I finished replacing the pipes late on Friday night and filled up the system with water, after running the engine for a minute or two it was obvious that there was an airlock some where as the hot water just wasn’t making it back round the from engine.
Armed with advice from the TeamGTM message boards I tried again in the moring, this time with a hosepipe!
I disconnected the return from the radiator in the rear of the car and jammed the hosepipe into the water reservior (sealed up with a rag), Alison then held that in place while I bled the system.
Firing the engine up again the heat was getting round this time but the temperature gauge was still reading hot. I diagnosed this as a weak water pump because as I revved the engine the hot water made it right round and back.
After going to a 30 minute spin last night (just to check) and topping up the reservoir with coolant I decied it might just be road worthy once again. I made into work ok, just have to make it home again!
Still need to replace the pressure release cap on the water reservoir and I might fit a bigger reservoir and water pump to boot.
So far this has cost me about £70!