using water

Hi
I have a landy 90 2.5td thats using about 1litre water per 20mile run!

Shes running fine with no problems starting or running apart from water usage.

Cannot see any leaks and no water signs in the oil.

Help please

any white smoke from the exhaust? If there is no sign of leakage then its quite likely to be the head gasket. Has the engine got too hot recently? Jai

No white smoke and the engine has not got hot - just above normal when i found it using load of water - could there be a leak in the heater box? Head gasket - sounds a hard job?

have you checked the rad or rad hoses?..its a case of trying all the obvious bits first like water pump rad and all parts where water is.or as jai says could be head gasket or a crack in the head..tds are not known for there reliability i should know i got the bank balance to prove it..junk it and whack in a tdi,i did and my god wot a difference

Have checked all the hoses etc and can not find any leaks - it uses a lot of water - 6 mile trip today and a litre of water! - if it was a head gasket problem surely the leak would be into the cylinders and this would make it hard or imposable to start??? - no leak into the oil as no mushy stuff?

Try a run with the radiator cap clipped on JUST, but not tightened down.
This will keep the water in but will not let the system pressurise.

Now see if it still uses water.

If you fill the header tank brim full COLD, it WILL eject quite a lot of water when it heats up due to expansion, and when it cools down it will appear to have lost water.
Are you brimming it when cold?

I don't think it's a head gasket jobby .... yet ...

CharlesY

I'd second CharlesY's response, is it remotely possible that what you're seeing is just loss through overfilling in the first place?

Is this a new problem or has it always done it?

At the end of the day, if it really is 'using' the water then it must be going somewhere and there will be evidence of that usage, either in the exhaust, or on the ground or swilling around somewhere else.

Does the fluid level drop while idling? Are you absolutely sure it's not coming out somewhere within the engine bay?

Hello
AM with you guys (the last 2 posts - CharlesY and Cobnut) - there is no signs of leaks - No white smoke - no water in the oil and bad starting ( water in a clynder) - but where is it going??

Here we go - a fresh start - top the water up to mid way on the expasion tank - set off - back home having done 12miles (let it cool) and no water in the expasion tank (outlet hole visable with no water around it) - top it back up - it takes just under 1 litre to put it back to the mid way mark again!

The thing is Landy is running fine - no problems aparts from this.

A mate has told me about K-Seal and to try it (details here - K-Seal, K-Tek, QuikSteel, QuikTape, Just-For-Copper

May not get to the bottom of my problem but if it finds my leak - well!

Really have to diagnose exactly where its going before guessing and buying K seal. A work college put it in his Rover V6, lasted about 2 hours and then he finally paid out over a grand to get it fixed. Its using too much to be overfilled IMO. Its got to be going somewhere mabe you need to retrace everything being very very observant these things can somtimes be a right pain to find exactly where the water is going. Jai

how about small pin hole that only leaks when the pressure and heat builds, have a look while engine is running

Do,nt forget the heater.
If you got a leak from the heater matrix thats going to run done the back and out the bottom of the heater box.
Your looking at the engine and rad but this has still got the same water do,nt miss it!

You could bypass the heater (join both hoses together with some 15mm copper pipe) and see if you're still losing water.
If not there's your problem. It's a heater box out job to change the matrix but its not rocket science.