Who believes in karhma?
Finally have the cooling system all situated....and it lets me down today....course the rover was supposed to be grounded with the exhaust leak.
However, my daily driver(the audi) had to go in for a little exhaust work itself....the thought was drop the rover off when I pick up the audi tonight.
Climb the hill to work...stop at the deli for breakfast....and I notice a little smoke/steam coming from uner the hood. Look under the hood....coolant is splattered all over the place. Great.
Grab b-fast...and drive the .2 mile to work...only to see the coolant light was on...now suprise. At work, I pop the hood to see if i could pinpoint the leak....didn't look like any of the hoses were lose or cracked.....start to swear to myself cause I think it could be the water pump....
start the engine....no leaks. upper hose is soft..ie no coolant in it. I look in the valley by the t-stat housing and I can see a pool of coolant, but no leaks....I tap the throttle a little bit...and sure enough coolant starts to show up in the valley. I couldn't see it coming out of the t-stat housing...but that's got to be where its coming from....right?:mad:
Within the last year. New radiator, water pump, all hoses.
T-stat is two years old.

man, let me get this straight...

You did all that and DIDN'T replace a 8.00 part at the same time?

KARMA

j

What $8 dollar part?
T-stat wasn't old...and I tested it before re-installing.
I'm betting its the seal not t-stat itself....or do you think different?
If the t-stat failed...it would have overheated. It didn't overheat.

I've had similar t-stat problems. This has happened to me and gives the same symptoms you have.

On install if it's not seated in there just right it will slip down and you won't know it until you are experiencing problems like you are now.

It's a bitch, but you're going to have to take off the t-stat housing, clean all the gasket crap off there and re-do it. Make DAMN SURE that it isn't falling out when you slide the housing in there. I know it's tricky.

Use 'Right Stuff' for your gasket too.

Good luck.

ya....I remember it being kind of fun to put the housing on last time. Tough to get at if I remember right.
I'm suprised it quit now....but I guess nothing should suprise me anymore.

i just got all my junk back together last night. i had the wp fail, so i replaced Tstat, shroud, buncha hoses & fan (i got mike's 25.00 vatozone fan). after work, i gotta see how i did- Tstat was a pita to get in there and sit correctly.
waiting for another warning letter from the emmer effein HOA about noise and oil puddles in the carport:rolleyes:

We should swap pics of oil-stained driveways. Mine's pretty bad.

I'm trying to decide if I ought to clean it up a little before I sell the house this fall.

Pendy says Tide laundry detergent works well on driveways. I think I might give it a go and see how it works.

Good luck on the t-stat install. It does suck to think that the works all done and then this crap happens.

I had to replace the lower hose on friday on the RRC. Drove it around great for a day, then we pull into the driveway and there's coolant spewing all over the driveway.

I just shake my head and go inside for a while to cool down (and let the engine cool down too...never overheated, just hot).

Well, come to find the upper hose clamp was pretty shot and let the hose leak badly. I tore everything out, belts, pullies, to get a good look at what was happening down there.

Double hose-clamped the upper hose and all is well...(for now).

Tide and a broom to run it in.

I always use a Rover t-stat gasket when doing this job. I clean the housing with a dotco and smear a light coat of sealer on the housing also.

Hello spring
Jim Pendleton

Of course I've got to get this thing home.......the one time I didn't bring my tools with me.:rolleyes:
Thank god its mostly down hill.

Of course I've got to get this thing home.......the one time I didn't bring my tools with me.

whining!! neener-neener-neener :flipoff2:

driveway cleaning - simple green and a power washer works great, and is better for our bitch, Gaia.

for the real stained up spots, just splash the stuff on full strength and let it sit for about an hour, then rinse it away. if you need to a small hand brush will knock off most anything that doesn't cleanup the first time.

I use a sears power-wash attachment that uses a garden hose and any air-compressor capable of sustaining ~100 to 120PSI. no need for the rented or big 1000 PSI monsters.

what ever you say Martha Stewart......jeez tech about cleaning stains.:beret: shameful.
Left for lunch....went to the rover to have another look now that it has cooled.
Realized that I left my ratchet and 1/2 socket in the truck. Bonus..
Of course I could only reach one of the t-stat bolts....it turned way to easily...not sure I like where this is going. Tightened it until I got a little resistance. Start it up...hit a little bit a throttle and coolant squirts out...
Now that I think of it, the t-stat itself should block a significant amount of coolant on a cold engine on startup if it was seated properly.
Hope the bolt just vibrated loose and didn't strip out.

PUFFDRAGON posting under Franks account

To install a t-stat wihtout issue, you can spray the flange surface with 3M spray adhesive. You know the kind for installing auto carpeting. Then spray the housing wiht a little. Let it tack up, and then stick the t-stat. It will stay in place while you are installing the housing. I like using the LR gasket, and I use the 3M in the same manner for the gasket. But Right stuff will work just as good here as well. We Use 3M adhesive for all our gaskets except for head gaskets and a few others. And know its not any harder to remove the gasket later for replacement. It comes right off wiht a sharp razor blade.

excellant idea....thanks. Wish I had thought of that the last time.

I swear it took me hours last time trying to get the t-stat to stay in place as I fiddled with putting the housing in.

any ideas for making my hands smaller to get the housing itself mated up?

i have had more than one thermostat bolt hole strip.

