My 99 Disco II which I have just aquired has a few glitches. Slight smell of anti-freeze, cuts out or is week when give it gas to overdrive, valve ticking (just slightly until passing gear. Head gasket or no?

 

If you are smelling anitfreeze under the hood it is most likely a hose
or a water pump.
How much antifreeze do you put in and how often?
The ticking could be lack of oil, bad gas- low octane.
It may need a tune up.

 

I hope you got a good deal on the truck, sounds like you have a problem. I also have a 99 that has recently started leaking so lets talk. First, take it to a radiator shop and have the do a pressure test on the coolant system. Two things will happen, a visable leak like a hose, clamp water pump or external head gasket leak. The other thing that will happen could be a pressure drop with no external leak, head gasket leaking internally.
Check your engine dip stick when cold, any sign of white milky residue on it, how about the oil fill cap, take it off and see if there is any milk sign on the inside of the cap.
As for the cutting out, if you have an internal head gasket leak then it could be fouling a cylinder, time will tell
Valve ticking type noise is something that can be caused by a bad exhaust manifold gasket, broken stud or gummed up engine. Lets look at the gummed up engine before you do head gaskets if they are bad.
Get back to me.
Mike

 

check the exhaust color. a head gasket leak can cause the exhuast to seem white in color. The water turns to steam. looks like the others have hit the other stuff. hope it helps. gotta love a rover. duboff

 

This is correct, only if coolant is leaking into the piston area and being burned off. Oil can leak into the coolant, coolant into the oil, oil into the piston area or oil or coolant can leak to the outer sides of the engine block.
Lots of ways a headgasket can leak, that is why you have a shop check and advise you.
Mike

 

What if there is milky residue on the inside of the cap, but nothing on the dipstick? I do have a leak somewhere. You can smell coolant when you are standing next to the vehicle and under the hood. I can also see a slight accumilation of coolant on the ground under the front of the vehicle on the passenger side. Not sure wha tis going on with the milky residue in the oil fill cap. The residue is actually on the side of the oil fill tube near the top. I also noticed condensation in the cap when I took it off. Any suggestions?

 

Most likely what you have is condensation and not a coolant leak.

Short trips intown never driving for more than a hour after
its warmed up will do that,, with winter the temp swing is much greater so more condensation.

 

No, any time you get a milky like build up inside the oil cap, you have a head gasket gleak.
If you only had little water droplets inside the cap, that would be condinsation.

 

There are only droplets of water in the cap. The milky residue has acumilated on the side of the wall of the oil fill tube near the top. No sign of it in the oil itself when checking the oil on the dipstick. I do know I have an external leak somewhere, just haven't found it yet. Do you still think it is a head gasket?

 

Get a coolant pressure test done and possibly a chemical block test, this will tell all.