The best and most conclusive way to determine where the truck is leaking is to do a pressure test of the cooling system. You may know this already, but you can borrow a cooling system pressure test kit from most any of the auto part chains. You pay for it upfront and get a full refund when you return it within the specified time period. Just make sure one of the several adapters included in the kit fits the coolant reservoir on your truck. Attach the tester and pump up the system to 15 psi or so. Let it sit a little bit and you should soon be able to see where the leak is, especially if, as you said, it is leaking like a sieve.

It is, however in my experience, unusual for a headgasket to leak in the front. Not impossible, just less common. More typical is a leak at the rear of the head. There is a cool of the passage at the rear of the head where the gasket is quite narrow but there is no such passage at the front. But regardless of that, just get the cooling system tester and test away. Some people like to buy the UV dye to put in the system and run a little bit before testing. That makes it easier to see the leak with a blacklight, if you have one, but if yours is leaking a lot you may not need the dye. A friend of mine had a leak in his DII from the front cover gasket that was so bad water poured out as fast as he could pour it in the reservoir.

 

And yea that was all from lucky 8. They are forum members and great folks to deal with. They are Rover enthusiasts like us and aren't out to bleed you dry like British Atlantic. If I look at British Atlantic, it's to get an idea of what not to pay. Call lucky 8 and they will set you up right. They have always done right by me and a ton of other member on here. It's always great, in my opinion, to be able to do business with people that love what they do are enjoy it. They are looking to get you the best parts for the best prices

 

Thanks, that looks like exactly the problem with the rear door.

 

Thanks, Sounds like the way forward to is to clean the engine and then get it pressure tested.

And thanks for the recommendations on Lucky8, had no idea AB prices were some of the highest!

 

I'll update this thread as I clean so you guys can see how bad it is

I plan on doing a thread chronicling the head and upper end experience as well so I can help future newbs.

Thanks for all the help! Glad to have joined LRF.