See the white crud in the coolant port? Is this normal? How can I clean it? I’ll try a cloth and distilled water tomorrow. It’s not quite as bad as it looks in the picture since the picture flattens it. There’s some build up on the gasket side and some on the other side inside the block. I’m not sure how much there is throughout the block, but this is the only place I’ve seen that. I’m not sure what caused it, how to prevent it and how to clean it properly.

 

That looks like lime scale to me. It’s probably from someone running tap water in the coolant. There are several products that you can run through the cooling system to break this down but you run the risk of clogging your radiator.

 

Like zski says, cleaning it will run the risk of clogging things. I would leave it

 

Thanks - I’ll leave it alone then. I’m not sure how much scale is in there. I’ve never used tap water, but someone else might have. I guess I should get more bottles of distilled water to flush the heater core and engine multiple times when I get to that point since the water here is hard. I’m not sure how many gallons of distilled water would be needed for each flush - guessing 2-3?

 

Its so cheap and always needed with Disco things. I just grab like 10 gallons to have extra. Some flushes use 3, some 5, just depends.

 

Thanks, I have about that many gallons here already. I have the thermostat removed since I was going to install the inline one. Is there a good way to flush coolant out the front of the block so less of the crap goes through the system? There’s a hose that comes up from where the thermostat was and into the front of the block through a metal pipe. I’ve heard about two square headed plugs on the sides of the block that can be used to drain, but I’m not exactly sure which they are and also if they need to be torqued back to a specification I couldn’t find. I was told that would allow pretty much everything out and hopefully if I pour water from the front two ports where the water pump goes and other hoses, it’ll flush a good amount out and I won’t have to do as many flushes later. I think these are the bolts - hard to get a good picture. I guess they can’t be reached easily without lifting the vehicle by the chassis. I’m just unsure about the torque spec on these and if they’re the right bolts.

 

Watch this video and go to the 7:00 minute mark where he talks about where to drain the coolant from the block. The drain bolts in the workshop manual are tough to find and access.
.

 

You

are

overthinking

this.

You ask for advice.

Knowledgeable forum members provide good advice.

You decide their advice is inadequate and decide you need to remove the block drain plugs anyway.

Why?

This isn't brain surgery.

It's a Rover V8.

There's nothing inherently wrong with removing the block drain plugs. (BTW they're drain plugs, not bolts.)

It's just not worth the hassle.

You have more than enough going on with this project. Just move on and get it wrapped up.

 

Well I didn’t say anything like that anyone’s advice isn’t good enough - I’d never say anything like that. I appreciate hearing it’s nothing to worry about, but I’ve never done this and I don’t know how carefully everything has to be done.

Anyway, I thought I’d flush using the lower radiator hose, but I’m worried there’s a bunch of stuff from cleaning that’ll get in and thought it would be good to use the drain plugs after all. The vehicle is already lifted up, so it might not be as much hassle as it would be if I had to do that just for this. I don’t know what’s going to happen if debris from cleaning and different chemicals get pumped through everything. I don’t want to damage anything and I’m happy to learn as much as possible, which is why I’ve asked a lot of questions.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking questions either. It’s been helpful to learn whatever I can. I could bash through this, but the vehicle might have all sorts of problems because the work wasn’t done properly. I’m hoping to avoid that.