At a loss and wondering what’s next before I accept my head gasket has gone.

2014 L200; bypassed EGR cooler, fitted one of those looms that alters the temp intake parameters in order to keep the EGR closed, replaced radiator, had viscous fan checked, no oil in coolant, no smoke from engine and she pulls like a train.

Only symptoms I have is that with the rad cap off the coolant is being forced out the rad cap.

Help or suggestions please!

Any bubbles in the coolant bottle? With the rad cap off, the water should flow out of the rad when the engine is hot as the water expands when heated and there is no pressure to raise the boiling point. Have you used one of those dyes that changes colour if there is exhaust gases in the coolant?? Nik

coolant surely would come out of the rad cap as there is nothing to hold the pressure to send it to the overflow bottle.
as mentioned id put a dr headgasket sniffy test on it. be careful not to let the coolant into the indicator fluid tho.
you would probably have like a rolling boil of bubbles in the expansion tank, with the cap on, if the exhaust gas was getting into the coolant and mayonnaise for oil if coolant was making it into the cylinders.
are you sure its burped properly after the new radiator the odd big bubble might be air bleeding out

Thanks for the replies geezers.

Had a sniff test done which come back negative.

No bubbles anywhere. My next move is water pump before it gets left on a jetty with its handbrake off.

Am I right in saying the water pump is engine driven in a sense that the faster the engine revs the quicker the fan turns?

I only ask this as under load in a low gear/hard acceleration it works flawlessly as opposed to 30mph 5th gear foot to floor it overheats.

Further to last: I have a smoke leak which seems to come from the front of the rocker cover gasket, could this be related to/the cause of the overheat?

from my understanding egts are lower at higher engine speeds.
id be doubtful that the rocker gasket leak but play a part but I'm no expert
if its any consolation, mine always smells like its properly cooking when I switch it off
isn't 30 in 5th asking it to work quite hard.
since I put 33s on mine 30 is definitely 3rd gear territory

Quote: Littlered-foosty wrote in post #6

---

from my understanding egts are lower at higher engine speeds.
id be doubtful that the rocker gasket leak but play a part but I'm no expert
if its any consolation, mine always smells like its properly cooking when I switch it off
isn't 30 in 5th asking it to work quite hard.
since I put 33s on mine 30 is definitely 3rd gear territory

---

I'm not saying stay in third or it'll overheat. mine bogs down a bit any further up the box lol.
they nearly all leak from the inlet manifold gasket, if you mean at the butterfly. .
I gave mine a wee smear of hylomar blue and it helped but now it just weeps out from pin to the diaphragm
I've all but stopped bothering about it

Transpires it was the head gasket so a light skim and £1500 total later we’re back to business albeit with a constantly running viscous fan, slightly reduced power and increased consumption.

Anyone have any experience with Milners and their parts?