Hello folks,

If anyone could help me out here and talk this out with me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Last winter, on the the first snow storm of the year, my 04’ D2 was heating up a bit as indicated by my UG. It rose quickly and I didn’t think much of it. Got through a shift as a chemist in the gulag making drugs for the people and was excited to romp in the first snowstorm for the first time in my truck.
I noticed right away that right as I got it up to temp it kept going up. I throttled it, whipped it around corners, and kept it in neutral at red lights.
I made it about 2 miles before things got temperature critical. I pulled off and killed the engine at 212ish. The last reading I saw was 215. From there I got out saw coolant dripping, an empty tank, and called the old lady to bring me as many peak coolant containers, a funnel, and some gloves for both of us....
I limped it home after refilling. It had heat the whole time so I thought it was okay. There is sat until the end of March. I sat through all of winter praying I didn’t have a cracked block, head, or blown head gasket.

I am new to this so it all makes sense as to what might be going on but some verification from the senior members or anyone would be wisdom for this wise fool to Land Rovers.

After sitting all through winter I was really nervous I blew a head gasket. So, the first move I did was to drain the oil. No milkshake. After screaming in exuberance, fist bumping the air listening to Black Sabbath at max my neighbors knew Land Rover maintenance season was back on, despite their constant droning telling me to get a Toyota.

My buddy came through to help me trouble shoot the thing, so whilst awaiting I looked for evidence of coolant to lead the way. After seeing pooling under the water pump pulley I started to thing it was a shot water pump. My buddy arrived, I shared my thoughts come, and within 10 seconds he goes to the clutch fan and wiggles it back and forth says, “Yup, I agree it’s the water pump.” So I learned that troubleshooting trick, felt dumb, and proceeded to inform my lady cease calling the scrap yard Rover’s back on the menu.

I had an Airtec water pump with hardware stored in the basement for this exact moment. Proper prior planning. So that evening my father in law who was visiting, my buddy, and I spent the evening drinking beers of the Wisconsin variety, scraping off that horrible gasket, and replacing the water pump. It was a good time. I love learning, getting my hands dirty, and the experience.

I also installed a new pulley and an aluminum tee (replacing the plastic tee).

I did not replace the thermostat as this troubleshooting session turned into a water pump changing session.

After charging a dead red top for two days, I got it filled, bleed, and got it up to temp and running again
with no leaks. Right away after I started driving it, I noticed the temps that I am used to have changed. Changed, not in a good way.

I have a white/off gray soft spring thermostat in it that was put in February of last year. Upon receiving the vehicle I immediately swapped thermostat, changed from the dexcool orange death to peak green coolant by flushing the entire system 6-8 times with a cooling system flush followed by water recirculating, and changing the entire cooling hose set. I recirculated water many times until it was basically clear. Unfortunately, and I don’t know if this was right or wrong, I believe I flushed and recirculated after changing the thermostat, and hoses. I feel as though I flushed with the prestone coolant system flush once or twice with the original hose set, disconnected the hoses, flushed the radiator, and proceeded with the water recirculation cycles.

Side note, after completing the multiple rounds of water recifculations, I installed an aluminum coolant tank with a non OEM specific cap. I mention this for later on in the post.

Knowing what I know now, if I didn’t get the engine to temp with the thermostat open, there wouldn’t be any flow through the radiator. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

After I got the green coolant, new hose set, Throughout its entirety, it was operating smoothly, or so I thought at 188 - 194 whilst using it as my daily driver. I figured the range was normal. Seeing as it was plus minus 5 degrees from the thermostat set point.

Towards the end of summer the old lady and I decided to take it on our first long trip to Northern Wisconsin, with two heavy kayaks, two dogs, gear weight, with no middle seats. With heavy AC use, because someone was hot..... I was surprised and a little concerned about seeing 205s 207s 210s. Maintaining diligence I kept a watchful eye on it throughout the drive there and back.

