i can hear it so def still a lot of air in there do you now the best way to bleed the pipes as i think i may be doing it wrong

Click to expand...

Best way to bleed ? Ask four grannies the best bread recipe It's whatever way works for you. I fill the rad to the top of the neck and fill a drinks bottle with coolant and upend it on the neck trying to get as good a seal as possible. Open the back screw and squeeze the bottle trying to blast the air out. Then open the rad screw and drop the excess coolant.

the problem i have is the the screw on the rad is at the top not the bottom i have to take the pipe of the bottom of the coolant bottle to empty the water out on my punto

And why is that a problem?

the bleed screw is on rad is to allow ..air out and to drain excess coolant,
the only reason to take bottom hose off is for flushing,

is this what you mean?

'park car on a slope, so front end is high,
loosen 'Rear bleed screw on matrix pipe and the one on rad.

Get a coke bottle cut bottom off,
fill it so coolant bottle is full, and that the coke bottle remains full,

once you get a fountain out off both 'points'
close them and remove coke bottle,
now go back to bleeder on rad..let it flow out until you get the level just below MAX, sometimes its hard to see the level,

then let it idle until rad fan comes on, switch off !let it cool, and then check coolant level'.

if you get gurgles afterwards there is air getting in,

Becareful if you bleed these with a warm engine, you is likely to get scalded,
especialy from the rear matrix bleed point,

Also remember to turn the heater temp dial to max before bleeding or you will end up with an airlock in the heater matrix.