Discovery overheating

[bmaggard28]

My baby is a 2003 Land Rover Discovery S 138,000 miles

Looked down and the needle was almost to the red while driving 55 mph @ 2 miles after leaving the house (needle is always in the middle). I pull over immediately and pop the hood. There is a small amount of coolant puddled on the fuse box next to the expansion tank and a spatter pattern on the black lining around the cut out for the expansion tank lid. I open the expansion tank lid slowly and coolant rushes back into the expansion tank. I let her cool down and try to get her back home, but .25 miles down the road the needle starts creeping pass center again. I tried to take heat off her by turning on the heater, but no heat coming out of the heater. I leave her in the parking lot overnight and go get her first thing in the morning when it is cooler (heat is coming out this time). Get her home with no issues.
She only leaks when she overheats stream comes from the passenger side but I can't find where the stream is coming from. There is no coolant, water, gas, or cloudiness in the engine oil. I took the hoses and thermostat off and flushed the radiator. I put the thermostat in water and it opened at @ 200 degrees, but didn't at 180. It overheated again. I saw a post somewhere that said you could bypass the thermostat temporarily to see if that was the problem so I tried it. I took the thermostat off and drilled holes in it til water was coming through at a decent flow, cleaned it up good of metal debris and put it back on. I made sure this time to fill the expansion tank, crank her, open that screw to let air escape, then let her cool...it took 5 times to get all the air out. It seemed to work! Drove her 5 miles and she was fine. Today I drove her 10 miles, 5 into town and 5 back, unloaded groceries, and drove 5 more back into town...halfway back she started overheating. I pulled over, raised the hood, no coolant anywhere and the expansion jug still had coolant, but I hear glug, glug, glug from what sounded like the top radiator hose. Let her cool down and head home. I get .5 miles from home and she over heats again. I pull over, let her cool down. When I crank her this time, something explodes and there is steam everywhere. The top radiator hose literally exploded off the t joint.
Please can anyone think of anything that could be causing this? I was wondering if I just didn't drill enough holes in the thermostat. I am a single mom of 3 and just can not afford to take it to the shop, but I am pretty handy and learn fast.

 

[joey]

First hoping it didn't overheat and blow a head gasket. best way to fill a rover with fluid is to make sure the front of the rover is in the air, slightly higher then the back of the rover. Fill as you did before but with the heater turned on high.

Also change the t-stat because it needs it in order to keep the engine cool.

At this point I would also change all the hoses.

 

[bmaggard28]

Thank you so much for the response! I'm on the way to pull a parts since they have a 2000 disco they just got in. I'm really hoping they have modified and put an inline thermostat or the factory molded coolant hoses. Not that I'm an expert by any means, this is my first rover, but the engine sounds great and there's nothing in the oil so I hope it isn't the head gasket. I will let you know how my parts venture goes! Thanks again.

By the way, i don't have ramps or anything fancy like that so what's the best way to get it in the air? Thanks!!

 

[joey]

Drive it up a bank, park on a hill. drive up some logs, you don't need it more than 8 inch or so just looking for an incline.