Hi Everyone,

First let me say thanks to everyone for all of the advice and write ups on this board. I am the one Land Rover guy in a group of friends who all own Land Cruisers, so after having to put up with their trash talk it's great to jump on here for a quick support group session.

That being said, I have had a coolant leak develop on my 95 Disco 3.9L. I have about 88k on it and the previous owner claims to have (but no receipt ) replaced the HG about a year before i purchased (I bought it in Oct. 2013). The rate of leaking is inconsistent (sometimes a puddle will show up underneath and sometimes it will go a week without showing anything) and builds up in a pool on the top of the back of the engine (under the intake manifold, but on top of valley gasket). I had a shop look at it and they could not find the exact leak without taking off the intake manifold, so i decided to hold off since I was about to travel. That was right before the holidays, and now that I have more time I would like to tackle this myself. I checked the tail pipe when running, and it does have a slight coolant smell, but not a noticeable amount of white smoke. Also there is a moderate amount water dripping from the tail pipe. This is purely a hobby truck for off road use so I can afford to tinker and work on it at my leisure.

Does this sound like something that could be a HG issue? I have not seen coolant anywhere on the block, other than the top of valley gasket. The shop didn't think so, but I had the feeling they just didn't want to deal with it.

My other thought was this could be the Valley Gasket or leaking somewhere from the intake manifold, but the inconsistent nature really throws me off.

I decided to not drive the truck until I can rule out HG issue so I don't damage anything.

Any other thoughts or suggestions on what this could be? I am planning on taking off the intake manifold this weekend, and depending on how things look, may choose to do the HG and get the heads cleaned and resurfaced.

Thanks!
Mitchell

 

Have you performed a pressure test on the cooling system yet? That will help you find the source. As far as I know, a head gasket leak wouldn't result in a puddle on the valley gasket. It would run down the block. I suspect an intake gasket or heater plate.

 

I will rent or buy a tester this weekend and hunt down the leak.

I figured that there was not much of a way that the HG could leak on top of the valley, but just wanted another opinion. Thanks.