Very odd!

[Gazza7]

Hi guys and gals,
well the beast got hot the other day but very quickly and after shut off and pressure release it was fine and went another 8kms before doing it again...same cure but added some water after losing a bit out of the top tank.
so I figured thermostat was screwed. Got a new one (Oem and recommended by specialist). Today I drained the system as per rave. Changed the stat (after a bit of cursing etc😬). Filled through top hose, filled radiator directly through top outlet, joined the two (with cleared bleed hose disconnected). Filled top tank till it was full and fired her up. Let it idle for 15mins and added more coolant till full and she was up to temp. Felt the new stat and bottom was still cool as was bottom hose...top of stat was hot. Took old stat inside and tested in boiling water and it opened fine...weird. So I thought 'bad new stat' and proceeded to redo the whole process with the old stat back in. Same problem at idle so took her for a half hour drive, up big hills, low revs cruise sections and a bit of mash the pedal for a while. Temp gauge reads 12 o’clock with tiny movements up occasionally but no overheating. Pulled up, no bubbling and didn’t feel overly hot but still the bottom of the stat is only just warm and obviously closed. Yet I know this stat works fine! so...I’m almost ready to throw in the towel with the old girl. Any help please?
oh and one more thing...it’s idling strange and chugging black smoke like it’s on choke with occasional lifts in rpm to 1500.
HEELLPP! It’s driving me nuts...I just want to drive the old girl for a while 😁
cheers in advance
Gaz
ps I have read everywhere on this for hours and still no wiser

[Gazza7]

I did also fill with bleed pipe off till coolant was coming out of the little outlet 👍

[Grumbles]

Have you pulled the spark plugs to see if any have been steam cleaned?

[Gazza7]

Not yet but why would that cause the weird stat not opening problem? Plug change tomorrow anyway.

[bee utey]

Stat would be opening, the cold side is the return from the radiator and of course only a small amount of cold coolant is needed to keep the engine temp in check at idle.

[Gazza7]

After the drive there was still a big temp difference between the plastic above and below the stat inside. I figured it was still closed.

[Keithy P38]

Is it possible you’ve got the two small hoses on the wrong outlets on the thermostat?

As for the chugging and smoke, I’d suggest cleaning the MAF, it’s possible it’s reading the wrong intake temp and over-fueling the motor, and also bleeding the cooling system as per RAVE. Never before have I filled the radiator prior to bleeding, have topped up the reservoir as it dropped once the thermostat opened. You need to fluctuate the revs around 2000rpm to properly remove air pockets while bleeding these things.

Cheers
Keithy

[Gazza7]

I’ll check the hoses just in case but they went on as they came off...could’ve been wrong before I started. Will make sure as per rave. Thanks.
so cleaning the maf....does it have to be a big tin of maf cleaner. For a one off job lol or will something else work?
cheers
Gaz

[bee utey]

After the drive there was still a big temp difference between the plastic above and below the stat inside. I figured it was still closed.

Of course there is a difference, the bottom inlet water has been through the radiator and lost much of it's heat. What's the air temperature like in your location? Cold air = cold water.

[Gazza7]

Quick update.
plugs changed today and all were nicely blackened. No sign of steam cleaning 😀
cleaned the maf sensor with isopropyl alcohol till I get some proper stuff. Took her for a good drive and temp sitting mostly at 12 o’clock with occasional very slight rise. Top hose is fine and not pressurised. Bottom of stat still luke warm while top is hot .
still think she’s rich but will do proper maf clean asap and see what happens next.
thanks for all the help...I’ll be back I’m sure 😁
cheers
Gaz
ps next thing, getting cruise control working...and there are no vacuum leaks. All new hoses.

[prelude]

I never actually checked the difference in input and output temperature myself so I cannot say if the difference you notice is normal. I do know however that the top hose nearly always get's hard when heated up, even when I was driving at -27c and no my engine was a brand new rebuild at that time so no leaking cylinders. So, I find it strange that it would not get hard in your case.

The maf sensor can be a source of trouble but also check the temp sender in the airbox. Mine is currently out of whack somehow, it always reports a temp which is 12-20c lower than actual. Never got around to replace it though.

