Trying to get to the bottom of overheating issue. Initial feared a head gasket but now am suspecting a possible non functioning radiator, failed water pump, or stuck thermostat. What would be the symptoms of a non functioning radiator?

 

Prior to this, do you know the average temperature when driving? Any replacements recently? Any upgrades? Could be anything from what you mentioned. How long from cold engine until overheat? Were you driving or just idle? Do you have or noticed white smoke upon start up? Do you hear bubbling under front passenger side? Could be as easy as bleeding, thermostat not opening but could also be head gasket or cracked block

 

check temps of the radiator core top and bottom, hoses with a IR temp gun should give you some indicators. That along with basic troubleshooting should have you squared away as to the culprit.

 

Well I actually just bought the car so I have no prior knowledge of the car. I bought it cheap because it overheats and am planning on either fixing it or parting it out if it needs an engine. It will idle all day but within 10-15 minutes of driving around at low speeds it jumps to red but then cools down in like 5-10. So seemed odd that the temp could drop so quickly. Later this week I'm going to drain and check the quality of the coolant and then See how long the system will go without getting warm.

 

I see you have no prior history with the LR. To check something with the cooling system you will be needing some tools and best yet is to get a bore scope to check you are getting coolant in any of the cylinders. You might observe that your reservoir if spewing out coolant meaning youre getting too much pressure in your cooling system. I dont know how you want to proceed if youll part out your truck. You can change thermostat as well to see if its not opening.

 

Let's back up, please.

What are the symptoms, more specifically? Is there any loss of coolant?

 

No there doesn't appear to be any coolant loss.

 

Other than overheating, do you have any SES light or CODES?

 

Now is a good time to get knowledge of the car. Do a compression test so you have a baseline. The temp gauge is notorious for alerting you way too late. Get an OBD2 wifi dongle and smartphone app to help you see what is really going on. (cheap) Cooling system problems could be water pump, fan & fan clutch, t-stat, radiator, overflow tank & cap, coolant type/ratio, detrius in coolant passages from corrosion. Take your time and diagnose carefully to solve the problem economically. Research posts concerning overheating causes, modifications, and solutions to learn as much as possible. Land Rovers can be challenging, but to us that's part of the fun of owning them. Good luck!

 

Ok so I know one of yall mentioned a sloshing sound and upon driving there we sloshing non stop. So what does this mean? Drove it when it was about 40 degrees and got to normal running temperature in about 5 minutes of light driving. Is this about normal?