They may have bought a kit like this one: Land Rover Reseal Kit Gasket Set Discovery I II RR P38 99 02 MR0040 MB | eBay

It comes with valve cover, plenum and valley pan gaskets.

 

But he still should end up with the extra parts if he paid for them.

 

No joy today. Not surprisingly they didn't cop to anything. The guy who worked on it said he never got to the valley pan and the only explanation for why it would leak substantially worse immediately after they repaired it is that, since they fixed the valve covers, the oil is finding its way out other "paths of least resistance." When he calls me with an estimate to do the heads I'll probably give him a hard time about the valley pan gasket (since it was itemized separate from the valve cover gaskets) and then move on with my life. Now I just need to find a decent shop in West Michigan. If it turns out a clearly botched valley pan gasket install is to blame it's probably worth the $50 filing fee for small claims.

Or I grow a pair and take a stab at fixing it myself in the spring.

Thanks again.

 

I took my 03 to a different shop in town and he replaced the valley pan gasket. It definitely took care of the massive oil leak that I had after I returned home from shop #1 (which replaced the valve cover gaskets).


Shop #2 gave me the gasket. It's not new even though shop #1 charged me for it as part of the valve cover job. In any event, does anyone have any idea what could cause this kind of deformation of a valley pan gasket? My pressurized leak only came after shop #1 worked on it. Could a pressure test have caused this kind of bloating of the gasket? You might not be able to see it, but it's basically blown up like a balloon in the middle, which stretched out and broke the gasket at the bolt holes.



I had shop #1 replace the oil separator when they were doing the valve covers and I can't imagine they screwed that up or, if they did, that it would cause this kind of problem on the .5 mile drive home.

 

I still feel Shop #1 did something shady and is trying to hide it... But I'm a long ways away to really give a good opinion.

 

Frankly I would put all that down to clumsy assembly work!
The valley gasket is an aftermarket Victor Reinz 71-35528-00

When you install that style of gasket you have to take care on positioning; this is especially so if the heads have been milled previously as they will 'sink" against the manifold bolts. There is some aligning to do not only the manifold bolts but the strip fixing bolts. The gasket has been pried to get gasket alignment with a screwdriver or similar. The strips were extruded as a result.

Many self proclaimed Landrover experts fall into the same trap!
I tend to use only genuine gaskets, I see the same with Jaguar and Mercedes products, infamilarity causes many additional problems such as you have experienced.

For many of these reasons you should question shops on their experiences and get feed back by asking for customers/references who have had similar repairs done.
Bad experience!
T/V

 

Sorry for you bad experience. So what I am hearing is the following. Shop One who installed the new head gaskets, imporperly installed the Valley Gasket

First of all all auto shops work on Book Time for doing a job a Valve Cover Gasket Job is:

Three Hours with 80 bucks for parts so no more that $530, the Trottle Body Gasket is 1 hour and 40 bucks in parts about a $150.00. Repair. So if you would of gone to a Land Rover Dealer ship you were looking at a 700 dollar job.

If you want to check you mechanic try AutoMD - Auto Repair Information for DIY & Do-It-For-Me Car Owners to estimate jobs to make sure your not getting screwed.

Second, shop one screwed you. If the owner is not willing to listen to the following logic, you need to at least create some bad publicity to this shop.

"So listen you installed a new valley pan gasket, here it is, it was not properly installed, do you warranty your work here? Well I had to take this to another shop to have this fixed properly and they did and resolved the issues I was have, after your mechanic screwed it up. No in most shops I know the part isn't cover but bad workmanship by your mechanic is covered. So if you want me to stop telling at least a 100 people in this community how shotty the work you do here is then I resolve this issue quickley."

Final question is what is the name and location of this shop in Western Michigan.

Don't forget to write a Yelp review on this guy.

 

I would guess shop #1's mechanic started to pull the Valley Pan apart to install the gasket when he was stopped by owner or noticed on the work order that they were not supposed to do that. Or, he mistakenly took out too many bolts and it came apart while pulling Valve Covers. Either way, instead of just finishing and replacing that gasket as he should have, they just dropped it back down, bending the heck out of it. There is NO way that I can think of that the pan and gasket would have gotten all beat up like that without being pulled up. If it was that way when they got it, it would have leaked large when it arrived. I'm still perplexed why they charged you for the gasket, but never installed it or gave it to you.

I would investigate a little more, and if I determined they did remove the bolts of the Manifold, they should pay the second shop's bill.

 

I thought I would post an update on this since we've finally determined the problem. Unfortunately the valley pan gasket Shop No. 2 installed failed a few days after my post above and the engine started leaking like crazy again. Turns out Shop #1 put the oil separator in the wrong valve cover. Shop 2 pulled it out of the driver's side by the throttle body after wondering how the gasket they installed could have failed so quickly. Once Shop 2 pulled it out (it was jammed in there) the oil leak slowed dramatically and now I'm down the normal amount I started with 6 months and $1500 ago. Plus I'll need to change it again since the new one is messed up.

Who knew that little plastic thing could cause such a disaster in the wrong hands.

 

I still think shop #1 should foot the bill...