So I decided to start a new thread bc I need help..

Got an ultra gauge and to my surprise, the temps were reaching above 224F. This was on a very hot day 102F.

Thought it was a stuck tsat bc the bottom hose felt cold and top hoses were very hot. Got a PEM100990, the oem replacement and basically had the same overheating issues.. checked the old tsat and it opened after boiling in water....

Anyways ordered a MOTORAD 180 soft spring from Antlantic British.. and it I am still idling at 221F. It is 68F outside. If I turn the heater on, it drops to 210F.

Did a block test from the expansion tank, came out negative.

Did a pressure test @ 15~16psi and it is losing 1psi after about 30min..
Don't see any coolant leaks... Don't hear any hissing but I am outside and it isn't dead silent..

Previous owner overheated once and replaced head gasket, valve cover gasket, intake plenum gasket, fan clutch, tstat, radiator, new hoses.

Also noticed that the heater core hoses are flipped so flow is prob going from bottom to top at the heater core...not sure if this has any effect..

Help... any suggestions will be appreciated... don't know what to do next..

 

Are the coolant hoses super pressurized, hard after driving?

My buddy has an 03' that runs at these temps.

Chased every issue related to cooling and no change.

I made a call to a master mechanic I know at LR(he owns many D2s and off roads them) and he said it sounds like a crack in the block.

Good luck.

 

A dead giveaway to a serious problem is pressure In the cooling system when ice cold. Gas smell in cooling bottle when ice cold.

 

well you know you have a cooling lose somewhere!
if you can find it by normal means the it is probably time to try UV die

 

Can a small leak cause it to overheat like this?

 

Just pressure tested with engine cold and it lost 1 psi in 30min.. went from 15.5 to 14.5... Cant see any leaks... engine oil looks clean..

 

Are you loosing coolant? Do you have to refill the reservoir back to the cool fill line. If you are not seeing pressurized hoses (rock hard when you try to squeeze them) or are not loosing a lot of coolant, my best guess is that your radiator is clogged or something else is restricting coolant flow. Can you tell if your aux fan is kicking on at 212 degrees when the vehicle is stopped?

 

I did notice the coolant level go down but very little so not sure if that is because more air pockets came out..

I was thinking radiator is clogged too but it is new by PO.. will have to get a IR thermo to check...

Aux fan kicks in exactly at 212..

 

the first thing I would shoot with that IR Therm would be the MOTORAD 180 soft spring,
to see when it is opening if at all.

 

I am thinking of changing out the Motorad 180 as everyone is saying..

I just got the IR thermo and the radiator gave me different readings...

top driver's side read 170f and directly middle of radiator is reading 95F, top passenger side is 85F...

Is my radiator clogged/defective? PO gave me receipts with new radiator less than 1000 miles ago and it looks new. Am I missing something? Am I measuring correctly? Engine is running and fan kicked on idling at 212F..

91.F


86.9F


91.1


69.8


78.8


92.3


169.7