It sounds like you have not bled the cooling system correctly and that the engine is boiling over the coolant. Mike will give you the correct method for Bleeding the system. Please get back to us on outcome. JF

 

Based on your description, the problem has gotten worse since the headgasket job? That tells me its not related to the block as nothing should have changed relating to that. Hopefully Mike will be able to shed more light. Keep us posted. Have you tried bypassing, or reversing the hoses on, the heater core just to see if that helps?

 

I have followed the RAVE and Mikes procedures for bleeding the system to a "T". I have no doubt the system was full; it holds 26 pts from dry and I put nearly 3.5 gals in. 8pts=gal. So it was full and a little bit more. The head gasket was just a bad call; the block/sleeve is obviously junk. I want to keep going until we nail it and get it back on the road but my son has had enough and I can't talk him out of giving up. I'd like to keep it for myself but he wants to sell and cut his losses. I guess he's right, there isn't a lot of room for another hobby/project; I'm already up to my elbows in a 56 F100 and 72 GTO. I'm really bummed; I loved that Rover. I still might finish uploading the project in pictures down the road but right now I need to get away from this for awhile. Cya.

 

Sorry to hear the bad news -- I was hoping for a simple fix. By all means, if you can, take a break. Im sure the time off will help. Be sure to get back with us as soon as you decide on the best course of action.

 

I'm still kicking this around in my head. I just read that it is possible to route the serpentine belt wrong and spin the coolant pump and fan in the wrong direction. I doubt that is the case but would help explain why I there was little if any heat circulated through the heater core. The quick buildup of extreme pressure in the system makes me believe the problem is the block/sleeve. I don't know how it is possible but it appears to me that coolant is being forced out of the exhaust (excessive steam). This confuses me because the system pressurizing and the smell of exhaust at the reservoir. The way I see it; if the exhaust is being pumped into the coolant no coolant would be escaping out the exhaust. But it appears that both is happening. I am assuming that if the problem is a sleeve that the block must be replaced. If that is the case would trying a block sealer like the one I see advertised above as I am typing be worth a try? Has anyone here tried this or heard of it being tried as a last ditch effort?. I would really like to save this beast if I can. I have been thinking about going as far as swapping out the block. I have put so much time, money and effort into this I just hate to give up on it. What is the best plan at this point? Try a sealer and if that doesn't work; swap out a short block? Or the whole motor? Right now I'm the only one in the family that doesn't want to bail and get rid of it and sometimes that does seem to make more sense. It will haunt me forever if do find out exactly what the problem is. It's a sickness.

 

Sealers tend to clog up the radiator, if nothing else.

 

This sucks to hear, so frustrating. It sounds like it is much worse than before. So what did you find when you opened her up? Was the head gasket blown, did any of the cylinders look steam-cleaned, did it look like any sleeves moved? How bad was it before, did it ever overheat badly? And I have to ask, what procedure did you end up using to tighten the head bolts down, because it sounds like you have exhaust and coolant mixing and blowing everywhere?

 

It had gotten pretty bad before we parked it. I think it had always been bad since we bought it and got progressively worse. I tried to talk my son(its his) into doing the head gaskets last spring when we first started loosing coolant but he just wouldn't listen and couldn't be without it for a couple of weeks. Now he knows why he should have listened to me. #4 cylinder was steamed cleaned and I thought I saw the bad spot on the gasket. I followed the RAVE torque procedure through the first 90 deg turn. I set the final torque to 85 FT/lbs because I wanted the same torque on each bolt. I had checked the head bolt torque as I disassembled and the number #4 side was very inconsistent so I thought it best to set the torque. I think because of my son's undisciplined nature and always knowing better than his dad; he toasted his block. Now he expects me to run out and buy him something else instead of taking the time to fix this one. How he got to be this way is a long story that I just don't want to get into here; but believe me he always has had to learn things the hard way at my expense. I want to save it; fixing will be way cheaper than buying another vehicle. Its really a rock and a hard place. My gut is the coolant is leaking behind a sleeve or sleeves due to the number of times it overheated as it did progressively get worse each time. I hate giving up plus it will bug the heck out of me if I don't find the point of failure. But there is a good chance it will continue to be a money pit if we keep it. Hard decision.

 

Believe me, I know all to well about the son thing. I have a wrecked car right now that I need to do something with and I've repaired it multiple times already. Every time something happens, he's ready to get a new one.
Apparently the blocks tend to crack at the head bolt threads, so maybe retorquing the new bolts down again could have caused them to spread further. I'm curious, on that final torque setting, did the bolt turn anywhere near another 90 degrees? I can't really remember, but mine must have torqued down to near 200 lbs when I did the final turn, I could be wrong though it just seemed like a lot.

 

The final torque to 85 I used was approximately 70-75 DEG. You are right on; the full 90 DEG turn takes the torque to approximately 200. but there is a spread from about 180 to 210 which was what I was seeing when I was disassembling the left head; I believe that was from the factory; the right side had been off before and by an "amateur" as the torque varied from 45 to 180. Another problem I see with doing the two 90 deg turns is it is virtually impossible to turn each bolt to exactly 90 deg. I am sure there will be those who will argue that point. Granted you can might get close but "exactly" on every bolt; I doubt it. Talking with Disco Mike and reading his posts I feel 70-80 ft/lbs is plenty and the 90 DEG turn is not only inaccurate but way too excessive as well. Just my opinion and I am open to other's; I want to learn as much as I can. I am leaning towards tearing down the motor and having the block pressure tested and verify/pinpoint the failure. I had been talking with Mike about doing cylinder leak down tests but that will only show an area of failure not the exact problem. It seems to me a block pressure check should be able to be performed without pulling the short block. I'll have to do some more research on that.

Ps. The block cracks you mentioned at the bolts; are those cracks a possible point of coolant leakage?