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.

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.

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!

 

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.

 

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 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