Today i pulled out the Nissen's radiator thinking that it might be partially clogged and would then take it to a rad shop and have it flow tested. This being said, it flows so well with the garden hose that I am completely convinced that it is not clogged at all.

If my water pump was not pumping would the coolant make its way hot all the way to the thermostat? I have not yet confirmed that the pump is pumping but the coolant does get hot in the top rad hose all the way to the thermostat.

Don't know what to do anymore.

 

Did you ever check the radiator with a infrared thermometer? That's the way to verify it's flowing. You stated, "It did sit partially drained down full of dexcool all of the last 8 month during my front cover rebuild", which could certainly damage the radiator. Just because water flows thru it doesn't mean it's cooling as efficiently as it should. Since you have it out, you could take it to a shop and have them check it, or reinstall it and possibly have to pull it again if it's crapped out.

Have you checked the fan clutch? If memory serves, the test is - when it's cold, you spin it hard and it shouldn't turn more than one revolution.

I'm sure you've done this, but I'd also quadruple check the hose and belt routing. You might take pictures and post them here so we can double check your work.

 

I just dropped the rad off at a trusted rad shop in town and have told them what's going on. They are going to do a full performance check and flow check.

The fan clutch appears to be good but at this point the rad doesn't even get hot so the fan clutch it's cooling much.

I will take some pictures tonight and post and update you on te rad check.

 

So my rad has a good bill of helth, they flow tested it cleaned it and camera scoped it at the rad shop. Next step is to put it all back together.

I am going to use the snap on vacuum coolant bleeding system and use a exhaust gas tester to eliminate the chance that the head gaskets and block are not ok.

If all is good but still overheating after that I plan on eliminating the thermostat to see if it still overheats.

 

without a tstat it will over heat, there will be nothing restricting the flow thru the radiator. if the coolant just runs in one side of radiator and right out the other side it will not cool correctly and the temp will increase with each cycle.

lets go back:
-Previous owner had a sleeve replaced and the block rebuilt, heads rebuilt and new head gaskets just prior to selling me the vehicle. so he re-sleeved one cylinder ???

I just finished the following:
-Water pump
-Thermostat (got the soft spring from AB) & 180 LR 180 stat
-New coolant temp sensor
did it over heat before you worked on it?

you have checked the serpentine belt routing?
you have checked your coolant with a hydrometer?
are you temperatures real? digital thermometer? how?
is there flow across the water pump?
have you tried to bleed the temp sender? could be a big pocket of air under the sensor giving your gauge a false reading.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by drowssap

without a tstat it will over heat, there will be nothing restricting the flow thru the radiator. if the coolant just runs in one side of radiator and right out the other side it will not cool correctly and the temp will increase with each cycle.

lets go back:
-Previous owner had a sleeve replaced and the block rebuilt, heads rebuilt and new head gaskets just prior to selling me the vehicle. so he re-sleeved one cylinder ???

I just finished the following:
-Water pump
-Thermostat (got the soft spring from AB) & 180 LR 180 stat
-New coolant temp sensor
did it over heat before you worked on it?

you have checked the serpentine belt routing?
you have checked your coolant with a hydrometer?
are you temperatures real? digital thermometer? how?
is there flow across the water pump?
have you tried to bleed the temp sender? could be a big pocket of air under the sensor giving your gauge a false reading.

The previous owner said that the engine had over heated and "dropped a sleeve" He told me he had the block rebuilt, and the heads rebuilt. I have his bill from a machine shop for $500 for the block and $400 per head. Not sure exactly what they did...


I traded my rrc for this discovery as I was looking for something a little more reliable and my rrc needed a lot of rust fixed. Got the truck took it home an drove good, drove it 1000km to have it prove its reliability to me... Engine sounds a little on the rough side but, what the hay it ran good and no overheating and such.


Coupled days later I discovered that the check engine light had been tapped over between he light and the plastic top sheet. Sure enough the light was on... P0172 and P0175 (running rich both banks). Tried a bunch of thing to correct this issue but nothing seemed to work. The only thing that seemed to not make it run rich was to get on the highway right away when cold and get the engine hot fast and the light would never come on. If I stated the engine cold and drove around town it would run rich. I am still not sure if this issue has been corrected as I haven't been able to get the truck to run long enough without over heating since all the work I have done. I figured that the combination of a coolant temp sensor, an new timing chain and gears (very loose chain) and some vacuum leak and pcv system leaks fixed, new plugs and wires might cure my running rich. Once I have the truck back on the road I will see if this helped, if not I will start to look at 02's and MAF. Meanwhile I also went ahead and replace my front driveshaft with a Lucky8 as I knew mine was starting to clunk.


