Thread: Most Common Causes of "doing" a Head of Range Rover Classic

Hi There,
I'm impressed, I agree with everything you've said how could I disagree you are right. When I was looking at buying a Land Rover, in this case typically a 300 Tdi which is what I based the 120k on I was looking at the engine as a component, rather than each individual part of the engine.
I started on the vehicle, when the vehicle didn't perform its function which was to move under its own power in a forward or backward direction. Then analysing what major component failed, other major units had suspensions. The engine came out as one major component then split this down into major components and did the same exercise, the head as a major component came out as a failed item as you mention for various reasons, doing a bit of an RCFA you can come up with a whole raft of reasons the head failed as you point out, one being the gasket, why did the gasket fail, again could be a multitude of reasons, the thing is the head failed to perform its designed function.
When you get enough samples from all over the place, workshops and phoning people up enquiring about a vehicle, getting some history, assuming that people tell the truth you can put a few samples on the graph. On the results I got when 62.5 % of the population will fail was around the 120k mark. I didn't want to get carried away with to much detail I just wanted to get a number, something to work with, so far to date for me this number seems to still play out.
Very interesting email, you never know we might meet one day.

"Hi Vanderz,
I've found that if you replace the gaskets on a 120K basis this eliminates the majority of problems. This head gasket/s change also includes critical hoses. You will always find the money to do a $2000 engine repair but somehow you can never find the $120 to replace all the hoses when they appear to be fine.


When you refer to "ALL" the hoses i assume you mean top and bottom radiator hoses? anything else?

Originally Posted by bee utey

The main reason I have seen for early failure of alloy V8 head gaskets has been on engines with a blocked bypass/heater circuit. The circuit through the heater on a RRC must be full flow to maintain even head temps with the thermostat closed. With the bypass blocked I have seen a gasket self destruct in 30K or less. Rapidly changing head temps due to the thermostat cycling will 'walk" a fire ring out the side to the water jacket.

is there a way to not use the heater but not have this issue. I've been through 3 heater cores in the last 9 months and I'm sick of pulling the dash apart to get the bloody thing out.

Hi 400HPongas,
Apologies, I checked what I used, it was late and I'd had a beer or two. I also used Crow/AMSAA, the diversity of people who own the LR brand is amazing. Have a nice break, if you want to really improve your reliability have I got an oil for you........ FMEA, lubrication is one of the most if not most important systems on the vehicle.

Originally Posted by brend0n

is there a way to not use the heater but not have this issue. I've been through 3 heater cores in the last 9 months and I'm sick of pulling the dash apart to get the bloody thing out.

Dead easy, just purchase a suitable shaped heater hose to loop the inlet and outlet together. Some of the early RRC's had 180 degree copper bends in the plumbing for the heater which would be ideal for connecting 2 parallel hoses together.

Hi Vanderz,
Do you know what I've never been caught by the top or bottom hose, I've been caught by the little by pass hose behind the water pump which is in a plick of a place to get to and a corroded pipe behind the plenum between the inlet manifold and the valley gasket, the leak here actually corroded on one of the bends of the the valley gasket, again another plick of a place to get to. Typically I replace the heater hoses and the two small bypass type hoses on a semi regular basis around 120 k or 5 to 6x years which ever comes first. Always keep a spare top and bottom hose in the back, relatively easy to fit if they do show any signs of deterioration.

cool i might look into replacing those as a precaution.