Got Water?

[kiwi_110]

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Steve and I hopped the Tasman to Aussie with a 4WD and bow hunting trip up Cape York in mind. Steve keeps a 2001 TD5 130 on blocks in Brisbane for trips like this.

This truck was originally part of a small fleet (about 10 I think) built for Telstra (Aussie Telecom) Techs to use up in the Territory. Telstra had some outfit in Darwin extend the cabs by about 10” back from the B pillar, a/c fitted, and a large alloy box body with twin spare wheel mounts, fold-up sides on gas struts, ladder, long-range diesel tank, water tank, Warn 9000, etc. The basis for a pretty good camper. By far the best thing is the stretched cab. They did a nice job, the roof was stretched to match the sides, as was the hood lining and an extra bit of glazing went in between the B pillar and the corner glass. You can rack the seats back miles, there’s a ton of leg-room even with the a/c bulges under the dash.

The truck hadn’t been used for 4 years and Steve told me it had been using water when last used, he thought from around the water pump. He’d filled the diesel tank and topped it off with conditioner just before putting it on the stands. So in our luggage, we took over a new water pump, thermostat, turbo and centrifuge gaskets, injector harness, front brake hoses, suspension bushes, shocks etc. I had no room left for my hunting bow and had to pay extra to take it…

When we arrived, we got the truck off the stands and while Steve went off in a borrowed wagon to get a new battery, I swung the A/C pump and Turbo out of the way, dropped the centrifuge and replaced the water pump and thermostat. I had some trouble getting those poxy spring hose clamps back on, little did I know, this would come back to haunt us. I pulled the valve cover off and swapped out the injector harness. Checking the ECU connection under the drivers seat, I found oil had in fact migrated up the loom that far so I cleaned it up with solvent and air. Did all the filters, new oil, new coolant. When I did the pump, the coolant was green and that’s what we put pack in. At the time I wondered if the TD5 was supposed to use OAT, red stuff, but didn’t say anything.

On fitting a new battery, we held our breath and turned the key. The TD5 fired within a second and ran sweetly. We were pretty impressed with it after four years of sitting idle. We ran the winch out and back in and did some bushes that we could see were starting to go.

After a couple days mooching around Brisbane, picking up supplies etc, we hit the back roads north intending to go through Miles, Roma, Emerald, Charters Towers, Mt Garnet to Cairns and from there to Mt Molloy, Lakeland, Laura, and on up to the Jardine River and the Top. I figured 2 days to Cairns. It took us 4, just because I completely underestimated the distances to be covered…

Our first hint of trouble was after about 10 hours driving when we stopped at some road works near Emerald. We hopped out to stretch our legs and saw coolant dripping off the firewall… Flipped open the bonnet and saw foam in the header tank, squirting out around the cap. “Oh faahh….” Much grumbling. I figured right then and there that the truck had originally been losing water due to head gasket failure. I’m certain it was just a small leak given the top up’s Steve said he’d been doing on his last trip. The temp needle never moved from normal so we decided to push on. Over the next couple of days, we just topped up the reservoir each morning, it always took about a pint. The top hose never ran dry, we always got a little squirt of water and foam from the bleed screw so I remained sure it was a minor leak but that we’d better seek advice in Cairns.

On about the third day, going over the hot dry roads to Mt Garnet, I suddenly saw green stuff on my (passenger) side of the windscreen and wing, shouted at Steve to stop, we’d blown a hose. In the 30 C heat, we got out and opened the bonnet. Sure enough, hot coolant pissing out of the top hose where it tee’s off to the heater. We had a full set of spare hoses so boiled the billy while waiting for it to cool down. Had more problems with the poxy hose clamps. They really are a bugger on the TD5 when you’re working in confined spaces like down the thermostat end etc. Anyway, topped off with coolant, bleed the system and resumed. We’re starting to notice a few rattles now, from the front end as we’ve been pounding dirt road for the last few hundred k’s. At Mt Garnet, a local garage specializing in Toymotas (every bugger over there drove one except us…) told us about a guy in Heberton that might be able to help. So we did a detour and drove through Heberton looking for him. Spotted an old scrapped Disco outside a shed and took a punt that it was him. It was. Turns out he’d been into old Rangies for ever and fixed all Land Rovers but got out of them when things became too electronic. Range-Rover Guy was now building race engines and doing custom engineering work but he did offer some advice. “Try to get some turns on the head bolts, flush the coolant real good and bung some Camywell in the cun…..” Er, ok, will do. “Don’ let those cu..s sell you anything but Camywell. My mate reckons you can have the whole bottom hose drop off and that stuff’ll still seal the cun….” Er, yes, quite, excellent stuff, er, Camywell you say? “Yeah mate, Camywell”.

