Thread: Coolant dump on D2 Tdi5

Originally Posted by Beaner7102

On the way home from a return trip from Melbourne to Mt Buller, about 50km short of Melb the cruise control drops off and I notice the temp is on the bottom side of on the red. I pull over, leave it running, pop the hood and see fresh red OAT coolant has spewed out the rad cap. The gauge dropped to just above normal, thermo fan still on. Top up with straight water and limp home at 60-80kmh with my eyes glued to the temp gauge.
Coolant (red OAT) was 1 week old, changed for a 3 day trip to the snow. I had a small 'water rushing' sound in the heater after the change, but bled the air out before the trip. I put 3.5L of water in it today and temp was fine and no loss of power. Motor has 150k (2000 build) on it with no recent history of overheating (rad cap and T stat replaced 12 months ago)

What worries me is the ejected coolant was oily, there was no chocolate milkshake in the oil.

Is this a classic Disco head gasket or was it just the last pocket of air finally got out of the system, got the motor hot and coolant boiled?

Please help and recommend a good Landy mechanic in Melb – sick of giving a dealer my $$$.
TIA Beaner7102

Head gasket, just been through this, the water rushing sound behind the heater is the same as mine and is common when the head gasket goes.

Baz.

Sorry to hear about this cooling system problem. I've come to the conclusion that Land Rover engines used in the DII, be it the petrol V8 or the diesel TD5 motor, do not handle overheating too well, unlike other makes.

V8s have weak head gaskets (as do the D1 TDi motor) and it only takes one overheating incident to cause major problems like cylinder liner slippage.

Bleeding the air out of TD5 or V8 motors is infuriatingly difficult. As it stands, I still have gurgling noises in my heater matrix, despite *MANY* attempts to bleed air out of the system.

OK, now that I've stopped ranting/venting, let me see if I can say anything to help you in your situation.

The TD5 is *supposed* to be able to cut fuel to the cylinders if it detects overheating, to protect the head. I'm not sure how effective this is, but I guess there's not much that you can do but to get it pressure tested.

Oil in the coolant doesn't bode well though, so I don't want to get your hopes raised too high. Do you go offroading a lot? Sometimes the radiator gets so clogged up with dried up bog mud that air does not pass through the fins properly, causing lost cooling capacity, despite the electric assisted fan and the radiator fan running at max speed. So you may want to get the radiator pulled out and cleaned and perhaps even re-cored.

I know that LR thermostats, once overheated, can become very unresponsive, and should be replaced ASAP.

Where would you take it to in Melbourne? I'd probably ring up Ritters on Highbury road. They seem to be the best of the non LR authorised dealers, in my opinion.

Lawrance

Originally Posted by tempestv8

The TD5 is *supposed* to be able to cut fuel to the cylinders if it detects overheating, to protect the head. I'm not sure how effective this is, but I guess there's not much that you can do but to get it pressure tested.

Oil in the coolant doesn't bode well though, so I don't want to get your hopes raised too high. Do you go offroading a lot? Sometimes the radiator gets so clogged up with dried up bog mud that air does not pass through the fins properly, causing lost cooling capacity, despite the electric assisted fan and the radiator fan running at max speed. So you may want to get the radiator pulled out and cleaned and perhaps even re-cored...

Thanks Lawrance, I guess the cruise control dropping off was the fuel being cut to the motor as the temp got high - it is there and does work (I wish I didnt have to find that out)
And in 5 years ownership its really only been bush bashing 3 times, it does lots of long country kms with some dirt roads thrown in, but not river crossings and mud on the roof after a drive. So I doubt clogged rad fins. But I will pressure test the system, get the rad/coolant system fushed properly and see if I still have the oily slick and keep my fingers crossed. Cheers Beaner7102

Good luck with the diagnosis, hope its not bad news.

For general maintenance, if your on the N/E side try Eaglemont Autos (Tony) 9499 1068. They do my basic servicing (for the log book) and stuff like braking and anything on the engine.

I change my own CD's in the 6-stacker, so I'm not a complete nonce!.

They have about 8 regular Discovery's on their books, and a 9th would only benefit me more .

They use a third party for fault code clearance ($50) knowing when not to play with the black science stuff in the SLABS etc and will always ring me if he cannot locate an issue. (he wont spend my money second guessing )

Disclaimer. I have no financial interest in this workshop, only the single minded aim to get him practising on everyone elses Discovery before he works on mine!