Running Hot

[bigmart]

My 79 Series 3 has been fitted with a Rover V8 3500cc but still has the standard Rad. Does anyone have experience of similar & what is the best way to get her running at a sensible temperature?

[AR4412]

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on having one of the finest engines in one of the finest vehicles. The combination is truly one of the best that Land Rover never made.

I have a 3.5 carb engine in mine. Standard radiator with a 13 PSI cap, 82° thermostat and a Kenlowe fan to keep it cool, and have not had any overheating problems in over 15 years with that combination.

When you say running hot, is that what the gauge is showing, or is there steam/coolant escaping from the overflow bottle?

The standard Series gauge mated to a V8 sender would see the gauge sat at the bottom of the red once the engine was warmed up. I fitted the sender from a V8 110 with a gauge from the same vehicle, as that's what I had to hand, with the bonus that the gauge fitted into the redundant ammeter hole in the dash panel. There are magic gizmos out there that can match any sender to any gauge, coolant, oil, or fuel. IIRC they are made by a company called Spiyda.

What PSI rad cap do you have? How old is it? What is the coolant concentration? What colour is it? Blue or Brown? Is the timing right? Is the radiator matrix in good condition , or has it lost most of it's fins? Is the fueling right and not running lean? Is the thermostat opening? With the radiator cap off and the engine cold, does the coolant rise slowly in the header as it warms, or bubble up and flow out whilst still cool? Is the fanbelt tight? What fan do you have fitted? Is it working?

A lot of questions I know, but they will lead us where we need to get to.

Regards,

[bigmart]

Thanks for the info. I had a chat with a guy at my local independent Landy Specialist & he mentioned, as did you, the incompatibility of the Range Rover Temp Sender & the Lightweight Guage. I’m thinking I will have to investigate this further. Thankfully there is no hurry as the vehicle is off the road until the Bank Balance allows. Hopefully will be fully mobile before the end of the Summer.

[StuWright]

I have had loads of issues with BL and Land Rover senders and gauges working together correctly.

My current 2.5 200 Tdi engine had a known sender that is used for the conversion which I bought and didn’t work. After loads of messing around with additional earthing points, new wiring etc. I eventually found someone who tried lots of different resistors until it showed the temperature correctly on the gauge.

[AR4412]

Here's another solution that should work.

https://spiyda.com/fuel-gauge-wizard-mk3.html

Regards,

[StuWright]

Here's another solution that should work.

https://spiyda.com/fuel-gauge-wizard-mk3.html

Regards,

Neil, that is a great bit of kit and I wished I knew about it before getting my water sender/gauge for water temp fixed with a resister. It took loads of attempts to get it right.