Nursing the truck on to Cairns over the next couple of days, we find the front end is now hopping up and down like some LA low-rider thing and inspection reveals the front shock bushes are gone. We manage to run a flush through the coolant system, draining it by pulling off the bottom hose, more bloody clamp dramas, and calling in to motor shops trying to find the elusive “Camywell”. Pondering the Aussie accent and vernacular for a while, and taking in the array of additives on a shelf, I decided to extrapolate. Sure enough, “Chem-i-weld” was a silicate coolant system repairer supposedly capable of repairing cracked blocks, heads, gaskets, radiators etc. Bagged two tins of it and headed for Cairns Landrover Specialists. There we picked up another top-hose as a spare, some front shock bushes, turbo to intercooler hose (the short 90 degree one on the truck was decidedly soft and had a cut almost right through).

We visit Allied Bearings and, with the cam-cover removed in the car-park, the guy lets us try various torx sockets on the head bolts. Turns out we need an E14 but it only comes in a set so $80 later, I’m swinging gently on the head bolts with the breaker bar and a shiny new E14. I got only a small ping out of each bolt except the 4 around #4 cylinder, these ones twisted easily and woudn’t take up. That had to be a problem. We needed to let the head cool right down and try again so we popped the lid back on and repaired to the shelter of a tree in the Coles (like Tescos) carpark. There we changed the soft Turbo hose and the front shock bushes. They’d gone like jam and the holes in the mounts had gone egg-shaped. The engine cooled right down while we did this and I had another go at the head bolts. The 4 suspect ones all pinged when I swung on them again so I felt that I had achieved some take-up on the gasket in that area. We ran clean water through the system and followed the instructions on the Chem-i-weld tins. That was about all we could do for now. We resolved to push on up the Cape but not to go too far up. Costs run from $3000 (1500 of your real actual genuine Pounds) for recovery from the Cape to Cairns.

We drove up to Port Douglas, then over the hill to Mount Molloy. On the way over we passed a stranded brand new Toymota towing a caravan, his bonnet was up. Laughing fit to bust we then heard a huge pop and hiss from the front end. Quickly stopped and opened our bonnet. The turbo hose had come off. Seems I had not done the hose clamp up enough. Later that day, we’re steaming up a hill towards Lakelands and I notice a spray from the wing over my side of the screen again. Quickly stopping (this is becoming a habit) I find the bypass hose has blown off the Thermostat. I had not set the clamp far enough over the bulge on the thermostat fitting… We topped up and continued. At this point, there’s still evidence of the head gasket leaking but I fancy it’s reduced, either due to the take-up on the head bolts, or the Chem-i-weld. Who knows…

Over the next few days we hunted on some stations and up some rivers, pushed up to the Haan River and then back down and across to Cooktown and back down to Cairns via Wujal-wujal, Cape Tribulation and the Daintree River. We lost clutch near the Daintree, master cylinder had lost fluid and my left foot was the recipient. We topped up and bled the lines. The Turbo hose blew off once more, and we noticed the reservoir cap woudn't hold pressure. It’d probably been stressed out, over pressurized during these last couple of weeks. We picked up a new one when we got back to Cairns and because we thought it had finally stopped losing water, we drained the Chem-i-weld and refilled with OAT red stuff coolant, after double checking the listing at the auto-store and finding that the TD5 is supposed to have red stuff. Couldn't get a master cylinder or kit by the time I left.

