Disco 2 Catastrophic water leak.

To see if the pump is working undo the bleed screw, start the engine and push the throttle to above 2000rpm, the coolant should come out with presssure, even up to the bonnet with a working pump, it's a bit messy but this way you can check it.

DefenderPilot said:

Cheers Mr. Steamer. I'm assuming the pump impeller has been sheared off the shaft when trying to start the engine with the coolant frozen. There doesn't appear to be any return flow into the header tank with the engine running so I'm assuming the pump isn't pumping. I'm going to remove it tomorrow anyway so it should be obvious if that's the culprit.

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I'd forgotten how it happened. Naughty you for not having any antifreeze in!
In that circumstance I would have expected the drive belt to have shrieked and slipped. But who knows.
If you have no return flow it sounds like you are right.
If it needs bleeding it still won't overheat, but yes it is a beggar to bleed and no manual or hardly tells you you have to rev it while bleeding to ensure you get rid of all the air. It took me a while to do that!
Best of luck!

sierrafery said:

To see if the pump is working undo the bleed screw, start the engine and push the throttle to above 2000rpm, the coolant should come out with presssure, even up to the bonnet with a working pump, it's a bit messy but this way you can check it.

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Our posts crossed but I hope he hasn't fecked the pump!

About the antifreeze. When I'd finshed building it I just filled the engine with water to make sure there were no leaks. It was my intention to drive it like that for a week or two to make sure no leaks appeared then drain it and refill with water/antifreeze. It just got forgotten about. The car is also usually kept in the garage but it was so filthy and dripping slush/mud after an unscheduled off road excursion during the recent snowy weather we had I left it outside overnight so as not to get the garage floor covered in crap. Oh well.

As I suspected, these water pumps are not designed to pump solids. The impeller was loose on the shaft.

DefenderPilot said:

As I suspected, these water pumps are not designed to pump solids. The impeller was loose on the shaft.

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Well at least you are now sure of the problem and will be able to go ahead and fix it.
Best of luck with reassembly.

Finally got around to fitting the new pump today. I've been on night shifts and also waiting for some parts for the exhaust manifold, which I wanted to sort out while the water pump was out. Anyway, the new pump has cured the overheating problem, as expected.

DefenderPilot said:

Finally got around to fitting the new pump today. I've been on night shifts and also waiting for some parts for the exhaust manifold, which I wanted to sort out while the water pump was out. Anyway, the new pump has cured the overheating problem, as expected.

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Good for you!
You must have decided to take the exhaust manifold off beforehand then as you didn't need to do that to replace the pump.
Has it been blowing and is it warped?

Yes. The manifold has been blowing for ages and I've been putting it off. Easier to do with that big bracket out of the way and it's MOT time soon so thought I'd better get it sorted. More details on that in my project thread.

DefenderPilot said:

Yes. The manifold has been blowing for ages and I've been putting it off. Easier to do with that big bracket out of the way and it's MOT time soon so thought I'd better get it sorted. More details on that in my project thread.

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Best of luck with it and hope you don't have to drill many studs out!