As I recall, his theory was that during the normal torque, the three long head bolts ended up with a lower torque value (something like 55-60 ft lbs) and that's what caused the head gaskets to fail. I think he recommended taking those three bolts down another 45 degree turn. I did mine about 4 months ago and had a thread on it and that's the procedure I used. I also took his advice on using teflon tape on the bolts instead of oil. Now I can't really say if it's a great idea yet, but I have gone over 1,500 miles since I did the rebuild and so far, no problems. (knocking on wood ) I'm not losing coolant or oil, no CEL, but I have a lot more miles to put on before I can say that's the way to go. Also, I have 186kmi on mine so anything can happen.

Eric

 

Hello,

I'm new to head gasket replacement and am contemplating doing it myself on my '02 Disco ~75K miles. I've done minor work on my Porsche and Mini before; things such as headers install, muffler install, Oil Air Separator replacement, MAF cleaning, O2 sensors, cold air intake install, suspension install, brake rotor replacement, belts, water pumps, alternators, etc. This doesn't seem any more difficult, just more time consuming.

You say rebuilding the heads. What does that mean? Is it just resurfacing it to get back to within flatness tolerance?

I've looked over the RAVE description and it all seems pretty straight forward albeit very time consuming. Has anyone done a DIY writeup here or at least a "hints" writeup of what to look out for (even when using RAVE step by step).

Thanks,
Hung