Black with carbon. And the coolant was definitely bled correctly. Put the front end on jack stands, raised the expansion tank, turned heat to high etc.... Waterfall goes away for a few hours but then returns.

 

The excess carbon would be from running rich or the spark plugs being the wrong heat range.

 

It's a classic symptom of air in the cooling system. In this case, you can bleed it properly and it will still come back, because he's putting combustion or compression gasses back into the cooling system. Which is the classic symptom of a bad head gasket or cracked head or block.

 

I get all that. Was my expectation in the first place. Just wondered why the heck the chemical test doesn't work. I'm no chemistry major, but in the presence of carbon monoxide the fluid should change to yellow. If I've really got that much in my coolant, why the heck would it fail to react?

 

I just had this problem with my van, oddly enough not the rover (knocks on wood). When I first did the chemical test, I did it with the cap on and it stayed blue, so I did it with the cap off. While cold, I stuck the syringe or whatever it is down into my radiator (once again, van, not rover), so I suppose you'll have to jam it in your reservoir tank since we don't have radiator caps, let it warm up and get some pressure built up and test it then. When I did that it turned completely yellow.

Hopefully they did the HG job wrong, and it's not your block. Best of luck

 

maybe they installed the head gaskets wrong. seen that happen. oben is supposed to be on top not on the bottom

 

I guess from the input I've heard here I'm just going to tear it down myself and send off the heads to have the valves replaced and maybe pressure test the block itself.

Anyone out there know how to test for a cracked cylinder head?

 

Usually aluminum cylinder heads are checked for cracks by pressure testing. On old cast iron, you would magnaflux.

 

Something I can do on my own or machine shop task?

 

Heat on high?? The system is supposed to bled when the engine is cold and not running. (as in doing it first thing in the morning or when it's been sitting for awhile)


Machine shop. They can tell you if it's warped.

I'm guessing the shop that did the HG isn't going to stand behind their work?


Eric