Called the Land Rover dude and he said that I need a new engine.. I am going to have it towed to him for a full series of test but he said most likely it's a gonner and he said that replacing it with the range rover engine is the best swap. If I decide to go that route, is that the best idea, to put in a Range Rover engine into a Dicso? So what I think I have is a 2 ton boat anchor.. :-(

 

LOL, My Disco is the clunker I bought off of Craigslist.

 

The 4.6L in your Disco was orginally a RR engine from 97ish-'02.

As I understand it, Land Rover upgraded the engine in the RR for '03 and turned over the manufacturing of 4.6s to another entinty.

The supplier of the new engines goofed up the machining that causes the oil pump failures.

To my mind, rebuilding one of the original RR engines is the way to go. Too many '04s out there with oil pump failures to convince me that LR fully fixed the problem.

 

After reading and reading your post it sure sounds like a water pump or head gasket. Now a dude that says the engine is a goner so easy....not my kind of mechanic.
If the rest of the car is in good shape, it is worth fixing it up. After all, used LR are cheap by comparison.

 

Boy, this guy is good, he can do a diagnosis like that over the phone?

 

Where did you hear this? None of it is true. Land Rover was building their own engines until after 2004 when they sold the machinery for scrap. The problems with the oil pumps (one theory) was due to wear of the tooling that was still being used. When the machinery was sold, much of it still said "Property of GM R&D" and some of the tooling bore dates from the late 50s. Even the best machinery and tooling cannot be expected to maintain tolerances that long without lots of skill, attention and skill.

The "original" Range Rover engines were 3.5s. The first 4.6s were GEMS and would need modifications to the CkPS mounting brackets.

There was a third party company making "new" engines, but even those had used rotating assemblies as no one is making new crankshafts, connecting rods, etc. Sadly, that source is no longer interested in small-lot manufacturing runs and the supply is likely gone for good.

 

Was I incorrect in assuming that there were Bosch 4.6Ls?? I knew some where GEM but thought, like Disco engines, later ones were Bosch.

I had my hopes of someday finding a decent donor engine for my '03.

You could be correct in the history, which is why I qualified my statement. I only now what I piece together from these here interweb forums.

That being said, whereas I once gave LR the benefit of a doubt because of subcontractor missteps, it looks as if they now bare full responsibility for the oil pump fiasco.

 

So I pulled all the lines and added water from the bottom up.. Assuring that all of the air was out I re-fit the lines from the bottom up as well. Ran the truck for 15 minutes with the water hose still running into the reservoir and it barely reached operating temp for the 15 minutes it ran.. I pulled the water hose out from the reservoir and put the cap on. I was heating up before I made it back to my parking spot at my apartment 15 spots away. The 2 lines going into the top of the thermostat were warm/hot and pressurized but the single line into the bottom was cold. Also the radiator remained cold to the touch all the way across... Is my new thermostat frozen/faulty?

 

Assuming it is a bad thermostat that I got from BA, I pulled it out and stood it on end. The single outlet side that attaches to the hose from the bottom of the radiator was sticking up and I filled it to the rim with boiling water fresh from the stove. It stayed full to the rim until it was cold enough to stick my finger down in it.. Filled boiling water into the other side with the two valve facing up and it trickled down through the thermostat.. Am I on to something? Is this my problem and does this explain why the radiator is always cold in an overheat condition and is this also why I am not getting any heat through the vents??

 

I'm wondering if it was installed correctly....

Can't remember the layout without grabbing a light and heading out into the cold.