2003 Discovery II
140k Miles

Hello Everyone,

I looked through the post pretty good but hopefully someone has not already answered this.

I have a bad head gasket in both banks. I took the vehicle to a well respected mechanic here in town and he would not even consider the replacement since the steel jacket in the cylinder wall would shift. ( I've since learned on this web sight that this is not a problem with 2000 and on disco's) That mechanic suggested replacing the whole engine. 10K. The LR dealership wanted 7k to replace the gaskets. I am not a mechanic but I can and have done some work and understand what needs to be done. What I am concerned about is the possibility that I get everything back together and forget something or messing something up with all the stuff i have to take off to get to the heads. I have downloaded the shop manual and read the appropriate pages and it looks like something that I can do in a couple of weekends but I'm sure it is much more complicated than that. I think that i can do it but I would like to have someone who knows more than I do and has done this kinda thing before help me by walking me through it. Does anyone have any advice? i have another car so time is not an issue and I am open to selling the vehicle if the consensus is that an experienced mechanic is required.

 

1. You have the same number of fingers as the average mechanic.

2. You are highly motivated and like to save money.

3. An HG job is in the 1500 - 3000 range per a lot of posts. The parts are $300 (about) and you need to be sure to use new head bolts, they stretch to fit. You will also have to allow time and money to take the heads to a cylinder head machine shop to be checked for flatness and planed if needed ($200).

4. On guy said he could do it in 5 hours. A more seasoned source said start Friday, finish by Sunday evening.

5. Take plenty of photos as you go. Poke every bolt into cardboard and mark where it came from.

6. New head gaskets are not the same as a new engine.

7. Think of the cool off road lights you can buy with the money you save.

8. There are lots of posts about HG repair on this forum, and I suspect videos posted on line, self help DVDs, etc.

9. Enjoy. But just in case, be sure she-who-must-be-obeyed does not hear your seldom used vocabulary.

 

Thanks for the advice. I think the mechanic that wanted to replace the whole engine had been burned before with an earlier model. I guess he did not realize the newer ones have a ridge to prevent slipping.

 

Its not rocket science, I just did mine and had never work on a vehicle before. I took my time and kept parts well organized and documented with photos. Follow the rave manual religiously and you can get it done. Get head bolts and a gasket kit, and make sure everything is clean before you put it together.

 

Hulk,

There is a video out there i'm sure one of the other member can lead you to it, that shows you how to replace your head gaskets. I think it's call "in search of" or something like that. If your not sure about doing the gaskets it is the best $20 you will spend. After watching it once or twice you will see there is nothing that special about head gaskets on a LR and there are a couple tips in there as well.

 

thanks everyone! this is really encouraging information. Once I saw that the repair work was going to be more than the actual blue book value I thought that i could not justify keeping the vehicle. Now it seems that i can! I'll keep everyone posted of my progress.

 

you can replace the headgaskets, head bolts, water pump, t-stat, hoses, belt, wires, plugs, throttle body heater & coolent for under a grand, If you do the work yourself.

 

Good DVD (see the link to it below). They change the HG on a D1, but the process is fundamentally the same for a D2. Elias is a good guy. He can frequently be found selling RRC parts over on D-web...
In Search of the Experience DVD

 

Two weekends.

First weekend tear it down and clean surfaces. Drop off the heads Monday morning and pick them up later in the week.

Look over everything Friday night and be ready to go the next day. Do any last minute cleaning of gasket surfaces, etc.

Get up early Saturday morning and take your time. One bit of good news is that it is (mostly) pretty obvious where all the electrical and other connectors go back together. Be sure to install the exhaust manifold gaskets in the correct orientation.

Be patient, look everything over one more time, pull the fuel pump relay and turn over the engine four times for a good 15-20 seconds each time. Plug in the relay, start up your Rover and go for a spin!

 

I bet you're right. He probably replaced the H/G's then the customer realised he had a slipped cylinder liner soon after or something like that. In reality, the mechanic had absolutely nothing to do with the liner slipping at all. Replacing the gaskets doesn't cause this, but a good, hard over-heat caused by the bad gasket itself could be the culprit.
Good Luck on your head gasket job. I'm in the middle of one myself, it's not that bad. When you get it apart, you realise that it's really just a few big parts you take off and some bolts, push-rods, etc. to keep in order. All in all, not that bad!!
When you get it apart you may want to pressure test the block. (just in case I'm going to check mine. I don't want to put it all back together only to find I've got to take it all back apart!!!) Don't let it scare you though, more just a precaution. Some have been mis-diagnosed in the past.