They could have used the top hat style liners instead of pressed in liners that would have stopped them from slipping down.

 

a little somethin something on the Buick/Bosch/Olds 4.6

Rover, seeing the motor as its salvation for an aging product line, found that sand casting the block and installing press-in sleeves, (rather than cast in place), at a later point precluded any production problems or costs, but the beginning of longevity issues. This is where the liner issues began. In the Rover mass production techniques, the outer wall of the liner design was changed from a very coarse finish to a fine polished finish, for an easy mass production press fit. The thermal bonding in the cylinder cast in place assembly process, was eliminated completely. This allowed the smooth external walls of the new liners to provide easy installation but allowed the smooth walls to thermally expand at different ratios under the laws of dissimilar materials. Head gasket life would suffer indefinitely and plague this engine throughout its new design.

 

So the LR shop down here was ready to help out and put a motor in the truck. All new parts, gaskets, inssurance, blah blah blah, for $6000.00!! I said $6K??? my truck isn't even worth that. and he said yes it is. so I explained to him that my 2004 S Model Disco is about 5800.00 in great condition according to Kelly Blue Book. and he asks, S model, I've never heard of an S model Discovery.. I ended the call there..

We pulled the heads and intake in December to replace the head gasket and the sleeves hadn't slipped then. And it had been over heated several times by then. But im pretty sure its toast now cause my bro is still driving it like this.. So what price would seem fair to do an engine swap in this thing??

 

Are you going to DIY or pay someone tp do it? A rebuilt engine will be about $3500 shipped and then you are probably looking at maybe $1000 for the install. You can look for an engine locally for cheaper and rebuild it yourself and then either put it in yourself or pay someone to do it. It is going to be expensive if you cannot do some or all of the work yourself.

 

It will be a DIY job.. I used to own a CJ-7 and did a frame off on it with a complete motor tear down.. I am knowledgeable around trucks and can do the swap myself. If I go the route of an used Disco engine with X-amount of mile on it, I am staring down the face of the same problem as opposed to getting the Range Rover engine and then I don't know what would change electronically or mechanically and what would stay the same..

Question is: What do I lose or gain by swapping with a Range engine and why is that engine so much better.. I don't want to scrap this disco but I am not going to dump in more than it's worth if the problem cannot be fixed.

Another question for those knowledgeable: How can water from the heater box "in" and "out" line flow from the engine side with hoses disconnected?? If I pull one hose, water comes out from the engine side. Plug the engine side line and eventually water comes out from the heater core side. Reconnect and do the same on other line and same result. then I look at the 3-way thermostat and I fill from any direction and water always comes from the dis-connected line. HOW THE HELL CAN YOU FORCE WATER THROUGH A LINE THAT FLOWS IN ALL DIRECTIONS WITH 5 WAYS OF TRANSFER??????? WATER SEEKS THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE!!! Am I missing something?? What the hell were they thinking! And now I know why my radiator is "ice" cold when my engine is crackling hot from overheating!! Also, the hose from the lower side of the block comes up and turns a 180 and goes back down to the top of the thermostat!! HOW THE "F" CAN YOU GET AN AIR POCKET OUT OF A LINE DESIGNED TO HOLD ONE???? GGGGRRRRRRRRR

One last thought for you guru's that tell everyone to remove the reservoir and attach it to the under side of the hood then fill to force the water through, that you should also advise them that the coolant line that goes to the throttle body heater (something or other) can and will get jammed when replacing the reservoir and break the tube off of the bottom of the coolant reservoir causing another substantial leak.... Just a thought

 

You get the air out by raising the expansion tank and opening the bleeder valve air will rise and water will try to get as low as possible. It does work and I have not broken anything doing this the 10 or so times I've done it and I've never had to top off due to air pockets. If your hoses are that brittle that they snap they need to be replaced anyhow.

 

the hose from the top of the thermostat goes up, turns 180 degrees and goes down to the lower engine block. The upper part of the hose is an upside down U shape. The air is in the hose at the top and has no where to go..

 

The 4.4 L (BMW sourced) in the 2003 / Range Rover uses sleeveless Aluminum blocks with bores treated with Alusil alloy composition of 70% AL and 30% silicon. Never a problem with these engines.

The previous BMW 4.0 V8 had the huge recall because it was made with the Nickasil alloy.