I thought I had done the old girl in, but no, she's OK.

Had a scare last Saturday, was out with the old girl and she started breaking down, too much heat on Saturday.
But she is OK, took her to the Docs, and the diagnosis is only minor.
EGT was OK.

Bit of a scare when the temp guage shot up to over 3/4s after only a kilometer.

Nursed her home, added 3 litres of fresh water, got her going again, but bad signs. A lot of frothing at the mouth of the radiator.

Must have been a slow leak at the top radiator hose. Asked the wife and son who had been driving it this week if they had seen the water temp gauge rise, and it was a case of "what temp gauge?". Since I have put the EGT in, they only look at the EGT.
Some re-education in order.
Thought I had done the head in with the frothing at the radiator. But the Doc, my good mechanic Nick, has this smick litmus test strip that checks for carbon monoxide in the radiator water and no sign of a problem.
Was just on the pajero club forum and others were talking about the heads on the 2.8 cracking on a regular basis, and this one has 301,000k up.

Makes me wonder how many times serious damage occurs because people don't watch gauges or pick up the early warning signs. Wife normally smells a hot engine before I see it on the gauge. This would be the 2nd or 3rd time a radiator hose has started leaking and we have picked it up in time.

Might investigate a low water alarm. "Not another gauge" says the wife, but I said it is OK, only a buzzer.

Any recommendations?