Hi guys,

Just signed up
Read a lot of helpful posts so far and am hoping for some help on my issue.
Was going to take advice of another forum post but decided that this issue is mine, thus i need tailored help with my own problem.


4 Litre EL Fairmont duel fuel with factory fitted Tickford LPG (Vialle).
Just had a radiator swap. Car runs cool now. Battery was completely disconnected also.

- When i drive around on LPG the converter is freezing up. Icy cold to the touch - then it conks out.
- I can switch to petrol and go about my day if this happens.
- When i let the car idle, the LPG converter is hot - hot as the engine.
- When i drive, the LPG converter freezes up.

- At idle after car has warmed up, top + bottom radiator hose is hot, and the two hoses sticking out of the LPG converter are hot. One hose goes behind the engine somewhere, and the other hose goes to the thermostat housing thing.

- After driving, the LPG hoses are cool. Top and bottom radiator hoses are hot.
- I am running straight tap water til next week when I can get some proper coolant.
- Have run straight water for 3 days now (when radiator was swapped).
- This issue has happened for 3 or so days now...(since radiator swap)


I seem to have no airlock.
There seems to be water flow through the system.
The car does not go past the L of normal - no matter how long i drive.

N
O
R
M
A
L --------------- It sits here. (Might touch the top of the L sometimes)



So, basically LPG seems to run sweet when idling, but once I start driving it starts to freeze...

Any ideas?


Thanks




P.S. How do I drain sludge from the Vialle converter? Do I take the whole thing off the car?
I tried feeling underneath and can't seem to feel any drain plugs/bolts/screws ...

Also, Read a post on another forum which sounded similar to mine - The person swapped the top converter hose with the bottom one and this stopped his issue. No more freezing for him.

Does that sound right? - or is this likely to blow up my car if i attempt it?

Hello,

You seem to have a faulty / missing thermostat. It should sit around the middle, and there is another Post where it mentions a " bypass " thermostat is in Gas cars. Running that cool, the heater / demister wont be much good either.

Hey,
Thanks for the reply

I believe it could be a faulty thermostat also, however:

Last week just before the original radiator blew up i tested the thermostat in a pot of water - seemed to open up fine...
The radiator split a couple of days later and i used a bottle of stopleak. It simply spat it back out again.
I then changed the radiator and started having these issues...
I used the old gasket and simply re pasted it with goop - just enough for the seal.

This morning on a 50km drive, the converter was hot as the engine when i got out to have a look...
The only thing i did last night to the car was jiggle the top converter hose... Sort of flatten it out...
Hopefully it was just a kink in a hose or something, but i really have no idea as the hoses all seemed straight...
I just made one a little straighter.

What would this suggest?

Still a thermostat?

Well, I guess it would be a thermostat if the car sits on the L of normal...
Would stopleak or a new radiator cause the thermostat to fail?


On a possibly related note:

after battery was reconnected and radiator was changed, the car started fine and so on.
I turned the car off and went inside for 30 mins, came back out and my cars headlights were on.

The switch on the dash was off. The car was turned off. Headlights were on??
Tried cranking car, battery was 'dead' apparently, it slowly cranked twice and died.
- Anyway, after fiddling around with the smartlock remote and door locks n things,tried 10 mins later - cranked once and car started (the thing barely kicked over).

Turned the car off after 2 minutes or so and the headlights were off - as they should be.
I then turned the car back on instantly, everything worked fine (headlights).
I then walk to the back of the car to notice my rear right tail light is completely dead.

-______-

I yell abuse at the car, go back inside for a few minutes - come back out - and the tail lights working fine :/

Suspicious.

So - everything now works as it should - All lights and things are fine.
The LPG converter did not freeze over today...
But might still need a thermostat eh?

id do the thermostat anyway, just to eliminate it.
as for the convertor freezing, we had the same issue with a 351 in an f truck. both rad hoses were warm/hot, but convertor was freezing. ended up being a fkd waterpump.

HI Ranga!

I'd sorta be leaning on the waterpump also...
The guy who sold me the car said the radiator was replaced and had a new water pump as well...
He didn't provide receipts...

3 months after i bought the thing, the radiator split. Car usually sat on medium/high temp. -_-

LPG isn't freezing up anymore since i jiggled some hoses - but still have not used too much LPG since it initially froze up that day... I'll have to get back to ya if it's freezing or what not on the weekend ~