FART, GUZZEL, BURP, WRENCH

This blog seems to have taken a turn toward the girlish side. What with the pictures of cats in and amongst pillow shams, lemon bars neatly plated on fine china, and picture upon picture of plants and flowers.

Well, I’m here to tell ya that it’s not just lavender scented bath oils, toe nail polish, and frilly things with ruffles around here. HELL NO!!!
It’s guy stuff also and being the lazy bastard that I am, I need to reclaim my corner of the Wedded Bliss Blog. So here goes….

The Discovery shot craps and overheated on the way back from Carthage a couple weekends ago. This had been a nagging problem on and off since the melt down in Arkansas last April. The engine block on the Discovery is aluminum with pressed in steel cylinder sleeves. If the engine gets to hot, the aluminum will expand and allow the cylinder sleeves to move around –very bad, very-very bad. Keeping a Rover engine cool is one of the secrets to its longevity. I’m hoping to get 200k miles out of this engine before a rebuild and with 35k miles to go, I need to address the over heating problem.

New Water Pump on the left, old one on the right

I set out to repair or replace all that a shade tree mechanic could to try and get the Discovery running cooler. I removed the radiator and had it rodded out. The radiator shop reported that the flow rate was restricted by about 40%. Ten plus years of coolant deposits and just general gunk don’t allow the coolant to flow as efficiently as it once had. I replaced the water pump. The old water pump was the original. It did not show signs of failure however with this much of the Disco apart, I wanted to do all I could to eliminate the over heating problem. Of course no one on Springpatch carries water pumps for Land Rovers so I had to wait a week for one to be delivered from Rovers North. I replaced the fan clutch. Thanks to some internet research, I discovered that I could use and very common fan clutch available at any parts store. All I needed to do was drill out the mounting holes in the fan and it bolted right up. I replaced the coolant hoses and thermostat also. With less than a week of light driving everything seems to be running cool and no ill side effects of my ham-fisted wrenching. Knock briskly on any available wood or wood-like surface.

Biggest PITA of the entire project... Cleaning the old gasket off in preparation for the new one.
So… it’s with sweat dripping from the bill of my cap, hands covered in automotive coolant, and grease firmly lodged under my fingernails, that I go in search of a lemon square – daintily place on a fine piece of china, oh and don’t forget the lace doily so as not to soil my exquisitely pressed trousers.

Over and out mi compadres.

dd