As the fall started I started to notice the coolant level dropping, not by much, but I monitoring, refilling,
and critically thinking while researching the known Rover V8 technically aspects of the engine cooling system. As well, I frequent the forums as a lurker for posts past and advice from the senior members. I love the information and wisdom from the forums. In a pinch they can point a person In the right direction but lack in organization of information. It isn’t a knock on the forums, but sometimes if you don’t do your due diligence and review a lot of posts sometimes I get a, “hypochondriac” type feeling about discos.

Back to the content, and the facts.
After changing the water pump I have been running at 194.0.
The temperatures are fluctuating at times that I feel are non intuitive. Figured there was still some air in the system and have executed the bleed procedure multiple times. Also, I have tried opening the cap under slight pressure, opening the bleed screw at weird times, open cap full heat, closed system cap sealed/open bleeder, squeeze hoses, and generally doing all the little tricks people have mentioned to try and sort air bubbles in the system.

At this point I started to thing that air being in the system isn’t the issue, or at least not the only issue. I believe this because temperature would not rise at idle, with no driving prior, the temperature does not exceed 203.

The non intuitive temperature fluctuations are as follows:
At highway it stays at 194.0 while on the throttle.
City driving 25-45 it never stays at 194.0. It heats when I’m accelerating, it cools when I don’t expect it to cool.

The forums revealed to me to check the integrity of the auxiliary coolant fan. I know it’s for emergencies only, and when the A/C is on. The fan was totally seized. Which bummed me out because that means it’s been seized for an unknown amount of time. which got me thinking why I was overheating during the long hot trip up North.
I got a replacement aux fan motor, removed those 4 hellish bolts holding the fan, trimmed up the fan, and tried out those horrible solder plastic electronic wiring crimpless connection (the ones you heat up to melt the inside a tube). I changed the 40A fuse 5 and failed to establish an electrical connection using the aforementioned plastic solder connected.

Continued to drive back and forth to the auto stores around town to get odds and ends. I began to think what caused the initial water pump failure. As well what other cooling components that could cause the symptoms I am seeing. Knowing what I know about pumps from my work life, pumps often die from excessive wiggle, vibration, and eventually wobble themselves to death. That is how I learned about how the fan clutch and the viscous coupling work in our trucks.

The viscous coupling of the fan clutch was bad. It was freewheeling like Bob Dylan blowing in the wind.

I ordered a new viscous coupler/fan on Saturday and it was delivered today.

From the weekend to today, I continued to drive the truck. Maybe foolishly I realize and I probably won’t be driving it much more. Between the trips to the hardware store, dog park, auto stores, getting my second dose of the covid vacs I started to panic thinking of the overpressurized hoses.

Between opening the hood each time I drive, I noticed a coolant drip coming out of the engine outlet.

Between the panic and the frustration of life, I immediately picked up a combustion leak test kit to ensure combustion gases aren’t in the coolant via a head gasket breach.

if I did the leak test correctly I am happy to report I did not see a shift from blue to yellow. For now I think I think something else is going on. I’m not ruling out a head gasket leak, and maintain a sense of priority to continue verifying there are no leaks pertaining to the head gaskets.

upon delivery of the viscous coupling and new fan I set it up, successfully finished connecting the aux fan, and fire it up.

still, temperature fluctuations! Still overpressurized upper hoses. No visible leaking while running or off.

However, I noticed a collection at the top of the radiator by the inlet under the shroud when I was inspecting all the hoses.

Here are my final thoughts:

the thermostat is shot
the radiator is clogged
a combination of both the bad tstat/clogged radiator.

I have a thermostat on back order to be delivered within the week.
I have a power steering pump and the remaining hoses being delivered at the same time. Before changing the powersteering pump and hoses, I thought I could trial the new Thermostat by pinching all the hoses and swapping it out with minimal coolant draining.

if the new thermostat doesn’t work, I am going to start considering a new radiator, taking it to a shop, or flushing immensly (I have heard this has little affect).

