S

suhsi99

New Member
Hello all.
I have just finished replacing the head on my 2004 130 TD5 Defender. She started nicely and running at about 85 to 88 degrees water temp. (Short test run). However the forums/specs show 12 litres of coolant and I have only added 7 litres. So I am a bit puzzled - am I in for a shock/overheat?

I opened the top screw to let air out of the main coolant pipe so I do not think there is any air at that point.

Any ideas or suggestions will be welcome - preferably before I do a longer road test tomorrow.
 
12 litres is probably a completly empty system.
You only took off the head so you dont have that. Did you drain it before? How?
Keep an eye on it for anymore air.

J
 
suhsi99 said:
Hello all.
I have just finished replacing the head on my 2004 130 TD5 Defender. She started nicely and running at about 85 to 88 degrees water temp. (Short test run). However the forums/specs show 12 litres of coolant and I have only added 7 litres. So I am a bit puzzled - am I in for a shock/overheat?

I opened the top screw to let air out of the main coolant pipe so I do not think there is any air at that point.

Any ideas or suggestions will be welcome - preferably before I do a longer road test tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Remember the block can hang on to a few pints and the heater matrix also ... isn't there a bleed valve on the fuel cooler ?

Did you mix 13 litres at 50% concentration and only put 7 in ?
 
Last edited:
Hi all - thank you for the replies - you are 100% right - before I dd my test drive today I called one of my Pretoria-based TD5 gurus. He also reminded me that the block and heater store coolant. I actually took out 500ml because it was still too full after bleeding the pipes.

In answer to one of the questions - I did a 50/50 water mix for the 7 litres. Maybe a future top up should be 100% anti freeze to get the balance right.

Good news though - I connected my new "TD5-SPY" and monitored the heat real-time today. Only about 80 km of chores and pickups but temp remained at 90 deg C and below the whole time. So I guess some success!
 
Scooby22 said:
They may have been a significant amount of coolant left in the block
Click to expand...
Did a reply to all - thank you for your comment and I think this was exactly the issue. Block and heater obviously had coolant which I neglected to consider.
 
suhsi99 said:
In answer to one of the questions - I did a 50/50 water mix for the 7 litres. Maybe a future top up should be 100% anti freeze to get the balance right.
Click to expand...
A future top up of 100% :oops: no don't do that!

The efficiency and protection offered by antifreeze starts to fall after 50% concentration.
 
Eldon said:
A future top up of 100% :oops: no don't do that!

The efficiency and protection offered by antifreeze starts to fall after 50% concentration.
Click to expand...
OK - did not know that - so keep it at or under 50%?
Also want to avoid rust buildup in the block and possible corrosion of the oil cooler and water pump.
 
Protection climbs up to around 50% then starts to drop off giving no benefit.
I run my bikes at around the 30% mark.

You could test the current fluids specific gravity with a dropper float device. This would give you an idea where you currently are, or alternatively, just dump the lot after running for a while i.e. warmer weather to be messing about, flush with clean water and refill from zero.
 
Eldon said:
Protection climbs up to around 50% then starts to drop off giving no benefit.
I run my bikes at around the 30% mark.

You could test the current fluids specific gravity with a dropper float device. This would give you an idea where you currently are, or alternatively, just dump the lot after running for a while i.e. warmer weather to be messing about, flush with clean water and refill from zero.
Click to expand...

If you're going to play that game and expense, you should back flush the rad and matrix ...

Or you can trust the stuff to do what it says on the tin ...
 
Eldon said:
Protection climbs up to around 50% then starts to drop off giving no benefit.
I run my bikes at around the 30% mark.

You could test the current fluids specific gravity with a dropper float device. This would give you an idea where you currently are, or alternatively, just dump the lot after running for a while i.e. warmer weather to be messing about, flush with clean water and refill from zero.
Click to expand...
Good advice, thanks.
 
marjon said:
12 litres is probably a completly empty system.
You only took off the head so you dont have that. Did you drain it before? How?
Keep an eye on it for anymore air.

J
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comment - yes this morning my "black box" device gave a low coolant error within one block from the house. Stopped to check for leaks and did not see any. Added 1 litre of anti-freeze mix. Remainder of today did my chores and testing and coolant remained under 90 degrees the whole time.

So thus far I am happier with the results despite having taken the head off four times now and done an engine rebuild at the end of 2023. (I think I will do a separate post of this in the 90/110/130 forums as I learned some hard lessons over the past few years.)

I will check levels tomorrow but it is possible that I have filled up all the available spaces for the coolant :)
 
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