LR shop tells me my 2002 DII (109K miles) needs a new Head Gasket, Radiator, Thermostat, & De-icer as all are leaking. No overheating or coolant in oil, just needs to have about one cup of coolant mix a week added to reservoir. Cost would be $3K plus. Has anyone had any success using a stop leak such as Bar's Block Seal Head Gasket Fix? I'm looking for a lower cost alternative.

 

Bars sucks don't use that. There is better products out there and if your going to try it you better get the good stuff. The good products are going to require you to bypass the heater core temporarily while using the product.
I would say to just replace the head gaskets if you plan on keeping it for very long. And temporary fix is just temporary and not worth the blockages they cause down the line.
IF YOUR GOING TO SELL IT PLEASE TELL THE POTENTIAL BUYERS OF THE PROBLEM UP FRONT.


Just fix it right and the you will be for certain the job was done properly.

 

Download rave and dig in.

 

If you want to try a stop leak, buy the one from BG, it has nothing that will gum up your engine and works pretty well, it is not like all the others that use ground up ceramic, copper, aluminum and all that other crap that will plug up your radiator.

 

How big a job is it to replace the Head Gasket? I am mechanically inclined (just finished overhauling Inter. Scout Carburetor) but have little experience working on LRs and no special LR tools. I do have RAVE copy. Thanks for your comments.

 

C130 I have never had to replace the head gaskets (knock on wood) so I can't really comment on that but one thing that I can tell you is that the engine is no different than an American v8. Don't let the Land Rover name intimidate you.

 

Why not fix (or bypass in warm weather)the throttle body heater leak (under $35) and replace the thermostat (go for the 82 degree C soft spring vesion to drop temps about 10 degrees F), if rad is sludged or leaking a new one is $150 - $208. Then re-eval. Overheating makes bad things happen to engine. Now an external HG leak might be present, did they point it out? Did they do an exhaust gas in coolant test to detect the bad head gasket? Point is that all overheat is not an HG.

If HGs are leaking, usually the symptoms are coolant loss, overheating, gurgle bubbles in pipes under dash for heater core.

Parts for HG are like $300 for kit (new bolts) and figure on about that much for machine shop to mill them flat again. Indy auto Shops charge 12 hours for this head gasket job. So indys get $1700-$2400 for just HGs.

 

you can turn a wrench them you can replace them in a weekend for less than $400.
not very complicated, pretty easy actually

 

2 Days plus shop time for the heads.

 

Its not to bad, its way better than putting that gunk crap in there.