This has been a topic on my mind for a while now and I hoping some of you guys can enlighten me on a few things.

Back when I was a teenager my friend stole his dads 1976 stingray and was out doing 120 MPH+ before screeching into the garage 15 minutes before his father was to return home from work. Terrified that his Dad would notice the scorching hot engine making all kinds of noise as it cooled, he filled up a bucket with water and poured it on the engine to try and cool it down. CRACK! And the oil started running down the garage floor... Needless to say I didn't stick around to witness the aftermath!!

Now I see all of these rovers with snorkels and water up to the windshield, what's the difference? Is the engine block designed differently? Thanks!

 

Well, these are aluminum vs cast iron blocks, but I still don't think a bucket of water cracked his block...maybe something else but not the block unless it was already partly cracked.

 

We have not had people posting about getting stuck in mud and cracking the engine block.

 

More issues ingesting watering than killing it from the outside.

 

Or this setup for larger puddles.....

 

You're more likely to crack the block when the T-stat fails closed, waterpump dies, radiator clogs, and/or a hose suddenly explodes on the highway (happened to me on a ZJ jeep and 540i, luckily I stopped the vehicles quickly enough to prevent any damage).

Hence so many posts on here about preventatively spending the $4-600 and overhauling your cooling system on purchase and every 80-100k after that.

It's funny to me that nobody (except a teenager scared of being caught) would dream of driving 3k RPM+ for extended periods, shutting the car off and immediately dumping buckets of cold water all over the block; yet many refuse to maintain their tired cooling system because "it hasn't failed catastrophically yet".

 

I'd be curious to see ultra gauge temps just before the trucks dips into the drink then, temps as its wadding. I would say that the water temp is not cold enough to "shock" the 180-190F degree engine block.

Pour boiling water over an ice cube. Then pour luke warm water over an ice cube.

 

How odd. I was hoping someone would say "well the vette engine blocked failed because of *** *** duh..."

And here I am all these years later with an irrational fear of getting my engine wet. Even those sprayers under the car at your favorite wash worried me. And then I got a Disco and really wondered how these motors handled the drastic change in temp. All to find out it must have been some freak set of circumstances in the first place, because no ones ever even heard of it happening?? Was it even the block that cracked I'm asked? Good question, I was 14. Water went on, we heard a big pop, and then saw oil flowing. I guess it's irrelevant now. Carry on and happy wading!

 

And the next "pop" was Pop wielding the "board of education".


That old Series Rover might have an oil PSI gauge, but it won't have an OBDII port. Ditto on maintaining cooling system, because oem gauge will let you keep dreaming that everything is just fine, always in the middle... while you slow roast the engine for thousands of miles over hickory coals.

Think about it, if your home AC was 15F above "normal" you'ld notice it and take action. And us partz vulturez in da South love air conditioning, it's not an option, it is life support.