sounds like a terrible philosophy.

 

You are killing me chubbs878. Although I have to respectfully agree with you.
No disrespect to any member's philosophy. What ever you feel comfortable with.
An all aluminum engine that has a history like ours cannot survive with constant temps reaching 210+. JMHO, mind ya

 

It's not a philosophy. Engines are "tuned" to operate efficiently within a certain temp range.

When you crank your D2 from a cold start what does it do? If you have SAI it runs for a minute, and the idle is higher that normal until the engine senses it's warming up then the idle drops. During that time it's running rich from a cold start. If you modify the OEM temp range the sensors that tell the ECU the condition of the engine will be out of range causing a rich condition.

Be my guest and slap a 160F thermostat into the inline thermostat mod, just don't complain when you have no heater output, no get up and go, and less gas mileage as a result.

I tried a long time ago with a RRC to slap in lower temp thermostat's and the result was **** poor gas mileage, a rich running engine (LR V8's already run rich as it is..), and it could barely get out of it's own way.

How many people on here have ever owned a D2 fresh off the showroom floor vs being the 6th owner of it? I had one fresh off the showroom with 12 miles on it. I put 54K on it before trading it in for a pre-owned SE7 with 25k on it. That SE7 got me to 130K before I traded it in and I never touched a single part of that engine besides a set of spark plugs, wires, air filters, and oil changes. I did all the proper maintenance and I had zero issues.

Most everyone on here is the 2nd to 6th owner of their D2's. Most were bought with either dead engines or bad head gaskets from the previous owners. When I had both my 03's Scangauge II's or Ultragauge's weren't the thing back then. Not a single one of us knew exactly what temps our D2's were running, but I am willing to bet you it was in the 205-215F range and I went to 130K without a single issue on that D2. I put nearly 90K on my 97 Range Rover (bought it with 92K already on it), once again I never knew the exact engine temps, and I never had a set of head gaskets go bye bye or a single engine issue. Only thing I had go boom several times on the 97 RR were the heater core o-rings.

The 02 I bought that was running at 229F at idle had probably been that way for nearly 30K before I bought it (when they replaced the head gaskets), and it ran perfectly fine, didn't boil over, or tick. I of coarse replaced the stuck closed thermostat and got it into the 193-206F range (with the AC on).

The LR V8 is pretty tough and the majority of the issues are 4.6L related vs earlier 3.5/3.9/4.0/4.2 engines. Honestly LR was IMHO being cheap with the 03/04's. Lack of oil coolers, no CDL nipple, and they knew it's life was over and the LR3 was the future.

I've been around LR's specifically since I was 15 years old. I learned all my tricks of the trade from 2 LR Master Tech's from Land Rover Austin and I've seen the vehicles owned by people thinking they're smarter than LR by modifying stuff only to have it eventually towed to the LR Shop for repairs.

Like I said earlier by all means if you think you can re-invent the wheel with the LR cooling system by making it run perfectly fine with say a 160F thermostat without changing the ECU parameters or anything go for it, but I'm pretty sure if it was that easy LR would have done that from the factory decades ago.

 

It's not just that but also so poorly manufactured. Many owners have complained of cylinder liners coming loose and the block cracking at the head bolts.

The gas mileage is garbage anyway, loop opens and closes the same at 185 or 200 and O2 voltage doesn't really appear to be different but I haven't paid a lot of attention to that.

My advice to everyone is to keep your coolant temp under 200. I'm sure that most would agree. Anything over that and you are playing with fire. Over 210 consistently would not be good at all.

 

I have the factory thermostat (it is the original from the factory) with the original radiator and main cooling hoses. Coolant is Peak Global Lifetime (yellow). Temps are usually at 200F and never go hotter than 205F. Also have a bottle of Water Wetter in the system. Planning to change to the TD5 180F stat soon.

 

Yea...that's just extraordinary.

 

Reported in previous reply monitoring. Glanced down 3//4 mile after departure, ECT was 152. Easy to monitor and rather than throwing what you read please provide your readings.

Larger question is does ECU/ECM vary fuel between CL and "normal" temps thus reducing MPG?
......

 

Had a coolant hose crack on the way to Durango. Engine got to around 233ish temp. Now need new head gaskets. Wish I would have looked down at my gauge sooner. My hose cracked at the hard plastic line coming out of the top driver side of radiator. Had some hose and coolant in the back. I was planning on replacing the hose the following weekend. I run a 188 thermostat. Previous owner put in a custom all aluminum radiator. Before that issue I ran between 188 and 192 on highway. 195 to 200 around town. Trying to find a mechanic in the Ouray area is a bit of a problem. I left it with one in Montrose for three weeks while I was out of town. Finally told me he could not do it. So back to looking. Fortunately the leak is very slight. Obviously will get bigger but at least I can drive if needed.

 

I bought my 03 D2 a month ago and put the Motorad 180 in while I replaced the PS pump (which failed rather catastrophically). My temps are ~190-196 on the hwy and up to 208 around town. I expected a lot better with the 180. Unfortunately I don't know what they were prior to installing it. After reading this thread I ordered the grey OEM one. Hopefully that takes it down!

PS- Like new Motorad 180 for sale. Its really great........

 

Yep those two simple OEM hard plastic lines running from the coolant jug to the throttle body heater plate and radiator vent line can cause some $$$$ damage if not replaced with some 5/16 rubber hose.

Since I'm in TX that is the first thing I do along with completely removing the throttle body heater plate. One less thing to worry about, but I might have myself another bad philosophy going.........