Just bought my first disco that has sat for 4 years. Previous owner overheated it and decided to put new head gasket on it. Bought it for junk price with intentions of just putting in new motor. No water in oil but lots of white smoke. Put in a can of head gasket in a can and white smoke is gone. Did a block leak test and no exhaust in cooling system. Only issue is when first started runs a little rough and seems to me to have lifter pop. After 2 or 3 minutes of idling runs fine. No overheating or other issues. Only other thing I have done is changed plugs. What do I need to look for? Any ideas? Junk the motor?

 

Flush the cooling system and drive it as is. Most of these have some lifter noise and the rough idle could just be O2 or MAF sensors starting to go bad, mine does the same thing because I need a MAF. For future reference, never use head gasket in a can. That **** will absolutely kill these engine's. If it isn't running hot then you just got lucky.

 

Acquire some sort of OBDII code reader so you know what your operating parameters are and are able to read and clear engine computer codes. Follow the high mile maintenance sticky at the top of this forum and put Rotella 15w40 oil in it. Get that all done. Pay attention to the cooling system as mentioned. 180° tstat, no dexcool, no leaks, etc.

As long as the block is not cracked, GIT ER FIXED!!

 

Do you have any trouble codes? I had a car do the same thing to me and it ended up being an intake gasket leak. Overnight, it would leak into one of the cylinders. So first start up of the day, it would misfire badly! It got to the point where it would turn over slow, it had so much coolant in the cylinder.

 

Coolant is still leaking into the combustion chamber getting the plugs wet, when it burns off it staighten out