04 DII which I have owned for 1 year. My 3rd Land Rover, but first Disco. Luckily this truck was my wife's idea so she hasn't contacted any divorce attorneys yet... It has an external coolant leak from the back of the engine. I feel like I can start to smell it outside of the truck after the engine hits 140 degrees. It's not a lot, but the expansion tank needs to get topped 1x/week with fairly light use. The truck still runs awesome, and engine temps are great. Currently, it idles hot at 189. Runs 180-183 on the highway. 185-89 around town/in traffic. It might hit 190 once a week. Starts/runs smooth with no white smoke. No milkshake. But, every once in awhile there is a tiny itsy bitsy amount of yellow under the oil cap. Whether that is an internal leak or coolant still making it's way out after head gasket replacement last Feb (PO), I don't know (the engine had the head gaskets done then, and there are new heads in it, so I'm assuming there was a pretty serious overheat and then I had a stuck thermo when my wife was driving it last year and, I guess, that just kicked it over the edge?).

Oddly, you hear about weeping/porous blocks on these all the time, but I see very few threads with people who actually have them with external coolant leaks. I love the truck, and I want to fix it (my wife says to just drive it until the engine issues its unconditional surrender and then move on). It runs awesome. Has the new heads, head gaskets, valley pan gaskets, valve cover gaskets, water pump, serpentine belt, lower intake gasket, SAI pump, serviceable drive shaft, purge valve and more has all been done in the last two years. So I am curious about what people's thoughts are on reman'd short block options? There seem to be a lot of threads, but none that recent and I assume things change. After the research I have done I am thinking Turner is the best option? Looks like a little over 4k shipped with the current exchange rates. Are there another options I should consider? Any reasons not to use Turner? I know they use ductile liners and some people don't like that, but all other options I find seem to be at least 1k more. Since I'm doing this, I want to do it right, and do it once. So I don't want to order the wrong engine.

And finally, is it stupid to keep driving this? I have the UG going 100% of the time and would immediately shut it down it it ever got above 200 at this point. I don't want to risk damaging the engine further, but a few people have told me it is fine with the external leak as long as I keep an eye on it. As is clear, I am not a mechanic by any stretch so this is something I am paranoid about.

Worth noting: my paranoia and reading this forum definitely saved this truck. Had I not have been reading every thread I could on here the truck would have lost enough coolant to cause a real overheat, kill the engine, and probably left my wife and kids stranded somewhere. So thank you all! I am constantly amazed by how many in this community know so much. Every other problem I have had with this truck I have been able to fix myself with the help of just the search feature here. Fantastic group of people.

 

Well if it's actually a cracked block, I would check scrap yards and get a block from there. You can get em on eBay all the time for a decent price. I didn't check to see where you are located but you can get a good block and have it rebuilt by a local machine shop with the new liners

 

But it could just be a bad head gasket job also. Most of them leak at the rear of the heads. Mine was leaking there and it consituded a head gasket job. My biggest gripe is the stretch bolts BC there isn't even torque across the cylinder head and if they didn't do it properly, the bolt could be loose enough where the coolant could have seeped out. Have you done a pressure test on the coolant system to find where it is? If not, that's where I would start. Add some uv dye and get it to operating temps and let it circulate through the system good then check it. After it cools, if you can't see the dye, do the pressure test. You can rent them from most auto part stores. I'd start with checking those before I would say there is a cracked block.

 

Thanks for the reply. I am in Maine. This is something I also wondered about. I was under the impression the 4.6 rover blocks were such a disaster you had to go with turner or the like if you wanted something reliable.

Two different rover mechanics have both confirmed it was cracked. One was very skeptical and had my hopes up for a moment, but no.

 

Were they independent or stealership mechanics that you trust or just got an opinion from. The reason I ask the 4.6 is the same as the 4.0 block just a little bigger bore and different cam. Most of the parts are interchangeable. The issue with most of the 4.6 were the 03 and in a certain vin range for the dowel on the front of the block causing oil pump failures. Most of those engines were replaced under warranty and the issue was fixed. All this engine is a 1960's Buick 215 if I remember correctly.

 

How did they confirm that is is a cracked block?

 

Land Rover 4.6 Boush Motor Engine block CORE ONLY . Tested And True | eBay

there is a block on eBay and only $400 plus 74.86 shipping. Been tested and no slipped liners. Any good machine shop can rebuild these engines they will be able to use the heads and all your accessories from your engine. I know if I wanted mine rebuilt by the machine shop that did my head work (I'm in Alabama and these guys have been rebuilding rover engines for years) was gonna cost me around $2500. Not too shabby considering the cost of a reman from some place else. The only thing I would say, if you do by a short block, save yourself some money and read up and pull your old engine out yourself if you are able to and take both to the shop you choose to do business with or find a reputable independent Land Rover shop, and figure them charging you around $1500-$2000 on top of the rebuild for them to remove the old engine and have it all done.

 

I believe the 4.0 and 4.6 blocks have identical bore dimensions (94.0mm), the 4.6 was stroked (10.9mm) to increase displacement.

Check out D&D Fabraction in Michigan, just google and give Mark a call...he is a guru when it comes to these engines. He will be sleeving our 03's block as soon as I get it stripped down.

Brian.

 

Yea they are great but stay away from cannonball. Been getting sloppy lately

 

Independent guys I was getting an opinion from. The first guy that I asked (who I trust very much) was basically doing me a favor because without a lift I couldn't see where it was coming from. He put it up on the lift and looked at it for a long long time to figure out where it was coming from. It took him like :45 to pinpoint where it was originating. He did not charge me. That was in July or so. The second guy is a good friend of a good friend. He is the one who thought I was crazy and didn't think it was cracked. He also didn't charge me.

The truck has now been driven almost 2k miles since last April/May when the thermostat stuck shut with no change in consistency or amount of coolant loss. If it was head gaskets, wouldn't it have gotten worse?