freelander 1.8 HGF or thermostat?

My 2000 1.8 freelander is over-heating, which I assumed was the usual HGF problem. However, there is just one thing that is puzzling me slightly. The car has has the upgraded thermostat/hoses kit fitted and it looks like the head has been off recently since the manifold bolts have been disturbed and some of the camshaft cover bolts are new - possibly implying a HG change has already been done?

The thing is, the bottom hose out of the radiator is stone cold - even when the engine is hot and the fans have come on. Does this imply that the raditor is ultra efficient and is cooling the coolant extremely well, or is there a (miniscule!) chance that the HG is ok and the thermostat is not working correctly.

Surely if the HG had blown and was over-heating the coolant, the radiator wolud be working overtime to try and get the temperature back down and bottom hose would be hot anyway.

It's a long shot and I'm expecting the worst, but could the problem lie with the thermostat?

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Ian

Multiple HGF failures are common. Cold rad could be an fooked thermostat or even an airlock in the system. try running it with the expansion tank cap off and see if the coolant is flowing thru the tank as it heats up.

The coolant is going through the expansion tank.

How do you bleed the system with the upgaraded hoses fitted? Hasn't the bleed screw been removed when changing the hoses or am I wrong there?

Oops! my mistake on the bleed screw - it's a bit further along than I thought. Amazing what you can see in daylight!

mine was doing the same thing cold bottom hose replaced the thermostat for a new one job done!
Oh! by the way the thermostats come in different temp openings
- get a grey one it opens at a lower temp than a standard one

Thanks Edge. Can you enlighten me further:-

Do you need the whole grey plastic bit or does that come apart and contain the thermostat?
Who/where sells them and how much?
Cheers.

its a sealed unit.

like the man said its all one unit
the original on mine was a off white ish .
Any good landrover specialist will know about different temp stats
I am assuming that you have a remote thermostat fitted (its down on the right hand of the engine as you look at it from the front)
3 pipes ,bottom hose in ,by-pass hose and main outlet out as it were