Thread: Melted Thermostat Housing Bung or Blown Head Gasket ?

I've heard they hate to get cooked. The head often warps and they do gaskets.

I was told that whatever I do with mine, keep the cooling system in top nick and check levels etc. And when they do get hot or lose fluid, stop.

Hope it turns out OK.

My local Landie repairer replaces the plastic bungs with brass ones.

Ron

I had the same leak by the sounds of it. Brass "disk" plug half way down the main engine block was leaking coolant, but just slowly (it didn't make any puddles on the drive or anything).

The mechanic said there is a design fault in the temperature gauge sender on a TDi300, such that if the fluid level drops, the sender is only in air, so you don't get a warning on the dashboard that the engine is overheating.

Before you know it - head warped. $1600 repair bill. Damn.

To test for a leak, they filled up the coolant to the very top, and watched for a minute or two with the lid off, while the engine was idling. Every 30 seconds or so, a belch of air would come backwards through the coolant.

Originally posted by spudboy
Brass "disk" plug half way down the main engine block was leaking coolant,.

That's sometimes called a freeze or core plug by Americans and a Welch plug here.

Ron

Hi Spudboy

I live in the Adelaide Hills as well
I used to get the Landrover serviced by Ian Lennox but he had an accident and does not do any work anymore

Where do you get your Landie serviced ?

Merlin

Ok FWIW

Experience:

Cooked engine on a trip from Sydney to Melbourne. No warning apart from a hestition in the engine and then noticed the temperature needle in the red and the smell of coolant. Stop the Disco and no restart. Water levels seemed ok but that was the level in the header tank. Tray back to Sydney and scored cylinder due to over heating. Rebuilt the donk.That was 120000 km ago. Cost $9k

Another occasion the plastic fantastic plug failed: smell of coolant and being winter no heating. Brass plugs installed.


Anecdotes:

The temp sender is not an indication of the well being of the system: Install a low level coolant alarm.

The heads on some Tdi's weren't screwed down to the correct torque settings.

Aluminium head warps so this needs to be checked if over heating occurs.

Originally posted by merlin
My TDi 300 (160,000km) Thermostat Housing Bung (Black Plastic Bung) had sheared off and looked pretty much melted.

Get rid of those plastic plugs and replace them with brass or bronze. From what I remember there is one in the radiator as well. Any mechanic with experience with rovers should know this.

I have heard first hand from a guy who lost $10,000 when his went.

Thanks Everyone for your replies

I too had absolutely no warning at all of an overheated engine

We just pulled into our usual halfway stop and I noticed that I had no power steering looked at the gauges and noticed that the engine had stalled and then the tell tale steam comming from the bonnet !!!

It looks like a $2.00 Plastic Plug is about to cost me $4,000 in repairs if the Head is OK, otherwise could be $6,000

Merlin