Thread: Freelander purchase

Hi all!
I have been offered a Freelander (1998MY), 1.8l petrol, with 180k on the clock, head gasket is probably gone, for a very reasonable amount of money. If it is only the gasket I should be able to sort that out by myself, including the cooling system upgrade. As I am not familiar with this engine (I'm a Diesel man), are there any other issues I need to be aware of? Or with early Freelanders in general?

Cheers and ta for all advice!

Originally Posted by Ausfree

I am not a mechanic but it seems to me a reasonable question, would the fitting of a Low Level Coolant Alarm avoid these problems???

No, its not low coolant that causes the issue, i have spent the whole afternoon reading websites on this issue. The main issue is the position of the thermostat. The whole design is made so that the engine reaches operating temp quicker for short runs, which it does very well. The location of the thermostat is such that there is only the water in the engine circulating, once that is warm the thermostat opens and lets some cold water in and when the temp drops sufficiently the thermostat closes and the cycle starts again. From what I have read there is only about 3L of water in the engines water jacket. So the rest of the water is being cooled in the radiator, when the thermostat opens this cold water rushes into the engine and the hot water is pushed out and through the radiator. This rush of cold water causes thermal shock to the engine, it is this shock that causes the damage. Eventually over time the head gasket goes. Between this period of cold shock the engine can also get slightly hot for a short period of time before the thermostat opens again. This jump from extreme heat to extreme cold is what causes all the problems.

As mentioned in one of the other threads drilling a couple of holes in the thermostat to allow a small amount of coolant to constantly move through the system stops this from happening because the coolant is allowed to be constantly warmed by the engine. This method has a downside however because it takes much longer for the engine to reach operating temp and for the heater to work and it will decrease fuel economy because the engine runs colder for longer, a warm engine is more efficient.

Fitting a remote thermostat appears to be the way to go.

Camel Landy might correct me on a few things but this is the gist of the problem. Other than this i cannot see any reason why the 1.8L engine should not be reliable.