My '03 Discovery with 155,000 miles blew a head gasket. I was driving back from dinner a few months ago. I noticed the temp gauge creeping up. The red light came on and I parked it a block later. It hasn't been driven since. I confirmed the head gasket by seeking the chocolate milk color oil. I took it to the local Land Rover dealer and they quoted me $17K for a new engine. I know you can get a new short block for $5,200 from Atlantic British.

I also asked someone from a local LR group who works as a tech and he gave the same advice. He said that "head gaskets on the d2's ended up blowing externally. If you have compression blowing into the coolant then you probably have a sleeve that is dropped."

I do not know if I have compression blowing into the coolant. I only know that the coolant is going into the oil.

The last head gasket job was done around 110,000 miles per the Car Fax report I obtained prior to purchase last fall.

I wonder if it makes sense to do a head gasket job and see if that fixes the problem. I have one quote of $2,200 to do that. While the truck is in nice shape and I love the look and feel of it, I don't want to throw good money after bad. Though I would like to get it running properly again.

My dad has been suggesting that I try an engine sealer. I would be willing to try it if I am beyond the point of return with the engine as it stands (which seems to be what the two LR techs have said).

Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.

Thanks, Tim.

 

One thing you can look for is misfiring when you first start it up after sitting for a while. We had an '03 with a cracked block and if you let it sit for a day or two, it would misfire pretty bad for about thirty seconds or so until it blew the coolant out the exhaust. It would idle okay after that but as soon as you start driving it, it would overheat super fast.
Unfortunately it's a common problem on those engines. I'm not saying that is your problem for sure. That's just what happened to our truck.

 

Happened to me man. I printed the RAVE manual called Atlantic British ordered everything I needed and tore into that piece of shizz lump Land Rover calls a motor. I had the heads machined and a valve job and bolted everything back up. The RAVE so easy to follow that a trained chimp could pull it off if they could figure out a torque wrench. It's not a hard job, I did it with a 140 piece Craftsman mechanics set and only a few other simple tools, breaker bar etc. I doubt you have a slipped sleeve. If you can't hear it slapping around at temp you are fine. The $17k quote was the " I don't want to do this job get this thing out of my shop thanks for the $90 diagnostic fee" quote. You can do this job yourself for under $700 and that includes the head decking and the valve job. I did mine 60k ago and it's still running strong.

Good luck man.

 

One last thing. DO NOT DUMP SEALER INTO THE MOTOR.

 

You had "milkshake" oil consistency with only a busted head-gasket? I didn't think that much water could get into the sump in a 1-block distance through a gasket leak. I have to say, I immediate assumed this guy has a block failure.

 

50/50 on a slipped liner, personally I would go with the DYI . That much water in the oil I would assume you had a gasket blow out.

 

The OP does not say how he determined he had milkshake oil. Perfectly fine Disco's have some milkshake in the oil fill cap due to excessive short trip driving.

So Tim, did you drain the oil and see it all milky or did you remove the fill cap and see some milkshake in the cap? and do you take a lot of short trips?

A long period at operating temps will burn the condensation out of the block which is what is usually under the cap in a truck that doesn't spend a lot of time at operating temps.

Also it does not specify how the previous HG job was done in the carfax. The heads may not have been decked and they might have only fixed the bad side. You never really know until you take it apart. With a poorly or incomplete HG job it would not be uncommon for them to fail again in 45k. the $2200 quote is a fair price for a complete HG job including machining heads.

I say it's to early for a conclusion.

Lesson for the Newbs: NEVER EVER take a D2 to a dealer EVER!! Always use a LR specific independent shop, not a "foreign car" shop or other shop that "worked on one before."

 

The symptom for slipped liner/compression leak is for the coolant hoses to look bloated and feel hard to squeeze. Liner may not be moving back and forth, yet, to cause the ticking sound.

Do not use engine sealer! Our leaks are catastrophic, not weepers that a sealer might help short term. Either engine sealer or coolant sealer is generally a poor choice for our D2s.

The previous job may have skipped checking the heads for being slightly out of spec due to being warped. Again, as earlier stated, only one side may have been fixed previously. A good chance that a slightly warped head was reinstalled with yield bolts that got worked over with each heat cycle until it stretched to the point of a blown gasket. That is why you fix the heads, if needed.