I went larger on the bolt after retapping.


j

Originally posted by sachilles


any ideas for making my hands smaller to get the housing itself mated up?

Yeah quit stroking it.

JP

Hi,

nice to see some things are universal with Solihull products...

My RRC leaks coolant, has leaked for 2 years I've had it, but so little I have not had the energy to find the leakind spot, I suspect aux heater water pump because it makes a terrible sound when I turn the eberspächer on when it's colder than -20 celsius (that's -4 in fahrenheit scale according to a convert utility (http://www.joshmadison.com/software/convert/)).

And the place I keep my rangie is *very* oil-stained, both diffs were leaking quite badly, enough hits from rocks does no good for rover axle housings... Leaks from the engine and gearboxes are the normal rover leaks.

-Paavo

Originally posted by pendy


Yeah quit stroking it.

JP
Its not my forearms that are getting in the way:flipoff2:


Checking out the situation last night.....after getting the truck home....its possible that its the heater hose. both heater hoses look kind of crappy....so I'll replace those while I'm in there. Looks like that could be a tight fit as well.

-seth

Finally back from vacation, and had a spare minute to work on the truck. The good news is that it isn't the t-stat housing, its one of the heater hoses, the longer one. Had a crack on the lower side of the hose that could not be seen from above.
Thought about using a generic hose to replace it, but in speaking with a mechanic friend of mine, he suggested that if there were any 90° bends that I not do that, because it could kink the line and block it. He suggested I go to the parts store and try to match the hose up.
Seeing as this is a buick engine.....anyone know of a buick that might have the same setup?? You know how parts monkeys are...any leads I can give them the better off I'll be.

Oddity I noticed while I was in there. I go to remove the cap, to free up some room to get at the hose, and I notice that its not on straight at all....not sure how this thing ran like that....I don't think I accidently moved it either before noticing this...but I could be wrong.
I also noticed that where the vacuum line hooks up to the distributor, there is the little horn....this piece is sitting loosely on it. It appears that it should have two bolts holding it on to the distributor...how big of a problem could that be?

Finally back from vacation, and had a spare minute to work on the truck. The good news is that it isn't the t-stat housing, its one of the heater hoses, the longer one. Had a crack on the lower side of the hose that could not be seen from above.
Thought about using a generic hose to replace it, but in speaking with a mechanic friend of mine, he suggested that if there were any 90° bends that I not do that, because it could kink the line and block it. He suggested I go to the parts store and try to match the hose up.
Seeing as this is a buick engine.....anyone know of a buick that might have the same setup?? You know how parts monkeys are...any leads I can give them the better off I'll be.

Oddity I noticed while I was in there. I go to remove the cap, to free up some room to get at the hose, and I notice that its not on straight at all....not sure how this thing ran like that....I don't think I accidently moved it either before noticing this...but I could be wrong.
I also noticed that where the vacuum line hooks up to the distributor, there is the little horn....this piece is sitting loosely on it. It appears that it should have two bolts holding it on to the distributor...how big of a problem could that be?
Got pressure tester?

Negative on the pressure tester.
However, I do have all new hoses with the exception of the heater hoses....I think Serious one calls it Land Rover Russian Roulette.
Should have changed the heater lines at the same time, I know.

Negative on the pressure tester.
However, I do have all new hoses with the exception of the heater hoses....I think Serious one calls it Land Rover Russian Roulette.
Should have changed the heater lines at the same time, I know.
you should buy a pressure tester. 20 bucks is a cheap tool for something you'll never break, and always need.

j

I'm sure its a good tool to have.
Forgive my ignorance....but how would it help me in this case?
Are you suggesting that the hose broke do to excess pressure, and not because it was old and brittle....the thing was pretty old and nasty.
What amount of pressure would be excessive?

Btw....went to the parts store and was able to find a similar hose. Cost me about $8.

This might not help, but on that heater hose; I have had to get creative when doing engine swaps on this kind of thing. Often, you can use plastic hose barbs (90's,45's) to get rid of the kinks & use regular rubber heater hose of the role at parts stores. OFten results in a much cleaner run of hose.

Actually the parts store guy suggested that....then we discovered that they didn't have any 45° bends to use.

Oh well, seemed to work out just fine....a little harder to put it on than it was to take it off. It looks as though there is a little kink, but everything seems to be flowing just fine.
Put things back together......of course the advance was a little wacked(read above)...once I got that hooked back up it ran just fine.
Now I just have to fix everything else on the list :rolleyes:

Actually the parts store guy suggested that....then we discovered that they didn't have any 45° bends to use.

Oh well, seemed to work out just fine....a little harder to put it on than it was to take it off. It looks as though there is a little kink, but everything seems to be flowing just fine.
Put things back together......of course the advance was a little wacked(read above)...once I got that hooked back up it ran just fine.
Now I just have to fix everything else on the list :rolleyes:

For future refernce, Goodyear makes a no-kink hose (shut up merv). It's blue and called the "super high miler". Sold by the foot, big parts stores will have it, and goodyear company stores should have it as well.

j

I'm not convinced that I got all of the air bled out of the system yet....but all seems well after some rather aggressive testing on the hills around town.

I believe I also found the source of my exhaust leak....looks like its around the welds of the cats(both of them)....my inspection isn't due until august...so I might just straight pipe it until then. Fortunately it was warm enough to drive around with the windows down. I'll drop it off for the exhaust work sunday night.
May have to cut out of work early to do a little off-road testing :smokin: