V40 1.9D pressurising water system
 

Turning to fellow enthusiasts as getting head feck with the car. It was pressurising the water system and first thought was head gasket. On stripping it down the mating surface of the block was damaged so couldn't just do the head gasket.
I managed to source a used engine with 3 months warranty that was a tested and good engine. Just spent the best part of the weekend removing the old unit and fitting the new one. Fired it up tonight and its doing exactly the same as the old engine...pressurising the system and throwing the water back up and out of the expansion tank.
We tried bleeding the system for ages but it isn't doing owt. Car runs at normal temperature, doesn't overheat . There is only cold air through the blowers inside and when the engine was out we flushed the matrix both ways and it flowed spot on so isn't blocked.
We are thinking along the lines that there is a blockage in the system somewhere as the circuit isn't completing and the expansion tank water is cold.
Does anyone have a detailed diagram of the cooling system?? We have a Laguna diesel Haynes but the Volvo Haynes doesn't cover the diesel engine.

Any ideas gratefully received as so peeved at present the scrap man may get a present shortly
cheers
Wayne

Sounds like you know your stuff so difficult to add anything that's not obvious.

All I can think is, stuck thermostat, blocked radiator and finally (hopefully not) wrong headgasket used.

There's nothing much left. Presume you put pipes back on matrix right way around? Never heard of blocked galleries in engine block so guess it boils down (no pun intended) to the basics.

See if this is of any help. Searching VIDA now for possible causes of your problem

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/attach...1&d=1390257296

When you swapped engines did you use the oil cooler from the old engine?

Couple things I'd tried when I had this problem renewing the coolant.

Squeeze the hoses from the expansion tank the radiator to the engine and see if that makes much difference. Also check if the hose from the radiator to the engine is hot as it should be.

Undo the cap for the expansion tank and start up the engine, leave it running for 5 minutes or so and see what the tank does and the engine temp. The water should burp itself if there's air trapped.

What did the trick for me is once I ran the engine for 5 minutes I got under the radiator and opened the drain valve until coolant came out and closed it straight away, checked the expansion tank and topped up if needed and repeated. It sorted the problem for me.

If all those fail then what I would try is to completely drain the water system.

Remove the top and bottom radiator hose and get a hosepipe and run water through the top hose into the radiator. If it pours out the bottom happy then you know there is no blockage there. Then remove the thermostat and put the housing back together but ensure the thermostat is not in place. Then put the hosepipe in the hose and let it run through the engine. It should come out of the hose at the bottom of the radiator that you disconnected indicating no blockage as well. Then refill the whole system Once the expansion tank stops emptying then repeat the above steps to make sure there is no air trapped.

It's a pain in the backside and others might have better methods but that's the way I worked it out for mine. Apologies if you've tired any of this and it's no help!

No mate , used the oil cooler that was on the new engine.

Is it possible something came adrift and lodged inside one of the pipes/hoses or the radiator? Don't suppose you removed the water pump from the old engine to check if it's got all its impellers?

Have a look at this thread: http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=164221 Check if the thermostat is installed correctly. And also, it s possible that the cap of the coolant expansion tank needs replacing

I have kept the old water pump....well it looked quite new actually! But I will check to see if all the impellors are there

I would maybe take it to a garage for a sniff test just to make sure the H/G on that one is ok? I'm sure it would be, but you never know....