Good question. That’s a lot of miles. Presumably a California car would be rust free so that’s in its favour. RRC’s in good condition are worth some money.

If you can get a better deal then yes I would 100% fix and keep.

So far it's not passing smog, and the bags have failed so it's on bump stops (not drivable).

I have a suspicion it needs head gaskets, but don't have the car so can't do proper testing.

Owner took it to a shop to try and get it to smog. They did plugs and wires and said the compression test came back "very good".
(I'm shocked that a reputable shop would not test for exhaust gas in the coolant, or pressure test the cooling system on a Rover -- known for head gasket problems).

So with potentially bad head gaskets and blown bags, it's really more of a project than I want right now.
But I still made him an offer at a price that would make sense. I.e. subtract likely costs to repair these items.

Stay tuned...

Aaaaand the owner accepted my offer and I just took possession of it last night.

Now for some investigation!

What's the update on this?

If the cylinders all have good compression there is no need to do those tests, the head gasket (and many other things like valves and piston rings) are OK. Your problem is/was likely a simple fix.

Well, I dragged the poor thing home and spent the next 2 months getting it seaworthy again.
I rebuilt the air suspension, and did a thread on RangeRovers.net: https://www.rangerovers.net/threads/...2#post-2428188
I did that first so I could move it around and get it to the smog inspection.

And then I went after the smog and idle issues
https://www.rangerovers.net/threads/...5#post-2427789

The summary is: new fuel injectors got it to pass smog.
My smog tech guy suggested this fix!
Exhaust leak fix helped it to run less rough (smog guy again for the win)

Sounding great. Please keep us updated.

:nopics: