Hey guys I'm new here and new to Land Rovers in general. I just picked up my first; it's a 1999 Discovery Series II with 124k miles in great shape. I got it from a guy who bought a new one (it was one owner truck, I'm only the second owner) and didn't want to deal with this one anymore.

It's got an engine problem and I'm trying to figure out what it is. He said he overheated it and ever since, it's had a miss after it warmed up. He claims he had the head gaskets done and that didn't fix the issue. I poured coolant in an it POUREDDD out the front and rear of the drivers side head.

The thing runs PERFECT cold (I'm not sure personally how it is warm as it wouldn't hold coolant and I didn't want to mess anything up by running it).

So fast forward to today. I've pulled both heads and sure enough the drivers head gasket was blown on both sides to the outside. I then look at the passenger side and all 8 ports are carboned up except port 3. It looks steam cleaned.

So I rip the passenger head off too and all pistons are pretty even as far as carbon. But the head port is clean on the third one back on the passenger side. The cylinder sleeve looks kind of rusty and not as clean as the others toward the back of the engine, but I can't get the block to seal enough to pressure test the block by hand. Could this be a cracked head or do you guys think my block is toast?

TIA

EDIT:

Here's the driver side gasket.






Here you can see the third cylinder back, it's the one in the center of the pic, cant really see the front cylinder.

 

You are already to do the head gaskets to get it back together. May be time for block sealer like Irontite, you don't have much to loose. Many say that if the "middle" cylinders are involved, could well be a crack behind the cylinder sleeve. When block heats up it opens up.

 

Use Victor Reinz head gaskets.
Take a look at yours and see if they are Miele or (whatever that name is called).
If not Miele, then maybe "made in China" gaskets were used.
Or the shop did not torque the heads down correctly.

I bet there is nothing wrong.

To be sure you can pressure test it like in this video

 

Take those head to a local machine shop, have them clean, pressure tested and resurfaced if they need to.
Make sure you take the rocker shafts in to be cleaned or you will have oil flow issues.
Have you done a complete valve train inspection, if not read my sticky at the top of this section and go step by step.
When all back together do a complete crank case flush to get rid of that build up.
If you really want to do it right, pull your oil pan, pull a couple of crank bearing caps looking for wear, clean out the pan and because of your mileage seriously consider replacing both the oil pump gear set as well as the timing gear set.

 

There's a point - if heads are not much cleaner than other part of engine block, they probably did not go to a shop for flatness check, skimming, and hot tanking. Which means the you may have heads out of spec (.002 inch); and valve seals have not been done. And the previous mechanic may have re-used head bolts (never a good idea).

 

I didn't see any brand name on the ahead gaskets. Do you guys think a head could be cracked? Based on how clean port 3 is I know there is something wrong or was at one point. What would make the port clean but the piston still dirty? Do you think I should just throw a lower mile engine in? Is it even worth trying to figure out what's wrong with this one? Especially knowing he overheated it?

 

did you have the heads surfaced?

 

Not yet because if the engine is trash or a head is cracked there's no point.

 

well lets play devils advocate for a moment, lets say you decide to replace the engine with another used one. You won't go install it without replacing the head gaskets would you?
So you are going to need a gasket kit, a set of trued heads and bolts anyway correct.

I "personally" would send the heads out and order a ARB stud kit instead of bolts (as they can be reused over and over.)

Looking at your block and drive train pieces I'm guessing someone threw a head gasket on it so the PO could sell it.

I have seen mechanics in dealerships simply pull the intake, lift the head, pull out the old gasket, install the new one and send it out the door. Of course not a at LR dealership.

 

How do you know you have a cracked head or block????????????????????????
One thing you will learn, hopefully sooner then later is never guess or assume anything about a Rover, go to the machine shop, they can test both.