300tdi cooling system concern

Hi guys

Last week i flushed and replaced the antifreeze (blue) in my 1995 300tdi. The old coolant was very weak and dirty. Checked the thermostat and noticed it was a 75 degree stat.

Replaced the thermostat today with a genuine land rover part ERR3291 and took it for a run (15 mile). All was perfect, there and back. Even cured the poor heat output from the heater and the gauge stayed mid way no matter what load on the engine.

However, i returned home had a cuppa and then went back out to the vehicle to see a puddle of water on the floor and sound of water escaping (not massively). To find the header tank was split around the seam. Im led to beleive this is common problem.

So, is this due to it getting too hot from the new thermostat?
Or maybe poor anti freeze mix?
Or is it just a coincedence its happened at the same time, and the increased heat has opened up?
Or anything else?

Many thanks in advance

On a 300 thats the classic sign of head gasket failure.
See it goes like this with land rover diesels
2.0d **** cylinder heads
2.25d pretty good actually
200tdi amazingly awesome
300tdi pink shirt wearers
td5 pure and utter faggots

lynall said:

On a 300 thats the classic sign of head gasket failure.

See it goes like this with land rover diesels

2.0d **** cylinder heads

2.25d pretty good actually

200tdi amazingly awesome

300tdi pink shirt wearers

td5 pure and utter faggots

Click to expand...

Haha. It was fine before the new stat went in. Hope its not the dreaded HG!

Maybe stat was hiding the evidence.
Did you bleed it up correctly 300 are quite fussy until the stat opens

lynall said:

Maybe stat was hiding the evidence.
Did you bleed it up correctly 300 are quite fussy until the stat opens

Click to expand...

Hiding the evidence of the split header tank or the head gasket? Do you not think the increased heat would cause it to open at the seam?
Its running faultlessly. No bubbling in the header too.

And to be honest, no im not totally convinced i have bled i properly. How can i do this now all the coolant is in?

My 90's expansion tank has never held its pressure well (slow leak around join)

If you have a spare one you could test it

It could be just a dodgy tank thats split before due to hg failure, cheap enough to change it and see, if you were local Ive got one in my garage that you could have.
Once its been up to temp its bled itself, Its important to bleed them up before running as the head can get very very hot very quickly.

my tank split, got a new one and a new cap too, been fine ever since, on mine I think the cap was faulty.

I guess it was just an expansion tank waiting to go bang. The slightly higher operating temperature would have exposed the weakness. Change the tank and keep it monitored. I think it should he fine. When I first bought my 90 the thermostat was jammed open and I pottered around for a year with a seriously overcooled engine. When I change the thermostat, the heater matrix didn't like the increase in temperature and went bang just a few days later.