I flew home on Sunday, Steve was joined by his wife for another two weeks. I’m yet to hear if the truck is holding up ok. I’m just sorting out an order for head gasket and top kit, bolts etc because I intend to get back there maybe next year, do the head job and complete the trip up the Cape.

Ray.

[GBMUD]

A most excellent Landrover adventure.

Chris

[tacr2man]

If you dislike the spring clip type hose clamps why did you not change them ?

[G4FUJ]

Grand report - thanks for sharing.

[kiwi_110]

If you dislike the spring clip type hose clamps why did you not change them ?

1. I'm sure I read somewhere that you're not supposed to use "proper" hose clamps on these hoses, can't remember why.

2. Each replacement hose comes with the the poxy ones already fitted.

To be honest, if' I'd known I was going to be doing so many hose replacements and refits, I'd have gotten some "proper" ones...

[bishbosh]

Impressive adventure! Top marks for ploughing on too - I'd have chucked in the towel long ago!

[western]

where's the photo's, sounds like a great trip.

[kiwi_110]

where's the photo's, sounds like a great trip.

I did take a video with me but don't have anything of the work we did on the truck, I was just too busy under the bonnet to record anything! I do have an old pic of the truck and proud (not so much these days I fear...) owner from a previous trip and I'll put that up.

We had a bit of fun in the Kennedy River west of Laura. We took the truck down onto the wide riverbed with the thought of driving upstream a way to camp and hunt the Queens Chain. Promptly got bogged to the chassis rails in soft sand had to reduce tire pressures (easy done with Staun deflators), dig out and self recover with the winch and a handy tree...

[western]

smart 130 truck.

[reads90]

Hi

Shame you did bit make is to the cape as it is a nice place

But you seemed to have a nice trip of Qld.

But it is a big place. I live in Brisbane but I am a sale rep and my area is Qld ( which is 7 times the size of the Uk). And drive to cairns all the time.

But you are right it is the land of toyotas

Hope you come back and have some fun again. May be catch up with the many land rover clubs in Australia. Have you checked out AULRO which is an Aussie land rover forum. They can help you with anything around Aus. Always a helpful bunch

[kiwi_110]

Hope you come back and have some fun again. May be catch up with the many land rover clubs in Australia. Have you checked out AULRO which is an Aussie land rover forum. They can help you with anything around Aus. Always a helpful bunch

We did spot a few other landies and most responded to us waving out. In Laura, we caught up with a nice new 110 towing a tinnie up to Cape Melville. Chaps name was Bob, a retired builder from Adelaide. He was well pleased with the performance of the 2.4 and 6 speed and he had a huge amount of gear in it and behind it.

The couple who run Cairns LRS told us they are selling their workshop and only going to run the Parts shop. I was tempted! We also met the guys at Hyper Tuned which I think is fairly new outfit and they were all very helpful. I've snorkelled around the the AULRO forums a few times and there is a faithful undercurrent of Landy activity, they even make it to the pages of the Aussie 4x4 mags occaisionally.

Might try and hook up next trip, I'll PM you!

Cheers, Ray.

[reads90]

I was thinking that pic looks like it was taken opposite the shop at Laura

[G4FUJ]

smart 130 truck.

I'll second that!

But Ralph knows I like my 's t r e t c h e d' Landies

Cheers,

[reads90]

I'll second that!

But Ralph knows I like my 's t r e t c h e d' Landies

Cheers,

Pretty much see more 130's than 110 here in Aus

[G4FUJ]

20 years since I was there...

Maybe it's time I returned?

Cheers,

[kiwi_110]

I was thinking that pic looks like it was taken opposite the shop at Laura

Ha ha, no, that one was taken about 5 years ago, at a pub on the Arnhem Highway between Humpty-do and Point Stuart. We were on our way to Carmor Plains to hunt Asian Buff and pigs, my profile pic was taken there, the boar is now on my wall here in NZ.