Thread: D2a Head gasket and various snapped bolts.....and big thanks to Pippin

double up..

processed-6c952a23-53d0-4023-b473-82a2f66094a3_UWM8WQiE.jpg processed-8552ab04-735b-46cd-bebb-6dd85a64001c_1d7oM9Oh.jpg
Bit hard to see but removed the EGR cooler and bypassed the coolant hose, 2 different size hoses so had to knock up an adaptor, needed to trim the hose a bit. the second photo is ithe hose in place, not brilliant but it's not kinked and doesn't leak so it will do the job.

So this has been my little exposure to the Land Rover world....

cheers

Reddirt204

Originally Posted by Reddirt204

processed-6c952a23-53d0-4023-b473-82a2f66094a3_UWM8WQiE.jpg processed-8552ab04-735b-46cd-bebb-6dd85a64001c_1d7oM9Oh.jpg
Bit hard to see but removed the EGR cooler and bypassed the coolant hose, 2 different size hoses so had to knock up an adaptor, needed to trim the hose a bit. the second photo is ithe hose in place, not brilliant but it's not kinked and doesn't leak so it will do the job.

So this has been my little exposure to the Land Rover world....

cheers

Reddirt204

My plastic dowels didn't break but the top half had moved about 1mm sideways.

Lucky your son was driving the Prado and not D2 then!

Mine was written off with hail damage about 3 1/2 yrs ago. $8k ins value and $8k to fix. Bought it off them for $500 after humming and harring with guy on the phone.
Reinsured for 3rd party, fire and theft. Main damage bonnet and roof. Bought a checker plate cover for the bonnet as I couldn't stand looking at the dents in the bonnet.

ps; your battery seems to have shrunk a bit....

Originally Posted by mylesaway

My plastic dowels didn't break but the top half had moved about 1mm sideways.

Lucky your son was driving the Prado and not D2 then!

Mine was written off with hail damage about 3 1/2 yrs ago. $8k ins value and $8k to fix. Bought it off them for $500 after humming and harring with guy on the phone.
Reinsured for 3rd party, fire and theft. Main damage bonnet and roof. Bought a checker plate cover for the bonnet as I couldn't stand looking at the dents in the bonnet.

ps; your battery seems to have shrunk a bit....

mylesaway, yeah he was lucky (my wife didn't seem to think so for a while..) the dowels were probably in one piece but I had to fight the head to get it out of the Disco due to having new engine mounts and the gearbox one had sagged so much, but they were both very brittle when I extracted what was left.

I will try and re-edit the photo as I've managed to double up on the injector

cheers

Reddirt

Your tale of being able to "spin" out the broken bolt gives many of us hope.
I have spent many hours trying to drill and ezi-out broken Disco bolts, and it brings joy to my heart to hear of somebody being able to just screw the offending stump out.
Wonderful!!

Originally Posted by Reddirt204

Hi all

I was going to post this in the 'what happened to your D2 today' but figured I'm better making a new thread. I had previously asked about coolant use, over pressuring etc, all signs the head gasket had failed.
Just quick background, the D2a is a Jan 2003 vintage my young bloke picked up 12 months ago, now with 302,000km on the clock, it is/was in very good condition overall, bit of paint fade, never done any real work, just towed a camper from inland north a couple times a year, zero rust. Basically just a genuine vehicle. We have had some issued with it (all age, maintenance related)

Replaced engine mounts as the originals were metal on metal..

FPR line came loose, managed get home (40lt for 15km..) was a new line, just came loose, easy fix.

Front dive shaft uni let go as I was driving son to work (he hadn't got his license at that time) tilt tray got it home, new shaft from the UK fitted (greaseable) able to still drive around by locking center diff (didn't realize what a prized option that was until after we bought the rig)

Flushed and changed trans fluid and filter

Got a mechanic to change all the other fluids and filters (diffs, transfer, engine etc)

Then over time it was using more and more coolant, eventually blew the top hose.

Head gasket time....

Checked here with the brains trust and ordered a few things and thanks to Aust post sending the E socket from Sydney via Darwin... and me starting a new job at a different mine site (FIFO) things got delayed a few weeks.

Anyway, 2 weeks ago got stuck into it, followed all the RAVE and post here, pretty straight forward. Except getting the rear head bolts out.. they were hitting the top of the firewall, ended up loosening the rear gearbox mount and jacking it up (a replacement is for another day)

Once out and stripped, nothing obvious but anyway while I was there, de-webbed the manifold, replaced 3 exhaust studs with 40mm jobs (was refitted with spacers) somehow lost the EGR and associated hardware...

I replaced the injector seals and washers, this caused the biggest issue. Not too bad getting them out, checked them over, cleaned up and replaced the O ring and washer, went to install, got the big old torque wrench out (haven't needed it in years) went to pull up the first retainer, SNAP goes the bolt
this was at 11pm Thursday night... time to walk away.

Next morning ordered 5 new bolts, at this stage I was really worried as I had to figure out how to remove the remaining bit of the bolt and do I try to reuse the rest of the old bolts? and what went wrong. Anyway got the EzeOuts and center punched the remains of the bolt, the bloody thing moved!!!! managed to get long nose pliers on it and just wound it out, took about 3 minutes

Ended up it was my torque wrench had basically seized up, bit of dicking around and it was working again and reading correctly (thankfully I also had a 3/8 drive one so could compare readings) so installed the other 4 injectors without incident..

But what to do now, then moment of memory clarity, back in my original post Pippin spoke about an old head he had (turned out to be a 10p so not useful to me) but thanks to this forum I managed to contact him, 'yep no worries, duck over and grab one off the spare head' WINNING, went over (only about 10 minutes from home) he had the bolt out ready and waiting, raced home and fitted the final injector bolt

Cleaned the head and block up, as said before it is a Jan 2003 model and looks like it hasn't been opened up before (has had an injector loom done) But found it motor had been fitted with plastic dowel pins!!!!! Not sure if I damaged them removing the head or they had already let go but definitely both in little bits (I will see how good my photo posting skills are shortly..)

Anyway, I also stripped and resealed the FPR and fuel cooler, I was planning to do the oil cooler as well but ran out of time, checked it, nothing sus so left it alone. managed to get everything back together with no unexpected bits left over..

after refilling with coolant and oil/filter change, went for a start, did the fuel purge thing, took a while, lots of lights on the dash but after about 5-6 attempts at starting, fired up and ran smooth as

Took it for a test run, all good, then a bit further etc, currently has 800km since completion and has used zero oil or water since.

So a massive thank you to AULRO and especially Pippin (as the new bolts are still at least a week away)

As a side note, if the Disco wasn't off the road it would have been written off.. the young bloke was coming home from his girlfriends place in my Prado and smacked a 'roo, about $6-8k of damage (bonnet, bull bar, guard, door headlight etc)

OK, to see if I can post pics ...

offending injector bolt, plastic dowel (or what's left of it) and the other dowel