Disappearing Coolant

03 DII First - I'm trying to hold onto the engine till the end of the year when my local shop drops a TD5 in. Till then I'm just dealing with the usual issues. The engine does have leaky seals all around. The truck is driven basically on the weekends which I know doesn't help the seals integrity. The temps in DC are dropping below freezing time to time. First symptom, the other week, freezing temp, after restarting after a two hour break from driving, the thermostat was rising and falling in the upper half range above normal for about 30 min. and then seemed to settle to normal. Shut the vehicle down for the night and saw the reservoir was extremely low, topped it off. Following weekend, out for a drive, did the same thing but this time the spikes triggered the warning light. Shut down, ordered new thermostat, went to install today and noticed the reservoir was bone dry. Didn't seen any major puddles or continuous white smoke coming from the tail pipe. Any idea where coolant went? Would the freezing temps influence the leaky seals?

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Originally Posted by Nate7

03 DII First - I'm trying to hold onto the engine till the end of the year when my local shop drops a TD5 in. Till then I'm just dealing with the usual issues. The engine does have leaky seals all around. The truck is driven basically on the weekends which I know doesn't help the seals integrity. The temps in DC are dropping below freezing time to time. First symptom, the other week, freezing temp, after restarting after a two hour break from driving, the thermostat was rising and falling in the upper half range above normal for about 30 min. and then seemed to settle to normal. Shut the vehicle down for the night and saw the reservoir was extremely low, topped it off. Following weekend, out for a drive, did the same thing but this time the spikes triggered the warning light. Shut down, ordered new thermostat, went to install today and noticed the reservoir was bone dry. Didn't seen any major puddles or continuous white smoke coming from the tail pipe. Any idea where coolant went? Would the freezing temps influence the leaky seals?

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How are your temps? Have you hit the top hose with an IR temp gauge? Sounds like a bad head gasket to be honest.

What he said.

Do you smell coolant? If not its most likely going into a cylinder and being burn off.

If you smell coolant you can add dye and get the special little light and find the leak.

Are you required to pass an OBDII check when/if you get an inspection? Would like to see how your shop is going to make the TD5 work around that.

Problem solved: The spikes in temp were a malfunctioning thermostat which was periodically sticking. Changed that out, temp gauge stands normal and the heat is restored. The rapidly disappearing coolant continued to manifest itself. I eventually saw coolant in the engine bay around/under the expansion tank and puddles were forming under the truck. One of the tube connection spouts on the bottom of the expansion tank cracked at the base about 75% through and coolant under pressure leaked. Ordered an new tank and will have the problem fixed this week. Odd set of circumstances at once.

I would also like to know how the shop is going to get around the regulations regarding the TD5 install. This will be interesting to find our because i want to add a D1 or aD11 to my 2 series trucks.

The install is pretty straight forward. Regulation wise, it's a different story. With the ODBII, the check engine light will apparently come on according to the shop owner and hence not pass emissions. We have yet to figure out how to by-pass that and change the engine code/# in the vehicles computer (according to shop owner). *Alternative is register it in a state where there is no emissions check or trade it in for a defender.

*Note for coolant. Aside from the connectors on the expansion tank, check the cross over tube that goes to the engine throttle block. When I tried to disconnect it changing the tank the tube shattered into several pieces. The heat over time turned it brittle. If you're ordering a tank, order a new cross over hose too if it has never been changed before.