I'm looking to replace my radiator, water pump, thermostat, and fan clutch before I start daily driving my new to me '03. I'm just doing this as a little preventative maintenance. I had a '97 and know the issues of overheating. I searched the forum, but could not find any decisive answers for the most recommended water pump, radiator, and fan clutch. At the same time, I am also planning on adding the Ultragauage. Thanks for the help.

 

Fan clutch = crossover from Chevy 2000 Express van, 4.3 liter, w/o AC. Will need to enlarge bolt holes on fan and use new bolts.

Water pump = after market with bronze impreller, BP Utah or others

Radiator = $125 - $300+ on line

Thermostat - 180F soft spring, Product Details - Land Rover Parts | Rovers North or equal

Throttle body heater kit $25

New coolant cap (important if you had Dexcool)

New belt, properly routed; new hoses, and reverse flush heater core. Do all work, flushing, and then install new stat. Use freen 50/50 premix coolant, like PEAK.

 

Couldn't have said it better, might want to check out British Parts of Utah for those parts.
Have you already rebuilt or replaced your front drive shaft yet, if not that should be first on your list before it fails and takes your tranny with it.

 

Thanks for the input. What is the blank plate in the picture with the 3 bolts? I do not recognize it. I am putting it up on my lift today so I can check the drive shaft out. I don't think it has ever been replaced or ever had the greaseable u joints added. I'm going to take care of these details before I start driving it. Thanks.

 

That is the throttle body heater plate, it starts to leak, you don't notice, coolant is low, bad things happen. The purpose of the plate is to keep the throttle valve from icing up and sticking open, a runaway Rover on an icy road is revolting.

You have taken on all the cooling system, but many items may be OK now. The water pump usually wobbles and leaks out front when bad. The radiator, when clogged, shows a temperature difference across the fins, from to to bottom, of 10F or greater. That is because the lower rows clog up first. The coolant cap can start venting at lower PSI, secretly while driving, which can be detected by a paper towel zip tied around the overflow tube from the coolant jug. Fan clutch test is spin and release. Should feel like peanut butter inside, not coast more that a partial revolution. Do both cold and hot. If it freewheels, the silicone fluid inside is gone, and you will have poor cooling at idle or slow traffic. Electric fan is opposite, drag on it indicates bearing siezing up, frequently blows fuse, and people don't notice it until overheating.

The thermostat is a good thing to change because a lower temp one will cool engine about 10F.

The plastic rad has a screw boss in the top of the tank. Too much force, wrong size screw, and small crack is formed that will leak.

The bleeder valve is prone to break, BMW dealers sell a brass replacement. Or people home brew the whole T. When bleeding air, don't stop at first few bubbles, ther will be more. Air in coolant makes a sound like water rushing thru pipes nder the dash. Could be air, could be exhaust gas in coolant from head gaskets.

The dash heat gauge is built to show 50% from 130 -240F, so watching it is not a good indicator of making incremental improvements on cooling. That is where the Ultra Gauge comes in.

 

OK, I just received my ultragauge and installed. Noticed temps of 203-206 while driving. Stoplights and city driving raised up to 212. Sat in drivethru for awhile and had a spike of 220. For the most part, I hovered around 203 most of the time. It was about 60 here today. Like I said before, truck is new to me and don't know for sure what has been done to it. At these temps, should I be concerned? I don't want to start replacing parts if they're not needed.

Also, Discomike suggested replacing/repairing driveshaft. I had it up on the rack tonight and noticed each u-joint had a grease fitting, as well as one on the shaft. Am i assuming right that someone has already taken care of this problem?

Thanks for your help.

 

Some people do not mind the temps that high, but the folks around here like to see them lower, especially if your outdoor temps are only 60. 180 degree t-stat will help there an push you into the 192-198 range if you still have some other areas of improvement to be made like heater core reverse flush, and new radiator and 180 t-stat you may see temps in 185-190ish range.

You really need to do the water pump, radiator, 180 t-stat, coolant reservoir cap and check the throttle body heater for leaks or just replace it while you are taking care of everything at the same time. Check the top return tubing from the top right end of the radiator near the air filter box. It can become brittle. It makes a quick U-turn and runs behind the grill and across and in front of the radiator and then back to the coolant reservoir. I have replaced mine now all the way back with rubber gas line hose. I originally broke the piece where it makes the U-turn while replacing my air filter, so used a small piece of gas line hose in my tool kit to put in a splice, but then went back a replaced it all. There is a similar piece that runs from the coolant reservoir across the top of the engine and to one of the inlets on the throttle body heater. The other inlet on the throttle body heater is a short pre-shaped small rubber hose that goes down back into the block I believe. I have not replaced that, as I have not dug down deep enough to get to the bottom end hose connection. I know it is down there somewhere, but too lazy to take pieces off to get to it. For some reason I am seeing that my next leak will be that hose end when it splits due to age and heat! Funny how your rover plays games with you when you ignore something you really think you should address!

Sounds like you are OK on the drive shaft, just make sure there is in fact a grease fitting on each u-joint, and re-grease every 5K or so. There are a few post on how to grease u-joints correctly on the forum to make sure they are thoroughly greased/protected. Yo might want to make sure the bolts are tight on the drive shaft while under there, since this truck is new to you.

 

I was sitting at an idle yesterday and saw the temp spike to 220. Curiously, I jumped out of the truck to see if the electric fan was running, it wasn't. It is supposed to come on at 212, correct?

 

Anyone??

 

Does anyone have any ideas?