Hey Guys,

I have an '04 Disco with 118,000 miles, I bought it about a month ago. It needed a new water pump when I bought it, the gasket was leaking like a sieve. So I replaced the pump and my disco started overheating.

The first time it started overheated I drove like 25 miles then got it brought home. I then changed the t-stat, and was able to drive about 8 miles, then started to overheat. I had it brought back home and then did a exhaust gas test, it was positive. A land rover tech I know that came to help me said I needed a new HG. So I took it to a shop, and they diagnosed it as a blown head gasket and slipped liner.

The shop didn't take the heads off or pressure test, they didn't even dye test it. They idled it for about 45 minutes with no problems (it can idle for days without overheating). The engine knocks and sounds like it's a diesel, but the knock starts from cold and never goes away (Doesn't almost every Disco knock?). Ergo they told me I had a slipped liner and they didn't want to deal with it.

There were 6 o2 sensor codes and one code for a misfire in cylinder 3. Is there anyway to figure out if I do indeed have a slipped liner without tearing the engine apart?

I have an extended warranty that'll cover the HG but I need to pay for disassemble. Could the knock be a bad lifter?

I'm at a loss and don't have huge swaths of cash to throw at this beast (shouldn't have bought a Rover, as much as I love and wanted one).

 

NO worries.

All you need is about $400.
Some tools.

A parking lot and about two weeks of time to do this at night.

I used a car battery and inverter and a CFL trouble light.
That kept me working until 10pm in the dark in March of 2012.

If you can find a place to do it for $1,500 then that's a fair price.

You really can do it for about $400. You will probably need to buy some tools.
Buy Victor Rhienz head gaskets.

Here are some pictures of my experience in the parking lot.

It is a lot of work.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76579732@N07/

I got lucky as I did not resurface the heads.
I cleaned them. Put in new gaskets and got 10,000 miles out of the Rover and it is still going I suppose.

 

Unfortunatly your warrenty company will not take your would for it. This might be the one time a dealer could be the place to go. They can dianosis it quicker and your company isnt likley to augure with the dealer when they tell them lt need an engine

 

How did you do the timing? My brother is worried about making sure everything is properly timed when putting it all back together. He's done head gaskets on big 18 wheelers and many a small engine.

We're going to try K&W sealer on Friday just to see if that'll stop combustion gases from getting into the cooling system. If it does I guess I won't need to worry about a blown block right? Then we can just spend a weekend doing the HG.

 

I am confused. You say you have an extended warranty. Why would any of this be your problem to fix? (What am I saying; from what I understand almost all extended warranties are crap. Oh well, you should at least try to get them to cover the repairs.) I agree with a prior poster who said that the warranty company should be more responsive to the dealer's assessment instead of yours. If the warranty is any good and the diagnosis is correct it should mean a new engine for you installed by someone else. If your warranty has any value you don't need to spend $400 and a couple of weekends to do a head gasket job.

 

Wait a minute. What does your extended warranty cover? Are you trying to say it covers parts only? I don't know what you mean when you say that you need to "pay for disassemble."

 

They cover parts and labor, but require that I pay for the part to be disassembled to prove that the part is actually broken. I'm fairly certain a simple dye test covers this though. So you're right, I won't need to put on a new HG myself but so far I've been to 3 shops that won't touch it because it's knocking.

The warranty company said they won't cover a block that has failed due to overheating. Which is what the first shop I went to said "The head gasket popped, truck overheated, and boom the liner probably popped." I'll still try to argue it, because when a HG does go, that involves a bit of overheating =) doesn't it? In the contract it says "the engine block is covered if the damage is caused by a covered part" a HG is covered so failed HG = A new block logically? The warranty people said if the HG did cause the failure they might be willing to give me the money equivalent to a HG job to use towards replacing the engine.

I'm just sort of at a frustrated loss because no one wants to touch my disco because of the knock... So I was hoping to see if there was an alternative to proving it isn't a slipped liner so a shop would touch it.

 

once again go to the dealer, have their service writer deal with your warranty company.
this is what they do for a living, and have done it hundreds of times.
if the rap it that bad it should be even quicker for them to diagnosis.
the warranty company just wants to close the claim by throwing you a couple hundred bucks in parts,
once the claim is closed (you agree to payment) it can not be reopened

 

Yeah, take that thing to the dealer (Land Rover). Let them battle the warranty co. I wouldn't pay for $hit!! They probably sold you the warranty package for 2-3k??, you'll get use of that!! May the force be with you.

 

Nah, the warranty was $1280 for 3 years 36k miles, but with a $3,000 lifetime cap. I figured I'd be getting the better of them the way that works. They totally were game paying $1300-1500 for a HG. The LR dealership wanted almost $3,000 for the HG.

Do liners start knocking from a cold start only when it's warm? Because my disco sounds like a Mac truck as soon as I turn the key.