97 discovery, 180,000
I've been driving this truck virtually trouble free for a year now. I've known the head gaskets were leaking a little oil, but didn't care, less than a quart between changes. Parked it inside for a couple weeks and noticed a little pink fluid on the floor below the starter (yes I know to switch away from dex-cool now thanks to this forum). Did more investigating and found the upper rad hose never gets firm (meaning cooling system is not building pressure). I can hear the pressure escaping from around the cap. Knowing better than to just throw a new cap on and drive away I bit the bullet and bought a head gasket set with bolts. Pulled the left side head off and was devastated to see just how dirty my poor 4 liter is on the inside. One oil feed to the rocker shaft was nearly plugged with sludge. Engine has always run quite. I don't know how after seeing this. The head gasket was visually bad around the coolant passages. Only one time has this truck givin a hint of a miss. During dismantling I found two badly coroded coil pack terminals. Again I can't believe how well it ran. I'm sure the rings must be stuck with carbon build up. I've seen the post about worn cams and lifters. I wasn't planning on doing all that. So you guys tell me how bad a shape am I in? Can I just do the head gaskets and run some engine flush throughout? Is bottom end failure eminent? Not a daily driver but I want the reliability of one out of it. Thanks,

 

Slap the leaking head back on, engine flush with a engine flush product.
Replace head gaskets.
Start using diesel engine oil as it is highly detergent and will clean the engine as you drive.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Rockers practically seized. Getting them off was the only hard part. Careful inspection, a few passes of the file on the high spots of the shaft. Sanded and polished the shaft. Resurfacing all down the line; springs, rockers, mounts. Started with a file, had to clean after every pass.Polished them up flat and true, nice and shiny. Average material loss was less than 0.003 inches. Deburred the inside holes of the mounts (where the bolts go through) with an exacto knife. Deburred and chamfered where the shaft goes though the mounts. Rockers now floating on a cloud.

 

Would suggest a mechanical oil PSI gauge test. Oil PSI can be impacted by lower end bearings (write up in tech area of replacement in-truck); but also by valve train items. I saw a post where a guy kept having low pressure after rebuilding the lower end, and blocked off the top end passages to "prove" that the low pressure was coming from top end. Sounds like you did a careful touch up. "Inside" wear surfaces can be a problem as well.

 

Rotella synthetic for me in the cool months. It is 5-40 syn.
And CONGRATULATIONS