Whilst the following pertains to my Riley it may be worth bearing in mind
for our more usual daily drivers!!
I took the Riley to work today - nice autumnal morning, seemed like just
the day to flex her considerable 2.5l muscle
Ran beautifully all the way there and started the home trip just as
effortlessly...... however about half way home i stopped at a light and
steam started to rise from the bonnet - now i knew it couldnt be a hose,
they were all replaced so my first thought went to the radiator, stopped
the car and looked underneath, no perceptible liquids but the endine was
definitely very hot - i let it cool a few mins and popped the rad cap -
then with my trusty gallon of water from the boot started to top up the
rad - well it took the whole gallon, and most of another one - damn
thing was practically bone dry - at the end of the second gallon the
problem became apparent -blown freeze plug - this also came as a bit of a
surprise since my pal and i changed five of them this spring - what we
didnt know was that there are six! - and the offending one is at the rear
of the engine block about 1/4" from the firewall - you'd only know it was
there if you pulled the engine......or if it blew!
I left the car there and will have to collect it tomorrow, hopefully i
caught it before anything got fried too badly (a huge please to any
supreme beings who may be listening!) but the moral of the story is -
keep an eye on the buggers! theyre much easier to get at on a B!
mike robson
69 roadster
70 BGT
53 Riley
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