Had a blown head gasket on my '99 Discovery II and took it to a local shop. They had a machine shop re-do the heads and then they put everything back together again.

A week later the oil light came on, and I found no oil on the dipstick. Thinking that they forgot to re-fill it with enough oil, I had it changed.

Another week went by and the oil light came on again. I marked the dipstick and drove it for several days, watching the oil level drop, and then re-filling it. It's consuming about one quart every 100 miles. (Yes, that is correct).

There is only a brief puff of smoke when it cranks cold (never did this before) and does not smoke afterward. Also, it does not leak oil.

I took it back to the shop and they told me it must have run hot while the head gasket was blown and now the rings are burnt. They basically said, "Oh well, sorry." This is after charging me $2000 for the head work.

So, I took it to the LR dealership and they ran some diagnostics. They said the rings are fine and the compression is good on every cylinder. They found several spark plugs that were soaked in oil. All in all the motor is A-OK, except that it is burning an huge amount of oil. They told me it has to be bad valve seals and/or valve guides, and they warned me that it poses a risk to the catalytic converters at some point, if I don't get the problem fixed ASAP.

I took their printout back to the first shop and asked for a refund; (so that LR can re-do the head job). They (the first shop) still insisted it can't be the valves or anything in the heads. They kept it for a couple of days and then called me to say they think they fixed the problem.

They said that the oil separator is clogged, but they didn't want to take the valve covers off to fix it, so they installed a PVC valve as a bypass.
I have now driven it for 2 days and the oil consumption is still the same (one quart per 100 miles).

So my question is, (before I give them an ultimatum of refunding my $2000 for the valve job or seeing them in court), does anyone know of anything else that may be the reason for what is going on?

Thanks.

 

HG have nothing to do with oil consuption.

 

New gaskets "soak up" some oil, but not anything like this. Machine shop usually is tasked with installing new valve seals (they come with the gasket kit). Valve guides are a more involved machine shop task and would have been a higher bill. The problem may be between the repair shop and the machine shop.

The PCV system needs to be in good working order. Pretty easy to clean out. If clogged, the system can make pressure inside the oil-fume spaces of the engine and vent oil out a seal, etc. The system is designed to suck oil fumes off so they can be burned. If it was sucking a quart every two hours you would have blue exhaust smoke from it burning in the combustion chamber.

Hope you paid by credit card so it can be disputed easily.

 

How did you pay them, if by credit car,call your bank and put a stop on their payment till they resolve it.
My money is on the valve seals since the compression is good. I would have them remove their jerry rigged PCV.
Let us know what you find/do.