New Head Gasket in the works!
 

Well after months of kicking this around and an ill-fated effort to use Blue Devil which resulted in a new radiator, new water pump, new thermostat, several gallons of coolant, several gallons of simple green, brief but frequent outbreaks of tourettes syndrome, moments of panic as the temp gauge climbed and finally elation. Not to mention getting reamed on labor charges by a local indy shop.

I dropped my 2000 DII at an indy shop (different one) to have the head gaskets replaced. $900 parts and labor included (unless a valve job is required). About half the price of most other shops I contacted in San Diego. The shop comes highly recommended and had some very nice British vehicles in the service bays, rolls, Bentleys, rovers, mgs, etc. Not strictly a rover shop, but definitely a British shop. They even included a 12-month warranty.

I have the magnacor wires on order and the Plus 4 Plugs in hand. Heads will be off in the morning and off to the machine shop for measurement and if necessary, a clean shave, seals and maybe a valve job. The truck has 129k miles. I am told that the valve job will likely not be necessary but will have them checked since the heads will already be at the machine shop.

What a long and unnecessary waste of time. Why didn't I listen to you guys in the first place and do the head gaskets when I first got her. My $1000 Discovery is now about $2500, but I do have an almost entirely new cooling system and the front driveshaft has been upgraded with greaseable zerk fittings. Most of the 60k mile service done, along with almost new tires two sets of mats, comfy carpet and heavy duty rubber all the way around.

By the way, it looks like the occasional temp rise at idle was caused by a partially clogged heater core, due to the Blue Devil. I reflushed backflushed and repeated for about an hour trying to get all of the Blue Devil residue out. Drove around today for about two hours, freeway, town and the temp stayed at dead on center.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Phil

2001 DII
2000 DII
1999 DI

did you do HG jobs on the other 2 Discos you own?

the Head Gaskets on the 2001 were done before we bought it. It was actually one of the reasons that we bought that one. Thanks to LRF I knew what to look for in advance. The 1999 DI was purchased before I found LRF. I had no idea what I was in for........ It runs very well but is developing a coolant leak at the seam between the heads and the block at the front of the engine. Right now it is at the shop having the tranny replaced. Time to thin the herd. Anybody need a Discovery?

Can't wait to get the 2000 back next week. I considered doing it myself, but for only $640 in labor, I just couldn't justify doing it myself, especially after reading that it was taking most everybody 30 plus hours to do the job. I may run out this afternoon and take a look after they get the heads off. If I do, I will take the camera and shoot some photos. All the best. Phil

I just checked on the progress of my head gasket job. They had the heads off in less than two hours. They guy told me that it was closer to an hour. The gaskets were original, 130k miles. The heads had warped on the ends. As I recall, the machine shop was taking 3 thousandths off of one and 4 thousandths off of the other. I was amazed how clean the engine was. No sludge whatsoever. The intake was really clean as well. The head gaskets didn't look like they had failed, they seemed pretty solid all the way around. Even the pistons were super clean, dark but no carbon buildup whatsoever. The heads were going to be finished this afternoon or first thing tomorrow and they were going to start on the reassembly tomorrow. I dropped off the magnecor wires. Couldn't find the Bosch Plus 4 plugs I had bought. The shop strongly recommended the NGK plugs so we will go with those. So far so good. It looks like this had been a pretty well taken care of truck. Can't wait to get it back. Hopefully they will have it done on Thursday. Yahoo! Phil

LOL, ok, that is freakin' funny...
 

LOL, ok, that is freakin' funny...reminds me of Deuce Bigalow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFn0llYqM8w

Good luck ljdiscovery...it seems you are on the right track.

Well, I got the 2000 DII back yesterday. Head gaskets done. Added new Magnacor 8mm wires, new plugs, a valve job, not really necessay but while they were there we did the work. So far, so good. No oil leaks, no coolant leaks and if runs like it was new, eventhough is has 129k miles. However, as I drove home and came to a light after driving for about 20 minutes, the dang thing started to heat up again. Never got out of the allowable range, but it definitley jumped up. Same old issue, the temp sticks right at mid-level while running, but on occasion, when I get to a stop, at idle, the temp starts to creep up. My suspicion is that it is from the Blue Devil that I put in. It clogged the radiator and the heater core. When the truck comes to idle the thermostat diverts the coolant to the heater core only. Because the heater core is not completely clear, the temp creeps up.

In an effort to isolate the heater core to determine if that is the culprit, I went to Kragen and bought a u-shaped radiator hose. Got home, pulled the two hoses from the lines that go to the heater core. Replaced the hoses with the one u-shaped hose and by-passed the heater core. I drove around for a few miles, ran the truck for about 20 minutes and so far so good, the temp gauge is right at mid-level, doesn't move a bit. I will give it a full workout tomorrow and make sure that I have found the problem. Then, I will try to figure out what to do about the heater core. Any ideas on changing it out without pulling the dash would be greatly appreciated. I have done a search and it looks to be possible, not easy by any means, but possible.

By the way, I need to give kudos to International Auto Repair in Escondido, California. They did a great job on the truck. They charged me $640 labor for the head gasket job. $200 for the gaskets, $80 for the bolts, about $240 for the machine work, plugs, oil change, coolant and some other miscellaneous stuff, the bill came out to about $1250. Very fair price and about $500 less than most other shops that I talked to.

Very happy with their work. Now, if I can determine for sure that the heater core is the real issue, fix that and start enjoying this thing.

WARNING, use Blue Devil at your own risk. I would never touch it again for any reason. It has cost me big time.

All the best. Phil

Have you stuck a hose in your heater core hose and flushed and back flushed it until it runs clean?

I've never used blue devil but I think if it's like all the other block sealers on the market, it will say that you have to bypass the heater core and remove the thermostat. I used K&W years ago on a Pontiac 6000 and it worked terrific!
As for the temp going up at a light, is the fan clutch working properly? Is the electric fan coming on?

Eric

Two types of Blue Devil, on where you need to remove the thermostat and the other where you don't. I used the new and improved version, the one that you can leave the thermostat in.

Everything else works, new thermostat, new radiator, new fan clutch, and the electrical fan works properly.

I have flushed and back-flushed the heater core, I will try to get a high pressure water hose and see if I can blow the gunk out. What a pain in the tail. Oh, did I say, be very, very cautious about using Blue Devil. I talked to the manufacurer several times before I used it . Told them exactly the vehicle I was going to use it on and how our cooling systems are set up, the guy said, no problem, it should work fine, little did I know......

Phil

That stuff is nasty I'm not sure what will clean it out, maybe try some compressed air and try not to blow up the heater core.