Diagnosing overheat on D2
- Thread starter kcabpilot
- Start date
Hoses are on correctly plus this happened on my truck which had been operating perfectly fine through all sorts of demanding situations for two years and 20,000 miles since the new water pump was installed. I'm fortunate in fact that it happened where it did because a few days before I was 75 miles out on the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park and that would have been a real nightmare if it had happened out there.
Complete frustration.
I used the vacuum bleeder this morning. In 15 minutes it dropped from 24 to 22 so maybe that means something. This one has a cone seal so I'm not sure how well that works, could be leaking right there for all I know. After refilling the system I started it up and let it idle. It got up to 210 and the fan came on then I noticed the level in the tank was low so I let it cool off then refilled to the max mark. Started it again, ran the heater, drove it around for 10 miles really stomping on it and purposely trying to get it to overheat but never saw it go above 203. Most of the time it was 195 to 197. Brought it back home and let it idle in the driveway for 20 minutes, it sat at 203 the entire time, never varied. Coolant level is stable, no loss.
Unfortunately there is no big hill nearby to do a test on and I've been fooled by this behavior before so I'm not falling for it this time. My mind is telling me that if I had a blown head gasket or a cracked block I wouldn't be able to endlessly drive the thing around town or idle in the driveway for half an hour without some sort of indication that there was a problem. Maybe I'm wrong about that?
I talked to Q&E down in Anaheim. He no longer does exchanges so I would have to send him my block for modification if it was in worthy condition. He recommends using head studs but mentioned that one of the drawbacks is that if you ever need to remove the heads you cannot do it without pulling the engine out. I'm not sure I'm sold on the studs, I think the TTY bolts are okay if you do them right.
There is a 2004 on CL with 90k for $4500. There was another one the other day for $1300 but it's gone now. There also was a 95 D1 with a TD5 for $6000 but it's gone now too. Not sure how the registration on that worked. I'm thinking if I can find a really cheap '04 I could cannibalize it, get the crank, rods, ECU, as well as a spare block for my ultimate engine build and have a bunch of other spare parts as extras. Maybe even sell a few things on eBay before scrapping the shell.
I used the vacuum bleeder this morning. In 15 minutes it dropped from 24 to 22 so maybe that means something. This one has a cone seal so I'm not sure how well that works, could be leaking right there for all I know. After refilling the system I started it up and let it idle. It got up to 210 and the fan came on then I noticed the level in the tank was low so I let it cool off then refilled to the max mark. Started it again, ran the heater, drove it around for 10 miles really stomping on it and purposely trying to get it to overheat but never saw it go above 203. Most of the time it was 195 to 197. Brought it back home and let it idle in the driveway for 20 minutes, it sat at 203 the entire time, never varied. Coolant level is stable, no loss.
Unfortunately there is no big hill nearby to do a test on and I've been fooled by this behavior before so I'm not falling for it this time. My mind is telling me that if I had a blown head gasket or a cracked block I wouldn't be able to endlessly drive the thing around town or idle in the driveway for half an hour without some sort of indication that there was a problem. Maybe I'm wrong about that?
I talked to Q&E down in Anaheim. He no longer does exchanges so I would have to send him my block for modification if it was in worthy condition. He recommends using head studs but mentioned that one of the drawbacks is that if you ever need to remove the heads you cannot do it without pulling the engine out. I'm not sure I'm sold on the studs, I think the TTY bolts are okay if you do them right.
There is a 2004 on CL with 90k for $4500. There was another one the other day for $1300 but it's gone now. There also was a 95 D1 with a TD5 for $6000 but it's gone now too. Not sure how the registration on that worked. I'm thinking if I can find a really cheap '04 I could cannibalize it, get the crank, rods, ECU, as well as a spare block for my ultimate engine build and have a bunch of other spare parts as extras. Maybe even sell a few things on eBay before scrapping the shell.