Hello all,

First off, let me say that I take full responsibility for hurting my baby...OK, here's the story:

2001 Disco with 140K miles. Runs great, has all the little nagging issues Discos are known for, but I've been very happy with her. About 10,000 miles ago, I noticed that the overflow tank was mysteriously losing coolant. After much research on the forums, I was able to discover a very small leak developing on the left cylinder head. Local Landrover dealer quoted "about $4,000" to replace all gaskets. After I stopped laughing, I bought a complete set of gaskets for about $250 and resolved to find a spare weekend to do it myself. Since this is my primary transportation and leak didn't appear to be getting worse, I procrastinated and just kept topping off the overflow tank every couple hundred miles or so. Antifreeze is expensive, isn't it? Started cheating and just added water, because I was going to start on those gaskets next weekend...OK, fast forward to January 2009 in Baltimore, parked at the airport for a couple days while on a business trip. Got back, jumped in the Disco, boy, it's hard to start (20 degrees out), started up, paid at the booth, and about 200 yards later the red light comes on for overheating, although the temperature gage hasn't moved. Pulled to the side of the road, turned it off, popped the hood, and noticed that the radiator hoses and overflow tank are frozen solid. $115 ride in a tow truck later, my Disco is inmy garage with a heater under the hood. Thawed everything out, no visible leaks, drained about a gallon and a half of water out and replaced it with antifreeze. Started it up, drove around the block, and all looked good. That was last night...this morning on the way to church (about 30 degrees outside), the temperature climbed to the top of the range and looked like it wanted to keep going. I drove nice and slow and finally pulled over and vented the coolant hose again; little bit of steam and coolant, but pressure seems OK (could just be because of steam pressure though). Not losing any coolant that I could see, other than what was coming out of the vent. Made it to church and then home again, repeated the venting process a couple more times, but temp is still rising.

Yup, I'm an idiot; took a couple shortcuts and I'm paying for them now. My challenge now is to figure out what damage I did. My first guess is that when I started the engine in its frozen state, the water pump impeller sheared itself off in a block of ice, and now there is no circulation. If I got really, really lucky, maybe I just have to do a better job of venting the system, but I usually ain't that lucky. Anyone else have any ideas? My intent is to do that gasket overhaul, check the heads, etc. when I replace the water pump, but I'd like to make sure that I address everything at once.

Appreciate any thoughts, even if accompanied by well-deserved insults.

 

First, quit the venting thing you are doing, then PM me with your number before you toast this engine.

 

I think you might be on to something with your water pump theory..
Tstats are made to fail in an open position, but one never knows when they are frozen solid...

Not to mention the Liteney of other things that could be wrong

 

Mike, thanks a million for taking the time to speak with me. I followed your advice on bleeding air from the system the correct way; the truck was cold enough to do it as soon as I hung up with you. Took about 1/2 gallon before it started coming out the bleed valve, so I closed it all up, started up the truck, let it idle for 5 minutes with max heat on, and all looked good, so took it for a quick spin and temp started to creep back up to high end of the range. Couldn't really feel any warm air coming out of the heater vents either. Took it slow and easy back to the garage and now letting it cool down so I can rinse and repeat with bleeding #2. Perhaps there was air in the heating coil that has now migrated back to the rest of the system. If that doesn't do it, I'm wondering if it might indeed be the thermostat; if it "froze" in the closed position, would that have the same effect? Not sure how I can tell if the water pump is operating correctly; previously when I cracked the bleed valve while idling (before talking to you and realizing the danger to my engine), coolant would come out somewhat forcefully, leading me to believe that the pump able to pressurize the system.

I'll perform the bleed again in a few hoursand report back with my findings. Thanks to everyone for your advice and help!

 

something screams waterpump at me,,, but i would think you might hear the impeller being tossed around in the cavity by the shaft or at least some sound, but if its sitting in a pool of water and coolant i guess you might not hear a thing.

 

The picture just got a lot clearer...vented the last bit of air out of the system and took it for an easy spin around the neighborhood. About a mile into it, the temperature gage started to creep up again. Got home before it left the normal range and shut it off. Went to take a look and saw a nice steady stream of coolant departing the engine for the garage floor, in the vicinity of the water pump. Removed the radiator shroud and still can't quite make out where it's coming from, but it appears to be under/behind the driver's side of the water pump. Seems to me that I'm due for a new water pump regardless. Anything else I should do/replace while I'm in there? I plan to replace the thermostat just to be safe.

 

Like Pancho said, thermostats are designed to stick open when they fail. However, cold can do strange things to everything, especially an engine's cooling system. I have had my thermostat freeze shut before but that was in temperatures well below zero.

It sounds like your leak is coming from the weep hole in the water pump. That would indicate the water pump is toast and needs to be replaced.

 

Sounds like the weep hole to me too..

When you go through replaceing the Water Pump, you might as well replace the Thermostat as well.. It will be right there


Perhaps you should change your name from jharebeck to WaterBoy??

 

weep hole,,,

 

hole...