over heating

[mider1]

my grils rover metro 1.4 auto keeps overheating,has small leek in radiator and iv'e removed thethermostat but it still overheats

[Eternity]

Your car is not going to stop over heating until you change the radiator. The only suggestion I have is to try sealing the crack, and keep pouring water and a lot of Coolant in the radiator.

[d0gsb0dy]

This is from the Daily Telegraph analysis of the car.
What's Bad.
Head gasket failure common because very low coolant capacity of engine means small leaks rapidly lead to overheating.
What to Watch Out For.
Oil leaks from engine. Cracked cylinder heads (look for mayo under oil cap). Head gasket leaks due to stretched or re-used stretch bolts which go all the way to the sump. Tappet noises. Rear wheel studs come loose from hubs. If twin-cam 16v K series suffers cabin boom at idle, the engine mount is worn at the timing belt end(not enough rubber).

[Loosehead]

Eternity is correct, if the cooling system is breached then it needs to be repaired before it will work. Don't know why you thought removing the thermostat would help!

[Impret-Sir]

Take the leek out of the radiator, it must be cooked by now!

[mr. piper]

Just put some rad weld in the rad, it does work very well, and buy a new rad when it next fails. In my view taking the stat out was a good idea, a constant flow round the block will keep it cooler.

[Tim Baxter]

Radweld has had good results and bad, it has been known to clog up the cooling system.  The previous posts are correct, sort the rad.  Removing the thermostat does not make the engine run cooler just makes it warm up more slowly which is not a good thing for modern engines or cat exhausts.

[Jay70]

Hi mider1 - I take it form the fact you say its a small leak you dont think it's the main factor causing the problem and if it is small, it wont be the main cause unless you leave it long enough without topping up the system so you lose a significant amount of coolant.  I would try to repair it ASAP with some radweld or the like if possible to rule this out.  You may find if the car is fitted with an expansion tank the cap, if faulty, may be causing the water system to lose pressure which causes a decrease in the boiling point for the coolant so the car can boil up.  Of course a leak in the system if large will cause the engine to overheat due to coolant loss and will also cause a pressure reduction reproducing the factors already stated.  I hope this is slightly more helpfull than some of the other rather stupid responses.  Also it may be worth checking the water pumps working.