Hi all! So I've always liked Land Rovers, but they were always way too expensive for me. In the past few years, I got into the hobby of scanning Craigslist for "Mechanic Specials" since I love working on cars, and also love driving something different now and then. I've never been able to own the same car for more than about 3 years. I just get tired of them. So my hobby of finding ones with problems, hauling them home, fixing them up, driving them for a couple years, then selling them and finding another fixer has been great.

So a few weeks ago I came across this 2002 Discovery II on Craigslist with 117,000 miles on it for $900. Hauled it home behind the 94 Diesel Suburban I bought non running on Craigslist a year ago for $700.


Anyway, they said this Land Rover had a "Minor overheating problem" they paid a mechanic hundreds of dollars to replace the water pump and who knows what else, and when it still overheated on them, they didn't have the money to pay for more work on it, so they just parked it, and finally got around to putting it up for sale. So I went and looked at it, and got it running in their driveway, and made the decision to buy it. Figured for $900, with only 117,000 miles, and good tires, and nice body and interior it was worth it even if I had to replace the engine.

So got it home, and made sure the cooling system was all good, and replaced the fan clutch and thermostat since they insisted it was not losing water, but instead just overheating, and then boiling over. I can see that the water pump is indeed very new and verified it is pumping water fine.

So last night I was running it, and it was running amazing, and the temperature was staying perfectly normal while I was out driving it around the neighborhood. But when I got back home, the water level was indeed lower, there was still a tiny amount of steam coming out the exhaust, and the heater would only blow hot air after getting up to highway speed. And when I would take the cap off the coolant reservoir, there were air bubbles constantly bubbling up in there, and when I put my nose to it, sure enough, strong exhaust gas smell in the reservoir.

So what I figured was, a head gasket had to be blown between the cylinder and water passage, and the exhaust gasses were building up in the coolant system, and the heater core was filling up with air, or the pump was getting too much air to properly circulate the water, because I definitely bled all of the air out when I filled up the radiator by loosening the bleeder screw in the highest radiator hose.

So sure enough, I tore it down today, and discovered that the passenger side rear cylinder was where the problem was. Just as I suspected, the gasket had blown between the cylinder and water passage. Sucked to have to do all that work, but I was actually happy to definitively find the cause of the overheating issue they spoke of. And so happy to know I can replace the head gaskets, put it back together and have a very nice 2002 Land Rover for only $900 and the cost of some parts and my time. Now I just need to find me the torque sequence of the head bolts. I haven't even tried looking yet. I'm sure there are many threads on the subject here.

Just wanted to introduce myself, and share my little story. When I get it all back together and running again, I'm sure I will have other things to search this forum for.

 

Good find. Need to replace that missing trim on the drivers side rear by the bumper.

 

D2 is next on the list to buy.

J