Those are pretty.

Well, MagPie is certainly living up to her (?) name. 1/2 way through a lot of, "well, this is apart so might as well replace this with new stuff that came with the car" phase.

Realized that I am a complete ****ing idiot and had the plugs wires all wired in wrong, hence the no start. All of the diagrams i found apparently were confusing to my pea sized brain and I had the upper row mixed up with the lower row on the coil. I had to repair the stupid PCV plastic nipple dealio on the IM so i decided to yank the IM to fix it properly (no crap getting into the engine) but of course the STUPID SAI CRAP had to be dealt with again. Couldnt take off the IM without unhooking the solid coolant pipe from the firewall because it was strapped to the studs for the passenger SAI mount. Which led me to draining all the coolant -- needed to install the lower hose kit pieces along with a low temp T-stat so had to be done anyways. Now i need to grab a new IM gasket and MIGHT as well do new coils as well because.. land rover.

I'm hoping i can pick up the IM gasket and coils locally for a decent price, that way i can get everything buttoned up tomorrow but might have to order from Lucky8 again which will set me back another few days.

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Just got off the phone with Eric @ Lucky8 again -- ordered new CP's, IM gasket and an O-ring that I needed. Managed to get this done today at least.

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Glad you found the no-start issue. These things happen, just motor on.

Good luck, with the rest of your work.

Brian.

:wave:

I see you drain coolant the same way I do.

Drip pans and buckets strategically placed to catch a small trickle while the bulk of it pours out on the driveway....

:)

Yeah, I believe he did better than most. I think I got about a cup full...lol.

And really...is it to much to ask for...a drain cock...and one that points unobstructed to the pan? These things were engineered by morons.

Brian.

Yeah, it seems really stupid. I bet we could do some sort of an inline drain cock right off the lower radiator hose? And yes, tried my best to catch the coolant but.. its unavoidable how messy it is :dunno: According to AB (via one of their vids) you can just remove one of the water pump bolts (drivers side lower one i think :dunno:) and you can drain about 80% of the coolant that way. I guess you have to remove the fan / serp belt to do it properly though.

Now that I think about it, i don't think i have a normal oil pan bolt but rather a drain cock dealio.. Hmmm

Hmm..

Jegs 1.5" drain cock

Well, in other news -- Got the rear shocks on. Super simple to get the new shocks in, the old ones didn't feel blown but the mounting hardware was certainly dead. Also noticed there is a hole in the muffler but I'll weld that up.

Also found a D1 brush guard on CL for $100 and it was literally 2 miles away -- had to pick it up. Just have to cut off and reweld the brackets so that it'll bolt up. Bar is 24" wide and the frame rails are around the 27" mark. There are some "aftermarket" mounts already installed on the car from the funky bar that came with the car. PO took it off because the PPO had done a wonky job so he just removed it. Not sure if the lights are any good but I kind of want to get some LED lights so I'll probably try and sell the lot that came with the car to recoup some $$ for the D1 bar.

Yay pics!

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Got the front shocks installed, man the PO (or who ever installed the current suspension) really did a hack job. Both shock towers were rotated 180 degrees from where they should have been -- Upper bolts came out towards the fender not towards the engine. The cruise control module dealio probably isn't mounted in the factory place because the inner wheel arch looks like swiss cheese from so many failed attempts of relocating it via holes. I can't figure out how the front shocks were installed to be honest because i had to remove the reservoirs from the shock bodies to remove them from the car / shock tower. I can't imagine installing them and then dealing with charging the shocks etc after install :dunno:

One of the isolator spring mounts had a bum bolt so had to cut that off, will be replaced but I think 3 bolts should hold it just fine for the time being.

Got my parts from Lucky8 (thanks Eric!) so i'll get the engine all buttoned up tomorrow hopefully -- need to get some hose clamps but have everything else.. Decided to upgrade the steering damper since i was redoing all the shocks, too bad the protector isn't red like the rest of the shocks!

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Thought I saw a red and silver steering shock being mounted on someone's truck the other day on here.

Also, when replacing front shocks...usually you unbolt the shock tower from upper coil seat mount and pull complete unit (shock and shock tower...after unbolting bottom two bolts). When you do it this way, doesn't matter what way the upper bolt head is facing...because you are removing on the bench.

Boy, those old shocks look wasted bigtime.

Brian.

Thought maybe I'd mention this...Atlantic British has several videos on making repairs...they are worth checking out beforehand.

Brian.

Seen them all a dozen times at least by this point :popcorn:

MagPie LIVES!!

