Monday morning I was on the interstate, stop and go. I am merging over to take my exit whe I see the temp gauge move, which I know is bad news, so I go straight to the shoulder and the red light came on as I was turning the truck off. Open the hood and see no coolant in the tank. Just 3 months ago I installed a new radiator, ad all new top-end hoses and 180 degree thermostat. This leads me to believe the hose I didn't replace (t-stat to lower radiator) to be the failure point.

I had it towed home, changed the lower hose, filled and bled to discover my leak was actually at the throttle body return hose. It had apparently rubbed a hole where it runs over the cruise control bracket. this is where things go south.

As I let the truck run and saw the leak, I also noticed the engine was running rough, and seemed to have a knock on the driver's side, but it wasn't a deep knock like piston knock. I shut the truck off, read the codes and had a P0300 & P0304, which I know is a random misfire and cylinder 4 misfire. I really want to attribute the misfire to the fact that I degreased the engine before starting the repairs, but the truck had sat for a day before being cranked back up.

So here's where I am, Saturday I am going to buy all new plugs/wires, rent a coolant system pressure tester and cylinder compression tester. I am sick at my stomach thinking my truck might be toast. I have always maintained it and was 500 miles from hitting 220,000 which I know is an exceptionally long life. I always ran the green stuff, checked fluids vigilantly, that hose just seemed to give out that morning. Really just needed to vent and maybe get some reassurance that I haven't killed my Disco, but I know that's probably the case.

 

Sounds like you know exactly what it is. You can do the gaskets in your garage in a weekend. At 220k I would sure have the heads planed and may consider having the sleeves/rings... UGH... I feel your pain and can't even finish. You know what needs to be done.

 

If I thought it was just head gaskets, I'd actually be pretty ecstatic at this point. I would tackle that no problem, but the knock has me worried. It's not harmonic and deep like piston knock. It doesn't knock on every revolution it seems random and higher pitched, between a knock and a tap but closer to a knock, which makes me think it may be a slipped liner/sleeve. She may be heading to that big parts yard in the sky, I'm still holding out a microscopic glimmer of hope.

 

Ah, more serious...

Well, the sleeve can't slip too far; there is a lip that prevents that. Of course, you have to consider what would cause it to slip and worry about a crack/leak behind it. But if you google (I can't remember where I read about it... maybe here) there is a write-up for pinning a slipped sleeve with the engine on, from the bottom.

You could pull your oil pan and take a look...

To my knowledge I have not had a slipped liner, but I thought they were supposed to make more of a clicking sound. Again, sorry to be so Mr. Magoo, but I did hear a slipped liner on a video or somewhere... maybe youtube... in a Disco II. I will see if I can find the clip and you can compare.

EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg2TlJDLKXk

 

Thanks for the video, mine doesn't sound anywhere near that severe. It actually almost completely disappears above 1500rpm. I'll be digging in bright and early Saturday morning to hopefully find a verdict. If anyone has anything else I should check or helpful hints I'm all ears.

I'll try and get a video up at some point of the noise also.

 

The fact your rover has gone 220k miles is a miracle.
Means you know how to keep it going.

Try to lower the temps in the engine and the sleeve may not move.
Or you can try to pin it.

 

If you had a coolant leak at the throttle body heater than chances are the coolant ran down all over the spark plugs. You might just have coolant pooled around the plugs causing a misfire. Pull each plug wire 1 by 1 and blow air inside the boot and around the plug to dry things out good. See if that helps.

 

The leak was actually near the reservoir, right above the cruise control bracket. I did degrease and spray down the engine the day before I began the repairs so I hope that's the culprit. Going to put new plugs and wires and see if that helps. Could a misfire be causing the noise I'm hearing?

 

I de-greased and pressure washed my engine the other day after repairing my Power Steering pump that blew a gasket. Oil everywhere...

I had a misfire for about 4 days afterwards. It can take time to get it all out, especially if you've really hit it hard. Threw about 5 codes too (MAF, O2, Misfire, etc). As of yesterday, all is good now.

 

be positive, you know like before you owned a land rover