I have a 97 Disco XD with 115K miles and 5 previous owners now blowing white coolant smoke out tailpipe at idle. Has had previous heat issues and I see someone has worked on intake before from gasket sealer smears. Has anyone tried the Bars leak head gasket sealer in a bottle available for $12 at Advanced Auto Parts? They sell 2 kinds of Bars Leak head gasket and block sealer, one for $12 where you have to drain the coolant and the other bottle for $31 that you simply pour right in the radiator with the anti-freeze. Bars Leak claims their proprietary formula gasket and block sealer with aramid fibers actually improves head gaskets and makes them stronger than original. I chose the cheaper $12 treatment figuring with all the hoops you jump through flushing and draining to activate this stuff it might actually work better than the easier but more expensive $31 bottle. Anybody use either of these products with any luck? It says on the bottle this is the last option for repairing leaks before expensive engine repairs!

 

never used, but it will interesting to hear, what you find out.
I always assumed that that stuff just clogged up everything.

 

It will probably clog your radiator. But it may buy you some time before you have to pay up and do head gaskets.

 

I have had luck in the past with the stuff in a bottle on a chevy, follow directions it can/ will clog Rad and heat core

 

I used the drain->flush with flush product->water+product->drain->fill with coolant type stuff to remedy a likely cracked block for going on 5000 miles.

If you want to try to run a treatment and still have useful rad/core I suggest the following:

1. Use the stuff that you mix with water then drain then refil with coolant. This way the majority of it is only in the system for a couple days. Whichever you choose, 2 and 3 still apply.

2. Bypass the heater core

3. When the treatment is done, remove the radiator, remove the SAI sensor if applicable, and flush the hell out of it. Make sure to do final rinse with the outlets facing down to get as much powder out as possible.

Granted, this process is probably about equivalent in work to 25% of a headgasket job, so you may just want to do that instead

 

K-Seal, use K-Seal, that stuff works.
Google it.

 

I have used it, and it did not really help.

Get a refund, and start saving and budgeting for a head gasket replacement. That stuff is a temporary fix and will likely lead to Radiator buildup and gunk down the road.

 

Any of these are only temporary fixes, the mix with water one is silica, same stuff the cash for clunkers used to destroy engines of vehicles traded in ..............

basically turns into glass to fill in the gaps.

Downside is for our engines thermal expansion, the aluminum blocks will expand more with heat than their cast iron counterparts... this will cause what does end up forming into glass being more likely to come apart... plus its an additional mess when you go to do it properly. I would advise against it

 

If your seeing gasket sealant smears somebody was a hack. God knows what else will fail once you temporarily seal up the hg.

What's your intentions with the truck? I noticed it has low miles so are you going to keep it without adding to the ticker to get a better return on your investment. Key word is "investment".

A bottle of hg sealer isn't a well thought out "investment". Be smart, go long.

I work on these trucks as a hobby on my days off. The number one fix is head gaskets which I can do perfectly.

If you decide on trying the head gasket repair yourself I'll walk you through the process like it's liquid butter. Nothing like sitting at a red light watching the steam rise from the hood.....in a tall yellow Land Rover....nobody's gonna notice.

Do it right once. It's a right of passage for a Rover owner.....own the badge.

 

I checked out the MSDS on a bunch of the hg/block sealer products. What you mixed it with was irrelevant. The main ingredient in all is silica glass.