vtwin

Active Member
Eas seemed a bit better Friday so Saturday checked it over and the water was down about about a pint which it has never been before, topped up and set off with an empty trailer on a 30 mile trip, about 28 miles in the temp went into the red, I eased off and took a side road and it came back to normal quickly, no sign of steam or anything untoward. Took the cap off and not much pressure, with it still running I dribbled in a couple of pints and it was looking good. a couple of hours later I left for home and after 10 miles it went into the red and was pressured up like hell and making hot noises, kept it ticking over and cooled it down enough to remove the cap and top up, after a mile same again, this time I left the cap off and it went well all the way back taking it easy. Rad, pump, thermostat all new this year and since then it has done many miles with loaded trailer and no sign of overheating, no sign of water leaks, carpets dry, oil clean.
I get the horrible feeling the head has a small crack as when its cold its fine. This could be it for the P38 journey for me.
2001 Diesel forgot to say.
 
I know nothing about P38's but I would have thought a decent second hand head would be easy enough to get hold of. I supose it depends on the condition of the vehicle whether it is worth saving.

Col
 
Eas seemed a bit better Friday so Saturday checked it over and the water was down about about a pint which it has never been before, topped up and set off with an empty trailer on a 30 mile trip, about 28 miles in the temp went into the red, I eased off and took a side road and it came back to normal quickly, no sign of steam or anything untoward. Took the cap off and not much pressure, with it still running I dribbled in a couple of pints and it was looking good. a couple of hours later I left for home and after 10 miles it went into the red and was pressured up like hell and making hot noises, kept it ticking over and cooled it down enough to remove the cap and top up, after a mile same again, this time I left the cap off and it went well all the way back taking it easy. Rad, pump, thermostat all new this year and since then it has done many miles with loaded trailer and no sign of overheating, no sign of water leaks, carpets dry, oil clean.
I get the horrible feeling the head has a small crack as when its cold its fine. This could be it for the P38 journey for me.
2001 Diesel forgot to say.

See my last thread on this. I think I started one.

Doesn't sound good but rule out the easy stuff like viscous fan and water pump first. If you can pressurise the chambers you'll see if it pushes coolant out or not. After that, head off to see if gasket or head cracked.

Are you anywhere near Bucks?
 
What speeds were you doing when it overheated? If you were going slow it could be the viscous fan.

I’d be inclined to just replace it and the rad fan. It’s an easy one to do :)
 
What speeds were you doing when it overheated? If you were going slow it could be the viscous fan.

I’d be inclined to just replace it and the rad fan. It’s an easy one to do :)
Bin the viscous and do my aircon fans mod to use the electric fans for cooling.
 
Many thanks for all the replies, I fitted a new viscous fan a few years ago now but it could be the problem, water pump is new this year and was a metal impeller, I feel if it was the water pump it would overheat fairly quickly? I thought it might be a cracked head as the water level was down in the morning which I think had overflowed due to over pressure on the previous trip.

I had to buy something quick to tow with so I wont look at the P38 until this cold spell ends. So driving a Defender every day I find its not a patch on the P38 for comfort, drivers space and my dodgy left knee is protesting about gear changes all the time! Oh how life was so simple on a heated seat! LOL
 

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