I want to ask the fellow members and verify that I probably should not be driving the vehicle. I don’t want to risk popping a hose, radiator, or have excess pressure on the cooling system.

Why would over pressurization be happening? If someone could speak to the flow of the coolant at during times ie idle, hot, near temp, with a clogged radiator, with a blown head gasket that would be awesome. As well, when there is an over pressurization situstion how does the differential pressure effect the flow of the coolant.

when the cooling system is under pressure does that risk or increase the chances of a HG breach?

oh one last request, homage, and to pay my respects. Today I read that discomike might of passed from another member posting. So this question is in honor of Discomike if it is sadly true he is no longer with us.

I have an aftermarket aluminum expansion tank. Do you think a faulty tank cap would be causing some of these issues? And if so I feel as though the only way to verify that would be to get a new cap... however I believe the cap is specific to the tank and not sold as a solo option.


Thanks for reading Komrads,

Gordon Dean of the Wild Pack of Family Dogs

 

212 isn't particularly hot or critical. Factory designed to run at 220. Panic over 230.

Good job at being aware and alert and good luck with your issues.

 

Yeah, I have realized I may be overly cautious, however I am in a stage in my life where I would like things to be urgent but not important. I want to continue being comfortable learning and fixing to maintain a quality of life. I don’t want to make decisions that lead to important urgent situations. The overpressurization is my concern. Slippery liquids like glycol find their way through the weakest point fast. Even faster when at near 100C. I wonder if I could hook my pressure tester up to my expansion tank and allow it to build pressure to obtain a reading? I guess that would also solve my fault expansion tank cap question. Or at least know the system is building and holding pressure.

 

Deep breath you have done a pretty job so far, so do a bit more work

• You have coolant leaving the expansion tank. Get some fuel line hose, extend the overflow and put a bottle on the end to capture the coolant. If you still have the jack under the hood a 750 mil Coke bottle one fits really well in that area.
• Now how hard are your hoses, rock hard is bad but at temp with the engine running they will still be hard. A lot depends on hose quality a bad thermostat can cause this too. The easy check for this is to start the engine (cold) check the hose if it gets hard in a less than 5 or 6 minutes it could be head gasket.

Your description could be a few things but start with these they are cheap and easy to do.

Now to your temps heating on acceleration is normal, followed by cooling after idling for a a minute or so. How much depend on your cooling system and thermostat combo.

To ease your mind a bit I currently have a 180 black thermostat (going inline shortly). I run 183-188 around town depending on outside temp. Accelerating up hills or to hiway speeds I get up to 194, lots of steep hill where I live. Then I drop back to the 183-188 range. In summer I ran 188 getting up to 215-217 on long slow uphills offroad CDL locked 5 -10 mile an hour stuff in 95F heat. Dropped to 176 on the down hill

 

Thanks Richard!

I am going to get warm it up at idle, take a short cruise to the local dump, get some PS steering and fuel line at the local hardware/auto store.

I too recently purchased Extincts Inline Mod and after looking at the install and his splice pictures.... I am going to double check my hose routing to my heater core hoses....

 

Judge me if you will, but the best time to be a Rover owner is when you got dual income no kids. YOLO ordered a Nissens radiator from LK8.

i know throwing money at problems isn’t always the best but I have to do the PS pump and hoses coming up and I’m going to do it then. More a timing thing than smart...

 

Not too bad, but you have a malfunctioning thermostat. Do the inline mod first, that will cure most of your problems. The small leak near the inlet of the radiator under the shroud is likely a hole in the radiator from the lower shroud screws. They are borderline too long from the factory and if you mix them up hey puncture a hole in it. Oh well, you have a new radiator on order.

 

2nd the inline mod. It's amazing. My temps were in the 200-204 range with weird spikes to 210ish. Now under 190 always. If I have any slight leak in the system it will drip from the overflow. I added the cup below to track it.