Anyhow back to October... couple days later I noticed that the oil pan had a small crack in it from being torqued down improperly and was leaking out oil. Ordered a new used oil pan, while I waited for the oil pan the PS pump started to leak bad. So I figured if the PS pump needs to be rebuilt and the oil pan is off what the hay, I don't need this truck all winter, lets do a bunch of preventative work as you fine people inspired me on these forums with all your great write ups. So I did the following...

-new oil pump
-new timing chain and gears
-new o rings on the oil pressure bypass plugs
-new water pump
-new coolant temp sensor
-all new idlers and pulleys
-new Motorad 180 thermostat
-new rad top hose and the bleed screw was starting to have a pinhole leak.
-new throttle body heater plate and throttle body gasket (gasket was leaking)
-new brake servo vacuum valve on the intake manifold
-new pcv valve and tubing
-new windshield washer nozzles
-rebuilt the PS steering pump
-new o rings on power steering hoses
-new transmission filter
-new muffler
-new e-brake cable
-new steering stabilizer
-new tie rod
-new plugs and wires

All this to be said I feel as though my rover was ready to take on some new life... Bled it the first time, seemed ok as is idled in the driveway for a while. Took is for a drive and started to overhead in the first 10 min driving. I was only using the dash gauge at the time (foolish me) and it got 3/4 of the way up there. Let it cool down and got it back to my driveway... the coolant was down in the tank so I figured that it must have hit and air pocket or something and let it cool down overnight before I attempted to re-bleed. I have since tried to re-bleed a 1000 times with no change in results. Only change is I used a digital gauge to check temps to make sure I don't overheat it. I have tried to re-bleed and coolant hose going from the bottom of the rad to the thermostat never gets hot even with the engine temp reaching as high as 210. So I figured maybe my thermostat is junk. Did some more reading only to see all the bad press on the motorad so I go the grey authentic one from Lucky8 only to get the same results...

Here are the answers to your questions:

you have checked the serpentine belt routing? YES



you have checked your coolant with a hydrometer? NO

are you temperatures real? digital thermometer? how? Digital readout

is there flow across the water pump?

There has to be flow for the pressure to build up in the top hose and for coolant to come out the bleed screw and to see flow in the coolant tank

have you tried to bleed the temp sender? could be a big pocket of air

I have not tried to bleed the temp sender NO

My rad is a Nissen’s that was made in 2012, seeing that is sat half full all winter with dexcool in it I decided to have it check by a rad shop to be on the safe side. They flushed it, scoped it and measured flow. It appears to be fine. Shoot the rad is not the cause of my problems.

So here I am today trying to figure this out! I work as a sales manager at a Nissan dealer so the techs have all been very helpful with advice along the way. At this point, they all think that I may have either re-blown the head gaskets on that maiden voyage or that my block is cracked. My next step is to check for exhaust gasses and also do a block leak down test.

Any thoughts or comments are very much appreciated.

 

[QUOTE=me6067;475440]
[/FONT]is there flow across the water pump?

There has to be flow for the pressure to build up in the top hose and for coolant to come out the bleed screw and to see flow in the coolant tank
/QUOTE]

This is where you are wrong. If the system has 0 pressure when the DII is cold and you start it up increasing the temperature of the system. As long as the system is closed it will build pressure. The water needs some where to expand to, pressure will build up quicker if there is air present in the system.

When you start the DII T2 will be higher than ambient, therefore P2 has to increase.

If there is no flow from the water pump the coolant in the hose will heat up due to convection.

 

[QUOTE=acamato;475455]How do you suggest I best check the operation of the water pump

 

[QUOTE=me6067;475486]I'd crack open the bleed valve and crank it when cold. If the pump is working, coolant should immediately spray out the top, and it's not because the coolant is hot.

I thought you'd already done this.

I would definitely do exhaust gas tests. It's fairly cheap and easy to do, and gives you more data.

Sorry about your truck. I'm sure this is incredibly frustrating.

 

Well to all those who have followed this post... I haven't given up yet. The truth is I simply haven't had time to put it back together since I had the rad tested. I plan on putting it back together today and testing the water pump flow as dr.mordo suggested. I will also do an exhaust gas test and an infra red thermometer to measure the temp of the metal coolant pipe coming off the top front of the engine to see if my temp sender is simply giving a false reading.

If I still cant figure it out after all this I will be sending the truck to either Classic automotive repair in Hartington, Ont or Global British (formerly land rover salvage) in Madoc, Ont. If anyone has any experience with these shops now would be a good time to chime in.

Thank again, I will update with progress.