Help! I'm between a rock and a hard place w/ my beloved '02 Disco (only 58k miles). I apologize in advance if I have posted in the incorrect category and for the lengthy details of my situation that follows...

After a long and surprisingly arduous search for 'the one', about a year ago I bought my Rover from a private party and shortly thereafter it overheated, blowing all the coolant out of the system and requiring a throttle body hose & de-icing kit replacement. I was told that this was likely the dreaded disco dropped liner (perhaps a preexisting issue when I bought it) but there was no way to know for sure without taking things apart requiring some serious shop rates. Meanwhile, the local rover dealer suggested that I have K&W block sealant run through the block claiming that he had done this with 4.0 disco engines w/ compression issues in the past to great result yielding years of continued use, especially since my engine has such low mileage. My grandfather and I had used K&W in my youth on our farm tractors so I said what the hell. Since it lives in my urban parking garage though, I opted to have them perform the relatively simple task of properly flushing the coolant and installing the sealant instead of just doing it myself. They made a total mess of things, blowing the sealant all over the engine compartment and I suspect that they didn't take the thermostat out since it had to be replaced shortly thereafter. The engine did ok. Would still overheat going uphill, presumably because of the load on the engine? On the upside, it passed a compression test and I've got about 6K miles out of the truck since then. But then...

About a month ago, it began to loose about a quart of coolant about every 50-60 miles but no visible signs of coolant drips anywhere. The condition worsened and coolant leaks became visible. The windshield was fogging up and I couldn’t turn the defrost off so I though perhaps the heater core had gone out. I took it in for an assessment, the heater is good but the block failed compression test. When I start it up to idle for a few moments now, the smell of antifreeze is now present and it drips at the reservoir cap. My presumption though I am not sure is (if one of the cylinder liners is in fact dropped) that the combustion from the cylinder is leaking into the block and coolant system and blowing the coolant out of the cap and potentially elsewhere if I were to put a load on the engine and drive it all.

I am thusly considering the following:

a.) taking it to a local mechanic that I trust might actually go to the trouble to completely flushing the coolant, remove the thermostat and properly installing the block sealant. This would be a quick/temporary fix it even remedied the compression issue at all though...I did get 6K out of the last sealant job...

b.) locating a 4.0 engine in great shape (or fulfilling my pipedream of finding a TD-5 diesel engine, though I know it would be very costly to convert) with no prior overheating issues (PLEASE ADVISE IF YOU KNOW OF WHERE BEST TO LOOK!) or worse buy a new engine and having it installed for $10k which is $3k more that what I paid for the truck. Even so, with the thin walls separating the cylinders on these blocks, a new block would still be susceptible to the same ole issues would it not? That would suck on a scale unimaginable!

c.) the worst of all scenarios. selling my Disco as it is, loosing a good chunk of money on it and still wishing that I was driving it. Bummed.

I take a comfort in the fact that if you are on this message board then you know what it feels like to really love your Rover. I desperately want to keep my truck but just don’t know what to do...

Thank you very much for reading, Your expert advise is immensely appreciated!

All the best to you,

-Jimmy

 

Too bad you didn't ask this prior to putting in the stop leak and listening to a m\shop that may not have a clue.
If you want some help, PM me your number and I'll be glad to call you and walk you thru what to check/do.

 

It is unlikely that you had a block test performed, it would require removal of lots of parts and installation of block off plates. A routine compression test would have PSI numbers for each cylinder, and ones very low would be told to you.

I would be one to disconnect the heater hoses and splice them together for testing. Without coolant flowing into the under dash area you may notice a difference.

Coolant does not just disappear, it has to go somewhere. Leaks out onto ground (fresh cardboard), leaks out coolant cap while driving (zip tie paper towel on over flow line), out the tail pipe as white smoke, into the oil (makes it look like a milkshake and can make oil level high).

You can rent/borrow a coolant pressure tester and pump up system to 15 PSI and wait 30 minutes for leaks to appear.

The sealer installed could have messed up the thermostat, which has very small hole in a disk inside the top. If these clog, nothing works right. One step would be a new Land Rover (not Motorad) 180F thermostat, about $60.

The sealer could have messed with the radiator. If the radiator had a trace of sludge in it, the sealer sealed that solid as well. You can evaluate your radiator my measuring the temperature top to bottom behind the big fan, in a straight line, on the fins. If lower rows are more than 10F cooler (truck warm, engine off), then sludge is blocking them. Half a radiator does a half a** job.

Without a scanner you are guessing at temps, the gauge will show 50% from about 130 - 240F.