Yikes, I think I have a blown head gasket, i think its on the right side. I don't think its an oil side, it must be exhaust. although I never smelt coolant or saw coolant come out of the exhaust pipe.

So I put a pressure testing kit when I put everything back together, and while the cap doesn't fit for crap on the reservoir tank, the pressure test is crappy, but it does work. I can hear a very loud hissing coming from under neath the plenum? (the thing with the green O-ring) around the middle of the engine i'll post with a red circle the area of which the sound is coming from.

I'm assuming either that's a random loose hose, or its gotta be a blown head gasket, and its bad enough to where it will build zero pressure. the sound is coming more form the right (driver side) of the engine then the left. looks like i'm ordering an upper engine gasket kit again... did this to a 2002 range rover, its was hell. its the only other post I have up.

Any thing I should look out for before I have a go round at changing another set of head gaskets?

 

I just took off the air intake manifold (i think that's what its called, it has the fuel injectors in it and such)

Did a pressure test with a better cap, it screws in as any cap should normally. I began the pressure test, and for the love of I don't know why, it built pressure. it built so much pressure that the hoses started hissing air out. I don't understand that when I did the pressure test before with everything assembled, there was a hissing coming from the picture with the red circle above (previous reply). but now its holding pressure -infact so much pressure that its hissing out of the tight hoses, also when I stop i can hear the cap part hissing too. There is no more hissing coming from where it was before. I did bypass the hose that goes from EGR (or throttle heater?) to throttlebody and then it connects into the thermostat housing, I connected that hose directly to the thermostat housing after finding out that's where it goes to anyway.

What in the world have I overlooked? am I just not filling the car up to Land rover specs? It does say do some weird things for the V8 model, while the car is running loosen the cap when temp starts to rise.

I would assume if you filled the reservoir in ANY coolant system pressurized or not, it would start sucking in the coolant if everything holds pressure.


Anyway, they are defiantly bad head gaskets and will be ordering a gasket kit set soon. I'm going to change the head gaskets before I tackle the coolant problem. I found coolant in the air intake manifold, with a tiny bit of oil (pretty sure only air goes in there). There were quite a few misfires on engine codes and i'm guessing coolant is getting into the air shafts causing misfires, it is quite oily in the explosion chambers underneath the fuel injectors. also found some oil on the intake connections to the cylinder head connection. I will post some pics below.

Hopefully this thread will help anyone else with a V8 LR3 2005-2009 as I cannot find a video on changing head gaskets. I might just do a how-to video, this engine is far easier then the P38 though jesus christ. I love how the coil pack and other things are just held on by two screws.

 

ooohhhh nooooo..... after doing some research, I'm not sure if I can even do this job. This has a 4.4 jag engine and I have no experience with a timing chain anything lol. and from the looks of it I most defiantly have to disassemble the timing chain to get the cylinder heads off. Can anyone give me some reinforcement? like is it actually really hard or is it not that bad? looks like if you make 1 mistake it'll destroy the engine via incorrect timing.

I know i need to buy some tools, but is there any other special tool i need besides the timing tool set? I might attempt it just for learning purposes.

 

What makes you think "bad head gaskets". Is there coolant in the oil, is there bad compression.

 

I'm not sure about compression but it turns on and will drive. I found coolant in the intake manifold (the big black thing on top) with a tiny bit of oil mixed in with it. it has misfires on multiple cylinders but i'm sure its a coolant to exhaust leak, and i also have a coolant to exhaust leak, as there is condensation i noticed when i idled the car for 5 minutes or so. i'm sure this head gasket is blown to bits almost by what i've diagnosed.

i'm really worried about the misfires as that means the gaskets are failing on both cylinder heads (i think)

could I possibly just have to replace the seals above the cylinder cams? I'm new to this engine. there isn't MUCH signs of a blown head gasket to oil as it is very clean, i can't find really any leaking oil

 

You have not diagnosed anything yet. You need a compression test. You need the coolant tested for exhaust saturation. Condensation is 100% normal for exhaust, you have a giant air pump - thats what an engine basically is. Now if the exhaust smells like coolant or is blowing VERY white smoke, that would be more symptomatic. Have you even at least pull the spark plugs yet? A blown head gasket will cause major variances in appearance between them. When pulling them, you label each for location so you can compare and see if one or more are way off. Also usually a head gasket will fail at one location causing one misfire (maybe), not multiple. I would really do more investigation before jumping around with assumptions..