Defender TD5 Coolant Bottle Noise

Hi there,

My second post.

I have a 1999 defender which has been having some issues of late. I have been noticing that every time I stop and turn the engine off I can hear bubbles in the coolant bottle, when I say bubbles imagine the sound of a hose under water. Like as if air is coming up into the bottle making a gulping sound. It’s not over heating and I have just put a new cap on the bottle. I'm thinking either there is air in the system or the head is gone. Any thoughts? Take the cap off and leave it idle for a while might take the air out, although I fear the worst. Fuel pump also went, she’s at home with a hole in the floor and no fuel pump as I type :doh:

Thanks!

If your not sure get it sniff tested asap cos it sounds to me like it is the head pressurizing the system and it will blow pipes apart.

Ratty knows about this and if you decide the head needs checking make sure it is heated for crack testing.

Make sure that the cap is fully tightened and let it run a bit with the bleed nipple out, u must have a clean/airless flow there..... refill the expansion tank if u loose much fluid while bleeding.

Thanks for the reply, will try let air out first then get the pressure tested, once the fuel pump is in of course, will let you know how I get on!

So the fuel pump is in and sounding great and the noise in the coolant bottle has gone away, possibly just some air? Will leave it for a while and see, going to flush the coolant and stick a new fuel filter in

mine went through a phase of that last year after changing the coolent and adding antifreeze...... bleed it a couple of times and "appears" to have gone away, I also had the dread of head failure as I think mine is a 10P engine and I understand some of them had issues

So the head is gone.... All the coolant out and engine over heating, got her home just about. So the head is going to come off but I have a few questions... Much thanks in advance!

Can I skim it? I have heard you can if its not warped and just fit a thicker gasket, I would prefer this option due to money. If it cant be skimmed is there any where I can buy a reconditioned head?

Whats the story with the dowels, mine is a '99 110, should I replace the dowels with metal ones or can I do it at all?

Any advice at all would be great.

You should have a 10P engine which means that it would have had the nilon dowles when it was built, weather or not it still has them you won't know until you remove the head. They could have been changed before which means the head could have been skimmed before and I don't know if you can have it done twice.

There will be someone along that has done before but you would be best to check your engine number just to check.

Fresh Cod said:

So the head is gone.... All the coolant out and engine over heating, got her home just about. So the head is going to come off but I have a few questions... Much thanks in advance!

Can I skim it? I have heard you can if its not warped and just fit a thicker gasket, I would prefer this option due to money. If it cant be skimmed is there any where I can buy a reconditioned head?

Click to expand...

Some places will skim the TD5 head but you need to make sure that the valves and seats are also refaced otherwise you WILL get valve to piston contact no matter what head gasket you fit. LR say it can not be done but there are more than a few TD5 running around with skimmed heads.
Best place for TD5 heads is Turner Engineering.

Land Rover TD5 cylinder head LDF500170, LDF500160, 300TDI cylinder head, 2.0TCie Freelander cylinder head LDF107830L, 2.5 & 2.5TD new short engine assembly and cylinder head, STC 803, LDF109390L 1.8 Freelander petrol cylinder head, crankshafts 300TDI

Fresh Cod said:

Whats the story with the dowels, mine is a '99 110, should I replace the dowels with metal ones or can I do it at all?

Click to expand...

Yes you would be daft not to replace the nylon dowels with steel ones whilst the head is off. Chances are that any nylon dowels will be damaged taking the head off.

Fresh Cod said:

Any advice at all would be great.

Click to expand...

Dont take any short cuts or you'll end up having to take it all apart again.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated, I have spoken to the people in Turners and they are very helpfull I must say - so its looking like a new cylinder head is the best way to go. Will I have to get the ECU re mapped if I put a new cylinder head on?

Are you getting the Santana head? also you might want to ask them if they can do any thing with better performance to the head? I do think they have them for the racing teams!!!! worth a question, could you lets us know the answer. Thanks FT

So the saga continues, I have found a good engine from a well know source at a reasonable price so I'm going to put a new engine in which will work out less then a new head. Managed to also pick up an ECU that is chipped so that should increase the fun, old engine will be out tonight. I have noticed some oil in the loom on the new engine so that will need sorting, when I take off the rocker cover and put in new gasket do I need to use any sealant when putting the rocker cover back on?

Thanks!

Fresh Cod said:

So the saga continues, I have found a good engine from a well know source at a reasonable price so I'm going to put a new engine in which will work out less then a new head. Managed to also pick up an ECU that is chipped so that should increase the fun, old engine will be out tonight. I have noticed some oil in the loom on the new engine so that will need sorting, when I take off the rocker cover and put in new gasket do I need to use any sealant when putting the rocker cover back on?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Sealant yes will not hurt
Oil in loom where they plug in there was a recall on them so if still under warranty they replace, or you can buy it and fit it. The new one has better seals so oil won't get into loom. Clean out with carb cleaner sprayed into loom and blow out with air hose

Thanks for that, the warranty is long gone, I was still in school when it was bought by the first owner and thats a long time ago now! Have the engine out so will be getting stuck into the donar tonight.

Couldn't u put a pic m8, cos it's hard this way

Image in the below link, just been looking around the web and think it could be the alternator multi plug? Couldn't see anything last night, was working in the dark. The inlet manifold is in the top of the picture.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/43/32699589.jpg/

I can't zoom in enough to see clear but if it's a female plug with 3 connections that's the alternator plug there

sierrafery said:

I can't zoom in enough to see clear but if it's a female plug with 3 connections that's the alternator plug there

Click to expand...

It sure is, thanks for your help, much appreciated, couldn't see it last night at all! Will fire her up this evening and see what happens...