Engine overheat and fumes

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Jono
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Location: Exeter

Engine overheat and fumes

Post by Jono »

We took our van to Spain and Portugal last summer and drove in temperatures in the high 30 s upto 42 degrees. The van generally went well if running marginally hotter with with the gauge just above 1/2 way. When driving in the mountains however on some unrelenting hills upto 6,000ft the gauge inevitably rose. Although I took it easy and stopped regularly to let the engine cool, on one section there was nowhere safe to pull over so I just had to keep going. When I did manage to stop with the gauge nudging 3/4, black fumes came out of the engine vents. At first I thought we were on fire but a quick check through the number plate flap with the fire extinguisher handy showed this was not the case. It was not possible to empty the van on the roadside to check the engine bay so I just let the van cool down and carried on.

When I could stop and check the van properly there were no signs of any leaks nor anything obviously amiss and there was no noticeable drop in oil or coolant levels. No further problems were experienced on the trip of over 3,000 km ( other than the squeaky heater fan finally packed up )

So what was the cause ? Only thing I can think of was the oil got too hot and it's time to fit an oil cooler, oil temperature and pressure gauge ? Maybe a chicken switch too ( 2nd fan speed cut in soon after stopping )

Would welcome people's views

1990 LHD Westfalia California pop top 1.6td JX

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