Terminal or not?

RR P38. 2.5 diesel 2001.

So.... two weeks after buying the car (two years ago) the head gasket went.

The series of events were as follows;
Running fine for 2 weeks (long/short journeys)
Overheat into red, instantly stop at side of road and switch off, wait to cool down and then limp to pub carefully downhill about 1 mile downhill. Without going into the red.
Get into pub, have a few. Call recovery to take the vehicle home with me as well.
Bloke comes out fills with water. Loads it. Takes me home. I start her up the next day. Get it running, all fine, check levels, all fine. "That was odd, 'maybe an air lock" although no idea where the water went!
Drive to London (from Gloucestershire) with lots of spare water. Car overheats on M4, dangerously release top hose and pressure. Re fill with water in header till its coming from top hose, put top hose back. Continue into London, make it another 40 mins with no overheating and then it overheats, I do the same again. Get to my destination, get it towed home. Head gasket gone, further inspection and testing the head has cracked.

Now having read a little, it seems like these heads just crack if they heat into the red for any amount of time?? Is this true, I guess it depends on lots of things. In this instance I'm sure I buggered the head by running it as far as I could.

Anyway bought a replacement bare engine £350 fleabay job. Fitted. Running fine on and off for the last 18 months. (Mainly off as it has been sat doing nothing or being repaired for other reasons.)

Got it back on the road last week for the first time in three months.
Drove to London - all fine. Park somewhere have dinner at a mates, driving to another mate. It overheated. Up to red light on and restricted power. Cold air coming from heater that was supposed to be hot.

Instant thought - fuc**ng head gasket again.

Anyway wanted to push on. Limped to a garage bought some water, filled her up. Opened top hose to bleed (don't know why I do this - it worked last time I guess) started and ran for another half hour with no issues, hot air coming from hot heater.

Call bloke the next day to come and recover..
Told bloke I thought it was head gasket starting to go, he thought it was an air lock. I don't see how a car that has been running fine could develop an air lock? Can this just happen?

Anyway, also discovered once the car had been running, waiting to go onto the recovery truck with bonnet open and cap off expansion tank, the water started to get very hot (as it should) and there seemed to be circulation as the plain water I had put in the night before slowly started to mix with the antifreeze and turn from pale green to deep green. All seemed fine, hot air from heater, engine running at normal temp (half way between hot and cold on the dial) then felt the radiator and it was hot at the top and cold most of the rest of the way down. So potentially this is just a radiator blockage problem??? This would make sense as the old owner had put rad weld in to be able to sell it to me, and I completely forgot to get a new radiator or even flush this one when I put the new engine in!!!??? Idiot.


Anyway, thoughts go back to running hot and cracking the head.


So my questions are...

Do we think it's another buggered head gasket and head (no residue on oil cap, no white smoke, no oil in water)

Do you think I may have cracked the head anyway by running it hot for ten mins?

Or is it just a blocked rad?

As it stands I have bought a rad and water pump to fit this week. To see what happens.

If you have been bothered enough to read this far I appreciate the help, but potentially you might have worse problems then I.

Check that the radiator has a baffle half way along the top tank. Hot at top and cold at bottom is classic of no baffle. Coolant enters rad and goes down left side and up right side. No baffle it goes straight along the top..

wammers said:

Check that the radiator has a baffle half way along the top tank. Hot at top and cold at bottom is classic of no baffle. Coolant enters rad and goes down
left side and up right side. No baffle it goes straight along the top..

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+1

Anyway wanted to push on. Limped to a garage bought some water, filled her up..[/QUOTE]
Is this a London thing? Garages up here have water available on the forecourt - free of charge!
Have a London-based friend who stopped at Blyth services on day and bought three bottles of Volvic to refill her washer bottle. Strange ways you southerners have,,,

Beneagles said:

Anyway wanted to push on. Limped to a garage bought some water, filled her up..

Click to expand...

Is this a London thing? Garages up here have water available on the forecourt - free of charge!
Have a London-based friend who stopped at Blyth services on day and bought three bottles of Volvic to refill her washer bottle. Strange ways you southerners have,,,[/QUOTE]
Southern cars can be quite fussy,although I did hear some of them prefer Perrier, You can buy water at some filling stations and for an extra £1.50 the attendant will say good morning to you.

It usually only takes highland spring when in London. Sadly I bought three bottles with the bonnet up on the forecourt used them all came in and asked if they had a tap, of course they did. Me - flustered idiot.

