As the title states I am a new owner of a 1999 Disco with 122k miles. I have owned a lot of cars/trucks/motorcycles. If it has wheels and a motor I like it. Anyway I have always liked landrovers, ever since the day back in high school my friend and I went to the land rover dealer in Fort Worth Tx. To take the test drive on their offload "test track" amazing.

Of course in high school I could not afford a LR and instead have had a plethora of other vehicles. I am 33 years old now and have had over 100 vehicles in the last 18 years. Now a lot of those I bought or traded for, or fixed and sold. Some I had for a few months, some I had for a day. So, I've been around cars a lot.

So, with that said as I was around vehicles more and more I heard all the horror stories of Land Rover maintenance and problems. So, I never bought one.

Until about a month ago. I LOVE IT !! Ha, I knew I would. Even through all the horror stories I saw people that just keep sinking money in these things, keep buying them even to they know what they are in for. I get it.

But, alas, I am a bit bummed. Less than 30 days since I picked up my Disovery, it has blown the left ( drivers side) head gasket. Ugh.

I think I am going to have a local mechanic here in Pensacola do the work. He is a BMW specialists but does all imports. He is only two doors down from my day job here at the body shop. I am also a bartender and I run a karaoke business a few nights a week. (I'm all over the place) I think I could take on the HG job myself, but time is an issue. And I think he is giving me a pretty square deal on the work involved. Roughly quoted 1000 to 1300 dollars, parts, labor, and machine work as needed. From what I have read on here that sounds like a good deal. But I am pretty mechanically inclined. Do you think I should do it myself? I'm guessing parts,coolant, oil, tool rental (torque wrench) machine work, and misc. stuff will run me about 500.00 to 600.00 dollars. So do you think the additional 600 or so is worth having some one else do it? I have not messed with replacing head gaskets since 1998 on my 1970 Chevy c/10 truck (which I still have btw, 1st car, had it since I was 15) but that's another story.

So, that's me. That's my predicament. I love the truck already, just a little bummed. Any consoling advice or input will be greatly appreciated and considered. Thank you for reading all of this. Hell of a first post!

 

Hell, for ~$500 difference I'd take the added assurance and not having to worry with it. If he screws it up, it's on his dime and time. Plus, less down time for the Rover!

 

It takes two weekends with machine shop inbetween. So in 3 days you could probably make the $600 if not more, being a human business dynamo.

 

Do the timing chain and gears too. And every gasket you can get your hands on...

Do both heads.. Go ahead and get the valves done.. You've already got it apart....Refresh everything you can and you'll only be going in there once..

Don't do it and you'll be paying that labor over and over again..

Or, Do it all yourself for about what you'd be paying for this job alone and you'll know how to take your truck apart and put it back together when you're finished.. A very valuable bit of experience....Worth the effort if you have the time and the inclination...

John

 

Human business dynamo, I like that. Lol! And if it were the summer you'd be right, but in this tourist town business we are getting into the slow season. When the water gets cold, the money gets tight.

I'd love to go ahead and do the timing chain and gears but that's just not in the budget. There really isn't a budget. This is all a surprise expense. I just happened to have some money set aside for parts on another project, now it again will be put on the back burner. I am doing both head gaskets, bothe heads decked and valve jobs done. All the gaskets that are accessible while doing this. And the plugs and wires.

I was having a bit of a misfire issue on a few cylinders before the HG's went. No oil water mix, no water in the cylinders. Do the coils commonly go bad?

 

Eventually. If running engine in total darkeness may see arcs.

 

Doing the head gaskets yourself will really help you understand your truck and it's not as bad as people make it out to be. Once done, your engine is good for another 60k. I understand the budget issue, just do what is necessary. You sound like you are a mechanical guy but it is your call.

If you had an external leak, and or your valley pan gasket was loose. It's possible that coolant would leak down the back of the motor and mess with your O2 sensor and you might get a misfire code. This happened to me and before I replaced my HG I would have to replace the same O2 every so often because coolant would short it out. But I had a code for both. Coils don't go out very often and I would doubt it was the problem, before plugs and wires at least. Keep in mind that is also a Land Rover and will probably throw a code just **** you off.

 

The additional tools you need are a 3/8th cheap torque wrench and a breaker bar with a pipe for torquing and removing the head bolts. You don't have to pull the timing cover. its a complete bull**** crock for guys that overdo everything. Just the gaskets and the headbolts, valve cover bolts and put locktite on the intake bolts. Not a hard job just time consuming