Landie cooling issue - RV8

[Lewis]

Having a few teething troubles with my mate's Landie and just wondered if anyone could give us a few pointers. Seems to think I might know something about RV8s for some reason

He's had it for a while now and it drove excellently, not a sign of overheating and never got about 1/2 on the gauge with the Kenlowe on.

Now, I've noticed that the fan is very poorly installed (about 2" from the radiator with no shroud which probably doesn't help but anyway, going to help him fix that tomorrow by relocating the brackets.

Basically when you start the Rover it'll idle and takes about 5-10 minutes to start bringing up the temperature which seems fine to me.

However, if you're stationary after this the temperature spikes up to almost the red. As soon as you move off (oddly) it drops very quickly back to the middle region of the gauge.

We took it out around town and it did exactly this, creeping up when in slow traffic as well to almost the red. When we pulled over and looked underneath, it'd dropped a bit of coolant on the floor. Couldn't see for the life of us where it was coming from but one of the hoses looks a bit suspect.

Now it's back on his drive it's again dropped a little bit of coolant. Engine sounds fantastic, goes well, no smoke and doesn't feel dangerously hot but the expansion tank is quite toasty. The coolant leakage might just be from him being a bit happy-go-lucky topping up the header tank, as it's got no markings and is a little thing at best.

All radiator hoses feel toasty so obviously there's flow through it.

I'm thinking that this might be a jammed or damaged thermostat?

Or at worst a dodgy waterpump (slipping at low speeds?).

Anyone got any common pointers, or what to look for? I'm going to get him to change the thermo as a matter of trial as it's only a cheap part

[Lewis]

Just thought I'd say I tried consulting the Database but it's down so I can't get at the old stuff!

[Lewis]

Well, bit of an update - ran it without the expansion cap for a bit and there was a big 'glug' as what I presume was a large quantity of air burped out.

Seems to hold OK now (left it idling for a while, noted the fan come on etc).

Does still sit too heavy in traffic (just under or over 3/4) so will make it my primary target to move the fan onto the radiator, instead of vaguely in the area

Got a new thermo & coolant too, so may as well do that whilst I'm there

[ramon alban]

Well, bit of an update - ran it without the expansion cap for a bit and there was a big 'glug' as what I presume was a large quantity of air burped out.

Seems to hold OK now (left it idling for a while, noted the fan come on etc).

Does still sit too heavy in traffic (just under or over 3/4) so will make it my primary target to move the fan onto the radiator, instead of vaguely in the area

Got a new thermo & coolant too, so may as well do that whilst I'm there

You had and may still have airlocks. Make sure the rad is full, and the expansion tank also, raise the idle speed to 2000 or so with cap off, watch it burp, pour in some coolant to fill the tank and jam the lid on. Blip the throttle a few times and watch the engine suck coolant from the tank, take the cap off, fill the tank again and repeat all this a few times until no more burps.

Job done. The above works fine on my SD1, dont know about other systems.

[Lewis]

OK, thanks! I've got it outside at the moment so we'll go play.

Finish our cheese sandwiches though first!

Thanks Ramon - and also, thanks for the EFi guide. Found my CO adjustment screw was all the way in on the flapper. Wound it out 2.5 turns, now it doesn't do that 'rythmic hunting' either and (although probably placebo) goes better as well!

Top marks!

[ChrisJC]

What sort of Landie is it?, the series radiator is marginal with an electric fan.

Chris.

[Lewis]

A series III, SWB.

Fixed it now! Did as Ramon suggested and got about 2 litres into the cooling system

All sorted now, runs dead cool and even in traffic the fan takes it down, and switches off and it sits there contentedly.

Tomorrow we'll take it for another jaunt and see if any of the fluid has disappeared or not

[ramon alban]

Fixed it now! Did as Ramon suggested and got about 2 litres into the cooling system

All sorted now, runs dead cool and even in traffic the fan takes it down, and switches off and it sits there contentedly.

Good news Lewis! Its interesting because so many people complain about this problem and are loath to believe that a V8 Rover SD1 can perform continuously on a hot day in all sorts of traffic with the temp gauge rock steady. Mine has a good viscous fan coupling which of course is part of a negative feedback temperature control loop.

Yet that is exactly how they behave when they came new from the factory, otherwise the executive customers would have been all over the dealerships like a bad rash, and that just did not happen.

The retro fit on/off electric fan is more crude and underbonnet temperature can vary more, but you seem to indicate that its pretty stable.

To make it even better, you might consider back flushing the radiator, heater matrix and engine block galleries, which, if it has not been done for a while, may surprise you even further regarding the crud that comes out.

[sowen]

I've got almost the same set-up on my landy, a single 13" kenlowe with manual override, and a 4 core series radiator. The temp gauge sits on 1/3 all the time, even when driven hard, rising only to 1/2 on the hottest of days. After a long hot run, the fan will come on for about 1 minute, and go off for 2-3 minutes before coming back on for a minute and so on.

It sits happily in traffic without any problems. It never dumps its water into my overflow bottle either, as I haven't needed to empty it since I put the v8 in over a year ago now!

Simon