So I've had my D1 for about three months now. I bought it from a buy-here pay-here place in Florida, and it overheated badly on the drive home. Three mechanics later, it ends up in the hands of a local rover mechanic, a legend in the area, who has been working on rovers his whole life. The head gasket job went down without too much fuss, other than making abundantly clear that the PO was a complete imbecile. If you're wondering why people say run away from orange RTV, here's why. When you use it to seal up the front cover, it can melt into the coolant passages and cause blockages as seen in the picture below feat. my mechanic's finger. All the other pictures are examples of what happens when you pretty much never change your oil. Be afraid. These pictures are from a few months ago when the job was done. Since then, the engine runs like a champ (knock on wood). Just thought I'd share.

 

With that type of carbon throughout the engine it's suffered some serious wear. Have you or the mech checked the bottom end bearings?

 

wow....

 

The bottom end job wasn't in the budget at the time, although if I'd known this was going to happen I probably would have opted to just get a new (used) engine. There was some metal in the oil pan, undoubtedly the effect of the engine running dry at some point due to how crazily gummed up everything was. We pretty much just sealed everything back up and hoped for the best. I must say that the engine is doing remarkably well now (again, knock on wood), and I've only experienced knock once, very briefly, which was when I didn't start it for about three days.

 

RTV didn't melt, it can handle over 600F. The EFI intake manifolds don't have a cross over port in the back so that coolant passage is blocked by the aluminum lower manifold. Sealant from the manifold gasket end seals during a sloppy installation will end up there, along with anything that floats in coolant.