My wifes 2001 Disco (88k mi) sat for 5 months while we were away. When we got back it started fine but the other night the temp. guage shot up into red zone. fortunately we were 1 minute from the driveway so I nursed her home. Checked her the next morning and the coolant was empty but no sign of leakage. I filled her up she started fine, ran strong after a little runninn, 15 minutes the coolant ran out again. Upon checking the oil it had that milky brown look of coolant leaking into the oil. OUCH! any other possibilities beside a blown head gasket? She runs fine and strong till the coolant runs out (15 -20 minutes).

 

Quote:any other possibilities beside a blown head gasket? I'm affraid not !!!Especially knowing that those gaskets are considerednormal wear on these engines. But a coolant pressure test is in order.

 

What ever you do, do not even start that engine again, have it towed into a shop and see if you can salvage it, chance are you will not because you have probably already drop a cylinder sleeve, SORRY for the bad news the end of this year.
Get a knowlegable mechanic to verify what I think has happen then if that is the case, get back to me and I'll help you find a good used block.

 

Mike,

Just curious- if he dropped a sleeve wouldn't there be immediate interference with the crank counterweights? If so, I wouldn't expect the engine to run smoothly. I'm asking because I think there is some confusion on this amongst us rover pseudo experts :-)

Cheers,
Dave

 

Thanks for the fast reply. Anybody have an opinion on Bear Valley LandRover in Roswell, GA?

I can only guess that sometimes a "daily driver" that's sits for a few months can develop problems. Hopefully, it's "just" a head gasket since it started and ran fine with the coolant topped.

Happy New Year!

 

Dave,
If a sleeve only begins to shift, it will cause large volumns of coolant to intermix and not necessarily make a noise.
My concern is that a head gasket failure doesn't down large quantys of coolant that fast.

 

Aha! Thanks Mike. That's exactly what I wanted to know.

Dave

 

Just curious. Does a critical failure like blown gasket and sleeve drop happen that quickly without much warning? The Disco has always been in on time for service, frequent fluid changes and ran great right up till the temp spiked, perhaps I should have gotten it in for the 90k earlier since it's 6.5 years old.....not sure what I could have kept an eye out for....

C.

PS. Happy New Year!

 

It's a 2 step process. Something causesthe engine to overheat. It could be loss of coolant froma leaking head gasket, a leaking heater hose, etc, or a stuck thermostat, plugged radiator, etc.

Oncethe engine overheats, the second problem of a dropped cylinder sleeve is a possibility- especially if you try to keep driving and 'nurse' the engine home. There is no such thing as nursing an overheating aluminum engine. The aluminum block around the cylinder sleeve expands faster than the sleeve itself, breaking the press fit between them and causingit to shift.

There are lots of things folks can do to reduce the chances of it happening:
[ol][*]Keep the cooling system in tip top shape[*]Perform coolant flushes/changes in accordance with Land Rover's recommendations[*]Replace radiator hoses every 5 years or 60,000 miles to reduce the chance of failure[*]Replace all other cooling system hoses (heater and bypass hoses, etc.) every 7 years or 100,000 miles.[*]Replace thermostat every 5 years or 60,000 miles.[*]Check the coolant level every time you put gas in. All you have to do is raise the hood enough to glance at the coolant level. That way you can catch it if the level starts to drop and track it before the problem becomes critical.[*]Make the temp gauge a regular part of your instrument scan when driving.[*]Shut the engine off immediately at the first signs of overheating[/ol]
I'm sure there are othersand some would say that my intervals are conservative,but this is what I've done for years with all of my cars. Thermostats are the damnest things and result in many more overheating incidents than most people think. I've hadseveral fail over the years- all between 80K and 120K miles on various cars. Now I just replace them as a matter of regular maintenance.

Dave

 

And to answer your question, I have seen, as a service manager, brand new engine and tranny fail, right out of the box, so who is to say.
With the large amount of coolant you are dumping into the crank case, it is going to be more then a head gasket.