My 2010 lr4 overheated in Reno yesterday. Head gaskets are blown. Doing quick research, it sounds like overheating is known to do more damage than just the top end on this 5.0L engine. Would it be risky to try replacing the head gaskets? If others have gone this route only to discover bearing issues and warped blocks or heads, I will just scrap it. I just don't know enough history about these engines. I've been a Chevy guy most of my life and replacing head gaskets is usually a reasonable plan. Replacing with a used motor seem like a big job as well since the whole body has to be lifted off the entire chassis. Appreciate the input from those who have overheated and blown hg's.

 

Where are you located near? As to your question, a bad overheating = scrapped engine. Doing headhaskets will lead to other repairs and it will never be the same. Open deck design with soft aluminum. I had a client a few weeks ago overheat his engine to the point of throwing a rod out the side, we suggest he get a rebuilt engine but he declined. He Took it to a machine shop who took on the job. From what I saw and was said, new sleeves, pistons/rings/bearings block welding, and they couldn’t time the engine( go figure). They decked the block and planes the head so much the tensioner couldn’t put enough tension on the chain and was rattling loud as we as drinking coolant. But it was running (poorly) after the engine work.

 

Seems like LR4 are one and done with overheats.

 

The 3.0 and 5.0 are a one and done. The engines are fairly expensive still as well.

 

One and done it sounds. And it seems like its a big deal to replace these engines as the body has to be lifted off the chassis. Anyone putting ls3's into these Lr4's yet? Brand new ls3's are $7k.

 

And used ones are under $1k...

Ive looked around and the swaps I've found dont seem to be complete. I cant find anything as to how to get the ls ecm to interface with the land rover bcm and tcm. If someone figures this out id swap an ls motor in a heartbeat. The swap would cost less than the timing job.

 

I ended up finding a shop that had a rebuilt lr4 engine core and had them install it. Runs like a champ now.

 

Pulled threads depend on how hot the motor got. We have successfully done HGs on these motors, but the risks were high. As a professional shop, we really stopped doing them because much of the liability falls back on us if our recommendation to replace HG turns into engine replacement.

 

It became abundantly clear that any Lr4 engine that has been overheated is too risky. That's why I went with a completely different engine that was rebuilt and sleeved.