SLROC Forum

Looking for a bit of advice if possible please. 

A friend of mine had his 110 (roughly 120, 000 miles) full of kids heading on the M8 to Glasgow when it suddenly overheated. Instead of sitting on hard shoulder  he carried on to the services by which time the temp gauge had been off the scale for a  little while, but I am not sure how long.  He was then recovered home, and the recovery guy noted his radiator had burst.  The engine does still start and run, but he hasn't let it run for long for obvious reasons.  My questions are.

How can we tell if his engine is shot?
He needs a new radiator anyway, so is it worth replacing that and seeing how it runs?
Any other advice?

Thanks for your help, Clive

If it starts then I would assume its fine but I would do the checks of hoses, probably replace the thermostat for all it costs, hopefully it will be ok.

My Discovery 3 did something similar the other night. Saw the steam coming from the engine, checked the dash and saw the low coolant message, checked the temp and it was starting to climb, as soon as it started to climb above normal I pulled in and called the AA, not taking any chances.

Turned out to be a hose that came loose! Quick fix in the end, jubilee clip and a top up of coolant!

Thanks Stephen.  He can actually see water running straight out the radiator when trying to refill, and it therefore probably ran with an empty cooling system for while.
Hence the concern on long term serious damage.
Cheers, Clive

I'm sure if he didn't drive too far it'll be ok. I drove home from Mudmaster last year with my Defender overheating, it was going off the scale too, as far as I can tell its been fine and they do hold a lot of coolant!

As I was saying about my D3, when I had to top it up after having drove it about 40 miles as I didn't have any coolant in the car, it took in total half the capacity of what's required.

May give some confidence but I'm not an expert!

If the engine still starts and runs it at least shows it still has enough compression to do so, if the pistons expand too much they pick up in the bores and the aluminium spreads over the edge of the rings.When they cool down and return to a normal size the rings remain trapped in the grooves and thus reduce the compression to the extent the engine will not fire. Only time will tell!

Thanks for the advice.
So should he replace the rad and see how he gets on? And of course keep his road side recovery up to date!
Cheers, Clive

If there's a hole in it don't think he would have much choice. Owning a defender would always require recovery lol I wouldn't be without mine!