Mike,

Is the "overheats after driving 30 minutes" the indicator for the internal mayhem?

 

This is interesting, explain?

 

It's kinda fuzzy but my D1 used to get stuck in park after I drove it and parked it. Once I was on the side of the road and I called the service number in the manual to ask for some guidance. The lady told me she shouldn't tell me but I should try and pull the contacts on the rear window defrost and touch them together. I did it and I was able to get the car moving. Felt electrical but I haven't had that problem since. It worked coincidentally, magically or what.

 

Yes I would like to know this as well. I haven't got out there yet but probably tomorrow night it looks like. I've had lots of vehicles overheat and it was never the heads but it sounds like these motors have weak headgaskets?

 

Stay away from it unless you are very mechanical and you can buy it for $1000 or less in case it has dropped a sleeve. Never believe the seller, as soon as his mouth starts to move he is lieing, after all he wants to sell it.

 

Mike is pointing out a standard owner issue - if the repair was something as simple as a water pump, or even a radiator; why would he give away an otherwise perfectly good superior four wheel drive vehicle? In today's economy why would anyone not fix the minor problem and keep rolling? A water pump is $6 at the junk yard.

This hasn't changed much from when cars almost all had manual transmissions, and owners would stuff 'em with bannana peels to smooth out the shifting long enough to unload it. Today's sellers will pour in two cans of stop leak, two bottles of Lucas oil treatment, and two bottles of Lucas tranny fix - and offer it for sale. By the way, look for over-filled oil or transmission.

If you can get it for a song, and are prepared to do head gaskets if needed, or replace the engine with one from a donor vehicle, great. Sleeve repair is not what most would define as DIY. You can also use www.statewidelist.com to search all of craigslist in your state for "Rover" and it will show them in order by city.

 

I can get it for $900 and I was thinking I could do a diesel swap if it dies

 

You have found a new hobby, I think, and a never ending excuse to buy additional tools. If you enjoy tinkering with vehicles you will be rewarded. If you are buying this for a daily driver for the wife, might also be rewarding for her attorney.

 

Shouldn't I be able to tell if it's a dropped sleeve? Wouldn't it knock? If it's a bad headgasket wouldn't it be low on power?

 

They don't always knock........ Each engine is different. Sometimes it is even hard to tell if the sleeve dropped. The only DEFINITE test is to put it on a grill and heat it up for 10 minutes. Then take a long pair of channel locks and grab the sleeve: if it moves its dropped if it hasn't then well your good to go. That however requires a lot of work.