Good morning, I'm afraid I destroyed my engine. I apologize because this will be a long one. I just completed doing preventative maintenance last night on my 2014 LR4 by replacing the rear heater manifold with an aluminum one. The gaskets did not stick out as much as the factory plastic one that I also purchased. I spoke with a land rover mechanic and he suggested to add a small bead of black rtv around the gasket as added leak insurance. I also replaced the gasket for the oil cooler under the supercharger because I couldn't be sure it wasn't seeping a bit. I did spray the metal gasket with a copper gasket sealer. I replaced the front lower and upper crossover pipes originally with an aluminum version but found they leaked when doing a pressure test so I had to take the supercharger off again to replace it with the factory plastic versions which fit much better and passed the pressure test. I replaced the water pump, thermostat, turbocharger oil and coupler with a nylon one.

I followed step-by-step the the excellent video on youtube: . Now the bad part. I was able to create a vacuum and fill the cooling system with no issues. I got everything together and started my rover up and it seemed quieter than before even though the old supercharger coupler didn't have any play. I left my rover idling for about 10 minutes and everything looked and sounded great so I took it for a drive. She drove great with no issues the two miles on city roads at 40 mph and then I went on the highway where I accelerated gradually to get up to highway speed. All was going so well that I thought I'd give her some gas and work out the supercharger a bit. As soon as I did, she bucked a bit and I saw smoke in the rear view mirror and the engine light went on for about 1-2 seconds and then turned off. After this, she had a bit of a shudder the rest of the drive home and felt like the engine wanted to die at stop lights. No error lights on the dash. It got worse as I approached my house and when I pulled into my parking spot in the driveway I heard a rattling noise, almost like rocks or dice being shaken in a cup and then the engine died. When I opened my driver's door, I heard a loud high pitched sound like a warning sound that lasted 1-2 seconds, it surprised me as I've never heard this before. The overflow tank was completely full and it was dark outside but the new antifreeze may have looked darker that it should. I'm wondering if it's oil contaminated. I haven't been out today to take a closer look because it's storming atm. I pulled out my GAP ODB reader and had a number of error codes related to the entertainment system, antenna etc. but nothing engine related at all. I do think my battery is going bad because she's been doing weird, random things in the last few weeks. This happened to me about 4 years ago and all issues went away when I got a new battery.

So my questions are: 1. if the antifreeze is oil contaminated, would that mean the gasket that I replaced for the oil cooler had failed? 2. The rattling sound could mean the new nylon supercharger coupler had failed? 3. I failed to get rid of all the air gaps when I created the vacuum and filled the coolant system and the engine overheated? 4. Maybe I routed the belts incorrectly? I did check this twice but it's hard to see and is mostly by feel. Ideas on where I should start my troubleshooting search?

 

Did you measure the supercharger oil when you removed and replaced with the same amount when you swapped out the coupler?

 

I did, I measured it and replace with the exact same volume

 

So, finally got around to taking a short look at things and the antifreeze was low so I added about 2 more quarts with my vacuum pump. I evacuated the oil also and it was black, not chocolate milk colored but there was a lot of air in the system when pumping it out. I suspect it could be the rubber connector at the end of my mityvac hose that attaches to the tube in the oil filler hole. It's seen better days. My battery was very low and I know it's time to replace. I tried checking the oil level before I changed it and the dash said my battery was low. I hope that's the reason it died in my driveway after my eventful drive the other day. Fingers crossed but that still doesn't explain the rattling noise I heard in the last 30 seconds of my drive. Tomorrow I'm going to double check that the drive belt is properly routed (for the 3rd time) and then try firing her up.

 

How’s she doing? Did it work itself out?


Out of curiosity, how long did the coolant pipe process take you? I’m about to start the project myself and wondering how long I should tell me wife I’ll be unavailable.

 

I wasn't in too much of a hurry so it took me a couple of weekends. If you went all in and you bought everything listed at the beginning of the video, and worked on it until done, you could do it in a weekend for sure. I had to take the supercharger off a second time to replace the front aluminum crossover pipes with rover plastic ones unfortunately. The aluminum ones did not fit properly. I did put an aluminum rear manifold in, fingers crossed on that one. The engine hoist was necessary and the hose clamp pliers are freaking awesome, I don't know how I lived without them. Besides taking the supercharger off, the second most difficult part was removing the supercharger snout. I brought it to the rover dealer because I had to get an oil cooler gasket and they popped it off for free with a 3 foot prybar. Make sure you don't have kids around because you'll have to throw out a few F bombs as it seems part of the process. A couple of suggestions I'd make would be: 1 put your vehicle in off road height to remove the lowest radiator hose. Once drained, you can lower the vehicle without starting the engine. 2. I thought it was much ("much" being a relative term) easier to get the larger radiator hose off with the fan out. You may be able to remove this hose while in off road height but it may be difficult to reach the hose clamp from below. I'd also strongly suggest grouping and labeling every bolt you remove. You'll think you'll remember where they go when putting things together again... you won't. I was pretty good at doing this but missed a few bolts and struggled initially to figure out where they went.

