Absolutely. I may not be able to report anything until later next week, but I'll post the outcome.

 

I have a little information back on the Rover. I'm being told that the coolant flow is perfectly fine, and there's nothing clogged or blocked. The temps are consistent across the hoses, and radiator. By consistent I mean there's no signs of a clog, or bad t-stat.

My brother noticed a couple things that need to be addressed. First he said that the Rover is missing the air deflectors that should be behind the grille. I don't remember ever pulling those off, and they're not in my spare parts box either. Which means this is most likely something the previous owner removed.

He also noticed that my fan clutch, and fan are not seated in the shroud. The fan could move forward around another 1 inch in order for it to actually be in the shroud. Another issue with this setup is the fan itself. The OEM fan for an 04 is an 11 blade fan, and the dimensions are not the same either. The pre 03-04 fans were a 9 blade setup, and so is the aftermarket blade I installed. This is now the second person that has said something about the fan setup. They both said that exact same thing as well, and that was "Rover made a fan change for a reason". A change in the amount of blades can make a difference, and so can the weight of the fan itself.

So today I'm going hunt down some air deflectors, and an OEM fan assembly. Come next week I'm going to be installing new electric fans on the AC condenser side, new fan assembly on the engine side, and new air deflectors. I'm not expecting some drastic 10-15 degree change, but I'm hoping for something around 3-5 degrees.

 

More bad news. Today while driving a very short distance on the highway with no AC on the temp was over 230 degrees. We're going to dig around on this for the weekend in hopes of finding something. If we don't come up with anything I think we're going to cut our losses on this.

We're grabbing at straws here now for the issues. It could be the aftermarket fan or the wind deflectors. However I don't see those items making that much of a difference in the temp.

Something happened 150 miles ago, and whatever that was is now causing temps that will make the Rover overheat.

 

Before cutting your losses, why not try the online thermo mod. I run 183-189 with an old radiator and water pump.

 

The 620-112 fan blade is not the problem. I have no over-heating issues on either D2, and I'm working on a friends 03 with the OEM one piece fan blade/fan clutch and it sits in the same exact position.

LR made a change alright.... They went from a two piece unit which you could replace the fan clutch to a one piece unit that you can't making it much much much more expensive.

I've done countless cooling fan configurations on D2's and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the 620-112 fan blade and severe duty fan clutch.

11 v 9 blades = is a draw. The 11 blade fan will actually spin slower due to more blades and the 9 blade will spin faster due to less blades so 11 vs 9 will come out at a dead heat. It depends on what fan blade is fitted to which fan clutch, and at what speed/RPM it enages/disenages.

I went down this path years ago with my 05 Jeep Wranglers and keeping em cool at trail speeds.

I'm starting to wonder about the water pump if it's cavatating or has a loose impeller blade. If the RPM's go up and it cools down it could just be due to the fan blade pulling more air vs the pump & fan blade both doing it together.

At this point I'd pull it and fully inspect it. As all the other stuff has been addressed. Have you used an IR Temp gun to monitor temps or just going by the onboard temp sensor readings? Faultly temp sensor???

 

That's an option, but I'm not sure I have time for that. I'll have a new fan on Tuesday, and we'll see what that does first.

The fan clutch might very well be the issue. I would hear the clutch engage, and shortly after it would disengage. So the clutch may be the root of the cause.

Either way I've ordered a new 03-04 clutch/fan unit that I'll have on Tuesday. I've had two shops, and Turner Engineering say that it's the fan setup. I suspect something with the clutch though. My brother said he was running it last night, and heard the clutch engage. Then shortly after it dis-engaged for no reason.

I suppose it could be the new water pump that we have on there. The fan has been removed from the water pump several time. I have a new water pump at the house, and I can swap that in if the fan doesn't do it.

We used a Snap-on reader for the temps, and we also have an UltraGauge installed that shows a digital reading of the temp. I don't trust anything the dash gauge says.

 

Those both still use the factory sensor. I'd drop a mechanical temp gauge into the overflow tank and see what its reading there, too.

Inline setup is a great option. Love mine. There are multiple ways to do it, but if you're under a time crunch you could piece a set together from parts at your local pets house. Chevy stat, universal hose for the lower, two Chevy thermostat housings. I can't remember which ones are required, but there's a way to do it.

 

02 D2 with 620-112 & Severe Duty D2 Fan Clutch & an 03 with OEM stock setup. It's hard to tell by the pics, but we're talking within 5mm of each other.

I have LR Mechanics tell me all the time OMG who put that fan setup on there? Because being LR Mechanic's all they know to use is OEM stuff, and sorry most OEM stuff = there is a better solution out there somewhere.

 

The more I think about this the more I think the water pump. We had a fan clutch failure on this water pump, and even the new clutch failed as well. So that's two clutch failures on the same pump. When I get this back on Sunday I'm going to pull the fan off, pull the belt off, and see how the pulley on the pump feels.

 

Send the above pics to Turner lol.

I don't know how many people with 03-04's ditch the one piece unit for the 99-02 two piece unit. If the 03-04 Unit "was" so much better (which it isn't) everyone with 99-02 D2's would be switching to them for better cooling. Fact is that is not the case. If the fan sat fully in the shroud you wouldn't actually be pulling the air properly.

You've got something else going on here vs the cooling fan/fan clutch setup.