Background:
2000 Disco 2 with 146,900 miles. Head gasket replaced by shop around 100k. Recently did timing belt, water pump, thermostat, a few coolant hoses. All other hoses, lines, and reservoir in good shape. Still had a leak but couldn't find the source. Took to a local shop for a pressure test. He didn't have a the correct adapter to fit onto my reservoir, so couldn't do test. He recommended Bars leak to fix it since my vehicle is high mileage. It looked like a reputable shop (they build hot rods!) so I listened to him.

Bars Leak stopped the leak, but now I have an overheating problem. If I turn the AC on or when I go up an incline it starts overheating. It doesn't completely overheat, but goes to the top of the white box on the temp gauge and seems to just sit there (but I haven't tested it to see if it get's higher.)

Turning the heater on full blast seems to stabilize it and usually lower the heat back down to normal operating temp.

My coolant level has not changed.

I have an appt to take it in tomorrow and get a pressure test and then possibly a chemical block test. My question is this:
If it is the head gasket, shouldn't I be losing coolant? Since I'm not losing coolant, could it be that the Bars Leak is just inhibiting the coolant flow? Would a simple flush clear that out? Am I on the right track going in for a pressure and chem block test?

Thanks!

 

The Bar's stopped the leak, with about 1/4 teaspoon of material. The rest of the bottle settled to the low spot in the cooling system, just like sugar stirred in ice tea. That low spot is your radiator. An older vehicle has lots of scale and calcium built up inside the radiator tubes, and those crevices are a wonderful place for Bar's to plug up. So now your radiator is not taking care of what you need. Might be able to flush it out with serious radiator flush. You have a D2, so rod out is not as practical, most shops don't want to open up radiators with plastic tanks. New radiator not cheap, but cheaper than engine. Existing radiator will probably read colder on the bottom than the top as tubes are blocked. This also can impact your viscous fan clutch, which depends on radiator heat getting the face of the clutch to about 170 to start maximum cooling.

Please do not run vehicle with temp very high, like much above 10:00. You can warp the heads, blow head gasket, or cause a cylinder liner to slip. Short term fix until you can resolve this is no ac when possible, add wetter water from auto parts store (reduces temp), perhaps flush and replace coolant if practical. Have shop check radiator for hot/cold spots.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, that makes sense. Just did a quick search for radiators on ebay and found some relatively cheap prices:
Land Rover Discovery Radiator 99 00 2001 2002 2003 2004 | eBay

I've never replaced a radiator, but I can't imagine it being that difficult. I'm wondering if I should forego trying to flush the existing radiator and just buy one of ebay. Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

Download the Rave and you'll see that removing the radiator is a project! Try flushing it out first. The way I did mine was to 1)disconnect the hoses and drain the radiator. Make sure you remove all the coolant. 2) cap off the lower radiator outlet 3) Fill with distilled white vinegar and let sit for about 20 mins. 4) drain and flush the radiator with water. You will see all the scale and crap come out. If it's really bad then do it twice. Make sure you get all the vinegar out then refill with 50/50 pre-mix "green" coolant. (Don't use Dexcool!!!!!)
Any stop leak is bad news. You may want to replace your thermostat while you're at it.

Eric

 

The inside of the radiator is rough from scale and calcium. Put the stopz leekz on it and it can clog, or at the very least form an insulating blanket. See pix of water pump, one on left from a stop leak treated engine.

If rad is cheap, it is a good investment. Lot of miles on your ride. Copper brass ones for D1s are high. Not too hard to change. Might want to spring for new upper/lower hoses at same time as insurance. Some D2's have oil cooler and tranny cooler on bottom external of radiator, after a certain VIN just tranny cooler.

However, my cheap cousin says I must inform you that Flush may clear it out. That is certainly something that be done quick and cheap, before ordering a radiator.

And certainly have the RAVE manual set downloaded and review the factory methods before jumping on this.

 

Hey guys... just picked up a used 03 discovery SE7. Sitting at 114,000 kms and my mechanic noted that it requires the following:

Head Gasket
Rear Main/Cross Seals
Front Timing Gasket

- any addressing this issues, importance of each and outsourcing options? I'm a newbie to the Rover family just switching from an audi and kind of feel out of the loop with taking car of a big rig. Any tips would be appreciated.

Cheers!

JR

 

they are all equally important, I hope you are not driving it. It apears you need headgaskets, rear main seal & a timing cover gasket that equals coolant leak, oil leak & coolant leaks any of which will destroy that engine in minutes.

Now to repair the parts your looking at $300 for head gaskets & bolts, water pump $180.00, timing chain kit $100.00, replace all hoses & thermostat $200.00, wires, plugs, coolant, oil & filter, fan belt and you're talking about $1000.00 in parts. (Atlantic British has a lot of the stuff on sale now)

For labor I would plan on several days to make the repairs, I did it in a weekend but would not recomend it, take the extra time much less stress. You can see in my signiture i replaced alll the same stuff in 2/11.
Very easy to work on, most things will only fit one way (hoses,electrical connection, fuel lines, ect.).No real specialty tools needed, you will need to download a copy of the RAVE for torque specs.

You asked about out sourcing, I need head gaskets and a timing cover gasket (same as you) and was quoted $3336.00 from the dealer. That’s just gaskets, no hoses, belt, water pump nothing but gaskets and coolant.

 

Don't you have to pull the tranny to do the rear main seal?

 

Yes. I'm wondering if it might be easier to pull the engine to do all of the gaskets and seals (including rear main) in this case...

 

yes, you do have to seperate the motor and tranny to remove the flywheel in order to replace the rear seal. I forgot it need a rear main seal, my bad.