Overheated and spilled water out of resevoir

Hi my 1996 disco overheated yesterday and spilled water out of the resevoir. There wasn't however loads of water under the car but the system was empty and took 9ltr to fill. Could it be that the water was just low?


Let it cool overnight and been to check today. No signs of water in the oil no white smoke no oil in water tank. Refilled it with water and drove it home temp went half way and everything seemd fine. Was only a 5 minute drive though! Heater won't blow hot.
So i'm hoping it's not the head gasket but what else could it be?
Any help would be appreciated thanks.

I'll get me crystal ball out and guess what enigne

check rad gets hot all acroos core and downwards but obviously a bit cooler ,fill with bungs out otherwise it will allways be air locked ,dont use exspansion tank as coolant level ,use bung on thermostat housing

Yeh sorry 2.5td engine!

Yeh thanks for the info mate. I went to take the bungs out and the thermostat housing one the top just pulled off! Looks like its been knackered some time which has probably been letting water out of it. Or it could have been letting air in? Ive ordered some brass replacements just hope thats what the trouble was and it hasnt done any damage to the head.

Check the radiator,the inside fins often clog up and can cause an overheat.I lost an engine this way.....did the head twice and finally cooked it proper.Only realised what the reason was when I took the dead lump out.Doh!!!

While you are in there check for rusty water-runs below P gasket and behind manifolds....weak points for pressurised water to go.........

If you are going to make a habit of bleeding air locks you may want to look into getting domestic radiator valves to go in the bungs.Someone on here did that a couple of years back and reckoned they were the business.Me,I just slum it with the brass ones

Look in the for sale section, or PM me for the brass bleed valves

Right chaps replaced the bunds with brass ones filled the system with water from the thermostat housing. The system then proceeded to blow the water out from the exspansion tank? One quick question and i may sound stupid but when filling the water should i have the engine running or car off? Next thing to check is that the exspansion tank cap isn't knackered but where do i go from there?

Sorry but that sounds like the heads gasket or head has either cracked or warped common on tdis they dont like to get hot the temp gauge on mine reads just under halfway but halfway is boiling ihave just done the head on mine now sorting out lots of other little problems

I have taken the thermostat out and that looks to be knackered. Tried putting it in boiling water and it didn't open! Ran the car for 30 mins when it first started it spat water from the expansion tank again then when it found it's level she ticked over and temp gradually went up to 1/3 and sat there. Had the heaters on full but they didn't heat up! Then checked the radiator which was stone cold all over?
So it looks like the head gasket has gone? But what has caused it? Is the radiator blocked or maybe the water pump isn't pumping? The last thing i need is to replace the head and get the head skimmed then find its gone again because i didn't fix the original problem. Any help would be greatly received thanks.

radiator is biggest cause we found only hot on side that top and bottom hose go to ,but also through not checking level with bungs removed coolant level in tank isnt related to level in engine with bungs in ,fault thermostat

Ok filled her full with water with the expantion tank unscrewed and held up high so shouldn't be any air in the system! Started her up water out of expantion tank again went for a drive around 10 miles. temp went up to just over half way then sat there. Checked radiator when i got back hot at top cold from 1/3 way down. Still some water in the expantion tank about 1/3 full. Ran her with expansion tank cap off water bubbling like mad?
So sounds like the radiator needs replacing but what about water pump and head gasket?

can you get a sniff test done on the coolant, to see if there are any exhaust gases present. It does sound as thou the head gasket has blown thou. Not a bad job to do, did mine last year. one tip thou. Make sure you don't put the head gasket in upside down like i did, spat oil all over the floor.

Are the bubbles in a constant stream, also when you rev it does the water level in the coolant bottle drop slightly then return again