Thread: Advice Please - Disco 2 2003 Head Gasket

Thanks Arthur,

When the bonnet is lifted and it’s at idle you can hardly here much - just a slight puff puff maybe from what sound like the back of engine towards car dash, but once on the road, when you touch the gas even slightly you can here an exhaust type tap tap tap from behind steering wheel deep down in engine.

Taking advice from others I think I’ll get a compression test done and a second opinion before I decide if any work is worth it or not

Cheers

D

Originally Posted by AK83

I've got two V8s.

First one came to me with overheating issues, which I'm 99.9% sure is a slipped or cracked liner/block.
This one is my project D2 .. very nice condition other than the engine(which I then totally killed).

The other V8 I have is a parts wreck now. I bought it with a blown headgasket which is leaking exhaust type, not coolant.
Same deal as yours. On the drive home(and a small bit around) sounds like exhaust leak, but none to be found, but then poking about more, I can feel it leaking out the rear corner passengers side.

If you have a helper:

get them to press the pedal. If you feel confident enough you can use the accelerator linkage to give it some revs yourself.
At the same time if you can spray a fine mist or smoke around the heads/block area, the leaking exhaust will show up as turbulent areas of the mist.

Note: fan must be removed for this to work, and better if the engine is cold too.

So on my exhaust leaking V8(ie., not the overheating project car) .. I brought it home to find out what the exhaust leak was. The part car was bought purely for it's parts and was only ever going to be stripped out.

Took fan off engine running and (I smoke) so puffed around the passengers side of the V bank. Just sounds like a leaking exhaust say manifold. But as the smoke was building near the corner of the block near firewall, I could clearly see where the escaping exhaust was.
I thought could have been the #7 cyl manifold but hand back there I could feel the puff puff on my palm from near the corner too .. not the manifold.
My part V8 has LPG fitted too, so lots of confabulations around that area that made hand access a bit more tricky so I wanted a cold engine. Only took a few mins, well before any warmth built up in the motor so no chance to burn my pinkies

Another note: If you have a friend that vapes(e cigarette type thing) is even better. Those things can make a very thick cloud of 'smoke' and hence easier to see.

I could have used the compression tester, but as already noted, the LPG bits make hard access in the area to fit it.

If you have a spray bottle of some type that can make a mist of spray(water) .. I reckon it'd work too.

Just have a compression check done.
That is the definitive check.
I would be surprised if the smoke disturbance test was not accompanied by water loss, as the only water jackets in the head are at the extreme back or front.
Regards PhilipA