Hello All
I have bought a Punto 90 1600 manual (1996) as a second car/courtesy car, knowing it was overheating because it keeps blowing out all its coolant. I have done:
1. The head gasket
2. Had it skimmed and pressure tested
3. Removed the thermostat
4. Checked for leaks etc

And yet it still pressurises the system. I gather they are a pig to bleed but will air in the system cause this problem? How do you bleed them and has anyone any suggestions that might help. There is no water in the oil or oil in the water BTW. And finally does anyone know of a decent inependent specialist in either Plymouth or east cornwall?

I used to rely on Roy Beal at Auto Italiana (Exeter) but I gather he has gone. I have been around cars all my life and run a classic car restoration business in Liskeard but this one has me stumped!

A coolant system when heated will always cause a build up of pressure to some level!

Bleeding guides are here:
https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-guides/43906-how-bleed-mk1-punto-cooling-system.html
https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-guides/90237-bleeding-cooling-system-mk1-punto.html
It's easier to park on an incline with the nose pointing up (enough to bring the heater matrix bleed point down to a similar height to the top of the expansion bottle) and bleeding the radiator first

Have you tried checking the pipes/radiator/core plugs for leaks?

This is what happened to me. Have a look at all my previous posts concerning this issue. It was quite simply doing my head in!

I had a bad air lock and had tried before to remove it without success. I had to keep topping up the coolant as it was simply going down to the minumum point on the header tank every 5-7 days.

However I followed the guide on this great site and it worked.

Do exactly as 5abr3 says above though and try to park on a hill. I did it in my mums driveway, or if you can jack it up a bit. Just try to get the header tank above or level with the back bleed point. This is what I wasnt doing before and it never worked. I never succeeded in getting the air out.

I also did the opposite of the guide and followed 'the Sultans' advice and bled the radiator first and the back bleed point (heater matrix) last.

Make sure you squeeze all the pipes also and keep adding in the new coolant slowly.

I did this on Sunday 17th Jan and the coolant in the header tank has remained at the max mark.

This has never been the case before so I must have got rid of my demon! The big fat ugly airlock! It was seriously annoying me but now its gone and hopefully forever!!! :slayer:

alibob2 said:

I used to rely on Roy Beal at Auto Italiana (Exeter) but I gather he has gone. I have been around cars all my life and run a classic car restoration business in Liskeard but this one has me stumped!

Click to expand...

Hi,

Auto Italiana have just moved that is all

Details : http://www.autoitaliana.co.uk/contact.php

Ring the number on the website and it gives you the new one.

Hello Chaps. I thought I had replied to this once but for some reason it hasn't come up. The problem WAS the bleeding and it now runs fine. We used a mixture of the bleeding guides here plus we "borrowed" a 2m length of stiff agricultural irrigation pipe to ram into the top of the header tank, filled it to the top (you will need a step-ladder!) and without running the engine but opening the bleed valves, let it run through until no more air was coming out. We then bled it running for a further 20 minutes until it stopped bubbling/pressurising.
Thanks again
Alan.