no circulation in water system

[biggee]

I have an 1987 e30 M3 that as been parked for approximately 10 years.Its time to put it back on the road.Unfortunately there is no circulation in the water system.The reason I know is that previoualy you could see the water been pumped into the top up tank and only certain hoses are getting warm.The one on the bottom of the rad is not heating up nor is the rad itself.Do you think this could be a pump problem or the rad itself is blocked in some way.I would welcome any suggestions.

Regards.

[dark_sounds]

i had a similar problem with an old car... i put citric acid in the water works, the power stuff, diluted in some water... run it in the system for a bit,, leave the cap off,,, and watch the froth spurt out,,, when u drain the system by taking out the hose loads of horrible calcium deposits etc will come out, i found by doing this my tempreture on my car was constantly lower then it ever had been! not that it was overheating in the first place, it just got better! (mk2 golf) really worked a treat, however apply in small ammounts as it is very highly reactive

you can buy premade stuff though i tried this and it was rather useless... citric acid power diluted in water, i think 1:3 ratio, drain system particially i think, i dont remember if i removed all water.... put that in there,, might be worth trying a higher dilute first, 1:4 for example, then see what happens...

[stuartgallafant]

your thermostat is f*ck*d. its not opening.

thats the best test procedure to check for a faulty thermostat, is to grab the bottom pipe and the rad and see if they're hot. if they're not, its thermostat, if they are hot, it'll be a water pump or a viscous fan coupling (common on cars that havn't run in a while) or maybe even just a blockage.

try flushing the cooling system through. theres some good chemicals you can buy to do this that do the job properly but also look after the engine...