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[willyboy]

Hi all having bought a well used Omega V6 3.0 Est 110,000 miles on it  some 5 months ago, recently I have had to put coolant in the header tank at least a litre   approx every 200/250 miles as its given me low coolant warning !
The car runs good, starts easy , some steam but not excessive, the thing it does do is it seems to run Hot ! The rad fan always carrys on after parking up sometimes it does it about 60 secs & the car does have a smell of burning/water not oil, getting out the drivers door it feels hot from underneath ..I know it will abit from exhaust pipes etc but seems too hot somehow havnt noticed that till recently, nor have I noticed any water leaking anywhere, tried a new header tank cap but no change  It doesnt use oil & runs on Synthetic oil it maybe due for an oil change about now too..
Would be grateful of Any advice on what it could be but I fear it could be head gasket !
thanx in advance

[hotel21]

Have a search for heater bypass valve, lots of posts on it, most probably the cause.....

Welcome to the forum, by the way.....  

[Kev]

The V6 does run pretty hot. Nothing to worry about, depending on the actual temp. reading of course.

What is the temp. guage actually reading?

I'd be very surprised if it was the head gasket. 110K is nothing to a V6. As B says, check for the heater bypass valve, then check all your coolant pipes at the rear of the engine, followed by the pipes at the stat and radiator (at the front right of the engine).

If they are all ok, the next thing i'd check is the plate which covers the oil cooler as the seal may be gone there, it's located in between the two banks, ie, in the centre of the V.

All of these are easy fixes.

Good luck.

[ians]

Hi all having bought a well used Omega V6 3.0 Est 110,000 miles on it  some 5 months ago, recently I have had to put coolant in the header tank at least a litre   approx every 200/250 miles as its given me low coolant warning !
The car runs good, starts easy , some steam but not excessive, the thing it does do is it seems to run Hot ! The rad fan always carrys on after parking up sometimes it does it about 60 secs & the car does have a smell of burning/water not oil, getting out the drivers door it feels hot from underneath ..I know it will abit from exhaust pipes etc but seems too hot somehow havnt noticed that till recently, nor have I noticed any water leaking anywhere, tried a new header tank cap but no change  It doesnt use oil & runs on Synthetic oil it maybe due for an oil change about now too..
Would be grateful of Any advice on what it could be but I fear it could be head gasket !
thanx in advance

Most unlikely to be head gasket I think.  

What do you mean by
'some steam but not excessive'   ?

Unless the temp guage is pushing on towards 100 I think that sounds normal.  The fan often does run on for a bit after stopping and if you open the door to get out will often notice hot air coming up from underneath - all completely normal.

As others have said the leak is likely to be your heater bypass valve (HBV) - there is a new maintenance guide on replacing this if need be.  If so its best sorted as if it worsens (likely) it can dump all your coolant very quickly.

[willyboy]

Never ever gets much over 90'C
Will take a look at the HBV pretty soon as laid it up for a while i'm using my other car for now, so have time to mess about with
thanx guys for input

[nij]

sounds like the HBV to me, I had the same trouble not long back, I'd replace it before using the car again as mine was squirting water onto my coilpack and knackered that too!!