Hey just come back from giving the all trusty EB a trip down to the post office and pulling in the carpark I noticed I had repainted it with coolant (overflow), naturally popped the bonnet and the header tank looked like it was going to explode with coolant packed to the brim all the hoses about to burst from the extreme pressure. Now I'd say it's either blocked and overheated but I serviced it only a month ago and flushed the heater core and everything, no blockage (water was filthy and rusty though). Drove it home with header tank still compressed to the brim with coolant (it didnt settle after 20min) 2km later its bone dry? (stuck thermostat opened??) Opened the cap and coolant explosion haha, now at least I don't need to drain the top hose I guess! Gonna do a head at this rate haha.

I noticed recently according to the temp gauge the thermostat is opening very late, so maybe it's stuck? It's less than a year old basically so there should be no blockage/stuck thermostat or overheating of any sort, it's been going almost to the red on the gauge then opening and dropping right back down. Probably the thermostat despite being new, I can't see how there's a blockage seeing as I flushed it thoroughly a month back I was just wondering if I can test the thermostat accurately or if another issue like a faulty temp sender could be the cause?

Remove the thermostat housing then Place the thermostat in boiling water and if it opens its should be fine if it stays shut or does not shut after you take it out replace it.

Not quite sure what else it could be... but I know how to test a thermostat haha good luck.

haha cheers gave it a boil in the saucepan and it's opening fine.

So does that mean I have a blockage or something? When driving back I'm pretty sure I didnt dump any more coolant, but I had an empty tank it's like air managed to get it and compress the coolant into the header tank the cap was so tight it blew off haha.

Sounds like you've already done a headgasket friend.
Fill it with water and run er wig the radiator cap off, check for bubbles in the overflow, if you're need have a smell and see what they smell like, if it's fuely/gassy .... BHG

ok so I took out the entire radiator this time and reverse flushed it with the other holes plugged and it seemed slightly blocked from the top (didnt see anything solid come out just a lot of rust coloured water). So I put it all back together ran it with the cap off to bleed the air out and when the thermostat opened it boiled out the header tank again, kept it running and replaced the water and it opened/closed a few more times successfully with no boiling over.

Thermostat is opening fine
Radiator flushed (looks relatively new too)
Heater core flushed
block flushed
new radiator cap

That's practically everything replaced it shouldn't be boiling over still... I'm going to give it a decent drive tomorrow and see how I go!

Cheers

i agree, if its pressurising the header tank with the other symptoms you describe it sounds like another e series head gasket failure...

its the season for it...

Haha yeah pretty sure it's done a head! (cyl 1 plug is green) but there's no bubbles in the tank, no milky oil, no white smoke (a little when cold) must be a tiny leak. The plugs are only 6 mnoths old too they look pretty awful for some reason. Greeny is on the left

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c229/ ... G_0068.jpg

And with you're rusty coolant I say the fella you brought it off rad a d**k of chemi weld through it.

Haha chemweld wouldn't surprise me! It's like moisture has got into some/all of the cylinders as well as leaking into cyl 1 and 6. I planned to just get the head machined but the valve stems look rusted/dry/brittle to hell, as do the pistons, and there's no oil in the cylinders? I'll probably have to get it crack tested and reco'd I guess, it's always been serviced regularly and the valves look so buggered...on the plus side the rocker gear looks pretty sweet lol.