Thanks Andrew, it frightened the absolute things off me when it blew.
I plan to remove the plenum and redo all the water hoses while i am at it. But the thermostat will definitely get boiled, or replaced after testinga new one, i have been losing fluid for a while and the pressure trst i did last weekend failed somewhere in the front water hoses.

Hopefully the head is ok

But it's a CA-18

Heater Hose Disaster!

Driving home from work yesterday and noticed the TEMP gauge needle went OVER the top indicator. As I was deciding how to pull over from the middle of traffic I quickly flicked over the heater to let fluid in and give some relief.
That's when the hose burst and flooded the cabin with hot steam and over me too.
How do you decide whether to use the brakes or save your own skin? (literally!).

Managed to do both with only a very small scolding - guess who got a lift home in a tray tow truck?

Anyway.... as you can see in the pic this was a consequence not a cause.

I did a compression test this afternoon 1:160, 2:125, 3:115, 4:140 - leaning towards head gasket but there's no contamination in the oil and the plugs looked ok.

Possibly a failed thermostat caused it.

Any ideas?

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I did it. just bought a kit off ebay

wasn't hard at all

Great work ..... it's nice to finish things and just enjoy them.

Thought I would drop a picture in of the newly upholstered front seats

oh... and the Yella terra thread is still in planning ... almost finished the rotisserie.

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Bit of an update:
Front seats now reupholstered
gear box - replaced with a later model one

Otherwise:
I cut up a couple of new engine stands to make a rotisserie for the yella terra shell... getting closer to finishing that too.
Too cold to work outside much

So you retrieved it from Hastings?

There's a square nut on the top of the steering box .... remove it and fill with gear oil

Keep up the good work... I will need a template for the yella terra build