Just bought a disco 2, doing a head gasket job, etc
 

Just got this 2000 discovery II and found a coolant leak on driver side head. I work at a dealer and we started the process! My repair order is up to $1500 so far and the job goes on! I'll post updates and pics if anyone is interested and or tackling a similar job. Obviously been done numerous times before on here. Any help or tips are appreciated! Thanks gang and it's nice to be one of you, despite the $$.

Sorry about pics, I'm new at this...

Not sure why I can't load mult pics?

Tomorrow I'll post the cylinder heads after I get them back from the machine shop. One of them had a valve that was not seated apparently and was pushed too far down for correct sleeve positioning? Whatever that means. But not warped so that's good.

Looks good! When I rebuilt my top end there is 1 thing I wish I would have done... Tested the block!! What I thought was just a head gasket leak wasn't. The blocks aren't great on our trucks so I would recommend testing it as well. Otherwise you will end up like me and spend $1000 rebuilding the top end (and a ton of time) and put it all back together to still have the same problem :)

What did you do? How did you check it? I just bought this thing and the seller claims he had a complete rebuild done 2 years ago but my tech is claiming nothing has been done. I replaced the water pump hose today to, the crazy looking $100 one. I haven't even driven it 10 miles yet and have owned it 3 weeks! Welcome to Land Rover ownership I suppose!?

I'm no expert but the best way to test the block is to remove the entire engine and pressure test the block for leaks. If you search YouTube, I think I've seen someone test it while still in the truck with the heads off. They used some kind of kit to block all the water passages and pressure test it.

An easy thing to do is inspect the head gaskets and Pistons. Were any of the Pistons "steam" cleaned when you pulled the heads? Did you see a noticeable leak / break in the head gasket? If not it might be leaking internally from a slipped liner. Search google for slipped liner syndrome on discovery 2s and you'll find tons of information.

The way I found my problem was after I put it all back together I was still losing coolant. A local Rover shop ran a leak-down test and cylinder 6 won't hold pressure, which relates to a slipped liner.

Lots of information, I know. What questions do you have?

Here's a link to a place that rents the kit to pressure test the block. Jaguar, Land Rover Specialty Repair Tool Rental - Motorcars Ltd.

Here's a thread about it: https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...ailable-39423/

Here is the heads on the block...what a disaster this has been! It's at my Honda dealer so I see it daily but the driver side head has been a nightmare! Machine shop said one of the valves was missing the sleeve and they had to "custom make" something. They had to wait on the part from LR so it added 5 days to the job. So tech starts the assembly today and he breaks 3 head cover bolts and says he needs longer one because they are stripped? Not sure where I'll find those. Maybe one day I can drive this truck, owned 3 weeks, driven 2 days!! Oh and my current bill at work, $25 an hr labor emp rate, sits at $1450 parts and labor! Great...

Valve cover bolts? He didn't strip the head bolts, did he?