Cooling system

Hi all, I had an issue with my cooling system so here we go, I have got a series 3 109 with a defender 2.5td unit that has been thrown in, (story for another thread) and she was running hot, she did not have a radiator cowl fitted (got one), I was not sure if she had the series temp sender fitted so I am fitting a capillary gauge (ordered) the radiator had a slight leak and the heater matrix was battered (both at Wakefield radiators being tested and repaired) the chap is also going to try and get some extra cooling into the radiator if he can. what stat should be fitted? and apart from reverse flushing of the block is there anything else you would recommend that may help?



Regards Paul

check the current stat isn't knackered, series gauge and sender should work on it though

Half way down the block you should find a tap which will allow you to drain the engine.

If you open that up and flush copious amounts of water through it, you should be able to get rid of most of the accumulated sludge.

Cooling system water pump and alternator both driven by fan belt is there a link between your two problems?

thanks for your feedback, right the chap at wakefield radiators rang me today and he told my my rad was a right off with at least 3 leaks, so he can get me a four core rad £200 ish, my question is would a Hot Climate (High Performance) rad be required or would a standard series rad be able to keep the 2.5 TD cool? has any one ran a 2.5 TD with a standard series rad and if so was it upto the job?
regards Paul

standard should do

Why couldn't he re-core it?

he said it was beyond repair:confused2:

The usual suspects advertise 4 core rads in the LR mags £120ish Not bought one to know if comes in blue box though.

My series2a shows on the gauge that it is running hot yet on inspection it does not smell hot or feel excessively hot. Could the wrong thermostat be fitted as I know there are two that could be fitted or could it be wired up to the gauge wrong.

Rob does your fuel gauge read right as they are both fed from same place which is a voltage regulator on the back of the speedo this is supposed to reduce the voltage to 10V if it is getting 12V it will read high.

Blackburn the fuel gauge seems to be working as it should. I now know the wiring is not a likely problem as there is only one wire from the sensor but another possibility is a failed sensor, still haven't ruled out a failed thermostat.

Might be worth getting one of these?

dominicbeesley, I seriously hope you are joking that is far to shiny to put on my 2a. Joking aside I do not think the head is the problem as it starts and runs well just shows hot on the temp gauge.

You don't put it on, its a hand-held thermometer to tell you how hot things actually are. It's a lot more useful than you'd think until you've got one. You just point it at the head, block, rad, your own balls, to see how hot they are.

If your head was knackered I think you'd be losing water or oil. You need to check if it actually is getting hot. I'd order the temp thing and as they're only pennies and easy to fit I'd replace the sensor.

I ran a 2.5 td 90 for years,the rad is a big one to cope with all that heat of a non intercooled turbo and if not kept in good order overheating was soon a problem when giving it some work. I do not think a series one would be up to it, at least not a standard one. As dominecbeesley says get a remote temp reader and find out what the real temp is.