The Ford Capri Laser Page

Help me if you can please. I have a 2.0 pinto that is getting very hot, the previous owner has tried to cope with this by fitting an electric fan. So far I have flushed the cooling system,changed the thermostat,temperature sensor,radiator cap. The heater won’t blow hot so presumed it must be bloked so I tried to flush it with washing up liquid & de-scaler through the water pipes leading to and from the matrix. The water that came out was black, but after putting it back together it’s still running hot without any hot air blowing from the heater.
Help please

Hi welcome to the forum I think you know what it is a new matrix is needed as that’s the fault as I guess it’s not letting the water flow around the engine also other members have had the same fault .

I did notice that Martin of Capri Gear is doing the full package at the moment as all this would be worth changing

.https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2838131634

If you don’t fancy doing the job then depending where you live .
Martin at Capri Gear is Lincoln
Or
Tickover Dartford will carry out the job for you .

What condition is the rad in? A replacement might be an idea.
Does it get hot driving or just when sitting idle? If it is all the time then I would look at the rad but if it is just at idle perhaps your viscous fan does not work properly.

This car gets hot all of the time, driving or idling,give it 15 minutes and the needle is in the red. I have a new water pump and radiator on order. The heater not blowing any hot air out is what’s got me thinking the matrix is blocked,but when I flushed it out although a lot of black dirty water came out of it there wasn’t any resistance when I was blowing the water through. I might try bypassing the heater to see what happens.

Have you checked the waterways through the inlet manifold? if they're blocked then you won't get any flow through the heater matrix. Why do folk seem to assume that simply slapping on an electric fan is the answer? if the rest of the cooling system is working normally then you don't need one.

Mine used to get hot, it never overheated as I'd turn it off before that happened but it would hit the red on the temp gauge, did all the usual things to try and fix it including adding an electric fan and nothing worked. In the end I fixed it by fitting an upgraded race-spec aluminium radiator. Even in the middle of the summer stuck in severe traffic the needle never went higher than half way.
Never had the heater issue though, so might want to look into that first.