Having cooling issues with our TD5 in the mountains of Argentina

[LuisaBell]

We are overlanding in South America in our 130 TD5 and haverun into a spot of bother. Advice please! Here's the story:

We are driving from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago in Chile. We are drivingthrough an amazing mountain range and are at about 3000m above sea level, It'swarm during the day and freezing at night. Yesterday we were driving up anotherhill after about 200km when rusty coloured water began spouting out of thewater filler tank. We pulled over (noted that the viscous fan was running andthe temp gauge was on COLD and the engine did not seem overheated), lether finish her tantrum, topped her up with water, waited 20 minutes and drove backdown the hill but she definitely felt low on power especially pulling off infirst. There were no other issues on the 10 km drive down to the next littlevillage. This morning both the aux fan and viscous fan are running fullstrength on start up which I think is a bit strange. So far we have establishedthat the following may have caused the original overflow (and associated lossof power?):
- Thermostat stuck closed
- Faulty Airflow meter
- Water pump failure
- Viscous fan failure
- Gunk in the cooling system.

I cant remove the thermostat because it is a sealed unit and I do not have areplacement.

I am going to flush, refill and bleed the cooling system and then drive aroundthe "block" (there arent any blocks around here just that road in andthat road out).

Any advice please. You can also follow what other international Landy driversare advising on http://www.facebook.com/a2a.expediti...a2a.expedition

And try not to make fun of the photos of the wife and me with most of our kitoff.

Thanks

Graeme

[Cosmic Tourist]

Bump

[BilboBoggles]

Unfortunately I reckon that sounds like a head gasket or head failure.

[n plus one]

We are overlanding in South America in our 130 TD5 and haverun into a spot of bother. Advice please! Here's the story:

We are driving from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago in Chile. We are drivingthrough an amazing mountain range and are at about 3000m above sea level, It'swarm during the day and freezing at night. Yesterday we were driving up anotherhill after about 200km when rusty coloured water began spouting out of thewater filler tank. We pulled over (noted that the viscous fan was running andthe temp gauge was on COLD and the engine did not seem overheated), lether finish her tantrum, topped her up with water, waited 20 minutes and drove backdown the hill but she definitely felt low on power especially pulling off infirst. There were no other issues on the 10 km drive down to the next littlevillage. This morning both the aux fan and viscous fan are running fullstrength on start up which I think is a bit strange. So far we have establishedthat the following may have caused the original overflow (and associated lossof power?):
- Thermostat stuck closed
- Faulty Airflow meter
- Water pump failure
- Viscous fan failure
- Gunk in the cooling system.

I cant remove the thermostat because it is a sealed unit and I do not have areplacement.

I am going to flush, refill and bleed the cooling system and then drive aroundthe "block" (there arent any blocks around here just that road in andthat road out).

Any advice please. You can also follow what other international Landy driversare advising on http://www.facebook.com/a2a.expediti...a2a.expedition

And try not to make fun of the photos of the wife and me with most of our kitoff.

Thanks

Graeme

Aux fans on start up sounds like a switch issue - assuming you mean they're on straight away (ie no possible opportunity for the engine to overheat)? Sticky thermostat sounds like a possible issue too (problems can always have more than one cause).

Loss of power at those altitudes would be expected IMO.

I like your flush/bleed approach as a first step.

[djam1]

I know on a TD5 Discovery if you overheat the engine the fans remain on until you reset the event in the computer.
Well that's what I was told put it that way