Kiss my lucky egg, because it's cool runnings.

"4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30" (4muddyfeet)
01/17/2016 at 14:56 • Filed to: Reliability

It’s only taken 3 days of work, in between bouts of crying and knuckle scraping, but all is well in Land Rover camp. And I have no idea why.

Here’s my step by step if anyone can shed any light on what the issue may have been, and previous post explaining symptoms. The short answer to that is: I have a Defender. It was overheating.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

I started on Friday, first checking the oil and water for signs of head gasket failure. No dice. So I popped the valve cover to look a bit deeper for frosting on the valve heads, there was nothing there so I just replaced the gasket because it was quite happily leaking.

I then drained the oil to further check for water ingress and there was none, so that was the head gasket ticked off the list. With Oppo’s advice (h/t to Berang and countless others) I replaced the thermostat and bled the system, still it was still overheating. Then I popped the three coolant system caps, part drained the system and squeezed all the pipes, showing flow in all directions, so I assumed it wasn’t a blockage. I topped up and re-bled and still it showed as overheating.

Now it was onto the water pump, which was easy to unbolt but a pig to remove. As it turns out the military like to glue the water pump and gasket onto the engine, and just use the bolts for decoration. I only found this out when trying to remove the remains of the gasket which was a two hour job with a pack of Stanley blades. Joyous.

As it turns out the water pump was in good condition, with no corrosion or blades lost, and it spun easily in its housing.

Shitty gluey gasket off, new pump on (why waste it?), well shit, what next?

Aside from the gauge and sender unit for which I had no immediate parts available over the weekend to test, it was time to deconstruct the cooling system.

After bodging an external water pump so that I didn’t have to deal with 11 litres all at once, the rad and all hoses apart from those leading to the heater matrix came out, full system flush with a hosepipe on anything removable and a big syringe with a long tube shoved into the block. Everything flowed freely and there was no lumps or clogs or gunge anywhere, and the coolant that came out looked good. I put the radiator back in and flounced off home.

So this morning I was absolutely clueless, and all I had left was to rebuild her. That was done this afternoon with the help of Schaeftt, and after bleeding it very carefully over the last two hours or so (2 mins on 10 mins off) I sealed it all up and.... it’s fine now.

I shouldn’t complain, because it’s now ready for work tomorrow, but at the same time WHY did it show as overheating and take up 3 days of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I love working on my cars, but usually when I know what the problem is and get a firm resolution. This one got me by the short and curlies and just kept pulling, and I have no idea what I did right. Tell me.

Also: 2/10 would not want to attempt again

DISCUSSION (23)

Berang > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 15:02

Obviously it just wanted to spend some quality time with you.

JeepJeremy > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 15:07

“Sanka, ya dead”?

DrJohannVegas > JeepJeremy
01/17/2016 at 15:11

Ya, mon.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 15:12

Because it’s a land rover.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 15:23

That’s more involved than what RamblinRover and I had to do on the side of the road in South Carolina in a 2.25 gasser Series IIa. We thought the thermostat had stuck closed as it was overheating. Our solution was to pull the thermostat.

What it really was, was in fact the pump. Somehow (I think it was a spun pump bearing), the impellers weren’t really pumping coolant, but removing the thermostat allowed enough water to pass through so it wouldn’t overheat. And we didn’t know that until about 9 months later during a university break.

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
01/17/2016 at 15:27

That only explains why it's awesome.

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > Berang
01/17/2016 at 15:28

A squealing fan belt would have sufficed.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 15:31

Given that it is a Defender, I will agree with you.

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
01/17/2016 at 15:39

Don’t be coming across to the dark side now ya hear? You Toyota boys and us Land Rover boys have a very well established set of unwritten rules that we have to abide by, so be mean about it, otherwise I won’t know what to do.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 15:43

I’m confused. Does mine even count given that it’s 2wd?

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
01/17/2016 at 15:43

Convection is underrated. At least the 2.25 is pokey enough to look after itself without a pump. That reminds me, I must my mine just in case.

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
01/17/2016 at 15:53

Absolutely.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 16:10

So I’m supposed to hate you?

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
01/17/2016 at 16:39

If you wish, but moreover you’re supposed to hate my Land Rover.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 16:40

Well in that case... Have fun with the whole reliability thing.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 16:40

Especially when you have the underhood heater valve open. Still get some heat, and no boiling over.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/17/2016 at 23:30

Hopefully it’s good and doesn’t stay acting up again. But I wouldn’t bert on it. Not trying to be Debbie Downer but usually if you haven’t found a problem it isn’t actually fixed. Be ready, just in case.

I’ve seen head gaskets fail in such a way that only compression leaks into the cooling system, but not enough to make out explode all over the place. Just enough to introduce “air” pockets into the system so that coolant won’t flow properly.

If that’s the case, a good fill and bleed would make it seem fixed for a little while.

pip bip - choose Corrour > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/18/2016 at 02:58

job well done!

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
01/18/2016 at 17:00

Thanks for pissing on my chips! I did forget to do up one of the clips last night so it did a wee outside my house this morning, but otherwise it’s going OK. Paranoia helps, I’m checking the gauge every two minutes. How’s the Sledgehammer treatin’ ya?

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/18/2016 at 18:44

Pissing on your chips can’t be much worse than malt vinegar! Kidding, I actually like that stuff, not trying to offend your whole country. Hopefully my suspicions are wrong about your issue, though.

Loving it. It’s off getting detailed right now since its absolutely filthy after that drive.

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
01/21/2016 at 04:00

Sorry mate, missed this comment. The only way you could offend GB is by shunning tea and crumpets, and by sitting on the fence over Marmite. Glad the bruiser Merc is working out for you, new rubber first on the list?!

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/21/2016 at 09:33

My guess as to the how is that you got an air bubble in the cooling system that was preventing proper flow. As to why you would have gotten an air bubble, that’s beyond my internet diagnostic abilities. Good to see it’s back in action (a few days ago).

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30
01/21/2016 at 09:48

No worries. I love tea, so we’re good! Engine mounts before tires. Might as well make use of use of what’s there, use them for lots of burnouts!