Freelander purchase

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Originally Posted by Ausfree

I am not a mechanic but it seems to me a reasonable question, would the fitting of a Low Level Coolant Alarm avoid these problems???:confused:

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No the issue is not low coolant. As I understand it the thermostat is in a position that does not respond to the real temperature of the engine. As a result it can get hot as the thermostat can remain close resulting in heat damage to the engine (slipped liners) and head/gasket then when the thermostat finally realises that the engine is hot it releases the cold water from the radiator to the hot engine causing thermal shock - cracked heads/slipped liners. 1.8s with no thermostat do not have the issues.

Garry

Yes, I can understand what you are saying, it seems poor design is the problem!!!:o

Some interesting sites:

HGF

Cooling system modifications

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Originally Posted by garrycol

No the issue is not low coolant. As I understand it the thermostat is in a position that does not respond to the real temperature of the engine. As a result it can get hot as the thermostat can remain close resulting in heat damage to the engine (slipped liners) and head/gasket then when the thermostat finally realises that the engine is hot it releases the cold water from the radiator to the hot engine causing thermal shock - cracked heads/slipped liners. 1.8s with no thermostat do not have the issues.

Garry

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So I guess what you do in a warmer climate like Australia is take the Thermostat out on a 1.8 petrol engine??:confused:

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Originally Posted by Ausfree

So I guess what you do in a warmer climate like Australia is take the Thermostat out on a 1.8 petrol engine??:confused:

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it would stop the head gasket and engine failure problem but as i said before this means that the runs cold all of the time and never runs at the correct operating temp, this has an effect on fuel economy and engine life. As mentioned in another thread you can drill holes through the housing to allow a small amount of water to flow through all of the time whilst minimising flow to make the car warm up quicker, this however still has an effect on economy and engine life.

The only other option then is to consider a diferent thermostat set up like the ones in the website i posted.

Matt

There is a LR Tech bulletin on this issue and there is a upgraded head gasket steel dowels instead of plastic for head and a upgraded remote thermostat. Bulletin number 0026
These engines do still slip liners after this but is it not as common.
The main fault with all K engines is where the bottom cast liners sit into the alloy block. the liners wear into the block and the liners drop. There was a upgraded design this is why it is not so common on V6 Freelander, But if you look at head gasket failure on early Kia Carnivals (they had KV6) they were as common as K1.8 in freelander. These still drop liners, But not common. Have been told by a Kia mechanic that if liners drop and need to remove liners to get block decked refit liners with Devcon and This stops liner drop.

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Originally Posted by woko

There is a LR Tech bulletin on this issue and there is a upgraded head gasket steel dowels instead of plastic for head and a upgraded remote thermostat. Bulletin number 0026
These engines do still slip liners after this but is it not as common.
The main fault with all K engines is where the bottom cast liners sit into the alloy block. the liners wear into the block and the liners drop. There was a upgraded design this is why it is not so common on V6 Freelander, But if you look at head gasket failure on early Kia Carnivals (they had KV6) they were as common as K1.8 in freelander. These still drop liners, But not common. Have been told by a Kia mechanic that if liners drop and need to remove liners to get block decked refit liners with Devcon and This stops liner drop.

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so the liners will eventually wear down into the block, but with the new thermostat this process is slowed down?

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Originally Posted by Ace

so the liners will eventually wear down into the block, but with the new thermostat this process is slowed down?

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from what I have seen Yes

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Originally Posted by woko

from what I have seen Yes

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I thought i read somewhere that there is a lip ontop of the liners that prevents it from dropping. Is this not the case, what actually causes the liners to drop then if the thermostat issue is sorted?

The step is about half way down. they drop because the liner wears the block. There was a upgrade to to the block which has dropped the rate of wear dramatically. There are a lot of these engines with over 150k on them with no trouble. They will drop but you may wear the rest of the car out first.