300 td1 discos still over heating

hi , hope someone might be able to help , i have a 300 disco that just keeps over heating . first time it happened i was towing a large trailer with a 109 on it , all was ok till after about 30 miles the temp went high and the boiled over , the car has covered 205k but i have just serviced it , new oil filters and belts , my first thought was head gasket but this has been done and the prob was still there so i removed the stat which made some improvement , it now can be driven with no probs but as a test i slowly speed up and as soon as you hit 75mph up goes the temp again then if you slow down the gauge drops again , water is nice and clean no leaks and the heater works fine , have removed the rad, again clean and unbloked the thing that i have noticed that the small fins on the rad are all shot and if you touch them they just fall out , may be its this i dont know and dont want to buy another rad if this ones ok, the car has larger tyres a lift kit and a winch fitted which does block the grill a bit . any ideas would be good thanks andy:doh:

Two things left to check then: viscous unit and coolant pump......make certain they are working properly.

Buy yourself another radiator before you cause some damage.
It's almost impossible to flush the radiators out internally satisfactorily and combined with the fact that the cooling fins appear to be shot/missing you've got no chance of satisfactory cooling.

nicedayforit said:

Buy yourself another radiator before you cause some damage.
It's almost impossible to flush the radiators out internally satisfactorily and combined with the fact that the cooling fins appear to be shot/missing you've got no chance of satisfactory cooling.

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That ...

Oil cooler is in the rad so you're also likely to boil your engine oil ..

thanks guys , how can i check fan and water pump , fan can be turned by hand when cars not running and spins when it is running , i can leave the car running for hours in my drive and it does not get hot , i did about 100 miles sat no probs but twice i tried to go over 75 mph for a few miles and the temp just slowly went up , but as soon as i drop down to just below 70 it soon returns back to about half way , i have laid the rad down and its fairly well blocked because of the rotted fins and 15 years of dirt , are the little fins that important to the cooling or could i just knock all the crap out of it and re fit it and try it again , not normally that tight but the wifes getting the arse with how much i have spent . told her it is a landrover!

thats a good point mate anit thought about that , is it worth spending a bit more and getting a heavy duty rad , think i am right that they have 4 chambers instead of the standard 3 (ebay)

The standard rad will be fine.It will not overheat even without the viscous fan as long as the rad and pump are working fine. These engines were built for use in very hot countries so they are over cooled in our mild climate.

thanks danny , have ordered my rad so will c what happens went its in , apart from the belt snaping what can go wrong with the water pump ?

Its the bearings that usualy go or the P gasket that forms the seal. Look out for small drips from the gasket. Not much else that can go wrong with them.

discoveryktm said:

thanks danny , have ordered my rad so will c what happens went its in , apart from the belt snaping what can go wrong with the water pump ?

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If the antifreeze hasn't been kept up to the correct strength in pass years the impeller blades in the pump can corrode til they almost disappear and then you don't have a pump you have a spinning lump of metal that is useless as a pump.
I see you've ordered a radiator, personally I wouldn't do anything about the pump till you have the radiator fitted and tried out.
Not worth disturbing the pump for now, I still think your problem was the radiator.
Best of luck

hi again danny , the car has been well looked after plenty of anti freeze and the rad is now in , left it running for about a hour and no probs so far , will take it for a good run sat and see what happens , be a good day to try as its going to be hot , anyway looks like you were right so thanks for that mate . regards andy

sorry , meant to thank . (nicedayforit) as well, ta !

300 rads "silt" up very quickly and nothing shifts it, best to renew with a reputable make. I have run my 300 without a fan here in Portugal for over 5 months and that includes doing "lanes" going over the mountains and it has never overheated with having a new Rad in it over xmas period, now re-fitted the viscous fan back on as the temperatures here are now into the 40's all the time. I always fit a new rad every 2 years to it - cheaper than being off the road replacing headgasket etc.

Well done glad you got it sorted. Just make sure the hoses are well clear of the pulley on the front of the engine. I put zip ties on mine to keep them back after one of the pulleys put a deep cut in my hose.Had to buy a new one . That ****ed me off because I'd only recently put the other one on

good point danny i noticed that the top hose is very close to the pulley , do you think that bmp42 should invite us over to portugal to see if my rad can cope with the lanes he does there ?

Bloody great! Just done the thermostat, no luck and now the water pump today, still no good. Ive just washed the oil off me hands and popped back on here and come across this thread!:doh: Ive got a similer problem but my trouble starts at around 40 or 50mph. I guess I need to by a new rad then do I? Its also full of rot n just crumbling apart in places.....

yes looks like it mate , fitted it friday nite and took it out sat for a run but only about 30 miles and didnt get a chance to take it above 50mph but it sat a lot lower on the gauge than b4 so fingers crossed as its going up to billing landrover show thursday nite !

discoveryktm said:

good point danny i noticed that the top hose is very close to the pulley , do you think that bmp42 should invite us over to portugal to see if my rad can cope with the lanes he does there ?

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yer welcome anytime, plenty of land at mine for yer ter camp on, nearest lane / track to my place is 50mtr away!!!! have a pay (no pay as its free) and play site 2km away that can be driven to without touching tarmac.

thanks mate really nice of you , you never know i might just do that , been to portugal a few times , lovely country stayed at a place called carverio, not sure on spellin sorry