300tdi using water

FenderTheDefender · Jun 30, 2019

I have a 1995 Land Rover Defender 130 and I both love and hate it.

Long story short, I have a crack in the muffler and have coolant dripping out after driving. I use about 1Liter/10km of coolant/water. I changed the head gasket but didn’t have it pressure checked or skimmed. Head surface looked good and was not warped and met the .08mm tolerance across. Got it all back together and still have the problem.

Am I wrong thinking the head is cracked somewhere. Possibly in one of the pushrod walls? I’d appreciate your thoughts. Getting ready to tear it down again.

jamesmartin · Jun 30, 2019

water is a by product of combustion a cold exhaust will drip water ,though heads do crack in the ports, if manifold was removed the port would look clean unlike the rest sooty

FenderTheDefender · Jun 30, 2019

jamesmartin said:
water is a by product of combustion a cold exhaust will drip water ,though heads do crack in the ports, if manifold was removed the port would look clean unlike the rest sooty

Thanks for the thoughts. The Land Rover is driven about 15km one way to work so it has plenty of time to warm up.

When I start the tear down I’ll look at the exhaust ports. That’d be a good indication. Thanks for the pointer.

FenderTheDefender · Jul 8, 2019

So I have more to add to the complexity. I let the Land Rover sit a couple of weeks. I had to drive it over the weekend and it did not use any water. I drove 20 miles or more. But 2 weeks ago after driving it 10 miles home it used a gallon of water and water dripping out the muffler after it sat 20 min. Is there another way for water to go into the exhaust pipe I'm missing?

gymmaniac · Jul 8, 2019

puddles?

FenderTheDefender · Jul 8, 2019

gymmaniac said:
puddles?

haha, I wish. If you look at the picture I attached to the original thread you will see where the water is dripping out of the crack in the muffler.

Ratae · Jul 9, 2019

As has already been said, water is a byproduct of burning diesel or petrol. Large quantity too, IIRC the figure given is a gallon of water from a gallon of fuel. This will appear as steam from the exhaust on cold mornings & as drips from the tailpipe and any holes in the system.
It's the main reason why exhausts rot out & will be quicker on cars that do short journeys as their exhausts never get hot enough to boil the water off.
So your water loss may not be a hg or head issue.
Be worth having the cooling system pressure tested to see if that shows up any other leaks before you pull it all apart.

My RRC has had a couple of odd water disappearances during my ownership. One was a small leak in a hose joint - shown by a cold pressure test - and the other was a defective expansion tank pressure cap.

kermit_rr · Jul 9, 2019

Liquid water from diesel combustion doesn't sound likely to me, but of you're leaking coolant into the combustion chamber then I'd expect to see stream coming from the tailpipe

FenderTheDefender · Jul 9, 2019

I think the part I failed to mention is when this started I still had antifreeze in the system and the water leaking from the muffler was green. It was being driven 15km one way to work, which should boil out any condensation.

The part I'm having trouble wrapping my head around is why after it sits awhile it doesn't leak for 50km and then starts leaking again. If it was a cracked head or head gasket I would think it would leak regardless of sitting or not.

FenderTheDefender · Sep 23, 2019

The old saying it has to get worse before it gets better. The water was gushing out the muffler after a drive. I took off the cylinder head and tore it down and took it to a machine shop. A hole in the exhaust manifold was the problem. Now I gotta get a new head. Looks like the defender will double as a chicken coupe for awhile.

300tdi using water

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