hi after driving a scooby about for a bit today uk 200T my96,
when i parked it up i noticed an orange soaked passenger carpet.
now here is the scenario....i bought the car cheap ,the car has been off the road for a few months with a major water leak,cut a long story short it turned out to be a rotten water pipe connected to the turbo that goes under the turbo.
so in the process of elimination ive changed the water pump loads of hoses ,the rad has been in n out a few times,turbo off etc etc.now i now the leak is engine water because previouse owner filled it up with radweld and after many flushes the water is still a bit orange.

so yeserday i built the car all back up filled the car with water and have been bleeding it driving it ,bleeding it etc etc,heaters are hot. heard a gurgling noise behind the dash and a slow constant drip.pulled the glove box off and where the the big black box joins the box behind the centre consol there is a foam like gasket of sorts sopping wet.
so is that the matrix fecked or could i have done something in all these processes to cause this

 

the pipes going through the bulk head ... one is hot and one is cold. today steam cam out of the vents and a slight exposion ,and car started to overheat am i right in thinking the matrix is blocked up with this rad weld sh$t and finally blown,any ideas? plz

 

Wet passenger carpet and steaming vents all points to the matrix.
Dash out i'm afraid fella!

 

thought as much, could this be the cause of the over heating usue as only one pipe goin to the matrix is hot so im assuming the water has been struggling to pass a blockage,i say this because i pulled out big lumps of hard radweld out of the rad hoses when i removed them to do the pump so am guessing that sh$t is clogginng every thin up

 

I'd try bypassing the matrix as a quick tester, join the hoses together with a short piece of 15mm copper pipe.
See if that sorts the overheating, but it does sound as the matrix has had it, i had the same symptoms, wet carpet and steam.

You should try flushing the system too to get any more crap out.