Good news is no one in their right mind would buy this truck.since you thought about buying it you should be able to make an offer of $2500 and tell the seller you're willing to comes with cash and a flatbed. As said before parts will be about $500. You should be able to get a complete 4.6 for two grand. Now if the block is cracked you're in for five. If not three grand.

 

so that means most of us arent in our right mind then.. lol..

 

Anyone who knows of the trouble with rover blocks in the DII's will run away from that deal faster than the workers left Chernobyl when the alarms sounded.

Unless you have a line on a good engine you can drop in it you are taking a risk. You could always pin the sleeves, big write up just posted. You may get lucky and find it just needs gaskets and bolts, which will set you back $150+ shipping from Rovahfarm.

I would be interested to know why the owner is not interested in fixing it?

 

It really does sound too good to be true. I'd say if you buy this thing, approach with the plan on replacing the entire engine. There are too many expensive reasons to why a HG blows.

 

Keep walking.
Unless you buying it somehow causes the rover gods to let up on me, then I say go for it.
Cracked blocks
Slipped sleeves
Bad head bolt threads
Luck and Land Rover appearantly do not belong in the same sentence.

 

Wow, I spent a day working and lots of replies... THANKS!!

Did not make it any easier though...

To answer some of your questions::

- Have not seen the car in person, want to this weekend. SUPPOSEDLY the rest is in excellent condition with some scratches on front bumper.

- Have not asked the guy why he does not want to fix. Think it is a $$ issue as he is not a wrenched himself.

- Drive shaft replaced? not sure, I will get under it this weekend.

- Worst case scenario is cracked block. Owner said he did not have overheating issues though, so chances of that are probably smaller. (if he's honest)

I will sleep over it and decide if I want to go out and see it tomorrow after another days work...

Thanks again for all your input. Will report back!

 

exactly. i sold my 32mpg ford to buy a 20 year old range rover.... my 6th land rover.

 

We are a very special* breed.

*and by special I mean the type of guy sitting in a shed in the back woods wearing squirrel underwear, a tinfoil hat, petting a dead raccoon called "Freddy" (who is really friendly, just likes to play dead around strangers) and talking about how the Aliens are using chicken robots to track your every movement.

 

For comparison, I paid about $5k for my '04 D2 that had no major issues at all. That was over a year ago.

 

Not overheating? With a blown head gasket? Um,...........

Are you sure the gasket is blown? Perhaps the gasket rotted out at the coolant port and is seeping?

I'm still wondering why the owner isn't fixing it. Every DII I hear of that "just needs head gaskets" is the same story, they don't want to put the money into a vehicle that old. The reality is usually that they overheated the **** out of it and know it's not going to be "just head gaskets". They usually price the truck high so it doesn't seem too good to be true, but they will take nearly anything over what the junk yard will pay.

Start at $1500, tell him the odds of that truck "just needing head gaskets" are par with a unicorn winning the Kentucky Derby. If he says no, walk but leave him your number.