Ok I have a 99 D2 with 91k miles on it and I'm trying to figure out if the head gaskets need to be replaced or what the deal is.

I bought the thing for a good price because the coolant smell and I pointed out the water pump leak to the seller. He instantly dropped the price 1k because he was terrified to take it back to the shop (he said he always had it worked on at the LR dealer because that was his only choice where he lived) or he knew the HG's were bad and wanted to cover it up with a low low bargain basement price.

I have since replaced the water pump, and coolant. Still smelling antifreeze I went looking around again and noticed the usual throttle bottle flange leak, so I replaced that. Replacing the flange was about a week and a half after the water pump and the bottle was nearing empty so I filled it back up.

Now it's a week later the bottle is nearing empty, I still smell antifreeze when the vehicle is running( but not from the exhaust) and don't see any leaks under the hood.

I changed the oil 100 miles ago and the oil was black as soot and when the last little bit was draining had bubbles in it even after hitting the drip pan.

The exhaust isn't discolored, I plan to check the dipstick and oil cap when I get home, but don't recall any milky substances when I changed the oil.

The thing is parked while I figure this out, but I'm not sure where to start. Will a coolant pressure test be worth it here? Or is there something else I can do myself to figure it out?


I've talked to a family friend (mechanic/shop owner) and he's willing to do the job for $1100 including machine shop redoing the heads with me supplying the gasket kit plugs and wires, but I don't want to just throw parts at this thing without being sure that's the cause.

 

Oh and also I had the codes pulled after the emissions failed and it had a misfire on cylinder 5, which I think I cleared up with a new plug and 4 other codes which suggest all o2 sensors are bad.

 

Replace head gaskets - Do valve job - get heads plane'd

 

im confused.

from what i read if you plane the heads you may make matters worse as they will not line up with the engine? one side flat/planed..other curvature?

RMT, maybe you can elaborate a little on that.

 

oh and the way to tell if gaskets are leaking would be a coolant test from autoparts store?

i'm suffering the same here.

 

Both the heads and block left the factory machined flat (kind of). The engine is not going to warp under any normal circumstances. The heads twist up like pretzels. It's just good practice to machine the heads flat again.

 

Nah... it will probably hold pressure when cold and leak when hot. A good way to tell HG condition is by looking at the external losses, like if you have oil and orange goo coming out between the block and head there is a good chance the HG's are dead.

 

Crawl under the vehicle and look for signs of leakage. There are a number of places that coolant can leak. Coolant doesn't evaporate as fast as water and leaves a residue when it does, look at the area under the radiator (these leak quite often). The head gasket can leak coolant externally and the heat on the heads can evaporate the coolant before it hits the ground but you can still see signs of it at the joint between the head and block. Headgaskets are a common failure on these is why most of the responders to your question mentions them (when I worked at the dealer I used to average at least 3 headgasket jobs per week). But check the other easier/cheaper possibilities first.

 

I'll tell you about my Discovery I.
It was losing about a large beer glass every week of coolant.

Finally - I got codes telling me that my O2 sensors were responding slowly nor not responding.

Looks like coolant kills O2 sensors.

Turns out..

My coolant was going into Cylinder 8 on one side and into another cylinder on the other side.

All that antifreeze was going into the cats and getting burned up and killed the O2 sensors.


And, I had black as coal oil and I am sure some antifreeze in there.
Some gold particles from the big end main bearings.

And, ---- IT KILLED THE CATS TOO.

I finally replaced the head gaskets.

Things are good.
The D1 did not use any more coolant.

Then had to replace the CATs

And, all 4 O2 sensors.
That was in May of 2009.

Here is a writeup.

1997 Land Rover replace catalytic converter and head gaskets

Sounds exactly what you have with the D2.
The D2 engine is just fancy Bosch stuff bolted onto the same block as the D1.

 

Pull the plugs on #7 and #8 and see if they look steam cleaned.
If they do, there's your sign.