Already had head gaskets done once about 3 years ago. Constant P0300 (random misfire) and P0304 (cylinder 4 misfire) codes. Suffering from coolant loss and having now to top up 1" to 2" every week. No external coolant leaks. Good O2 and MAF readings. Recent plays, wires and coils. Just got the diagnosis from the shop:

- Cooling system under pressure immediately.
- Coolant bottle smells of combustion gasses.
- Block tester bubbles almost instantly - Doesn't change colour. Should change color if not contamination found.
- NO signs of external coolant loss.
- Pulled cylinder-4 spark plug out, scope shows signs of coolant in cylinder-4, ie. clean piston top, coolant residual around top of cylinder sleeve.
- Codes stored in system P0300, P0304
- Suspect cracked block cylinder-4. Requires new

2003 Disco with tons of work done on her in the past 5 years: 2004 CDL, custom steel bumper, rear bumper, sliders, winch, OME 2" lift, new Ashcroft T-case, coil relocation, Disco-1 transmission pan with dipstick, Disco-1 wipers, headliner restored, Rotoflex delete, Falconwerks brass heater plate, roof rack, Baja rack, Baroud tent.

I am at a crossroads. The frame, body and interior are still in great condition. Currently 135K miles. I have looked at the alternatives: other rides (Toyota, Jeep, etc), LS engines, Atlantic British, Turners, etc. I really don't want to start on another vehicle after having done so much work to the Disco. The sentimental in me says go and replace the engine. Big plus, wifey says go ahead and do it. I do not have the time or shop space to do the work myself. There is only one shop here that I trust to do the work. It will take about US$12K to $14K to get a new Turner long block installed.

The Disco has performed well for my type of offroading and overlanding. Things on my bucket list of things to do in the next few years which requires a reliable vehicle: trip to Alaska/Artic, cross country trip from West to East, Baja-Mexico. I researched threads here. Most seem to have good experiences with Turner. Anyone have thoughts or experiences to share?

 

Yea, buy a running motor out of an 01-02 for a couple hundred and continue to use the truck.

or have the block pressure tested to make sure it's the sleeve.

 

Put in a Turner long block and a new cooling system and be done with it.

 

This.

 

Man sorry to hear that Andrew, I would do the engine. You have everything else kitted out, to get another vehicle and get to the same shape will cost you nearly the same. The thing is they do not know it is a cracked block until they pull the head and check the gasket, so you might get "lucky" it could just be the head gasket.

 

 

In my neck of the woods a decent used 4.0L or 4.6L is a rare thing. TX temps kill them due to poor maintenance. I did see a superbly clean 04 show up at LKQ a year ago that had the front drive shaft take out the transmission and transfer case. The engine looked fine and all the usual stuff to keep it going strong appeared to have been done. I came back 2 days later and that 4.6L was long gone. Besides that one example the rest have all died from HG failures or from over-heating badly.

I agree if you can find a good 4.0L to drop it in and you'd be good to go.

 

Don't overlook a 4.6 from a P38.... Those engines outlasted the vehicles in most cases...

 

 

longtallsally - except we are in Canada so so even for AB the base block is 7200 CDN then there is a 1200 + core charge in there but a good chunk that will eaten up by shipping. And used engines are very very few, there is literally 1 wrecker who might have a used engine and it will not be cheap.

With luck it just a head gasket.