Spoken to 3 shops here to see what options they can come up with. First one (repco) said he could do it, about $3,800ish using changeover heads. Spoke to another shop (triumph rover spares), sounded very confident on that pricing would be and suggested that he's never had to replace the heads on a disco yet... they do a lot of rover race engines and seem to know their stuff.... Third shop, suggested it could a cylinder sleeve instead of the head gasket and went on with pricing of over 2k just for machining the sleeve etc.,.... Is it at all likely it could be the sleeve or is this guy proving before he even quotes me he knows nothing?

 

Well, IMHO it would be quite a trick to replace a single cylinder sleeve without replacing the head gasket.... so shop number three would end up being a lot more than $2K. A slipped sleeve will tick, banging against the fire ring of the gasket. Shop 2 says they don't have to replace heads, which may be true, but head gaskets are common. Most DIY on here don't have to find new/used heads. Your prices are quite steep down there, even with the exchange rate.

See http://www.roverparts.com/Parts/STC4082BK.cfm for parts, and how to, also need bolt kit, another $79.

 

Definitely no crash bangs inside (yet) indicating the sleeve has an issue... Australia is insanely expensive compared to anywhere in the world I have been to so far, the exchange rate only adds to retailer profits to be honest - we've seen no decrease in pricing at all on a retail level here.

I'm thinking shop 2 has me feeling the most confident in my gut if you like... so I'll give it over to them and keep you all updated!

Thanks for your help there Savannah - its good to have experienced minds around to sound your idea's off on.

M.

 

So, report back from the shop is: They've done a hot pressure test, I didn't write down the result, I assume it failed... but they said its the sleeve on cylinder 4, and there's coolant inside the cylinder. They are saying its the sleeve because there's no other way coolant can get into C4 - if it was one of the end ones they reckon its possible. Quoting me in the region of 4.5 - 5k to replace the engine with another one thats done just on 92,000k's. On the way to the shop though something gave.. all of a sudden a whole bunch of rattling and ticking going on... thoughts?

 

Thinking about this some more... if I have to replace an engine - is it worth doing the capacity upgrade to the 4.6 for the extra torque and power if its feasible?

 

In these pix you'll see why they say end cylinders are more common to have coolant leak. The rectangular channel is the water pathway, there is one fore and aft on each head. Gasket is not as wide there, compared to rest of the 360 degrees around that cylinder. People say that water won't compress, but maybe water with bubbles in it will just a little.

Ticking can be liner pounding the fire ring of the head gasket. Other noise can't be promising.

Might get prices from the other two shops, based on diagnosis of shop 2. It never hurts to have a second opinion. What hurts is having to pay big dollars for an engine, when we can buy a running Disco for that kind of money. Going to a 4.6 may required some fiddling with the transmission, which is slightly different length.

 

Shop 2 happens to be part of the largest landrover / tvr / triumph wrecking yard in the southern hemisphere.. they do a lot of motorsport stuff with the rover v8's and know then inside out. They also had the best pricing already for replacement heads... so I think I've got a good read on them and they seemed at least so far to be upfront and sympathetic to my plight...

Yeah, I've been looking at car prices in the US and Canada as part of my getting the hell out of Aus research... we pay way too much for them here.

Update again tomorrow once I have a better read on the situation.

 

If you want to look at used US and some Canada, try Statewidelist - Craigslist search by state , it allows you to sort craigslist (a free posting site) by state for Rover, outputs sorted by metro area. So you can see units in San Francisco, but not chase ones in San Diego.

 

OK - so, we can get the 4.6 from a Range Rover put in this for an extra 2K. The Disco II's didn't apparently have the 4.6 option in Aus... Not an issue with the install apparently, they've done it heaps of times before with great success. Tossing up whether the 2K extra is worth it for an additional 20% power and torque... I like it, I just have to convince the other half of the board of finance. Apparently it will sell better when the time comes because of that too.. so the 2k will come back one day apparently.