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[hamrendan]

You know that song "I just spent six months on a leaky boat"? Thats the story of the hoses in my 93LWB. I must have ESP, because as I am waiting to pick up my kids today, and I was thinking that i have not checked the coolant reservoir in a while, Hmmm.. Maybe I should have done it while i had the chance..

OK weird thing is.. There was coolant over the air intake hose up by the intake manifold, and on top of the left side head. I am so bummed.. ALL THE HOSES ARE NEW.. WTF? Anyway.. I have not had a real good look with a flashlight to see where its coming from, but the bottom of the bonnet heat shield was wet.. So I am thinking its coming from that area. There were a couple of puddles in the valley area on the left side. DOHHHPPP!!! what next.. I know i need to replace my radiator at some point, but I was hoping it was not for a little while. I did put that stop leak in there some time back, which i know your not supposed to, but so far it has helped more than it has hurt..

Water temp was in the middle the whole time even with the light flashing low coolant in the reservoir.. I knew it was low but since it wasn't getting hot I thought I could push my luck, which I did successfully!.. I stopped to pick up child #3, popped the hood, and heard bubbling coming from the upper radiator hose near the engine. I turned on the AC to get the pusher fans going with the engine off. I filled her up with premium hose water, and proceeded to drive 20 more min through bay area traffic hitting just about every red light you could hit.. Ok i lied... I made one of them.. Talk about stress.. All this after OK rover tells me his story of engine head gaskets because he let it get hot once or twice.. UGGGhhhhh!!

[Jonesy]

MAAAAAAAAAAAN! That is awful Ham! I just replaced all the belts and hoses, flushed the res and rad and refilled.....I am hoping just doing this preventative stuff will help in the future!!

Check out car cannibal for new radiators, they will have one also eBay...I actually know a guy on eBay parting out a 95LWB at the moment - I think I remember one....also the large hoses, like the big Y one are on eBay......

Good luck mate - hope the head stayed in better shap than OKIES!

[troverman]

Does your LWB vapor a lot out the tailpipe by any chance? Even when the weather is warm? Start the truck, let it idle for 10 minutes or take on a short drive, then shut off, now GINGERLY remove overflow tank cover. Is there a lot of pressure, enough to blast out coolant? Slowly release pressure. Do you hear a bubbling gurgly sound? Once pressure is fully released, smell the coolant in the tank. Does it smell like gas / exhaust or anything other than coolant? Is your truck suddenly springing coolant leaks all over the place?

My guess is one of two things: if the above is your symptoms, it is either a headgasket, internally cracked block, or shifted cylinder liner. I have heard the LWB's 4.2 engine is particualry notorious for shifted liners. In fact, the local Rover garage said any LWB with original 4.2 with over 100k miles is living on borrowed time. Of course, though many 4.2's have gone much, much longer. My '92 Classic has the same problem: Tons of pressure built up in the cooling system, causing leaks, lots of vaporing, loss of coolant (engine drinks it) and the temp guage never went above the middle as usual. The truck continued (and still does) run fine. What happens is the shifted liner in the aluminum block allows engine compression to escape and blow the headgasket, which than pressurizes the cooling system. This pressure can blow every heater and coolant line in the truck, but the heater core usually blows first. It also can cause some mixing of coolant / oil. Unscrew the PCV valve on the passenger side valve cover (that big metal canister which sticks up on the front) See if the gauze is milky white or foamy (it should be solid oily black) If you're very ambitious take the whole air plenum intake cover off and look inside. There will probably be a milky coating here too. Your dipstick, on the other hand, may not show any of these symptoms, which is good if it doesn't. This is a top-end problem.
So: If it is only the headgasket at fault, change it for $250. If it is a shifted liner, a new headgasket won't last and the only real fix is a new engine. (unfortunantly) Of course, your radiator can get all clogged up too.
Good luck.

