Volvo 2003 overheat

J

Jabberwock

Active Member
Joined
19 Aug 2001
Messages
53
Visit site
Having suffered from (genuine) overheat warnings with monotonous regularity I was looking at some previous posts on this subject. The heat exchanger is next on the list to check for scaling up but if cleaning this out does not sort out the problem, I was interested to read the comments about the internal transfer pipe causing problems. My engine is now fresh water cooled but was originally sea water cooled, the system being modified in about 1995 by the local Volvo dealer. I was not clear from the posts if this transfer pipe is fitted to all engines or just sea water cooled ones.
 
Sorry a supplementary question - having looked at a workshop manual I see this tranfer pipe is in the cylinder head. There is also a reference in the posts to a similar pipe with potentially blocked hole in the cylinder block. Is this the case or just confusion between the cylinder head and block?
Thanks
 
When you say genuine overheat do you mean yes the engine felt hot or do you mean steam was coming out of every orifice.

Is it possible that it was a false alarm due to the incorrect SW sender still being fitted as FW cooled engines run at a higher temperature.
 
hi Mostlikely cause is the pipe that goes from the thermostat houseing to the header tank is blocked all it needs is the pipe removing at the head end poke it out with small drill replace the pipe and all will be ok, if this pipe is blocked there is an airlock in the head and revents the cooling water circulating around the head. I spent a lot of time and money with this problem then I remembered reading about this pipe and all was Ok give it a try, I now frequently check this. If its not this it is possibly the exhaust elbow, the water courses in the casting get blocked, I tried to clear these holes but eventually I bought a new one around £100 wish I had done this to start with. Volvo do a very good tempreture gauge which I think is reasonable price it includes the guage, sender and cables to connect into the existing wireing harness, I paid £90 ish cheaper than buying the parts seperatly.
Good Luck Mike
 
Thanks very much for the info about the thermostat housing to expansion tank pipe blockage. I too have had the problem with this getting blocked and as you say check it regularly (even after drilling out the tiny orifice) However I have just cleaned it out and checked the pipe and even the fitting into the expansion tank so am confident that this is not the cause at the moment.
I agree a temperature guage would be good but did not realise that is was an option for the 2000 series. Does the sender replace that for the overheat warning?
 
the new on replaces the old one and you still get the over heat warning as well as the tem guage, it is well woth the money.
regards Mike
 
I've had my 2003 completely overhauled over the winter - bore honed, rings replaced, valves reground, etc.

What I didn't envisage was replacing the badly eroded/corroded exhaust/water injection bend. This was almost completely blocked with carbonised salt deposit preventing the water being injected into the exhaust except for a small pee hole in the middle - and I mean small. From a normal hole of about 20mm, the pee hole was no more than 3 or 4mm. This probably caused the engine to run hotter than normal, though without a temp gauge I would not have known.

Since running with the new bend, I can see how much more water comes out of the exhaust!

Check this bend! If there is insufficient salt water being passed through the heat exchanger, this could cause overheating.

Depending on the age of the engine, also check the heat exchange for de-zincification. I had to replace it on our boat - another deep dig in the pocket.
 
Does anyone know of a direct replacement engine/gearbox for this model? I have a VP 2003 in my Beneteau of 1989 vintage and would like to change it for new but with minimal effort so a straight swap would be good!

Cheers, Brian.
 
my raw water cooled 2003 overheated. Having descaled everything I could (with no improvement) I eventually tracked it down to the exhaust elbow. Mine wasn't scaled up, but one of the cooling water entries was corroded. One of the cooling water entries into the exhaust elbow has a slight restriction that over time may corrode. This was only apparrent when I purchased a new elbow.
 
I followed up the excellent suggestion about the temperature sender being different for fresh water cooled versus sea water cooled engines. The local Volvo dealer reckoned there was no difference as there is no different sender supplied with the conversion kit (not conclusive proof I guess). The engineer I spoke to had just been to a boat and changed the cylinder head transfer pipe to no avail only to find it was the problem mentioned by Mldpt
 
why should there be a different sender for sea or fresh water, all it does is reads the water temp and sends it to the guage, however the thermostat has a different setting for sea water which I think is lower than fresh water cooled so as to reduce the evaporating rate of sea water and leaving salt in the waterways. But you should get a higher reading on the guage for fresh water.
Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top