Regarding the cruise control: which unit do you have? If you have an older p38 you'll likely have the silver box which is crap and fails often, upgrade it to a black unit from a newer P38 or a D2 and you're golden. Easy fix too, does need wiring a new plug in though.

see: Retrofit D2/Bosch P38 Cruise Control ECU into D1/GEMS P38 - DiscoWeb Message Boards (https://discoweb.org/showthread.php't=90799) for example.

Cheers!
-P

[Gazza7]

Ok..another update 😀
the temps seem to be under control after the new stat went back in, full flush and no air locks and now after a drive the difference from above to below the stat is noticeable but not extreme as before. Fingers crossed!
now the next issue lol...it won’t cold start and keep running without some throttle applied. I wound on a bit via the throttle cable to overcome this. Once it’s been going for a few minutes it’s all fine and starts normally. Still have occasional high low idle issues so I think they may be related? Have done the maf clean and the iacv and tps clean. Maybe a temp sensor issue? Any ideas?
will look at the cruise issue as mine is an early p38 so thanks for the tip.
I definitely need to find someone close by with a code reader so if anyone is near or around the murwillumbah,tweed head Byron area that has one please let me know. Would appreciate some fault codes on this lovely beast 😀
cheers
Gaz
ps I’m not lazy...I’ve been reading on these now for weeks and learn new stuff all the time but this idle thing is just annoying and I need some expert help 😊

[prelude]

Having something to measure with would be very helpful.:) The idle thing can me a number of things, incorrect air intake temp could be the case but false air can cause even more trouble. The easiest way to test this is to create a plug that can fit into the air intake (remove the maf for this) with an air hose connected to it, pressurize the air intake and listen for leaks and fix each and every one of them. Alternatively I have used a smoke generator with a T piece to insert smoke under pressure into the system and see where smoke escapes. PCV, throttle body, anything you can find that is after the MAF will be air into the system that is not measured by the MAF but will faul the O2 sensors and will cause the ECU to adjust incorrectly.

Funny thing: I have the exact opposite. When the car is really hot, that is to say, warm day and has been driving in a traffic jam for a while the engine tends to stall and I can't figure out what the problem is :( Oh well...:)

-P

[Gazza7]

So, just a quick update 😀
i decided to change the stat position to the housing in the inlet on the front of the motor. Put an 82 degree stat in...that was the easy bit. Then I spent 3 hours drilling, filing, cursing, bleeding and generally testing patience limits to extract all the internals from the original housing (seized stat). Eventually all was cleared and the housing in tact so I saved a bit of cash by using it rather than a fancy alloy adapter 😁. (See pics)
Filled her up with coolant and plugged in the obd scanner then went for a drive. She now sits at 84 degrees even in traffic or pulling a 2.5 tonne excavator 😁.
Well worth the effort.
also put in a new idle valve and that fixed the erratic idle problem.
next on the list is to eliminate a bit of a steering wobble over bumps...mmm not looking forward to tracking that down!

142814
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[prelude]

You are one patient guy :)

The wobble should not be too hard to find, starting from the steering damper and work your way through the suspension bushings with a large crowbar or some large calipers to see if there is any play, also check the ball joints.

good luck!

-P

[Pedro_The_Swift]

my doughs also on steering damper,,

once you get your head around how LR blends it coolant to keep a constant temp, it all makes sense.
sort of[bighmmm]

[Gazza7]

Hi All 😀,
so im back and subscribed after finding out why I couldn’t post anymore lol.
quick update...
the Beast hasn’t had any temp issues since relocating the stat woohoo.
the poor running is now fixed and turned out to be a few things but the main culprit was a pair of bad O2 sensors. Replaced with new ones and now runs sweet and average of 15ltrs per 100kms 👍.
i have a couple more issues...one is still a non working cruise control but will try and find a new pump and diaphragm , change those, check the line near the brake pedal ( when I can even find it lol) and then look at the cruise ecu.
other issue I’ll start a new thread.
thanks again and great to be back

[prelude]

welcome back mate ;)

[Gazza7]

welcome back mate ;)

thanks mate! Good to be back and still loving the old beast