Thanks to you all for your observations and suggestions. The truck did not run for long in the high temp zone; wife noticed temp rising and shut truck off.

Mechanic did test for HC and also did the chemical test mentioned. And, as an aside, I did replace driveshaft with one that is new and u-joints that can be greased.

Mechanic is going back to look at thermostat, which is new as of 2/12 and also look at radiator. We have come to a price ($400) to have him remove the head and will then look to see what the extent of the damage is to valves. I can have him check sleeves as well Does this seem like a reasonable approach? I figure if we see damage to valves/ head that is going to cost more than I am willing to pay, then I can still sell to local enthusiast who would do rebuild work himself. If damage not too expensive then I'll fix it and keep going.

I'm not opposed to spending $2,000 +\- if I feel that will repair the damage, not sure I would bite off $5k for a new engine.

 

I honestly dont think anything is damaged.
Head gaskets on these trucks go bad, end of story.
A friend of mine had his go bad after only a year, mine are original with 215,000 miles on them.
Its just the luck of the draw.
Your water pump went bad, ok, fixed and everything was fine.
Now the head gaskets went bad, no big deal, new gaskets and shes back on the road.
Tell your guy he has $2000 to get her back on the road, he'll take your money, get you back on the road and you both will be happy.
But then again I'm a glass half full kinda guy.

 

Actually,so am I. At this point I know the vehicle and the history so well I really do want to keep it going. I like your suggestion of giving the mechanic a flat number he has to work with and see how he responds. He also works on my 1995 BMW 525 wagon ( going strong at 250,000 and my volvo wagon (189,000) so I think he'll be inclined to work with a set budget.
Now if I could just get him to work on our draft horses!

 

dude,
You be so chill.
Your Rover - tis not over.
The head gaskets are just toast.

Put some good head gaskets into it.

I changed my own on the Discovery I. Not easy and took me three days.
I just put new head gaskets in and that's it.
Soldered the radiator too:

You can see what is involved on a Discovery I.

1997 Land Rover replace catalytic converter and head gaskets

I just did the head gaskets on a Discovery II I picked up.
It did not over heat. But, had big time pressure in the coolant.
And, you could take off the coolant bottle lid and it would push
out most of the coolant.

The head gasket for cylinder #1 had a hair line crack from the cylinder round area to the water jacket.

That is all it took to cause so much grief.

Yes, people tell you to check the head for warp, get the valves done and all that.
I just flipped the heads back on with a new gasket.
My thing was - I did not know any good shops who I would trust not to make the valves worse.

So, I would say - get the head gaskets replaced and have the heads all checked out and the valves done - and you are good to go.

A local shop quoted me the usual $2,000.

Now that I have done it once:

Time:

1) Get fan off - 1/2 hour as this is tuff at times.
2) Belt off - 5 minutes
3) Air cleaner off - air pipe - 10 mins max.
4) Air conditioning compressor - off - 10 mins.
5) Alternator off and wires off 1/2 hour.
6) Take off the air intake - nasty. hour or two if you have never done it.
7) Huge nasty - take off the Air Injection pipes. I spent 4 hours on that. Would be 1/2 hour now.
8) Pull off left side pulleys and aluminum casting 1 hour.
9) Pull off right side pulleys and aluminum casting - with PS pump 1.5 hours. Maybe an hour.
10) Pull off thermostat and hoses - 1/2 hour.
11) Pull off valve covers - 1/2 hour max.
12) Loosen all the exhaust bolts on each side - maybe 1/2 hour maybe an hour or two. Depends on if you snap one an have to get it out.
13) Take off head bolts - 1/2 hour for most of them. 1/2 hour for the bolt in the lower front by the fire wall. And, the other one on the other side. These can cost you time.
14) Clean up the surface of the heads - two hours or even three.
15) Clean up the surface of the block - hour or two.

16) Drop on new head gaskets.

17) Drop on head, put on new head bolts - torque them in three stages. This could be 40 minutes to an hour a head to do it slow and correctly.

and reverse the steps.

The intake is an absolute horror of horrors to get back on. You need to position it all by feel and get it to sit on two hollow studs..
Of course, when you are putting the intake on, you are about done.

Congrats.

 

dude, you need to be sharing what your smoking