Thread: Replacement cylinder head

$7000 would have bought a new engine so yeh I think they saw you coming.I would find out why it overheated,when was the last time the rad was rodded?.I would like to now what they charge for labor,taking the heads off is a finicky but straight forward job.I would like to see what the hours for labor was. Pat

Guess this is a TD5.
I spent $4500 with me doing the pull down and reassembly work. so yes I could see $7000 with a replacement head. $1760 for a TD5 head is a good price for a second hand head. I was quoted $3500 for a new one.

given you say heads (plural) i am assuming you mean a V8? If so yeah you got taken for a ride, you could rebuild a whole motor for less than that including remove and refit.

I wouldnt be driving it anywhere until you sort out the cooling issue. Main things to check are the radiator, the thermostat and the water pump. Does the system loose coolant over time and need topping up every now and then? If it does lose coolant you need to find out where its going and this will most likely be the cause of the overheating issues. Matt

Thanks for the info I wish I had found this site before
He has $2800 down as labor the rest is parts. Normally I get my own parts as I know mechanics overstate what the parts cost. A few parts I have gotten for less than half of what he charged and they were genuine parts too. I blame myself though I should have researched the cost of buying another vehicle before being rushed into fixing it.
Yes it is a V8 3.9L
He has replaced the hoses water pump & thermostat & removed & cleaned the radiator.
It is my mother's car and she has been taking it to mechanics for ages and they tell her everything is normal and that it runs really well! A different mechanic fixed it; we told the mechanic that said it ran well and he just reckons the other mechanic doesn't know anything. But I also had it checked at the local toyota service center and they confirmed the cracked head. At the moment I get the feeling all of them are lousy.

She had been filling up the tank every week and it would constantly "overflow" from the little black tank. She was told just to keep topping it up as this was normal.

I want him to do a long distance test drive before I take it back as it is still sitting at half way at startup which is what it always did. I figure if it starting at half way it is going to go over that as it is driven and it would end up with the same problem. But that is just a guess?
I drive a Hilux and at startup it is just above cold it gradually moves but never goes over the half way point even at 100km/h with the a/c on full.

The a/c in the land rover has never worked; they think it might be the compressor and want to charge me to replace it but they aren't sure if it is faulty I'm reluctant to do this as I could be paying $500+ for a part I might not need. But could that be causing any problems?

I'm not a car person I don't understand them so it is easy for me to get ripped off. I get told all the time it is more expensive because it is a rover?
Thanks for all your help sorry if I sound like an idiot

Don't worry mate we don't think your an idiot,you have ask for advice and come to the right place to get it.It annoys me about the price of parts because it's an LR,thats BS,the parts are very well priced.I would say you need the rad rodded and thermostat replaced,it cost me $250 all up a week ago to get mine done and that will fix the overtemp,no motor likes running hot regardless of make.Sorry I can't be of more help but put a post up if you have a problem no matter how small,people on this forum will save you alot of time and money. Pat

I should have read your post better,my disco heats up quite fast,when you say it stays at half way it should be slightly under half.Don't buy parts of the guy again,I get mine from British 4wd,they advertise on this site,very good on advise and very quick on postage and good on price.Find a new mechanic,go to the West oz forum on this site and ask the guys there were to take it. Pat

When you say the rad rodded is that the same as removed & cleaned or like new coils? He has put a new thermostat in.
British 4wd the one in planet st? I normally go to them which is how I know I can get the parts cheaper. But going through the invoice I would have only saved about $350 on parts.
He is giving me a guarantee on the work so anything goes wrong he will fix it. But I want to take it somewhere else to fix the A/C and get everything checked to see if he missed anything.
I can’t really do anything about the fact I’ve spent too much now but I don’t want something simple to be missed and end up with more problems. Toyota quoted me $12000 for the same job so at least I didn’t go to them!
He has never overcharged me before he normally is very cheap. I take my Hilux to him but I always buy my own parts and I get quotes from other people before I get one from him.

In future I defiantly be checking on this forum to see how much I should be paying.

if youve got the black tank, suck out just enough coolant (syphon it with a skinny bit of hose/pipe)

look inside the tank you will see a small tower shaped like a cross.

the top of that tower is the coolant level. If when cold you can see the top of that tower add coolant. replace the coolant now but dont put the cap on.

put the transfer case in nuetral, start the engine and place a large towel across the front of the radiator to slow the airflow, turn the aircon on flat out and make sure the heater settings are set to on.

look in the coolant tank. if the coolant level is dropping add coolant if its bubbling wait a minute or 2 and see if its still bubbles. IF its still bubbling after a minute or 2 you might have problems.

if its not bubbling run the engine at about 1500 RPM after turning the heater off and wait for it to warm up once its starting to warm out let it drop to idle and eyeball the content of the tank again, if its not bubbling and isnt low (it may well be higher by now but thats ok) loosely put the cap back on, remove the towel close the bonnet and take it for a very short drive just untill it approaches normal operating temperature.

leave the engine running, open the bonnet remove the cap (carefully) and eyeball the fluid if its bubbling youve got problems, if its all gone youve got problems, if its sitting there steaming, put the cap back on and stop worrying about the heads.


If you overfill the expansion tank the coolant has nowhere to go so it pushes out the cap which has a pressure relief valve built into it. do it too often and the cap gets busted and wont allow the cooling system to pressurise.

If the cap is stuffed if your driving around in peak hour traffic with the aircon on full tilt they will over heat quite nicely and give all kinds of expensive sounding symptoms that are easily overcome with a $30ish cap and a cooling system flush...

given the likely condition of the cooling system by this stage IF you dont have the bubbles in the tank (or at the radiator filler plug) get the radiator rodded/replaced the engine flushed and be done with it.

there should be someone near you whose on the site who wont mind showing you where to find the various bits and pieces IVe mentioned.

if you have the clear coolant tank (ok white semi see throught type) the same process applies but I cant right now remember where the level indicator is other than on some of them it has a small vertical arrow point up to a level line with something like "cold" Or "level" written near it.