Crackling Sound from Heater Core - Caprice

In article snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Lecher9000) writes: $Any ideas / thoughts / ruminations / reveries welcomed ....

At this time of year, it's probably chestnuts roasting on the heater core :-)

That's close. I was thinking it might be dry leaves rattling around. There are no moving parts in the heater core itself but there is a fan near it.

Time to replace the leaking intake manifold gasket and have the cooling system flushed. As the engine cools, air is being sucked into the block instead of coolant from the recovery/overflow bottle. You're risking a warped head and more if you don't get it repaired soon.

Lecher9000 wrote:

I too thought about the possibility of air getting in from the leak, and not allowing coolant to be sucked back in from the reservoir on cooldown, which would possibly result in a cooling system half empty even with a full reservoir. But after this noise was going on for about 7 days, I twisted off the rad cap, when cold, just to see, and the rad was full. Could be steam blasting through the core, but how would steam get here ? Properly mixed coolant is not supposed to boil or steam. Maybe just debris ?