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I believe Best4X4 is on to something with the heater core being plugged or somewhat plugged. I've never had an issue with any of the first Dll's, bleeding after thermostat change or engine swap or whatever, never really heard the "waterfall" noise before it happen on the 04. Bought the 04 with blown head gaskets, l'm mean pouring out, removed head bolts with my fingers, job recently done by former owners shop, wasn't to keen on rebuilding this motor, since previous owner didn't know how long or far his daughter had driven it while overheating...anyhow, l had the engine out of my diassembled gray 03, so after rebuilding it, dropped it in the 04. Had a basta*d of a time getting the waterfall noise to go away, finally took it to work and lifted it with the two post hoist, using front only, raised the front until rear bumper was on the ground, ran it for ten minutes high idle...fixed...no waterfall noise.
All's good right? No.
When winter rolled around...no heat at an idle. Off idle, okay heat. So, l'm thinking this partially plugged heater core theory may be a lot of the problem for folks that struggle with certain Dll's, while other folks with clear heater cores...see no issues...or less anyway. On all of my other Dll's, they bled out without even lifting the reservoir...and all had great heat at idle.
I've had the waterfall noise since 2016 when I first bought my Disco 2.
I tried everything to include slowly adding coolant mixture to the coolant bleed port, raising the coolant reservoir higher than the engine while running the engine at idle, parking upwards on a steep hill while running the engine at idle, used that coolant refill kit that creates a vacuum in the coolant system collapsing the coolant hoses then replenishes the coolant mixture. Still I get the waterfall sound when turning corners.
My next step is back flushing and forward flushing the heater matrix.
Last edited by JUKE179r; Jun 18, 2021 at 04:19 AM.
That’s a good possibly. This rig only has 60,000 miles so wasn’t driven much. You would think the air would find its way out eventually. I get lots of heat. Oh well I will try again tomorrow morning when it’s stone cold
Update: maybe it’s all in my head but the waterfall noise sounds less after replacing the coolant bottle cap with a new Oem unit. I’ll give it a week to see if the noise goes away completely.
Update: maybe it’s all in my head but the waterfall noise sounds less after replacing the coolant bottle cap with a new Oem unit. I’ll give it a week to see if the noise goes away completely.
Shutting off flow to the heater core in warm seasons cures the noise at least half year. It is a 3/4" quarter turn ball valve from Lowe's inserted in the heater hose (golden and blue).
-Ignore the filler rising hose-
