Figured out how to seal up a coolant cap. You have to cut out everything inside it, flatten it off and then you can see little holes in the lid that vent out through the "fin" shaped bits of the cap. The bits that stick out that you grip on. Filled these with hot glue, cut a disc of thin rubber sheet to sit inside the lid then sealed that with mastic.
Drilled a hole in the top and fitted a motorbike tyre valve. Spent far too long figuring out why it wouldn't pressurise and I could hear air escaping when I tried pumping the bike pump. I'd forgotten to plug the overflow pipe!
Plugged that and it pressurised right up :)
Removed the alternator, AC pump, power steering pump, tensioner, idler pulley and the brackets that hold the alternator and pumps.
Checked the o-rings for the two steel pipes that go in to the engine. They look to be OK to me:
Area around the water pump was absolutely filthy so it got cleaned up:
No obvious evidence of a leak in there.
Nor anywhere else behind the ancillaries:
From underneath with the system pressurised I can see a drop forming:
Despite removing all those bits I STILL can't see where it's coming from! It just kind of materialises at the top of that silver block and drips there. Looks like it's just inside the boundary of the exhaust manifold.
Is the head gasket somewhere in that area?
Took a short video of the engine running after putting back together just in case anyone can hear something not quite right that might point toward head gasket? I've seen people talking about a "helicopter" sound associated with head gaskets going. It's always sounded OK to me but not sure if I'm getting paranoid - is there a slight "helicopter" throbbing in there?
Wasn't looking for anything particular, just a nice day out with the family :)
Always keep an eye out though, just in case.
Parked next to a guy in a green P38 with a stainless steel exhaust. I said his sounded nice and he said "It's a Vogue 50, whatever that means, with the Cosworth V8" which baffled me a bit.
What's this Cosworth V8 all about? Or is it just a clueless owner?
Yeah, there's never any P38 stuff. Don't think I saw ANY this year.
Anyone there today?
I'm out too. Can't do the 22nd as I have a birthday BBQ to go to. Can't get out of it as it's for me!
If this is still going ahead the 29th would work better for me. I'll order everything that could be leaking coolant in the vicinity of the oil filter/alternator and get that sorted (valley gasket, O-rings etc).
Is there a date nailed down for this?
There you go :)
Gilbertd wrote:
Cheap enough to treat yours to a new one and drill the old one https://www.lrdirect.com/Parts-by-Model/Range-Rover-P38-Parts/Cooling/Expansion-Tank/PCD000070-Cap/
Ordered one from eBay for the free postage, made it slightly cheaper.
BrianH wrote:
I'd go with the suggested spare cap with a hole drilled into it if you can valve it in some way as you suggest, cheaper!
Doesn't need lots of pressure either - a hand pump like you'd have on a bike would be adequate, the advantage with doing it using just pressure is you can do it on a cold engine so its far easier to trace difficult leaks as you can prod and probe about without getting burnt (or caught in moving bits etc!)
I'm going to give the cap with a valve drilled in idea a go. I have a feeling it won't work though. I think drilling through it will cause the cap to permanently vent as if the pressure release has activated. We'll see though!
I'm now wondering if I can pick up a second tank cap, drill a hole in it and fit a tyre valve extension that we use on truck wheels.
BrianH wrote:
Your best bet might be to remove the fan and have another look - that way you know its not getting blown anywhere. Alternatively this sort of thing might help
Idea behind that is the same as Chris says above, put a bit of pressure in the system and see if you can detect any leaks that way.
Have you used this kit? It doesn't list Land Rover/Range Rover in the adapter list but does list BMW. Is the header tank on P38s a borrowed BMW item?
I think what I'll need to do is get the pressure kit, remove things like the alternator, fan and AC pump and pressurise the system to see where it comes out.
Gilbertd wrote:
Have you checked the O ring on the heater outlet from the manifold that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? That's above the oil filter.
I followed the line of where the pipe disappeared behind the alternator etc and pointed the UV torch in there - couldn't see anything.
no10chris wrote:
I’m steered towards your inlet manifold, it’s got to be high up to make it appear both sides, do you not know someone with a compressor, fill with water, shove air line with a rag wrapped round to pressurise,
I took it to my local garage (not an LR specialist) who had it for a whole day, pressure tested it and said it hold pressure fine. When I went to collect it they showed me a tiny wet patch from the radiator top hose, told me it was weeping from there and they tightened it up and it's fine. This is a lie as I know the top hose was NOT leaking when I took it in. I don't know anyone else with a pressure tester :(
BrianH wrote:
Your best bet might be to remove the fan and have another look - that way you know its not getting blown anywhere. Alternatively this sort of thing might help
Idea behind that is the same as Chris says above, put a bit of pressure in the system and see if you can detect any leaks that way.
