Some thoughts on this
1) Are you getting an air lock? I had a similar situation where it (109 2.25 petrol) ran at a decent temp then as soon as I started to climb a gradient the temp shot up. It was too quick a reaction to be the actual engine temp increase due to loading. Later when I pulled the cooling system apart to replace the thermostat due to other issues it disappeared. No reason why the thermostat would be affected by gradient
2) It's not the valve timing or what ever you have on diesels that make it go bang is it?
3) Head gasket.