Yesterday the water pump on my '96 Disco 1 suffered a catastrophic failure. The water pump shaft actually sheared off while I was on the freeway. I pulled it over pretty quick ( I was on an overpass ), but it was hot enough that it died immediately at idle. This morning I started it cold ( after moving the belt and fan ) and ran it for ~20 sec. It started right up and ran fine but it sounded like there's valve clatter. It's never sounded that way before. I'm not sure if it's just sticking lifters or something more serious. Has anyone seen this before? I'm trying to determine what the condition of the engine is and whether or not it needs rebuilt. I know that Rover V8's don't take overheating very well. Is there a good set of checks to determine whether or not the motor needs rebuilt?

 

Don't try to start the truck again. You surely fried your oil getting that hot. There aren't any quick checks without pulling the heads.

 

You can change the oil and see what happens, I overheated my work van and then it was noisy until I had the oil changed.

 

That's what I'm thinking. I'm planning on changing the oil on sat. and then doing a compression test. The disco isn't in great shape so I'd like to figure out whether or not it's worth working on or not.

 

Start cheap, change the oil and then assess the situation from there.

 

Bet your work van doesn't have an alloy engine though.

 

Bert, start with checking the engine oil for coolant, either on the dip sticl when cold or in the inside of your oil fill cap.
They check each plug for coolant and get back to us. Do not attempt to start it before you do these checks.

 

I didn't really read this at first. The thermostat and temp gauge stuck at the same time on my old 74 one ton Chevy. It started loosing power and smoking. I pulled over, popped the hood and oil was boiling out of the valve cover gaskets. The top hose exploded when I shut the hood. I figured it was toast. I changed the oil on the side of the road, replaced the top hose and pulled the t-stat, filled with water and I think it actually runs better now.

But yeah, like Mike said. Aluminum is a different animal...

 

That's not a Rover alloy engine with sleeves though.

 

No my work van has a cast iron block and aluminum heads, it is a Ford 5.4L, I drove through a big snow drift and all the snow under the hood pushed the serp belt off the pullys and then the crank pully shredded the belt.
My whole point was if the engine is toast then it is toast, but before you go pulling heads off change the oil first and see if it is still noisy.