The kit looks good but I'm not sure if it would help much. I can see where the water is running down from but the actual leak itself. If I pressurise the system wouldn't I then just see the flow I can already see but potentially a little bit faster?
At the rate I can see running down the engine on the RH side it must be more like a knitting needle hole than a pin hole!
I can actually see a flow of water.
The LH is a much slower leak, I can see drops appear every few seconds.
Now that I can see an actual flow I'm wondering about cancelling the appointment with the indy and going back to my local place. I can now point to am actual place so can see water from which guarantees there is an opening somewhere so their pressure tester won't hold pressure.
Throttle body heater has been bypassed and has no hoses attached anymore. There's also no evidence of a leak where the hose goes in to the top of the engine.
Sorry I guess I was a bit misleading when I said the coolant was "everywhere". It's everywhere in the bottom half of the engine, from about the oil filter down its over everything, I guess from it running down from the source and getting blown by the fans.
Finally got round to picking up a UV torch and some dye.
Turns out the dye was unnecessary - the Halfords coolant I've been using is already fluorescent. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good as I can already see coolant evidence but it's bad because it's fluorescent EVERYWHERE already!
The coolant is fluorescent red and shows nice and bright. I can see it running and dripping down the engines on both sides, front and back.
The dye I got is green so I put it in anyway to see if the different colour dye would make it easier to see the source against the existing backdrop of red.
It's noticeably worse at the front RH side, above the oil filter.
I don't think it's the core plugs as I understand those are under the exhaust manifolds. This leak is higher up and forward of the exhaust manifold. Shining the light all around the manifolds shows no coolant evidence.
On the LH side, it's higher up than the water pump and right over to the corner of the engine. I can't see any coolant evidence on the water pump or any of the pulleys etc.
On both sides it's higher than the oil filter/water pump but lower than the rocker cover gaskets - if I shine the UV light over the bunch of bananas and the rocker cover gaskets I can't see anything at all.
Is this starting to sound very much like a valley/lower intake manifold gasket?
I tried to take photos/videos of what I could see but it didn't really show up on camera. I guess phones have a way of filtering out that part of the light spectrum.
I found something else that surprised and slightly concerned me - when I shone the light at the top of the engine/intake manifold THE ENTIRE top surface of EVERYTHING was covered in an old faded green fluorescence. Kinda seems like at some point the coolant system had a proper meltdown and exploded all over the place. Hope what caused the flood of coolant was fixed properly by which ever previous owner had it at the time.
Luckily, there's no fluorescence on any of the interior....
The cheaper, "reliable" cars that are often bought by retirees or to be used as grocery getters will usually do far fewer miles and not be worked as hard as the larger, more expensive and "unreliable" ones that are likely bought by companies as company cars for their employees to plough up and down motorways endlessly.
Morat wrote:
The last great Jeep was the XJ and that finished in 2001. Everything since then has either been a shopping trolley or something that you'd half expect to be driven by Siegfried & Roy.
The Wrangler Rubicon looks to be a pretty damn good bit of kit. I've been following a YouTube channel recently where a husband and wife have bought one and are doing all sorts of serious offroading in it - things I never thought would be possible for a standard/near standard vehicle of any kind.
I meant to order some last time it was recommended, didn't get round to it and forgot.
Ordered some last night!
Will use that before taking it to the specialist - the booking is a couple of weeks away.
I keep a torque wrench and breaker bar under the floor, along with the locking wheel nut key and wheel nut socket.
They're fairly redundant now that I have an LPG tank instead of a spare wheel.
I have a small cardboard box that just about fits under the satnav DVD drive. I keep a top up bottle of oil, coolant, roll of tape and some kitchen roll in that.
I have to keep at least some fluids in the car given that they seem to be on a continual refresh program!
My coolant leak is slowly worsening - it was at about half a litre a week a short while ago but I think I've put close to litre in it in the last 3 days!
It's booked in to be looked at by someone now though. It's also reached a point that I'm able to see if running down the engine but not see the source. I got a short video and a photo earlier today. I think it originates somewhere behind the power steering pump but I'm not 100%. Seems higher than the waterpump/front cover gasket and more to the side.
rhyl46 wrote:
Ha ha, don't know about being under prepared, for me it's being a retired mechanic and not wanting to have to resort to being recovered or repaired by someone else.
Like Gilbertd I do tend to take parts with me when we tour the UK with the caravan but then the parts spare alternator etc are carried in the van.
I also have been known to check where the nearest L-Rover spares places near where we intend visiting are.......... bit nerdy I know LOL
TBH, I do like the idea of carrying some basic tools and spares but I have a 1 year old that I cart around everywhere. My boot space is occupied with a pushchair (a really, really big one), a changing bag and countless other things he needs/wants.
I also have the factory sub and sat nav gubbins eating up the space either side.