Defender Td5 sucked in water now over heats - anyone experienced this?

Hello,

I'm new here so i do apologies if i am posting in the wrong area. This morning my 2000 TD5 defender sucked up water mid river crossing. As i was in the water it started to misfire, bog down and pour out tones of white / blue smoke. I manage to limp out of the river and home, i took the air filter out which was soaking wet and ripped.

I replaced the filter and dried out the airbox and took the truck for a test and all seemed well until i put my foot down and began boosting hard and then it started to over heat. It seems ok-ish at normal speeds but if you put it under any load the temp goes right up.

It never used to over heat at all, never even get halfway up the gauge. it's stage 2 remapped and still goes like hell just gets hot.

Does anyone have any ideas? I have taken the intercooler off which didn't seem to have water in but there was evidence some had gone into the intake manifold.

Any suggestions appreciated

1: Is your engine actually over heating ?, or could it be just the temperature sender.
2: have you an electric fan that may be knackered due to water ingress.
3: if not is your viscous coupling knackered on your cooling fan so not giving any cooling when you use more power.

All the above + is the radiator blocked?

1 - hard to tell, it doesn’t smell particularly hot or behave any different however under normal driving the temp gauge stays about midway but if you boost it hard or put it under load then itll increase quite fast so it does seem as if it’s reading temp ok.

2. No electric fan

3. Viscous van seems time, I’ve tried to stop it when it’s turning with a rolled up news paper and it’s got plenty of force!

Thanks for you suggestions. Seems so weird to have an over heating problem after sucking in water! I’ve never had this before.

Do you have any other suggestions?

As above then, check your radiator core for blocked/caked up fins, you may have got mud in them.
Also check for good coolant circulation and internal blockage.

Radiator looks good, I’ve taken it off and flushed it out and seemed fine. (I then dropped it and cracked the plastic) so I’ll order a new one anyway.

My fear is that the water increased pressure in the cylinders and either blew the head gasket or cracked the head.

Have you checked to see if you've got oil in the expansion tank or developing an emulsion in the oil?

If water gets into the cylinders its usually always an expensive repair.

Alex Hathway said:

Radiator looks good, I’ve taken it off and flushed it out and seemed fine. (I then dropped it and cracked the plastic) so I’ll order a new one anyway.

My fear is that the water increased pressure in the cylinders and either blew the head gasket or cracked the head.

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Sorry, missed this post before I posted mine

It could just be the head gasket blown/blowing and the sucking in water is just a red herring/coincidence, the problem was alreayd there and you just bought it to a head!
I assume you know about the early engine cyl head plastic dowels?

Yeah I’ve heard about the plastic dowel issues. It’s done 115k though on a W plate so I would be amazed if it hasn’t already had that repaired.

It’s always lost a bit of coolant and if you blipped the throttle when it was cold it used to chuck out some white. I thought the head gasket may be ok the way out.

What I can’t understand is that it doesn’t pressurise the system and there doesn’t seem to be any water in the oil. Strange!!!

Any other suggestions?

If you really have sucked water into the cylinders it could very well have damaged the head as water will not compress so its just like a solid object slamming into the top of your engine by your pistons at a very high speed. Warped head, gasket failure, piston damage, bent conrods are all posibilities of water ingress.
Depending on the amount sucked in.

Alex Hathway said:

Yeah I’ve heard about the plastic dowel issues. It’s done 115k though on a W plate so I would be amazed if it hasn’t already had that repaired.

It’s always lost a bit of coolant and if you blipped the throttle when it was cold it used to chuck out some white. I thought the head gasket may be ok the way out.

What I can’t understand is that it doesn’t pressurise the system and there doesn’t seem to be any water in the oil. Strange!!!

Any other suggestions?

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My old td5 started to pressurise and was the head gasket caused by the plastic dowels allowing the head to shuffle sideways about 5mm, no oil in water or water in oil.
Cant remember if it ran hot or not as was many years ago, but can remember it did cause the rad to start leaking soon after.
Mine was a 2001 Y plate

Do you think it is worth paying someone to take the head off or would I be better off just buying a complete engine and dropping it in?

Difficult as I’ll have to pay someone to do the work and I can imagine paying ££££ for a headgasket only for it to do the same thing and find something more serious was damaged.

@90boy Had this on a visit to Strata in Wales, turned out to be bent con rods ...

Paul D said:

@90boy Had this on a visit to Strata in Wales, turned out to be bent con rods ...

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Was it still driving completely fine? Mine still has all power and no other systems just gets hot under hard boosting

Not completely ... Lost power ...

Don’t mean to scare you mate but normally when a diesel sucks in water it bends a Conrod

I don’t mind getting the engine rebuilt if needs be but if it’s only a head gasket etc I’d rather just do that.

I know it’s common for diesels to bend rods, I’ve had it before I haven’t get any of the symptoms. It still goes like absolute f**K! Definitely no loss of power

Alex Hathway said:

I don’t mind getting the engine rebuilt if needs be but if it’s only a head gasket etc I’d rather just do that.

I know it’s common for diesels to bend rods, I’ve had it before I haven’t get any of the symptoms. It still goes like absolute f**K! Definitely no loss of power

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You may have gotten away lightly then dude... recommended you change oil and filters in case there’s water in there somewhere