Just picked up a 1998 disco 1 and I was wondering if anyone wanted to help me do a head gasket this weekend. I am ordering the British Atlantic gasket kit tonight and also a new oil pan gasket. Thanks David

 

Yeah, send me airfare or gas money, I will come on down.

 

i went to penn state. I mean i could offer you a guest room for a few days if that would interest ya.

 

That is very tempting, I must say.

 

I did it a few months ago, on my 96 disco. it was a lot of "fun". Did you get new head bolts? (they are stretch bolts, and need to be replaced- sorry if I point to something you already know). Also, friend of mine and I used about 2 foot pipe to extend the handle of the bar, and we were both pushing together to get second 90 degrees. But, the biggest problem, for me, was to get the wire harness away. There was no connector to the crankshaft sensor (well it is inside the sensor cover that is held by the same bolts as the sensor itself) , so i had to take the sensor out. Ouch. 2h under the car on my back to remove it an d90 minutes to put it back in. My arms were looking like I came from a coal mine. it is in such a place that you can't stick you hands in, and i just couldn't find a right tool to approach the screws. I think I used like 3 different wrenches as the screws were coming out/in.
It took me 3 days or 3 evenings to disassemble everything (well we pulled out the pistons also, to replace oil rings that were totally stuck-Disco was smoking like a steamer locomotive-but that took only a few hours), and 2 days to clean everything and put it back. Oh, boy, was I glad that i labeled every hose and wire, and that I took notes of the order of the things i removed!
FYI, I'm not a mechanic, just a crazy DIY... maybe two mechanics can do this in a day or two.
BTW, did you get the liquid gasket for the intake manifold?
I also replaced the oil pan gasket, and after two weeks I noticed a lot of oil dripping under the car. I checked the bolts and they were all loose (I'm pretty sure I did tighten them tot eh spec and double checked them the first time). I;m not sure if that was the gasket compression and they need re-tightening after some time, or I should've used some weak loctite...
Hope that at least some of my experience helps... And i wish you good luck with the project!