Hi Guys,

Have scoured all the threads and have found a lot of helpful information. Before ripping into a major top end rebuild, wanted to run my symptoms by you as a sanity check:

My 1988 Range Rover has aver 240,000 miles. For all those miles, it's an astoundingly clean and well performing vehicle. Previous owner had plugged in 4.0 litre to replace the original 3.5. New engine has around 70,000 miles. So far as the previous owner and I know, top end gaskets haven't been redone.

Recently, started seeing the coolant temperature head up, but only some of the time. I replaced the thermostat, water pump, and all hoses. As this had not been done with this engine, I thought this good preventive maintenance, and hoped it would cure the problem. It did not. Still see the coolant temperature come up to 70-75% some, but not all of the time, versus the normal 50% reading. It will still occasionally spew some coolant out the overflow. I made sure that the system was properly bled, as I had read of air pockets causing such behavior. The engine has never been truly overheated or run into the red zone.

There are no signs of coolant in the oil or of oil in the coolant. I haven't had a test for exhaust gases in the coolant, but it looks and smells pretty clean.

Then this morning, clean oil started dripping our the right (passenger side) rear of the engine and dripped down the bell housing. Not a gusher, but enough to catch my attention and cause concern, especially when considered on top of the cooling issue.

As I would rather deal with all potential top end gasket issues at once, rather than one at a time, I am considering ripping off the top end and replacing all gaskets with Atlantic British's head gasket set (http://www.roverparts.com/Parts/STC4082HBK.cfm). Before launching into this, I wanted to ask those of you on this forum with more experience whether you believe that this stack of evidence does indeed point to top end gasket problems versus a cracked block.

I am (hopefully) sufficiently mechanically inclined to rebuild the top end, but would hate to waste the considerable time and money to do so, just to find out it was a cracked block and should have been chucked.

If not a cracked block, what other valve train components would you suggest refreshing while I have the heads off. (I would naturally take the heads by a machine shop for a resurfacing.)

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

Cheers

 

Plan on head gaskets, have the heads inspected and worked on as necessary. Inspect the rocker shaft, arms, push rods, lifters and cam lobes for wear and if found replace in complete sets not individually.

 

Thanks for your reply, Mike.

I take it that, from the symptoms I described, you agree with the diagnosis to replace head and related gaskets? If so, with your background, will plan to proceed.

Thanks for your guidance.

 

I would do a compression test and an exhaust test before ripping it open. Was this engine a 4.0 engine from a P38 or another Classic RR?

 

Yes, will try to find a place for quick compression and exhaust gas test. Believe the 4.0 was from another RR Classic.