Head Gasket the Shade Tree Way
 

EDIT: I have added lessons learned here, so readers won't have to dig thru everything. This write up is more of what not to do, and what happens when you make mistakes. It is not pretty, and you will see pictures of a very dirty engine, even though I have used Rotella and snake oils in the few years I have owned it. But it is a learning experience. I was able to get it back together and crank up. This would not have been possible without motivation from plenty of members.

1. Set up a work space. Pack up and unpack takes up a lot of time. Shade tree is fine, until you have rain almost every day. A garage or carport or barn is great. If you are out of hearing distance of others, so much the better. If working on dirt, a tarp helps you find dropped parts. But under a tree it collects water and you end up standing in puddles. I think the best would be a line tied fore to aft, under the tarp. Makes it a tent. Water drains to the side, and dropped parts come out right side or left side, you don't spend time reaching under the truck.

2. If you own ramps, they work great to elevate you some. I put mine on each side of the front wheels. If you have a brush bar you'll get tired of reaching over it.

3. A 24 inch breaker bar is good, a two foot piece of water pipe will slip over it and give you more leverage when needed.

4. Find all your tools. Before you start. Buy a big jug of hand cleaner.

5. You'll save money. But you won't save time. And SWMBO will take that saved money and apply it to much needed retail therapy. I was quoted $1710 plus machine shop. I know they would not have done all the small stuff I have piddled with, but my kid would have had her truck back a lot sooner.

6. Look over several posts about the project. Look at pictures. Read the RAVE.

7. Ask questions before you start or have road blocks. Right here on the forum. Some will screw with you (it's the internet), but most will have some point of view you might not have considered.

8. Don't try this at home if you only have an hour a day to throw at it.

9. Machine shop - don't skip that part. It cost me $250. Others did the HGs, and posted about them leaking badly. Second time, they went to machine shop and foound heads .004 inch out; .002 is the max. .038 inch is the thickness of your printer paper. Don't try to eyeball it, or test it with some home ruler and a feeler gauge. Don't try to use your own belt sander.

10. Valve train will likely need work to clean up. Will take plenty of time.

11. Gaskets should be bought in a set usually. You will at a minimum use two head gaskets, two valve cover, and the valley pan. Plus a few others if you like. Don't try to replace just one head gasket. I bought a complete set $118) of Victor Reinz from AutohausAZ. When I had problems AutoHaus reponded and sent a new box of gaskets, measurements, photo comparisons, etc. The same request was sent to VR, their customer service never responded. If it turns out I don't need the extra gaskets they will go back to AH.

12. You will find lots of other things that need attention. Allow time for that.

13. Print out instructions and mark them as you do them. Unlike the pro, you'll get called away for any number of things.

14. If you can't find it in the RAVE, ask. As an example, I looked in the SFI section of the D1 shop manual. Could not find the intake specs. So I used one from the D2. The D1 spec is 38 newton meters. The D2 spec is 51 newton meters. Became a problem for me.

15. Bolts should fit well enough to turn in by fingers or very low wrench pressure to a point. I cross threaded about ten bolts, with problems aligning the valley gasket, and my own stupidity. The resulting solutions and attempts at solutions have gobbled up time.

16. Don't work when sleepy and tired. A stripped bolt is another PITA.

17. You'll need to arrange for some solvent or degreaser use to clean parts.

18. Lots of small parts, putting them in plastic bags helped me keep things in manageable piles. Write on bags what they fit.

19. You can do this. It is not rocket science. But it takes attention to detail. It is not a place for sloppy work.

20. Cloth spread across the open yawning bottomless pit of the valley allows you to retrieve dropped parts without opening the oil pan. I also found tree frogs under the hood, so I hope one did not decide the engine was a nice condo.

21. You'll want a pickup magnet on a stick, and a mirror on a stick.

22. Allow time for new hoses, including heater. Mine were cracked inside, looked OK on the outside. Ditto for extra time for new spark plugs.

23. By following the wrong directions, and not lining up my valley pan gasket I tripled the time for the job, and doubled my costs almost. The idea of using the old gasket to line up heads before torque down is a good idea. If you want to clean bolt hole threads, use a gun cleaning brush instead of a tap.

24. Tough area are the rear exhaust manifold bolts (mirror is helpful to bend up the locking tabs), the rear head bolts (short extension helps get the angle you need), the lower bolt on power steering pump ( I used a 13mm crows foot alone to get it close and another wrench to tighten it), and that lower radiator hose clamp. Comes apart quicker than goes back.