 

Update: I went to start it up a couple of days ago and got a "battery low" message on the dash so I put a charge on it and then started it up. She purred like a kitten, until she didn't. I was sitting inside checking for codes while it was idling and it just died. I put my charger back on the battery and it was very low again. Today I went and got a new Interstate AGM battery (spendy $$$ unfortunately) and got it hooked up. Runs like a champ now. I have not taken it for a drive as I wanted to watch the temps for awhile and make sure it didn't burp and suck in a bunch of coolant and leave my reservoir low again. At what temp should you expect the thermostat to open and stabilize at when idling, anyone?

 

To aid you in your shopping, here's the list I made for myself from the video:

LR4 parts to buy:

Water Pump including gaskets and bolts +
LR097165 310

Oil cooler tube including o ring +
LR028136 26

Gasket
LR030593 9 +

hose from water pump to thermostat +
LR033994 46

other hose from water pump to thermostat with elbow
LR049990 60

Thermostat
LR117568 111
(I used LR035124G. The thermostat on my 2014 does not have a sensor on the housing like LR117568)

Hose from thermostat to radiator
LR050855 222

Front Crossover pipe (2 pieces)
LR092992 57 with 2 o rings
LR090630 57 with 1 o ring

Bleeder port plug
LR011038 5

heater manifold (rear crossover pipe)
LR122710 143 2 pre-assembled o rings

Intake manifold gaskets (two required)
LR041681 14 each

Supercharger coupler
112433704125 genuine or
$65 at superchargersonline/qualitysuperchargers

Supercharger gasket maker
Amazon permatex 82180 ultra black maximum oil resistance RTV silicone gasket maker 3.35 oz tube $5

Cu anti-seize lubricant
Throttle Body cleaner

Long wooden cotton swabs pack 500
$9 on amazon

Emory cloth 600 & 3000 grit

replace clips on bottom of supercharger (2)
LR011221 $2 each

Fir Tree Base Zip ties on amazon

Nylon cable ties, self locking push mount ties (black, 8.3x.02, 50 pack) $11

Fender Liner Clips for shroud when draining coolant
ANR2224 Land Rover Black plastic rivet for body trim service kit OEM pack of 5 $10/pack

UV light with glasses Amazon
certified ac pro car air conditioner stop leak detector kit, glasses and uv pen professional grade, 438 $11

Tools needed"
1/4 breaker bar + adapter to 3/8 and extension

Torque Wrenches 10nm - 40nm
additional specified torques: 3.5nm and 8nm
(not critical and no extra tools needed)

Torx t-30
1" stand alone
2" stand alone
1" in a socket
4" in a socket

T-40
1" in a socket
2" in a socket
6" in a socket - not essential

crow foot wrench open socket
17mm, 6 point

Sunex 9710m 3/8 inch drive metric crowfoot flare nut wrench set on Amazon $26

Hose clamp pliers:
Astro Pneumatic tool 9409a $34

Vice grips and channel locks

Engine Hoist on amazon
specstar 1100 lb engine support bar transverse hoist for motor transmission with 2 points lift holder and dual hooks $110

Mirror on a stick with light if possible

3/16 allen wrench for supercharger oil replacement

100ml graduated cylinder

Syringe for removing and refilling SC oil
DEPEPE 2 pcs 100ml large plastic syringe with 47in handy plastic tubing and luer connections for scientific labs, measuring, watering, refilling $9

Paint can opener

10mm swivel socket

small pry bar

Flexible grabber claw pickup tool

Vacuum tool for coolant refill - multiple vendors

adapter for coolant reservoir
Astro 78210-06 $15 if purchased separately

alignment pins to make (4)
1.25 thread pitch, stainless 8mm, 140mm or 5.5

 

thanks for all the info!

do you know what brand your aluminum pipes are? I have the RXK Tech aluminum pipes, and the OEM plastic as well. I was planning to do aluminum but don’t really want to get to the end and have to go back and start over

 

I hate to tell you but my front crossover pipes were RXK Tech also. I was not able to get a rear crossover manifold from them so went to Amazon instead. My RXK Tech front pipes didn't fit properly and I actually had to get my dremel out to modify the bolt hole on the upper pipe and the lower pipe leaked after installation. It was definitely frustrating to have to remove everything again to swap out to OEM plastic. There was a bit of swearing and a beer involved after that.