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3.9 V8 Auto overheating

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Dr Strangeglove:
1991 3.9 Vogue SE overheating. :(

What should I look for?

I can feel air blowing from the side of the engine (off-side) if I put my hand down near the manifold (not saying it is the manifold blowing though) - could this be related!!

Any suggestions as to what to look for would be appreciated (I am a beginner at this so suggest the most basic of things!) :oops:

Cheers

Mick

Dr Strangeglove:
When I bought the RR I drove it home and noticed water coming from under the engine!!  Oh-Poo I thinks - checked the header tank and it was OK.  Drove a couple of miles and low water light came on.  I refilled the header and drove on.  After another couple of miles same thing happens.  I got to a Garage, used two lots of radweld, filled with water and started it to run it through the system.  As I was dropping the bonnet I thought I saw some water spraying above the engine.  On looking in the correct area I noticed the top hose had a small split, thankfully near the engine.  We cut off about 2" from the end of the hose (which included the split) and re fitted it.  We ran the engine until we could feel the water in the top hose and we thought we had solved the problem :D

I drove home a further 45miles (ish) on the motorway keeping to about 55mph.  We arrived home OK and the temperature gauge stayed at about midway.  I then ran it a few times without any problem (but only on small journeys).

Last weekend my friend drove it to give his opinion so we took it a little further than I had recently.  We then had to go onto the mores which involved a pretty rugged dirt track up hill about 1/3 mile.  When we got to the top it overheated, lots of steam out from under the bonnet :sobsob:

We lifted the bonnet, let it cool for an hour, and then refilled the system.  We filled from the plug above the engine and also the plug on the radiator (where before I had only filled the header :oops: ).  Could my not filling at the two plugs have caused the problem, though I could feel pressure in the top hose when we filled it after finding the split hose)?  Could this overheating have created other problems that may be leading to it losing water and overheating now??

Like I said, I ain't no mechanic (though if anything needs doing I would prefer to do as much as I can myself so that I do learn!!) so any helpful pointers as to what to look for and how to look for it/check it would be gratefully received.

Thanks for any help you can give :shock:

Regards

Mick

Skibum346:

--- Quote from: "Dr Strangeglove" ---We filled from the plug above the engine and also the plug on the radiator (where before I had only filled the header :oops: ).
--- End quote ---


Mick,

There are a number of potential causes as I'm sure you'd expect.

1. Airlock when re-filling it - as I believe there is a process for filling at the filling tower (too late to check now but can do Sunday sometime for you!)

2. Radiator blocked with gunge on inside/outside/fins damaged (saw a pic recently of a radiator taken out that had 60% of it's cooling fins rusted away to fresh air!)

3. Thermostat goosed - Change this first as it's a £5 part and a ten minute job worth doing. Actually, a good test is to try running it without the thermostat in as this ensures a good cooling flow to the engine instantly.

4. Water pump knackered or spindle bearing goosed - Our RRC recently needed a new pump as water was leaking from the spindle but only bad at pressure. Potentially the innards of the pump could be knackered but if this was the case I'd expect a quick and catastrophic overheat.

5. Head gasket goosed - You could do a compression test on each cylinder by replacing the spark plug with a compression tester (dial meter on a hose) and cranking. Any cylinders with low compression would be suspect. Does your oil appear milky? (Water in Oil) Best test for an instant answer is to get local garage to test the coolant for exhaust gasses using a turkey baster type tool.

Hope the earlier problems prove to be what's wrong! Good luck!

Skibum

Range Rover Blues:
You have to fill it quickly via the brass plug on the heater pipes above the engine or you get air locks, particularly in the heater.

Don't trust the header tank level guage, they are poo and there should be quite a lot of air in there, when cold fill it half way ie tot eh seam in the tank (there is a small plastic cross at the same level).

Air around the manifolds, hmmm, could be from the fan, if it was the exhaust you would hear it ticking.  Also seen a head gasket go that way with similar result but it went chuff CHUFF chuff CHUFF like a steam train.

Dr Strangeglove:
Thanks for the replies

:shock: The blowing air does sound like a chuffing!!!

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH POOOOOOOO!!

So, if it is a head gasket what things should I do.  Is it just as the Haynes manual or are their helpful tips and checks, do's and don'ts etc.

Like I said before, I really am new to this and to Range Rovers.  I have a friend that is a good mechanic (20 years) but he worked for Ford.  I am sure he could do this but he would not have the ally of experience that the guys on here have.  He may not know the Range Rover specific problems or must do's.

I will try to check the things on the list you left Skibum, and will go and get a new thermostat.  I presume instructions to change this are in the Haynes.  Again if there are any tips on the best/easiest way to do this, then please let me know.

I washed the radiator through – bottom hose off the radiator, then hose into the plugs above the engine then the radiator.  The water coming out looked pretty clean.

Where are the best places to buy parts??

Keep it coming guys, I need all the help I can get.

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