25. When you drain your radiator, go ahead and flush it, then keep distilled water in it during the work. I had my radiator rodded out last year, and it was working good. I had some radiator sealer in the system prior to the HG failure. Before HG work my rad read 5 degrees variation top to bottom. Once what ever was in it "set up" and dried out during my extra long HG job, now it reads 30F difference. And I can't idle in hot weather without overheating. Rad shop say might can get the stuff out, might not. Have you seen what a D1 radiator costs?







D1, 183,000, HG leak adjacent to cylinder 3 out the side, 40 psi in cylinder 3. Work done under the tree, at very relaxed pace.

Session 1:

Put tarp on ground to find dropped parts easier.

Remove a variety of hoses and vac lines. Removed Throttle body and eased to the side, still attached to cables.

Removed intake plenum with the forest of tubes.

Problems found:

Missing a few washers on the 6mm hex bolts that hold down throttle body. Maybe I'm not the first in here...

Missing the gasket between the bottom part of the plenum and the intake manifold. Now I'm sure someone else has been here. Plenty of gunk on the intake, bolts that hold the bottom section of plenum to intake come out with fresh oil.

Noticed throttle body heater is corroded, so it will have to go as well.

And love the swollen end on the fuel pressure regulator hose. I should have used better hose rather than what was laying around.

More next session.

I'm looking forward to the rest. Best of luck to you!

There isn't supposed to be a gasket between intake manifold and ram housing... Nix that off the "Problems found" list. Use a non-hardening sealant thinly applied when you re-install. I highly recommend not using silicone. These are milled to mate surfaces. This is the location where risers/spacers are used to change runner length when transplanted into British roller-skates. Of course there is much more modification tuning that goes into the process but you get the general idea....

By the way you don't need to take it down this far to remove the entire manifold/ram housing/plenum assembly. When time is short you remove the entire unit by removing cables, hoses, coil pack and then undo the intakes bolts. One total unit all at once. Not very heavy at all. I do it all the time of course.....

Then where does this go? Many of the web sites list this gasket as extra....

http://bputah.com/Disco2%20Parts/ERR6621a.jpg

thought that was for the disco2 with plastic plenum

And yes, I plan for this to be fun for all of us, you can enjoy a few laughs at my expense. Actually, I'm glad I took it apart because obviously I have not used enough SeaFoam, and whatever sealant they used has long since cracked and allowed un-filtered air in, etc.

yeah I found that the sealant they used is total garbage, there was dirt and pine needles in the sludge in my oil pan so I would say crap was getting in

I'm not laughing. I wouldn't mess around with your money but by all means try installing that gasket......

Do the trumpets or ram housing bolts follow the same pattern as that particular gasket Buzz? Tom's right, it's for the DII's.

Let's see, I've done how many head gasket jobs now, uh 19 so far and have a 4.4 L322 lined up to make it an even 20. I don't mess around......and this is just a hobby for me.

You are right, I just noticed it on the parts web sites listings for 97, but I went back to the RAVE and there is not one shown in the exploded diagram. Thanks for the advice on the sealant.

I used permatex rtv ultra black on the oil pan and intake gasket

No problemo Buzz. Maybe someday toss up a pictorial on rebuilding a ZF.

Tom I don't use silicone anywhere on my motors. The first time I dropped the pan on my truck and subsequently on several others I found way too much in the pickup screens. It's mostly due to the amount of it slathered on but it just doesn't last. There are plenty of better sealants that suit sealing duty on a motor.

Buzz when you get to your pushrods store them in a box with punched holes, don't use a shoebox, won't work. And measure them with your eyeballs. If there isn't a nice round ball on either end, looks more like a mushrooms top then they are worn. See if you can remove just one lifter from it's bore through the top. If not then they are mushroomed at the face. If mushroomed the only way to remove is with the cam out. If mushroomed its more than likely your cam is not healthy as well. It will be flat instead of peaked. You have a high mileage motor. Let me know what you find.

I'd be hesitant to use any strong sealant between the plenum and intake manifold, even though the two rarely need to be separated. I used RTV once and it took all amounts of beating and a hydraulic press to separate the two.

I only use the ultra black or ultra gray works waay better then regular rtv, and always let it cure minimum 24 hours, never have leak problems or crap in the pickup, though I have taken apart engines that did when I was a dealer tech, brand spanken new rebuilds burned up with a clogged oil pickup, and when I asked the mechanic about how long he let the orange rtv silicone cure before adding oil and fire up it was "cure I thought it dried in like 10 minutes we put the tins on and installed the engine and fired it up so maybe a few hours "

when I did the intake set a few months back I thin coated intake gasket, and plenum to intake, plenum came off pretty easy, intake took some careful prybaring

getting proper results from any sealant is a matter of knowing how to use it and how much to use

I suspect I'll find lots of things that need attention. I'm the 6th or 7th owner. Obviously from photos the PCV system was plugged up at some point. At least if a cam is needed I have experience getting the radiator out having done that a half dozen times. And I'll keep wear to fit parts arranged so matching parts go back.