Had my beautiful wife do the honors of cranking for the first time after going through all of these shenanigans and it started right on the first try. Engine was quiet, no weird noises or anything. Filled the cooling system with distilled water to flush (which i will probably do in the next few days) and all seems well. No leaks anywhere.. yet. SRS light is on but nothing else -- I didn't have any of the seat belts plugged in so hoping that is the problem :dunno:

Drove around the apartment complex for a victory lap -- Ultra gauge was reading 194 degrees and hit a high of 210 for a quick moment. No smoke out the tail pipe and the exhaust smelled like.. exhaust. :dunno: There must be a bubble in the cooling system because the heat was blowing cold so hopefully will get that sorted when real coolant gets poured in. Keeping my fingers crossed that this whole HG issue the PO complained about was just a mis-diagnosis but we'll have to play the waiting game.

BONUS -- The CDL light is operational :bow: There is a lever that someone during the ownership of the car installed -- the passenger can literally just reach out from the open door and pull a bar to engage the CDL.

Congrats on getting it running

Well, drove MagPie for the first time!

Went to go get gas and then went to a car wash. Everything seemed to go just fine, alignment is a little off and steering is slightly vague -- brakes definitely need to be bled. Ultragauge was reading a low of 188 while moving and got up to 205 while sitting at stop lights. Woo! Total driving distance was probably under 10 miles for both errands.

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Got to the car wash and started vacuuming.. then i started to smell coolant. ****. Low and behold, MagPie decided to barf some coolant but not a whole lot. Fine, whatever -- had more distilled water with me and wasnt that far from home. Proceeded to wash the truck, pulled out and dried it. Popped the hood and the coolant level was fairly high -- unscrewed the bleed screw and pressure certainly came out but almost no coolant came with it. Coolant level dropped a little to more normal levels in the expansion tank.

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I should preface this story with I am currently running distilled water to flush out the system -- so no actual coolant is in the truck just yet. I'm fairly certain that i have an air bubble in the system because I don't get heat in the cabin.

Drove home and kept a close eye on the temp -- never got above 210 again, but i decided to turn the heat on full blast. It was cool initially but after a min or 2 it was nice and hot. Success! The bubble must have worked it way out -- I was anticipating that the coolant level would be even lower when i returned home.

Literally as i was turning into my apt complex, the temp jumped from 204 to 221! **** **** **** **** ****. It was there for maybe a min -- then went back down to 214 at which time I parked the car in my spot and left it running. Spiked again to 221 and the electric fan kicked on and temps went back down to 212. Never rose higher after that. Coolant level was indeed lower but as I was pulling into my spot, the heat was no longer hot. Both lines going to the core were hot so must have circulation. All coolant hoses were hot. Undid the bleed screw again and more pressure came out with just a splatter of coolant along with it -- coolant level dropped even more and returned to a normal level in the tank.

I guess i am at a little bit of a loss but i feel like it is just a bubble that hasn't worked its way out. My parking spot is at an incline so truck has been parted facing uphill. Need to drain the coolant and then do another round of distilled water and then i can fill it with real coolant. Must find a more steep hill to bleed the system!

Hopefully, she settles down and you can get all of the air out soon.

Before you put your new plate on...turn over the holder...it's upside down.

Brian.

Did you replace the thermostat, the greenish white ones can be pretty random.

Also do a flush as you are running water right now.

Alrighty!

Drove MagPie for the first time to school -- 15 miles of heavy Denver stop and go traffic. I can't think of a better test than this! Earlier in the day, drained all the water out and filled it with green coolant concentrate / distilled water. Bled it as best I could on the steepest hill I could find and I think I did ok!

Hit the road and i will be honest, i was a little nervous. BUT MagPie proved to do just fine! It was mid-60's and sunny today, saw a low of 183 and never got above 212. Heat was nice and hot (and blowing the whole time) made it to my destination without any problems!

One the way home, it was probably in the 50's and 90% of the ride home UG was reading 188. The UG kept on telling me that i had a pending P0134 code, so gotta check the O2 sensor. Came to one stop light near my home and the temps spiked to 224 which.. was a bit of a disappointment -- MagPie was doing so well! Light turned green and as soon as I started driving, temps went down to 190ish and basically stayed there until I parked. Popped the hood, I could see that some coolant had indeed overflowed on to the frame via the drain off the expansion tank. Tank it self was full. Undid the bleed screw a few turns and got some pressure without any coolant. I also noticed that the heat out of the vents wasn't that hot any more -- must still be a bubble in the system.

Oh well.

All in all, very happy that things seem to be finally working correctly and I feel much more confident driving MagPie without having a severe problem. Lots of little things to fix still.. as always.

