Well up here we get a little rain now and then... My wife started complaining about hearing a rushing sound like water near the fire wall. It has been pooring for the last month straight, now even with my bad hearing it sounds like one of those rain sticks. Where is this under the hood lake at and how sould I stock it,(Trout or Bass)

 

Your wife will not be thrilled with what that represents. Stock with piranah.

1. Unless you just did a coolant flush or replaced some major part of the cooling system (which would allow air to enter the system) - that noise is very likely combustion gas in the coolant. The bubbles surge through the heater core and the pipes.

2. The usual cause of this is a severe overheating incident, or a prolonged running at "almost overheated", and head gasket is leaking. Usually this is accompanied by loss of coolant (recovery jug gets lower and lower), white smoke from exhaust (not just when warming up), or water in oil (makes oil milky - and can see when looking into oil fill cap), or oil in water (will see oil in coolant jug). Large upper radiator hoses can become very hard. See attached diagram pages from the RAVE tech manuals for water flow in coolant system.

3. You can try purging the air from the system (bleeder valve on hose). There is also a chemical test you can buy from auto parts store for "combustion gas in coolant" which is pretty much proof positive of HG problem. About $35, will do a lot of tests.

4. Watch temp gauge like a hawk. Consider plugging in a scanner to read the actual coolant temp in digital form from the ECU. HG leaks usually elevate temps, sometimes spike them. Can overheat and warp heads, crack block, or cause the dreaded slipped liner "tick" to begin. Steam venting through gasket can errode aluminum head or block.

5. HG rebuild is a DIY project if you have the time, tools, and space to work indoors. Takes average mechanic 12 - 15 hours. HG set requires new head bolts, they stretch when installed, use once. Kit of parts is like $200, vendors include British Pacific and others. Going rate in the lower 48 is $1500 - $1700, dealer much higher. Plan on sending heads to a machine shop, where they will check for flatness (warp) and machine, and replace valve stem seals at same time ($200 - $300).

6. Full set of tech manuals including workshop and overhaul manuals is called the RAVE, free download below in my signature.

7. Now you might be thinking you'll pour in some "mechanic-N-jar" to seal the cooling system and the leaky gasket. That can work as a bandaid, until you are ready to do the HG if that is what is bad.

Here's what else can happen: The actual leak is small, and will take less than a raisin-sized quantity to plug the leak. The rest of the majic material circulates in the cooling system, searching for cracks and crevices to treat. In the radiator, it will find all these passageways already clogged with scale build up from not changing coolant, not using distilled water, or using the DexCool which turns into sludge. The "stopz leekz" settles to the bottom of the radiator and can block multiple tubes, reducing cooling capacity, making overheat worse. It will coat the inside of the cooling system, which is like pulling on a sweater, it is extra insulation, perhaps in your area this is not as big an issue. It will try to seal up the thermostat, both the internal vent holes and the actual seal of the thermostat opening, which can cause over heat or stuck open thermostat.

IMHO the stopz leekz products do work, but for a short time. They are something to help you limp home from a road trip, or delay the work until parts can be ordered and arrive, or budget allows.

If you plan to keep your rolling tea kettle, at the same time consider doing water pump, front crank shaft seal, oil pump, and timing chain. They can be done separate from the heads, they are all connected with the front cover of the engine.

 

BearBait, you have a coolant leak that needs to be dealt with this weekend or sooner.
If you want some help checking it out yourself, send me your number and I'll walk you thru what to do, otherwise get it to a Rover mechanic and have the coolant system pressure tested to find and fix the leak before you over heat the engine.

 

I drive it everyday and the rushing, gurgling sound only happens when you turn to the left or right. We had a dry couple of days about a month ago and I noticed a very small amount of water dropping down behind the engine. I cralled all over and never found the source.
The disco has never over heated and no white smoke out the back.
Kind of like a water is stuck in some valley behind the dash?!?!?

You guys are great and thank you for your help.

 

Unlikely that this is "loose water" moving around, because it would find a point, seam, or hole to leak down thru, and if inside the truck would make it smell like mildew. Under the hood, the 100+ degree engine temp would evaporate it.

The D2 circulates water from the cooling system thru the heater core 100% of the time truck is running. The heat on/off and temp does not turn this off.

If air bubbles are in the system, when they pass through the heater core pipes they make that gurgle noise you can hear.

Normally, bubbles don't exist in the system, and are purged out by manual operation the bleeder valve in the center of the large pipes that run left/right (#11 on the RAVE drawing sent to you). You probably should re-bleed the system and be sure you have got all the air out you can. There are a number of posts on this, special conditions, front elevated, phase of moon, stand on left foot, etc.

When you move left or right, vehicle tilt is releasing this pocket of trapped gas, so it gets sucked into the coolant current and moved. But this probably means you have a good sized "bubble" inside the system. When bubble is inside engine, that makes a hot spot, will damage engine at some point. So between bleeding, squeezing hoses, etc. get the air out.

Now, if "air" continues to form, it could certainly be a head gasket issue. If you don't have temp issues, white smoke, coolant loss, oil in coolant, coolant in oil; then you are a lucky guy.

About the only place a large bubble could hide would be that top horizontal hose, which would tilt slightly when vehicle turns.

You should bleed, top up coolant, to a known spot. Then check fluids daily for a couple of weeks to be sure no coolant loss sneaking up on you. And doo a coolant pressure test.

One place this leak could be is the head gaskets on the rear of the engine, and perhaps water could even run out the back of the valley pan. An external leak does not make white smoke, can make over heat, when strong enough can errode a groove in the block.

A way to find that is to borrow (they loan them at auto parts store) a coolant pressure tester, run it up to 20 PSI and see if will hold that for say 30 minutes. This will help find even small leaks.

Like Mike says, deal with this. It will not get smaller. It can take out your engine, or cause major repairs (Happy Holidays Honey I got You Some Head Gaskets).

 

Spooky! Thanks again for all your help!