Here’s my horror story.

While I was up in NH for school, my Disco was having problems with misfire on cylinder 4. While up there I only needed basic maintenance. When I was having this problem though, I could not find any independent land rover specialists, not even just British vehicles, so I had to bring it to the dealer .

They went through the motions. Pressure tested the block and found no dye in the cylinder. They had my Disco for 4 days and endlessly trying to figure out the problem and could not find anything. I personally thought there was an issue with the heads allowing coolant to seep over into the fourth cylinder, as did they.

Though I am a noob on this forum I am not a noob with my Disco, I fully know and understand how the block and heads work on this engine. I have a close relationship with the local independent guys (Independent | Land Rover Specialists) and I’ve seen plenty of blocks taken apart and understand their function. This is why I was confused when misfire on cylinder 4 with coolant in the exhaust, but no signs of a crack because the only way coolant can enter that cylinder is through a crack between the cylinder and coolant channels. Since they did not see a crack however, I could only think it was the heads.

I had the heads machined. After this process and a kick in the nuts and wallet I drove all the way back home to D.C. with no problems.

While home I began having the misfire again. I brought it to Land Rover around here (DC) just to have it looked at because at this point I was thinking about getting my money back from Land Rover in NH. All they had to do was remove the spark plugs to see that there was a crack in my block . I then brought it to independent land rover specialists in the area (these guys are great). They looked over my block for me; pressure tested, etc. and they also found the crack. They are under the impression that an impact gun caused the crack while my heads were being removed.

Between leaving Land Rover in NH and having another misfire there had only been 1000 miles put on it. This many miles of driving on fresh oil and no abuse would not cause a crack in the block. I am under the impression that Land Rover (NH) cracked my block while doing work and fixed it up just enough for it to last me, as they knew where I was driving to and my story.

I know this is a long story here but I would love to hear from you guys. If anything is unclear please tell me and I will clarify. I am not ****ing around with this and if they did crack my block in NH then I not only want my money back but I will pursue them for a new engine block.

Thanks everyone!

 

Was the misfire on the same cylinder (4)? How about the crack, was that at cylinder 4? Just trying to understand the chain of events. I'm not sure how an impact gun could crack a block. Or how they could find a cracked block by pulling the plugs out of the head. I must be missing something. Can you post a picture of where the crack is?

 

with your receipt depending on the time passed you should be able to get your money back from the dealer

 

How do I go about doing this? I'm sure it won't be a simple phone call that would suffice.

 

Crack is between the 4th cylinder and the coolant channel. Misfire on 4, yes. An impact gun could easily crack and aluminum block. Sorry, you could see the dye in the cylinder from pressure testing the block by removing the spark plug.

 

Depending on the crack size and location, it may not be visible or leaking when the block is cold as yours was during the test. If the crack is behind the sleeve, it most likely doesn't open up until the aluminum expands under temp which then allow the coolant to leak up through the top of the sleeve where it meets the head and into the Cylinder bore. These engines can throw you in the wrong direction very quickly depending on how exactly you analyze the findings. I would say even us most experienced technicians would agree with this. These days my guess would be that you don't have to many DI's or DII's coming in for service and the experiance with the trucks is really limited. So a crap shoot it it!!!

 

wow! That is quite a drama.....what is the repair plan? Does it all have to be redone, or can the crack in the spark plug hole be epoxied and repaired?Did they reuse the old headset hardware when the heads were reinstalled or replaced with new? I am wondering if the heads were over torqued or if it is possible that one got damaged in shipping if the repairs were subleted outside of the shop that did the repairs? Good luck with everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!