Hey everyone, I recently completed a long 1,700+ mile trip to North Carolina. We camped out of the Disco the whole way and it performed admirably. I did the inline thermostat conversion last summer (the stock thermostat was not cutting it during the heat of the days). It really helped overall with the temp spikes and keeps the Disco running great.

While it seems that the inline thermostats lower the "set point" of the cooling system, as I understand it, they don't add any cooling capacity. When climbing up the steep grades going to the cabin with the load of gear this past week, the engine really started to heat up, nothing too alarming, but it really seems like the cooling system can't dissipate the heat from sustained harder running. My water pump is reasonably new (< 1 year).

My BMW has an electric water pump and it works really well. I saw that some people used the electric water pump before as supplementary to the mechanical pump, I was wondering if anyone had some other ideas about increasing the cooling capacity? I've seen the threads about the Chevy radiator and the electric fan conversion. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Aaron

 

A member did one on his truck a few years ago. I'm sure the thread is still around. He used it to also fight heat while not running.

 

I did some simple auxiliary fan mod instead and its functioning. Depending how you want it to work. There are several coolant switches with different temperature ranges. My truck averages 194 to 205 degrees so it does not turn on all the time except at 210 when it spikes.
I got a 210 degree on / 195 degree off themperature switch and connected it to the main LR auxiliary fan. Got a smallest 7 inch auxiliary fan and connected the factory original aux wire to it.
Gerry

 

Yes, I found this one here:

https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...install-64250/

Can't really find any other mentions of it. I'll look into it a little further. If I end up doing anything I'll post it. The auxiliary fan mod seems like a simple idea to do the same sort of thing. I think I will give that a try first. I have a spare fan in the garage that should fit. Thanks for the help!

 

I wouldn't think electric pump, unless there is complete impedence present or malfunctioning water pump, will necessarily cool any better.

I have yet to see 200 yet on my Disco2 since the inline thermostat mod. Even with factory 180 stat I didn't see above 200. The reason I went inline was because after a flush, I couldn't get the trapped air bubbles out due to ill LR cooling system design with bypass; Letting the engine get hot above 210.

https://www.allisport.com/shop/performance-products/alloy-radiators/discovery-2-v8-alloy-radiator/

That is actually an uprated radiator for Disco2. Allisports claims that it cools 40 percent better.

I will go that route when my current radiator needs replacement.

I ordered from Allisports before for my other rovers. They make good stufd.

 

I originally replaced with the inline design because in the Florida summers the temps would easily spike up to 208 under-load with the grey 180 thermostat. Up to 215 when off-road. With the inline most of the time I am between 183 and 188. That said, with a heavy load and steep grade or towing, it starts to get warm. Up to about 203. That is a nice looking radiator! Definitely will consider for the future. Just wish I could get temp spikes more under control.

 

Anything larger than the 7" aux fan won't fit in there.

 

I was having issues with temp spikes idling in traffic with the 100+ degree afternoons. I upgraded some things, which helped get the temps down quite a bit, but I had 1 or 2 ideas in mind. First, the single cooling fan on my D2 does absolutely nothing. It works as it should when the AC is turned on but the temps don't go down at all. I was thinking of adding something like the p38 dual fans but Im not certain that a 2nd fan will help if the ambient temp is so high. The secondary water pump is a good idea though; I was searching into that after I saw this post Fri night. Thinking forward, this is a great idea especially as it can be programmed to continue circulating after engine shut down to continue cooling and eliminate heat-sink. Personally, I'm into this idea. between this and getting the aux fan on a controller to also run for a few minutes after engine shut down could really go a long way. I would suggest you ask others who drive a rig fitted with dual fans how much better that works out but I'm going to inquire about this myself since I'm also curious if 2 is better than 1.

 

I have looked into squashing the second fan behind the grill. Looks like the fan I have will fit, but I'm not all that sure it'll help that much. My temps shoot up 5-6 degrees with the A/C on regardless of the fan and in Florida, the A/C is on virtually all the time.

I know in my BMW the water pump actually does run after you shut the car off for a little bit until the temps get down. It works extremely well at preventing heat soak in the aluminum straight-6. I have watched it with my Ultragauge. It also gives significantly better control of the temps in general, which is something I would like.

Ideally, I would like to have it so that when the truck is idling or under heavy load the electric pump could pick up some of the slack of the main pump. It would run for 2-5 minutes or so after shutoff to cool the engine back down. It also would be nice to have override switch that could be toggled to run the pump at max.

The biggest issue I have with the pump is placement. I feel like it would have to be placed right before the stock pump, which would be a tight fit. I don't think you could put it between the radiator and junction with the coolant expansion tank, as I feel like it would just shoot the coolant up in the expansion tank. I would like it to go on the top, but I wonder about fitment and if it would cause a lot of pressure on the radiator.

I wonder how Dusty did it before? I'm up for trying something. I could try it on my parts Disco with rod knock first.

 

ya that thread Dusty made about that EWP install was totally pointless; I mean there's literally 3-pages of nothing. In the couple hours that I spent looking over some specs and highlights of Craig Davies EWP on EBay, it seems that the upgraded kit set up as a booster would do everything that we are interested in. Basically, you would plumb it inline of the bottom radiator hose; at least that's where I read it is supposed to install. The programmer that comes in the most complete setups allows you to program several diff' parameters & runs @ engine shutoff per factory setting. With engine running it cuts on when coolant hits a targeted temp & pumps til the temp drops a few deg back down below the target (not unlike elec' fans) Furthermore, it will control electric fans as well. I would just use it as a booster first but I think it would work great in that application if i can get it to mesh with what I have then maybe install a 2nd, uprated aux' fan to run off the booster pump programmer and/or ditch the LR fan altogether. I like the idea of the whole thing & being able to keep my engine right @ 180 regardless of circumstances. Of course, there is always the option of installing an upgraded radiator but that doesn't do anything for heat-sink & I have no idea how much better it would be for towing.

Addressing placement, I do see your point about the booster pump being behind the WYE as it branches off to tank before the mech' WP... will have to think on that 1. Even though I mod'Ed the factory stat out completely, it still leaves the multidirectional fitting so even further mod' may be required. Just move the Wye back to the radiator outlet and the 1.5-inch line to booster to mech WP, then the tank & heater return only need be extended another foot with a couple of barb'ed couplings & everything is back in order. I can appreciate your foresight.