Ok, all you savvy people with more experience than I; here's hoping against hope.

I have purchased a 2000 Disco from my mate, who had various overheating issues with it (surprise!), and was happy with my purchase for two whole days before things became... involved.

During my mate's ownership, he had all of the usual suspects interrogated in his quest to cure the overheating issues, including replacing ALL of the cooling system hoses, the thermostat, water pump, etc. This didn't cure the issue, so the heads were removed, shaved and reinstalled with new LIQUID gasket material. The work was done by a British car specialist which I fully trust, and my mate assures me that upon getting the LR back from the shop, he idled the vehicle in front of his house for over an hour to ensure the vehicle would not overheat, to his satisfaction.

My concern is that this work was done back in November, and the vehicle has sat almost sedintary since then, only being started occasionally and not driven. When I purchased the vehicle, I drove it briefly around town for a few minutes, with no overheating, steam, noise or the like.

After a couple of days, however, the temperature gauge starting acting erratically, and did get into the red and causing the light to come on. As a precaution, and figuring that the thermostat had become stuck from sitting, I replaced the thermostat, flushed the engine and put all new coolant with water wetter in, as well as a new expansion bottle cap for good measure. This seemed to work for a day or so, however despite my attempts to prevent it, on the way home from work, a BILLOWING cloud of coolant blew out of my exhaust, much to the blinding of my wife in her Freelander following behind with extra water and tow straps, just in case.

So my question is this: There is no knocking noise, bearing noise, in fact no noise of any kind coming from the engine. There is no oil in the coolant, no coolant in the oil, and no external leaking of coolant anywhere on the old girl. Is it possible, do you think, that the liquid gasket repair that was done on the truck could have simply "dried out" for lack of a better phrase, causing shrinkage and therefore a leak into the combustion area of the engine, and that as such, a simple head gasket replacement with traditional materials would cure the issue, or is she well and truly buggered? Incidentally, 142,000 miles, 2 owners, fastidiously maintained otherwise.

Thoughts?

 

Using liquid gasket material to make your own head gaskets is probably not the direction most would want to take. From you description, the material has failed in an area, that resulted in the coolant in exhaust. Pressure test of cooling system and compression test of engine may confirm this. The spark plug in the leaking cyclinder may show "steam cleaning". I would suspect that real gaskets along with new head bolts (they stretch and therefore should not be re-used) would get you back in operation. When this is done, have the heads checked for "flatness" to be sure they have not warped again.

The fact that the mechanic used only liquid gasket material might indicate a desire to take other shortcuts as well. Now on the flip side, Permatex has sponsered cars in Nascar races that had engines with all Permatex made gaskets. But they only have to go 500 miles.....

 

oQuick question. in your buddy's quest to solve the overheating issue, did anyone check the radiator?
If they did, then that sounds like you may have a blocked coolant passage somewhere.
As for the liquid gasket, most guys i know wouldnt think about doing a head with it. thas just asking for trouble in my opinion. It is possible it could have dried out but you really wont be able to tell until she's opened up. Compression test and coolant pressure test should start this round of diagnosis. Also now that you have overheated, you wanna consider a trans flush as well.

 

my vote is on the liquid head gasket material

 

Yeah man it's gotta be the head gaskets. Get the composite gasket set from AB. If it ever gets into the red you need to cool the truck down immediately. You won't have much time before things start to warp.

BTW I had a HG leak for a while that went un-diagnosed. Part of the reason was noobliness and the other was that I there were no puddles coming from the leaks. It was dry underneath when I would park it. So take that with a grain of salt when you are "mysteriously" losing coolant.

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention that it had a new radiator as well. I was hoping to just do the head gaskets on it at my shop, but if you all really think that it's well and truly warped again (!) I suppose it'll have to go to the specialists. Any experiences on whether a head can be shaved a second time? I'm aware that it's all going to depend on maximum and minimum tolerances, etc., but was hoping I may get lucky.

 

If you're lucky it might not be warped. I overheated once or twice and I didn't need machining on my head.

 

it doesnt sound like you have over heated any more than some people how did not properly bleed the cooling system after replacing there head gaskets. If you just had them milled you will probably get away with new gaskets, they have to be 100% better than before they were milled at 140000 miles. Just check them with a straight edge and feller guage when you get them off.