Urm how do you check for baffle? And presumably without baffle it needs a new rad anyway?

Any opinion on cracked head from overheating? Suppose it's just a wait and see kind of thing.... anyone want to buy a nice P38?

bigwill said:

Any opinion on cracked head from overheating? Suppose it's just a wait and see kind of thing.... anyone want to buy a nice P38?

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A nice one, possibly. You're looking for a replacement I take it?

A year or so in and mine (out of the blue) burped all the coolant onto the tarmac. No sign of why. Missus called the RAC or whatever and they lifted it home. I went all over it and could see nothing. Refilled and it went fine. In the end (after a few weeks) I replaced the stat and the water pump as preventative maintenance and kept an eye on it. Never done it again. So, maybe the stat was starting to act up?

I bought a car from London once. Damn thing kept dumping coolant every time it got hot. It turned out the previous owner had topped up the rad with windscreen washer fluid! Apparently this is available on forecourts where the air is. No normal water available? Did make me wonder how bad the water was in London. Either way, flushed it out and replaced with proper mix and no more issues.

My 300Tdi Disco had exactly the same symptoms as the first post, a long while ago, diagnosed as 1st bust head gasket, 2nd cracked head .. It was indeed 'just' a bust radiator! The local to me company that diagnosed the head work, refunded me money and paid a lot of the labour costs for the hassle .. In my case the engine bay radiator fins were mostly missing. Couldn't see anything wrong from the front, only when we removed the cowl could we see how bad it was. Hopefully your rad will cure it ..

ok well thats all encouraging. funny you say about the washer fluid on the forecourt - Grrrrrr.... thats exactly what it had at the london garage i pulled into!

bigwill said:

ok well thats all encouraging. funny you say about the washer fluid on the forecourt - Grrrrrr.... thats exactly what it had at the london garage i pulled into!

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London's a funny place!

Hello all, new pump in (fortunate as the old one was original and plastic had fallen apart) new rad in, useful as old one had a leak. Not sure what model uses the gearbox oil cooler? Mine has a separate cooler behind where the passenger front fog light would be in the posh models.

Anyway, got about ten litres of coolant into it, I think it takes about 11.5? Followed the bleeding proceedure, not sure how to tell if it is bled properly??? The heating is nice and hot, there doesent seem to be any circulation in the header tank??? On the dial the temp is just on the white mark at the cold end whilst idling. Lifts slightly when revving.

The manual gearbox uses the rad cooler ,you should have a small amount of coolant trickling in expantion tank from the rad top vent pipe unless its blocked

bigwill said:

Hello all, new pump in (fortunate as the old one was original and plastic had fallen apart) new rad in, useful as old one had a leak. Not sure what model uses the gearbox oil cooler? Mine has a separate cooler behind where the passenger front fog light would be in the posh models.

Anyway, got about ten litres of coolant into it, I think it takes about 11.5? Followed the bleeding proceedure, not sure how to tell if it is bled properly??? The heating is nice and hot, there doesent seem to be any circulation in the header tank??? On the dial the temp is just on the white mark at the cold end whilst idling. Lifts slightly when revving.

Click to expand...

Needle should be in the middle straight up. Have got a stat fitted?

Think you might have the extra thick cor rad as after swopin mine out, the guage only gets one third of the way up now. The whole top of my old rad split with an almighty bang, taking with it a great chunk of the bonnet insulation, fank flip it was shut, only left it tikin over for some lighting at the time, tank cap should av blown first so that got replace as well. Duff visky thing was the main problem, now on twin leci.

Haven't fitted a stat, should have done really. probably do that.

managed to break the allen key cap on the belt tensioner bracket, it just sheared off but it is still in there, i can get it out so thats no problem. the seal has stayed in there also, but it looks like it is lubricated somehow? need to replace.

also everyone complaining about the fan being difficult. 32mm spanner (generally long enough on its own) decent length pry bar. insert pry bar between shaft and pulley bolt head, insert spanner (there should be enough room if you use the right pry bar). righty loosey and off she comes. it is possible i could have been lucky

My fan always comes off easily ... now. The first time the PO must have done it up with a breaker bar!

Finally water problems solved, new stat in. Needle sits nicely in the middle/straight up. Thank god. Now it's only the EAS playing up. Very slow compressor. New one needed!