First Time Poster, hope this is the right place for this question; my wife's 2012 LR4 recently had the coolant low light come on while driving. long story short- went from a possible failed water pump, which we replaced along with several other things, to now the head gasket is gone and the engine needs replacing. Never had so much as a high temp warning, and sadly the extended warranty i bought when purchasing it, won't cover damage due to heat. so, we're sol. Dealer/mechanic say it's roughly $17K for a new motor installed, and before i pull the trigger, I'm trying to find out how wise, if it all, it is to do so. my wife loves the car, and uses it all the time to haul 3 kids around. the car is at 105K miles, and I'm nervous that after dropping almost $20K on a motor replacement, we'll be looking at an increasing list of expensive failures as time goes on, maybe even soon. we take good care of it; regular preemptive service, nothing skimped, no more than 3K miles between oil changes, anything thats been wrong we fix, and have never had any issues until now. I bought it when it had 70K miles on it, so not the only owner, but, it was in great shape, and only one owner before. I've found a motor with 54K miles. Any advice?

 

I rebuilt my 2011 v8 by myself. No experience, just time and a desire to learn. So far, so good at about 20k miles since then. About 3k in parts. We don't all have the time, and other options need to be considered...

How bad was the failure? Is it still running but losing coolant, or a complete failure?

Though dealers typically won't do a rebuild, perhaps yours could be saved by a good independent shop?

Also, you said 17k new, installed. Then you mentioned you found a motor with low miles. Is the 17k actually a brand new motor?

AGLR

 

Hey Ben - I may be in a similar situation. Engine overheated a year ago, replaced the crossover valve, was working fine, ~9 months later the water pump failed, then the replacement failed, and am now driving with a new water pump. I am curious how you knew the engine was ultimately fried - what test did you do? My car is working totally normal other than a strange coincidence of coolant issues in the last 12 months.

 

Look up Ronda Used Auto Parts in Houston.

they swapped a reman 5.0 for me this summer for a little shy of $10k and I’m loving it! Just like new.

feel free to PM for Q&A

 

Older post, but did Rhonda perform the swap themselves in house? That’s an excellent price.

(I was just quoted $30k by the dealer, and $24k by a reputable indie. Most won’t touch it.)