I guess this thread is more a mental brain barf of my thoughts and experiences with MagPie.. Hope ya'll enjoy it - I hear people pay to read such quality information such as what is below. :laugh:

Drove again to school, but prior to doing so i bled the system again. Raised the expansion tank, undid the bleed screw and filled until coolant started dribbling. Proceeded to drive and everything seemed ok.

I should preface this next bit with saying that I am incredibly paranoid about driving MagPie because the HG could indeed be toast. I watch the UG like a hawk the whole time I'm driving it and freak out if the temps get above 221. My mind immediately goes to "where and the **** can I pull over / get off the fwy" mode but then the temps settle and everything is dandy. I guess i'm surprised how much the temps vary during start and stop traffic. :dunno:

I will say, that today was about 10-15 degrees colder out but MagPie was running about 10 degrees hotter than yesterday which I thought was weird (it was 10 degrees hotter and MagPie was running 10 degrees cooler). 198 - 212 was the range i saw today, spiked to 224 for a quick moment (at which time i shat my pants) and then went back down to 215, 210 and then 203. Heat was on the whole time on high, never got cool. Made it to school and parked. Check the coolant level and things were good.

*side note, I think someone took a pic of me while checking under MagPie's hood. Slowly drove buy with a camera phone awkwardly held pointing right at me. At the time i though he was probably snap-chatting "typical Land Rover owners" or something to that extent.*

--- 4 hours pass ---

Driving home, I noticed that the heat in the cabin would vary between hot and cold. Cold would occur when the truck was pointed downhill at a stop light. Great. Still a bubble in the system. But for a majority of the ride home (whole 15 miles) MagPie was right at 188 @2000 rpm (60 mph) but it did spike around 224 randomly at a stop light only once right near home. Got home, parked and idled right at 199. Checked expansion tank again -- same level. Unscrewed the bleed screw and pressure came out without any coolant -- MagPie was still hot. Once it cooled down enough, raised the expansion tank and bled the system again -- Nice even dribble of coolant, added some more distilled water.

So what do I take away from these experiences? I'm probably being way to ****ing paranoid but I can't help it. I'd rather not deal with a HG job at the moment -- just seems to daunting currently but I know that it will happen eventually which is fine. Ideally, I want to drive around for at least 10k miles before having to do so -- I'd be happy with that.

No P0134 warning at all today.

I did lower the tire pressure from around 50(!) down to 40 -- Running Ko2's 275/65/16's. When these tires bit the dust, I'll probably go with something a little smaller. Ride felt much less harsh but then again I did decide to fiddle with the TF shocks -- There are 4 settings, 1-4. Had them at 2 but then moved them all to 3. Not sure if 1 is the softest setting or the harshest, but the truck did feel more spongey driving today. Probably will move them all back to 2 tomorrow.

That is all. This message has been brought to you by a $8 bottle of wine which I mostly finished.

Head gaskets on these are easy.
No worries.

I know but just don't want to deal with doing that right now.. haha

In other news, MagPie overheated twice today in (my opinion) weird circumstances. Drove 30 miles to get new parts, MagPie was running nice and cool at 188 the whole way. Pulled off the fwy, proceeded up a fairly steep hill and temps shot up to 260 within a few mins -- Pulled into a parking lot and let MagPie cool down for about 15 mins and then everything was fine. Coolant didn't bubble out, level in the expansion tank was fine. Drove to get the parts, drove home and everything was fine. Pulled into a grocery store and within a few mins after pulling off the main road, temps climbed again around the 240 mark. Shut everything down, went shopping and then got back in the truck and drove home. No coolant loss, and temps were in the low 190's.

Went ahead and ordered a new radiator off of Ebay because i don't know how old the one in the truck is. Water pump was replaced about 5k ago so I don't think thats the issue -- Might order one anyways though. The rest of the cooling system has been replaced since i've owned MagPie.

New parts! $95 bucks got me a new (amazing shape) front bumper, brush guard and rear light guards. SCORE. The bumper currently on MagPie is fairly hacked up and not well i might add. This new bumper is unmolested, has fog lights which MagPie is already wired for and headlight washers. Obviously, its a different color but I'll deal with that later. Brush guard has a little rust on it but nothing that can't be fixed. Now I just need to sell the D1 guard i bought last week!

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Man Homer buckets are expensive in your neck of the woods. :)

Good score

I'd try a new temp sensor, 260 should have pushed out fluid. Do you have an infared temp gun, would be nice to get actual readings off the engine and hoses. They are dirt cheap to buy and can tell you a lot about the temps of your cooling system.

Also, what's the condition of your reservior cap, a weak cap can cause issues, too. But again...260 should have pushed fluid out, especially if you are running water.