It is a D2 gasket, but the plenum isn't plastic on a D2, it's aluminum.

I let that slide jafir, the plastic plenum. Man do I hate that plenum......

Buzz I'm in the same boat, about six folks leased it and last two owned it. I basically rescued it from the junk yard so there isn't anything I haven't practiced on. It's been my only vehicle for 5 years (talk about cheap). At 165k it's getting tired (and so am I). I have plans that I'll be in another Rover soon and I'm not sure what I'll do with this one. My Disco days are coming to a close. By the fall I'll be in another city and company (already signed the NDA) and I'll need to appear a wee bit more polished to match the responsibility and income level.

I recently had an opportunity to buy a black on black Callaway P38 and it's calling my name. Mind you I soon could afford a 2013 Range Rover but like you said so unabashedly, cheap. I can leave the Callaway in long term parking without it being molested. If that disappears I'll get a beige 05 LR3, nobody would touch that one for sure.

Your new position may also limit time available for Rover repairs.

As for looking better, I was a project manager for an electrical contractor (350 IBEW fellows to keep busy), the owner decided he wanted a better look than the assorted personal pickups the managers drove to job sites, so he stopped by a Ford dealer and arranged for 19 Expeditions to be delivered to our office. I got a blue one. For some firms, image is high on the list. Sorry you have to move.

I also spent 12 years on the road, flying three times a week to various offices in the US and Canada, or hitting the local states by car. Very familiar with long term parking and Murphy's Law page 145, "the well pump shall cease pumping when you are at least three flight connections from home." Being a road warrior is glamorous the first three weeks. Here in Savannah most everything routes to Atlanta, so the travelling guys all see each other on the 6:30 AM flight Monday, and we come back on Friday afternoon with the tourists and an amazing quantity of golf clubs.

For the plenum to adapter and adapter to intake you should be using Loctite 518 anaerobic sealer. It sets with the absence of oxygen and is designed for use where 2 machined surfaces mate. Napa sells the equivalent as Permatex Anaerobic sealer, as the "Loctite" brand is the industrial line and is not packaged for them. It's about $13 for a good sized tube.

For the valley pan end seals and around the coolant ports on the intake and head I use ThreeBond, a generic product for use between motorcycle case halves where no gasket is used from the factory. It's equivalents are Hondabond, Kawasakibond, Yamabond, etc. It is impervious to oil, fuel, coolant, etc. I use Ultra Gray for the oil pan, but only a very thin bead and use dowel pins to put the pan up without smearing it. I like the gray over the black since I can see an oil leak on the gray if there is one.

Session 2

Good idea on the Permatex.

Spent time today removing hoses and plugs, found that most of my hoses looked OK from visible side but all have morphed into the MayPop brand (may pop any minute). PO must have put plenty of stop leak in it, the heater hose fitting has quite a bit. Got a few intake bolts out before stopping, they were more than finger tight, which is good. I may have to break down and buy a set of crows feet sockets.


This is gonna take a while at 60-90 minutes a day. Maybe I can get a slow mo camera. But, the pix of old stuff is representative of what others may find when opening their beastie up for minor repairs. Even some of the electric plugs felt brittle / crumbly.

Session 3

Rained out. Got the fan belt off, would have been easier with my long handle 15mm wrench which is communing with the other sock in places unknown. The alternator seems frozen on mounts, even though it was not hard for me to change two years ago. Tommorrow is another day.

Session 4

Alternator - PB Blaster overnight on mounts, and an oversized socket over the one on block side. One good tap and it broke loose.

All bolts (1/2 inch or 13 mm) removed from intake, and coil packs removed on bracket.

Intake won't budge, time to remove valve covers. 8mm 12 point skinny socket no where to be found, hiding with Elvis, have the 6 and 10 mm I bought at same time. Will pickup another up today.

What they say about loose rear intake bolts must be true, the one under the fuel pressure regulator was barely finger tight.

defiantly true, i think over 4 bolts on my dads truck were finger tight, no doubt causing the gasket to leak. Funny how it seems to be always the rear most ones.
Hopefully a bit of loctite stops the issue from happening again.

good luck with your project!

You can use a 12pt SAE instead of the 8mm. 9/32" I think?

A 12pt 5/16 in socket fits best.

That's the one.

