Good to learn about these temperature ranges. I have 2 identical setup, engine etc. 1st-averages around 193-200 and the 2nd from 206 to 214 no leak. I cant figure out still yet why the 2nd have higher temps. Well, now were replacing the HG and I'll compare again soon.

 

AFAIK, the major factors will be the health of the water pump, the coolant itself, and the radiator. Unless the radiator is dinged and dented, they just get clogged over time with crap. You can use a laser thermometer to find areas that have lower and higher temps.

On my (older, 6.0) Ford diesel, I recently ordered a coolant filter kit. Fords have other places coolant goes, such as an oil cooler, and gunky coolant can ruin your engine by blocking the passages in the oil cooler. I wonder whether rovers would benefit from that. On outgoing radiators in my Disco I have backflushed and found all kinds of flaky stuff and goo in them, and even an acorn (clearly, the acorn was my fault).

An example of one, probably easily adapted.

https://www.amazon.com/Ford-6-0L-Coo...lter+kit&psc=1

 

Im running 183 to 194F. Cruises at 186-188 on hwy.
New water pump, fan clutch and flushed the rad and hoses as best I could when switching from red to green coolant.
I have no idea how old the rad and stat are - I think the PO may have switched them out in ghe last couple if years though. The stat us resdush brown, not grey

 

resdush brown??? Que???

 

That would be "redish" for those with fingers too fat for the iphone

 

The thermostat is one of the standard 190F ones. It is a Calorstat brand which to my knowledge is the OEM.
So the fan would be the next place to go to bring it back down in addition to a lower temp thermostat?

 

Replace that brown 190F OEM Thermostat with the grey 180F OEM Thermostat. That will make you go from 195-215F range to 185-205F range (not ambient temp conditions).

Then since you have an 01 replace the fan clutch with a Severe Duty unit. They're around 55.00 from Auto Zone (AZ unit is made in the USA).

Make sure to get all the air out of the cooling system (many many discussions on how to do that). Then report back with your results.

Since it's cooler here in TX finally I'm running 175-182F on a 65-75F day. If into the 80-85F's I'm running 182-193F.

 

That doesn't make sense. My brown stat is giving me 183 to 194...

 

First step a 180 F thermostat, if you don't want to spend the bucks on the LR genuine grey, the Eurospare has been working well for me. 180 stat dropped my temps 5 F.

Next step fan or fan/clutch? You can check for proper operation of the fan clutch prior to replacing. May help in your case but none in mine. New water pump no drop in temps but changed due to age/original and feeling bearing out of lube/wearing.

Thorough flush/cleaning which included removing removing block drains to get the years of settled crud out of the block resulted in a greater drop in temp than the stat. It was the first item accomplished prior to the others always recommended and with each step recorded any temp drop/change. It take some time, a dirty job and a PIA that few are willing to put the effort into but may result in better results than throwing parts at it that might not change a thing .
......

 

So I replaced the fan, clutch, and added a bottle of water wetter and it made no difference. I guess the next step is a 180f thermostat