thank you for the insight i will go and pick up a laser tomorrow on my way to work. and i will just add good old cheap stuff antifreeze through the system. i didnt mean to russle any feathers or anything with my comments above. illl see what i come up with after just feeling my radiator here in a few. and ill update my finds with that laser tomorrow.

i do thank you guys a million times over. i do love these forums, and the willingness gentlemen such as all of yall have to help inept people such as my self. so again thank you i was about ready to surrender and take it to a shop, but you guys are my life line right now.

again thank you
brad

 

thank you for the insight i will go and pick up a laser tomorrow on my way to work. and i will just add good old cheap stuff antifreeze through the system. i didnt mean to russle any feathers or anything with my comments above. illl see what i come up with after just feeling my radiator here in a few. and ill update my finds with that laser tomorrow.

i do thank you guys a million times over. i do love these forums, and the willingness gentlemen such as all of yall have to help inept people such as my self. so again thank you i was about ready to surrender and take it to a shop, but you guys are my life line right now.

again thank you
brad

 

I was just trying to help you out. All of us were new owners at one time or another. Just a word of caution. You do not want to do something that could be very detrimental and costly to resolve just because you rushed into it without checking it out thoroughly in advance.

Taking it to a dealership would/could be very expensive and may or may not resolve it right off the bat. Taking it to just any shop can also be a big mistake.

Please understand, ask anything. Don't get offended with a direct or even a "Smart-***" reply. Just do not read more into the reply than is really there. Also take all advice with a grain of salt, not everyone's suggestions will be good.

The best way to enjoy your Rover for a really long time is to learn and do as much as you possibly can or make lots of money to pay others to do it for you. If you do not feel competent with get good help. Otherwise bail out quickly before you spend all your money and still have a bum Rover. If it was easy, anybody could do it.

If I offend you, click on the link below. Or go ahead and click on it anyway and enjoy it.

Have fun with your Rover and don't let the frustrations overwhelm you.

 

I don't think you ruffled any feathers. We are all big boys here. I was just trying to let you know not everyone has dexcool horror stories. I think it gets a bit of a bad rap. Danny is right, it can tear an engine apart in short order but its not the dexcool alone. Dexcool when it becomes contaminated will start to eat away at your gaskets and then when the gaskets start to fail bad things happen.

I have had two dexcool vehicles, one went 208k with no issues whatsoever and it was an aluminum v6. You just need to change it every couple of years and fix the leaks when they happen. Don't change it or let it keep leaking and you will destroy your engine.

Nothing against the green stuff. It's much more forgiving. Just saying you are not going to ruin your engine with dex if you maintain it. Also, if switching over make sure you flush ALL of the dexcool out, even the heater core. If the two mix you'll get a wonderful mud to clog things up ;-)

 

Ps, I had a buddy blame dexcool for ruining his engine after a year of topping his leaking system up with straight green stuff.... sigh.

 

You could have a number of things going on here, and many people on the forum have faced some, or all of them at one time. Here is a brief list of easy things to check:

1. Look between radiator and AC condenser and clean out trash - Rovers have rubber strips there to prevent lily pads from being sucked in while "wading". Trash can block air flow at any speed.

2. When cold, remove that top fill hole plug and look around with a flash light. Crusty stuff on the tubes indicates need for flush and maybe a rod out, find an indy shop, the closer to farm land the better. You don't want a place that charges by the MSRP of the truck. Could be trash floating around inside the cooling system.

3. If overheating while driving at 45 mph or better, it a'int the fan. Could be a bad thermostat (sticking). Stay with the factory spec temp, don't try to put in a much colder one. Overdrive won't engage until temp gets to 150 on some models.

4. While that engine is cold, feel the friction of the fan when turning it by hand. It should not spin. When it first cranks, the fluid inside the fan clutch is pooled on one side, so the fan will engage at full power for a minute or two, then lower in noise (and air flow). Mine pulls enough air to spin the electric fans on the condenser, even with AC off. When engine is warm (normal temp) shut it off and feel the difference of the fan. It should turn easier, but should not free wheel. The fan clutch factory says it will be 20 -30% power when warm. So free wheeling usually means most of the fluid has been lost from the fan. When "hot", stop the engine and try the fan. It should be firmer than when warm. They start coming back on full power as the air temp on the front of the clutch gets above 170 degrees. When hot, you should be getting 70% power, so it can take off a finger. Best to try gently with rolled newspaper. If bad fan clutch, overheating usually happens with idling or slow moving traffic. Tech section has a nifty $50 fix with a cross reference to a Chevy model.

5. Any sounds like gurgling or water sloshing under your dash? This can be air in the coolant, sometimes an indicator of head gasket problems. Or it can just be air needing to be burped - one method is remove coolant tank cap and let truck idle on an inclined parking area. Or you can test for combustion gas in the coolant.

6. Be sure previous owner has all the fans pointed the right way. Air moves through the grill, and out the engine side of the radiator. People have had backwards fan blades, and reversed electric fan connections; these also show up usually at idle.

7. DO NOT TRUST THE TEMP GAUGE - borrow, rent, or buy a scanner so you can read the real data. If it is going to red line you could be doing serious damage. So auto stores will read codes free. Just idle in their lot and watch the coolant temp go up, up, up. With a scanner you can see problems that still look normal on the gauge.

 

another little discovery on my discovery.... i let it heat up last night, then bled off the expansion tank(let all the pressure out, then was feeling the radiator for cold spots.... the whole radiator felt strangley cold almost room tempture. then i started to take the radiator plug off and it exploded with heat and pressure. with all three of those things in mind, does it sound like some kind of a clog, hopefully.

 

well seeing that i bought this from a less than professinal auto dealership, i did go through it i drove it on a test for about 25ish miles all of which was around town driving for the most part. everything seemed fine besides maybe a short in the dashboard. i have certian controls that work here and there. back windshield wiper, cruise control and a couple other controls i havent even figured out what they do yet. other than that the truck with the mileage 120k was solid in my opinion, it wasnt until i got it home when all this fun started.

given what i paid for it, i realised and counted on having to put some money in to it, and the dealership is meeting me half way on alot of the parts, and taking my labor into account. so all and all its not gonna be a bad deal once i cant drive this awesome truck.

 

Check all your fuses, there are a couple 12&13 I think that control the multi function unit if they are blown there can be some funky issues involving rear defroster, rear wiper, door locks, interior lights, etc.

 

so i guess the simplier way to ask, is this system suppose to have pressure over all in all of the components, or does it build seperate pockets of pressure in different areas of the system?