Well, a trip to Lowes (50 miles round trip) and the 8mm works. I don't have 12 points in SAE that small, should look into that. 1/10 of the tools I own are now scattered in back of the Disco. Got one valve cover loose, the other VC still holds the lower intake in place, I can pry upward and just get coolant to seep around valley gasket, I have all 12 polts out of the intake.

Tropical storm conditions approaching, rain good now, shut down for the day.

you can pry real easy against the heads to pop the intake it may take a pry on each side at same time I mean real easy do not want to f up the heads where the valve cover meets, someone else may have a better sugestion but it worked for us

don't foirget a good 16mm for the head bolts and long ass breaker bar :D

Yep on the slow and easy. PO may have re-sealed with who knows what. Rain should be gone by morning. The joys of shade tree work in the great outdoors, with all the skeeterz your blood can support. I heard two talking the other day, deciding if they wuz gonna eat me now or carry me back home so they could have a snack later.

http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/gty_w..._110818_wg.jpg

That looks like the birds we get in minny

Gaskets arrived yesterday from AutohausAZ. Complete set, sealed up, but don't open if you might return. Reinz is part of Dana, a world wide player in vehicle and industrial applications. These parts are from Germany, even have a hologram logo shrink wrapped. Wouldn't want knock offs from land of the panda. And yes, OEM are available, even at a slightly better price. But, if OEM was that good, we wouldn't be buying these now....

Was shipped in a much larger and well packed box to prevent bending during warehouse foozeball.

Plus here in the east not only do they give you itchy, annoying bites they can kill you too. So awesome. Something so tiny and so omnipresent can also give you a potentially deadly virus with no treatment.

X2 on the West Nile virus. Savannah has their own mosquito control air force with helicopters and fixed wing spray planes. Larvacide is applied over large areas. Small chickens are kept in cages hoisted up in the trees around the county, blood is sampled and tested for the virus. I think they use Auracanas chickens. The harbor dredging builds large mounds of silt, which crack open and form little fissues ideal for rain water and skeeter eggs. Those get sprayed frequently.



Session five - cut short by tail end of tropical storm rain - 20 minutes a day is dragging along.

Got valve cover off. Note baffle inside, suspect that has heavy gunk behind it blocking PCV. Found my valve cover spacer (you see that missing in one pix). Valve train is super sludge. Note the oil drains are pretty blocked up. My mechanical oil PSI test showed 44 PSI warm and revved up, just can't drain back very fast.

So - all the oil changes (Rotella), oil supplements (MMO, BG), etc., - they have an uphill battle against PO indifference. I've taken what I thought was good care since I bought it. Hard too reverse 10 plus years of neglect by PO.

Suspect that most high milers with multiple owners will look similar.

Can't wait for rain to end so I can get back to it.

wow that sucks lots of clean and degreasing there, now I'm kind of glad I pulled mine apart the 80k. on your intake do you think if you pulled the t-stat housing you could get leverage by putting pipe or wood handle in there and lifting up.

buzz so far yours pretty much looks like mine did maybe a little worse? hard to tell, the po had cut and bent away the valve cover shield under the oil fill on mine

I have not had many cast iron V8 open that looked as bad as these inside unless the owner rarely changed the oil

Well, it is a known fact that I'm skeered of the dark, and it is dark inside the motor. The more I "Discover" the more I wonder at what point it is time to cut and run, etc. I'm going to take that VC apart, to see what sort of sludge collector is behind there. I suspect my cleaning attemps so far have solvented some of the gunk, maybe just kept it running.

Hot Tank. Let the machine shop make it all pretty for you.

By the way, the virus I was refering to is Eastern Equine Encephalitis or EEE. Even if you survive, you are likely to end up with brain damage. Of course, then you will have something to blame your decision to buy a Land Rover on.

My horse barn friends don't like that one either. Offspring has no fear on a quarter horse.. but should.

Session 5 1/2 after rain delay.

Got second valve cover off, more of the same gunk, the two lip seals, and intake. Pix of split lip seals. Valley pan gasket firmly glued to intake, will have to what they used.

And confirmation of this being a path already walked. Look at the color of the heads just above the gasket line when viewed from the valley side. Looks like a PO slapped some boneyard heads on there, the burnt oil colors don't match.

buzz, now that you point out the oil stain differences, I looked at my pics and think same was done on mine

Or it could be old heads were tanked and cleaned, re-installed, and have not turned grime yet. But I wonder why the area under VC looks so bad. Going to take the VC baffle apart to see if plugged behind.

Turns out it wasn't plugged. But the PCV fitting only has a small semi-circle of open area, would not be hard to clog, some carb spray from time to time would be a good idea. Gaskets had some flex but split easily. Not stiff enough to stand in the corner on their own.

SWMBO asked at dinner tonight how long before I finish the truck.....