[OkieRover]

Yep!
I had a clogged radiator two years maybe three now ago. I found out later the previous owner had tried [dramatic music, dun, dun, dun] some stop leak product!
I drove about two miles and I was pegging red two times on successive days. I figured then that everything would be okay. But then I noticed I was pushing coolant past the cap on the overflow tank. I took it to Rover Cannibal and they put a testor of some type on that detects hydrocarbons and sure enough I had some in my coolant.

I have been pushing coolant for 2 years but not a lot. In the summer it is more than in winter. Actually I haven't had to add coolant for nearly two months now. But as the air temps of springtime in Oklahoma get up in the 80s(F) the coolant will be blowing out again.

The easiest fix and the most obvious is the head gasket. I have since fanagled another 4.2 motor and will be swapping it this summer I hope. I am going to tear it down, and do a complete top end on it before putting it in. We are then going to take my 4.2 and top end it and drop it in place of my buddies 3.9.

So the cylinder heads slipping...is there a physical test you can do to see if this is the case after the heads are off?

Dan sorry to be the bearer of bad news yesterday, I was sensing you stressing after I typed it. Flush that crap out of the system before it clogs the heater core and you have that fun job to do.

OR as you said yesterday....buy another Rover and start over!!!!!!!


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[troverman]

By "cylinder heads slipping" do you mean if a cylinder liner has shifted? If so, than I think you can tell with the head off. Basically you have an aluminum block and head to save weight and steel liners are set into the aluminum block because obviously raw aluminum would wear and melt if a steel piston was churning inside it at 3,000 RPM's. This engine is a Buick / GM design of the 1950's and so that was the thinking at the time. The liners are simply pressed in at the factory, and not held by any other means. I have heard it is very common on the 4.2 for these liners to shift more so than on the other iterations of this engine (3.5, 3.9, 4.0, 4.6) With the head off, you should clearly see the liner sitting inside the cylinder bore tight to the walls. If you can pull on it and it moves, you're in trouble. Some are so loose you can pull them right all the way out. Of course, many Rover V8's have been known to run with the shifted liners for many years. Apparently the sympton is a clacking noise usually when the engine is cold, but this is not very conclusive as just about everything clacks on the Rover V8.

Good luck

[OkieRover]

I have so many clacking noises I don't even hear them anymore.

Thanks for the help. I'll post the results when we start.

[hamrendan]

I was away from home over the weekend, I changed out the small heater hose that had a pin hole in it out in the rain last night.. Now i smell coolant again, and my de misting fans don't work. One thing after another..

[OkieRover]

I run the garden hose on the top of my engine to water down or wash the coolant off the heads. If this stuff truly boils at 265 degrees F it might take a while to get all the coolant out of every little crevise. So I run the water on it. I know the water will evaporate the next time I run the truck.

This way if I smell coolant again after a stop I will know it is new coolant leaking most likely.

I do notice that after I ran the water on it last night and the time before that if I lock the truck with the fob and it activates the alarm after about 5 seconds the alarm goes off. It doesn't like water in there for some reason.

PS I think I'm a charter member of this club.

[hamrendan]

Yeah it could be residual coolant.. didn't think about that. What do you think of my de mister fan problem.. Checked the fuse its fine, I don't know which relay it is as my CD is at work and I am at home feeling miserable with a cold.

[OkieRover]

You got no fans in any setting?
AC - no
heat - no, etc...

Any chance your switch failed?
There's been so much on the board about this lately.

Having trouble figuring out which one.
#15 Air con/heater relay
Passenger side footwell, fourth one, counting from the back of the truck to the front of the truck.

Next to the Air con. diode pack. Diode pack is labeled as such. Well it is in my truck.

Otherwise I have no idea which relay it is.

[Moto One]

Dan,

Check to see if the main power wire from the battery the power block is still in working order, I had the same problem with mine (your mom and dad's LWB) I also had to change the fan control switch at one time to. I sent you a PM.

Mark.