Nice score on the junkyard find!

Brian.

Hmm.. I guess i'll pick up a new sensor then. Expansion tank / cap are brand new -- I swapped over to green coolant the other day not just water anymore. Don't have a temp gun but I'll see if i can score one someplace cheap.

Radiator should be here end of next week apparently.

Facelift. Need to trim to clear the tires though.

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Agreed on 260 pushing out fluid, unless it was reading a steam bubble. Your temps sounds too eradicate.

Maybe try crossing the heater core hoses to force out any air bubbles. Are you hearing any waterfall behind the dash?

The 2nd best way to bleed is use an old expansion tank cap and epoxy a large funnel to it. Fill the funnel 1/4 the way full and get to temp(open t stat). Make sure there is coolant in the funnel and wedge something in the throttle to keep it at 2k revs for 15 mins. That should do it. If it boils over, it’s either a very large air bubble or blown head gasket.

I don't recall hearing a waterfall sound but i could be wrong :dunno: I went ahead and ordered a new WP / Fan clutch / fan today -- i figured might as well do all this along with the radiator that is coming this week.

I think i just need to find a really really really steep hill which is kinda hard to find in CO oddly enough :dunno:

Just keeping things updated here. Not gonna post in detail but the pics will be here!

Keep dealing with overheating problems but about to overhaul the whole cooling system so I'm hoping that I'll find some answers when inspecting the old parts that are on the truck. Also noticed that I have removable sway bars in the front which will be nice for when i actually go off roading :rolleyes:

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Just realized i never actually shared pics of the bumper that came with MagPie. I wasn't sure what it was initially but I think it is just a D2 brush guard with the "wings" cut off -- the mounts are exactly the same on the other D2 bar I have. I might just run this for now and sell the D1 AND D2 bar that I have, although there is a part of me that wants to run just the bumper rebar and then the D1 bar for a super stripped down look. :dunno:

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Lights are "Lightforce" and I think they are the 240mm blitz model. They are very plasticy and light -- havent plugged them in yet so i dont know how bright they are. I think visually they are to big for the front of the truck and I like the idea of having a smaller LED setup. Lots of bridges to cross before I can deal with this stuff!

My cooling thread

Just keeping this updated... I was thinking i should probably build a pressure / bleeder thing for the coolant system to help me get rid of damn bubbles.

:dunno:

Welp, I'm calling it.

HG's are toast.

Truck basically overheated while idling in the parking lot, lots of condensation that smelled like salt and vinegar chips out the tail pipe. I guess my shenanigans from last week overheating finally killed them.

Le sigh. I knew this was coming but i just wished i could have driven the truck more than 120 miles since owning before having to tackle the task at hand.

At least this build thread will be a little more interesting moving forward :dunno:

It's not the most difficult job in the world...but I get what you are saying...a little windshield time would have been nice. Just start soaking down everything with WD40 and take your time. Me, l like to remove the air cleaner lid and filter and set the A/C compressor inside there, then set the P/S pump/bracket over top of that...gets them out of the way without removing lines. The rest is just nuts and bolts and time.

Good luck.

Brian.

Always so positive Brian!

Gonna start soaking everything, I hope the manifold bolts don't cause me problems but.. They probably will because.. Land Rover. At least doing this job will let me do some other stuff I've been meaning to do such as re-wrapping all the engine harnesses with a silicon tape to keep them safe.

Anything else I should do while in there?

:dunno:

For what it's worth,
I bought my D2 last July.
Drove it 6 hrs home, and about 30 miles in the next 2 weeks.(ran great, didn't heat, just ticked badly).
I haven't driven it since! lol
I measured crank and rod bearing clearance last night, and hope to have time to start reassembling the engine in the next few days.
So, I feel your pain.
+1 on Best4x4's ideas too.
The ac compressor does fit perfect in the airbox, wihout disconnecting the lines.
And other than the usual stubborn bolt, head gaskets are an easy job.
Good luck with it!

If you don't already own one of these, then get a Mayhew bolt extractor.

If & when a bolt goes titz up you will have an out. There are cheaper $20ish versions, but don't waste your $.
Google the Mayhew part number for decent prices. I hope you won't need it, but that tool is a champ!:cheers:
> You are being redirected...

+1 on this stud extractor, I used it to remove a broken stud from the thermostat housing on my D1

Nice. I have some stud extractors someplace but I suppose a BOLT extractor would also be useful..

Just in thinking about doing all this, I'm weirdly excited to actually clean this damn engine and maybe do some painting :dunno:

Worth getting the headers thermo-coated / thermo - paint?