In the last 2 weeks I have replaced:
thermostat (twice)
upper rad hose
throttle body heater kit
pressure cap

It was still overheating so I got a pressure test and chemical block test. Had a small pressure leak and a pretty significant combustion leak. So I started taking the engine apart per the RAVE manual and could see on the block where oil was completely surrounding a water sleeve. Then I changed the head gaskets & bolts (plus everything else that comes in the AB kit). I put new coolant in, bled the air several times. After all this, it was still overheating and boiling over.

I thought I might still have some oil in the cooling system so I took it to jiffy lube for a flush (I was tired of screwing with it). When they connected the hoses and started the car, water was still boiling out of the overflow. They said they couldn't do anything and it seemed like I had blockage somewhere. If there is a clog, it's not in the radiator because I already flushed it.

So I put a different thermostat on just to see what would happen. It was 1 that I bent permanently open for constant flow. I also left the pressure cap slightly loose (this was my temporary solution before I changed the head gaskets). I made it about 4 miles home, running right at half, or just below on the temp gauge.

I don't think the new thermostat (not modified) I put on is bad because the upper hose was not rock hard, It was hot to the toch, and it had coolant in the top of it when I was taking it out.

I am stumped at this point. I don't want to ride around with a rigged cooling system because it's bad for it. But I don't know where to go from here. You all have been more than helpful so far and I could use some more guidance!

 

Well first, your engine was a buick until a bunch of idiots got a hold of it. If they made them in china they would have executed all of them for being idiots. Your engine as well as a number of other things has no redundent anything so when one item for example, in you colling system goes, the hole system fails . To top it off, if you overheat you have a 99% chance of 86ing your engine. I never ever heard of a head gasket untill i bought my first land rover. and the ones they make for it dont last either...go figure. Dont get me wrong, i have 3 of them... i love my 04 DII... but i am a "Idiot" If i wasnt i wouldnt own one. Just thank god they dont make airplanes.. You need a real big sense of humor to own these things as well as some beer... It's the only thing holding me from dumping mine in a canal

So you said head gaskets... Did you have all the liners checked.. IE, if they or any of them have slipped?

Water pump..they can seem to run but not move enough water to cool the block

Raditor... They either work real well or not at all... they have no in between..

check the overflow bottle on the bottom as sometimes the bottle nozzel that connects to the throttle tube gets brittle and cracks and will eventually break. I had one go and it took 3 days as i could not figure out why mine was overheating until it actually broke.

Are you sure the heads you put back on where not warped and you torqued correctlly in the proper order? You need to have the heads shaved to make sure they are dead strait..

I hope this helps as some more experianced guys that are on the forums will chime in. It takes time to track down this stuff. Well on land rovers anyway. My wife has a volvo that does not leak oil or ever over heat ...it just runs...she laughs at me like i am the village idiot...Yes, i am

Good luck, Chris

 

did you check your water pump.... maybe its broken and no spining....

 

I didn't have the liners checked. I looked at what I could see and they seemed fine. And from what I read, liner problems are pretty uncommmon. I thought I found the culprit when I saw the oil around the water jacket.

Same thing with the water pump. If it weren't working, would it not overheat fast? It wouldn't get hot until I drove about a mile. It's worth checking?

I flushed the radiator and it seems fine..

I took 0 grade steel wool to the heads to get them smooth, then took them to a machinist who checked them. He said they were ok and didnt need anything.. Torqueing the head bolts were probably what I was most tedious about doing the overhaul so I'm pretty sure they're ok.

I drained the coolant earlier and refilled. I've driven about 10 miles since WITH the thermostat bypassed, running right at halfway. It's not boiling over hardly at all. Just a little but I thought that was normal with the coolant change. The overflow is staying full...

I agree with you though. The Disco is not reliable, which really blows because when it runs well, I love it, 15mpg and all. But after spending 15 hours and close to a grand trying to solve the problem to get nowhere, I'm losing hope. Now that it's almost summer, I'm tempted to just leave it rigged because I'm tired of fcking with it and it seems to be working fine.

I've lost my sense of humor at this point.. Got plenty of beer though.

 

Did you elevate the expansion tank when you bled the system? Do you hear any air rushing though the heater core. I would blead it yourself after going to jiffylube.

Willie

 

Yeah that's how I've been doing it. Jiffylube didn't/couldn't do anything for me. I drained and refilled myself. and then bled the air properly.

 

Hey Ryan, Glad you have beer and keep your sense of humor... You have to think about these trucks as like dating a model...I live in South florida so i will give you my take... Models look great and when they are running good, they are awsome. But when, like most hight maintainence things, when they dont, they are really terrible to be around much less look at as you feel like strangeling them when they dont...which is most of the time.You from Tulsa could relate it to a horse...you get the picture. I spent alot of time years ago traing polo ponies in Tulsa and loved the state.. Anyway, you said the machinest said the heads where ok....

I dont know what it is but the word "ok" does not mix well with rovers. They either are spot on or fire in the hole if you know what i mean.

Liners are common to fail on rovers as they did not use top hat liners which has a ridge to keep it from slipping.

Gaskets, if they fail after 45,000 miles which is more common than you think, how good are they really to begin with? Yes, they blow...

You say hardley boiling? it shoudnt boil at all... They where suppose to be able to sit and idle in the middle of the desert at 130 degrees for hours without overheating... Well, when everything is perfect....

usally overheating at speed signals water pump and not fan clutch which would be at idle... check it...it's cheap...

you can also open the cap on the overflow everyday in the morning when cold to let out any pressure.

Another long shot is bypass your heater core aand see if it still overheats... It could have a leak somewhere ... It's a shot..

I know mike will probably chime in ...he's a really smart guy on these kind of things....

Keep at it, Chris

 

This is a reprint from the rangerovers.net forums..yes, i have a RR 95 4.0 se also.. read the link's to the blogspot..

All the best Chris

Liner failures in Land Rover V8 engines - what's happening?

by j e robison service co » Mon Apr 19, 2010 5:23 am
Land Rover Discovery II overheating engine failure is getting more and more common around here. The "traditional explanation" is that the liners shift within the block and somehow combustion gases get into the coolant. In the early days I know that was true because I saw 1990s engines where the liners dropped slightly into the block. However, LR supposedly fixed that issue, yet the failures continued. In fact, the engines in the last Discovery II models seem to fail at a higher rate than the 1990s models.

I have also seen liner movement blamed for engine noises. Is that accurate?

We recently cut a 2003 Land Rover Discovery engine in half to determine why it failed from overheating. Are the "slipped liners" real or not? I have the writeup and pictures on my car blog at:

http://robisonservice.blogspot.com liners ... scroll down to article

http://robisonservice.blogspot.com/2...bout-land.html overheating in general

 

verify that your water pump is still good, and then take a extra thermostat you have lying around and modify it so that the thermostat is always open...this is a quick fix for problem blocks that over heat all the time...

you have nothing to lose my trying it...its worked for others with block defects and it buys you time before you need to replace the engine....

 

your top radiator hose should get really hot in a few minutes if the water pump is working, check that.