hi,
guys i'm starting to think my 97 Range Rover has a blown gasket. Radiator, pump and Thermostat are good. Is there anyways i can test if head gasket are damaged? or symptoms?
Thanks

 

Glad you asked.

Do you have any of these symptoms: noise like water fall under the dash like water gushing through pipes - that could be combustion gas in coolant, or just air. There is a chemical test for that, about $50, from auto parts store.

Loss of coolant, but dry under truck (not leaking)? You can borrow a pressure tetser from the auto parts store and pump up your cooling system to say 20 PSI and leave it for 30 minutes, to look for leaks.

Overheating - either constant or major spikes? By the gauge, above 9:00.

White smoke out exhaust after warm up in morning? Smell a sweet antifreeze smell?

Oil has milky look when drained. Oil fill opening has yellow or white scum inside (coolant in oil).

2. Dash gauge is only an estimate. To really see what is happening to temperature, connect a data reading code scanner or something like the Ultra Gauge, that reads the OBDII codes, and there is live data for coolant temperature. You can see temp going way above thermostat rating, etc.

3. What Jedi mind tricks did you use to detemine that radiator, water pump, and thermostat are "good"? No insult intended, but looking at a radiator won't tell everything. Your radiator is a copper and brass affair, can be acid "boiled and flushed" and rodded out (knocks out calcium deposits from non-distilled water) for usually about $70 by an indy radiator shop. A partially blocked radiator can oveheat easily at idle.

Water pump is a $50 plus part, 1 hour, when old they can leak or if the bearing starts to go they will wobble the pulley, then allow fan to slice into radiator.

Thermostat is $10, you can install is backwards, and that is no go. Coil end goes inside the block. You want one with the tiny hole or hole with jiggle wire in it, and that goes at 12:00 postion. It allows trapped air to pass, keeping stat in hot water, not just steam. What's the difference? Put your hand over a boiling pot of pasta. Then put hand IN the boiling pasta. Which gets quicker response? {kids - don't try this without Mom and Dad}

4. If overheat is more at idle and when going slow, consider the fan clutch. When cold, and you crank up, clutch should make fan roar for a short period. When warm, and truck OFF, spin fan by hand, it should feel like peanut butter inside, not penetrating oil, should not spin more than 1/2 to 1 revolution. Fan clutch is $50, there is a Chevy cross over written up in the tech area. If fan blades are on backawards, same problems. Cupped side of blades go toward engine.

Also check AC fans, you can have truck off, turn to run (don't crank) and turn on AC and interior fan. Electric radiator fabs should come on. Hold wimpy plastic bag by grille. It should be sucked toward grille.

Belt route - if fan belt is on wrong all kinds of strange things happen.

Trash between radiator and condenser (leaves) or mud clogged radiator fins.

So, there are some ideas. What conditions take place that make you feel you have HG problem, miles, cooling system repairs (fan blades get reversed all the time when water pumps are repaired), and type of coolant (no dexcool please), when it was changed?

 

so I added coolant to the car. Drove it for a bit and didn't over heat on the gauge. BUT, I notice that the coolant is not flowing correctly. Let's leave aside my crazy idea that it has a HG blown.

SO, should i start with a thermostat? because the thermostat OEM for is like $80 for my range. It looks like a white cannister withe three ins/outs on top and one ins/out at lower.

If we go with the water pump? from looking at it, it looks fairly new.

I did check if the coolant looked if it had chemicals but no. Everything looks about right on the reserve.

I drove it and the top hose that connects the from radiator to engine builds-up alot of HOT air and is trapped.. is not flowing any coolant. I really dont think the thermostat is opening up and i dont think there is any coolant on the radiator. or maybe i'm just lost a little bit of everythig ha ha.
I was going to check out the coolant and radiator but engine is hot right now. have to wait till tomorrow.

 

Check hose connection, be sure ones from coolant bottle are not kinked. See attached pages from RAVE. Important that system be full of coolant, you may have to open hose fitting at top of radiator to be sure. Stat replacement is good idea, it will have sampling holes inside that move hot water to pickup area of stat, these can get plugged with gunk and previous owner stop leak compounds. You are correct 97 is different, I was lookng at 95. Rover introduces new pain in the high priced models first.

 

Also please note that the 97 Rover won't have the copper radiator, so if radiator has calcium, rod out not usually very practical due to plastic side tanks. But aluminum plastic radiator much cheaper than brass and copper model ($600 or so).

 

excellent.
I downloaded the attachment. So by quickly looking at the flow chart.
I notice in the chart, that the upper hose has a T hose. Which it runs back to the thermostat. My upper hose, runs from the manifold to the top of the radiator. Is it possible that, I might be having those hoses connected in the wrong way? or Should I get a T hose?
Thanks.

 

Sorry you have slightly earlier version, here's a page for that. The thermostat gets water flow back thru it from two hoses to warm it up to opening temp, since it is not in the engine block. Most have some sort of metering holes inside, if plugged they shift the operating point up. See attached. Might want to pull stat and inspect, here is pix of a similar one from a Discovery 2.

Also, with this plumbing design, coolant always flows thru heater core. If you have HG leak, many times this makes bubbles in coolant, which sound like water rushing or a water fall under the dash. So no noise is a good thing.

 

I been looking around to see if they I can rent a "blown Gasket Tester" and can't seem to find one. Tomorrow i'm calling a local smog shop to see if they have a tester.
The car is running fine... i'm keeping a close monitor on the coolant.
Car takes me to work and brings me back with no over heat. And the upper hose gets some preasure-steam... so once i get to work or home, I open the reserve cap and let's that preasure go out....

 

Major auto parts stores will loan/rent you a coolant pressure tester, you pump up pressure in coolant system, look for leaks and look for pressure to bleed off. 18-20 PSI for say 30 minutes. If it is not leaking extenal, it is leaking internal.

There is a $50 combustion-products-in-coolant test, like $35 - $50, does 16 or so tests. Tests for exhaust gas bubbles in coolant.

Block testing is a whole different approach, it is usually done once heads are removed. Plates are bolted over water passages to heads, and pressure turned up and left, again looking for cracks, etc.