It started with a coolant leak... I thought I found it, I changed a hose connecting to the water pump and thought I was good. A month after that, the low coolant warning came on. I topped it off and kept driving. A week later, it did it again. I topped it off, but in my hurried state, I forgot to put the coolant cap back on and drove it that day without the cap and amazingly, nothing spilled out, overflowed, or showed any warnings. The next day, I took it on a short drive and it spilled over and it said the engine was overheating. I pulled over and the engine temp went back to normal immediately and that is when I noticed that I left the cap off. I filled it with water and proceeded to drive home. Right before I got back, I lost all power when accelerating and the engine was making a ticking noise and then the temp shot up. I pulled over and there was a lot steam coming from the engine and I realized that the manifold was incredibly hot. It went straight to my mechanic and he did a leak down test and he said that the block seems ok, but there is massive pressure in the block for some reason. He thinks it is just the head gasket, but doesn't have the time to do the job so I am looking for someone else. Another mechanic wanted to sleeve the cylinders and quoted $5,000 for new head gaskets and the sleeve job. Can anyone advise me on this and possibly refer a mechanic in the LA area? I am in north LA County in Santa Clarita. Thank you all in advance.

 

There are many areas of that engine that can cause a coolant leak. Before delving into a head gasket job, change the plastic coolant pipes susceptible to breaking/leaking- namely the one under the air manifold. While there, change the connector pipe from the water pump.
There is a coolant cross pipe in the rear between both heads, use a mirror to see if you can spot any leaks back there and if replace rubber ring gasket.

 

Similar situation happened to us yesterday. We were towing a 4300lb camper trailer with a 2011 LR4, up a mountain in the AZ heat, when the temperature gauge shot through the roof and low coolant warning came on. Towed to a local mechanic said there is no compression in the cylinders. Did you end up replacing your whole engine? Or just the head gasket?

 

Sorry to read that. I bet your timing chain tensioner failed causing the chain to skip, and your valves got bent (possibly on both heads). Replace the valves, head gaskets, timing components and you should be good to go. Its cheaper than a replacement engine and you'll likely get more life out of it. I did a top end rebuild like what you'll have to do, but shortly afterwards my oil pump got clogged (after adding a cleaning agent additive), main bearing got shot and seized my engine. Doing a complete engine rebuild now.