Just bought a Disco 2 from a friend in "good-working condition." After a disappointing oil change, and then by pulling spark plugs, I found out the head gasket had blown. I preceded to tear it down and found the common cylinder to coolant jacket failure on #8. I replaced everything and made sure it was properly torqued. I changed the oil and began to bleed coolant by holding the reservoir up and letting air out through the bleed screw until the steady coolant stream. I then started it and ran it to operating temp and verified no overheating while the rest of the air found it's way out. I also had no heat at this point. A few minutes or so after reaching operating temperature, the reservoir begins pouring coolant out from the open cap. I have never had this happen before so it worried me and I thought the head might be warped or the block cracked. After shutting it off and collecting myself from spending all this time and money on a vehicle with a bad engine, I decided to try and bleed the system one more time and squeezing every hose possible to get all air out and leaving it for a few hours with the reservoir raised. After this, I started it up again and a few small air bubbles flowed out for a minute and my heat began to work. Then, the heat faded away and coolant began steadily flowing out of the reservoir once more, I looked at it as it came out and didn't see air bubbles (unless there was an air pocket big enough to force it out). No check engine light for misfires, no white smoke, and so far no coolant in the oil. If I'm doing something wrong I'd really appreciate advice considering I might have to tell my wife this project is a dud. Thanks.

 

Need to be monitoring your actual engine temps.

 

Well, here's to hoping she won't want to trade you in! Oh, you mean the LR project.... In my limited experience it seems that never assume the worst until you've bled the living **** out of these cooling systems. And just when you think there couldn't possibly be any air left at this point, do it one more time. The key being to have a way to monitor actual temps as you do this and never let the temp get away from you. If it starts to heat up, shut it off and wait a bit then restart the bleed procedure.

 

I have a scanner I'm using to monitor temps.

 

It reaches operating temp and will heat up to about 210 at idle on an 80 degree day. Never higher than that.

 

Ok, so you have a way to monitor temps. If you have the stock thermostat, that sounds normal to me. You might want to check your fan clutch and make sure it doesn't freewheel when the engine is cold. Search here for a better description of how to test it more thoroughly. What are the temps when you're moving?

 

I'm assuming the thermostat is stock as well. I will check the fan clutch ASAP, it seems to be moving a good amount of air though. I have no moving temps as of right now, vehicle is unregistered for now. If we assume temp going down the road are normal, what's next? I only ask because I would ideally want to have everything checked over before a test drive.

 

Top off through the bleed screw when the engine is stone cold. Air bubbles will collect there overnight as it is the high point. Stone cold as in first thing in the morning. Temps sound normal for a stock thermostat.

 

If I were you, I'd start the truck in the driveway and let it idle for a good 15-20 minutes. Not something I would recommend doing on a regular basis but as long as you can keep an eye to actual temps for a test, then see what happens. If you can pass that test you're likely ok. The way I test a fan clutch is to see if you can stop it with a rolled up newspaper. During your 15 -20 minute test, you should not be able to stop the fan clutch after more than 5 minutes of idling. Once the RPMs are coming up, like under normal driving, the fan clutch will start to slip but when sitting still it should be pretty stiff.

 

not having heat is an indication of either a blocked heater core (unlikely since you say you had heat at one point), a faulty diverter flap or bad heater fan (unlikely for the same reason), or air in the heater coil.