Thread: Now the Damn head gasket TD5

Originally Posted by matt39788

I have been slowly loosing coolant lately on and of without any obvious leaks anywhere. Now i'm pretty shure the head gasket is on it's way out here are the symptoms.

.Doesn't overheat, or hasn't yet
.Had to add about 1.3 liters of coolant over a 250km trip,
.No bubbling from the expansion tank until you rev the engine to about 2000rpm, and then only small bubbles
.No water in the oil
.no external leaks
.doesn't look like the heater core is leaking
.expansion cap is new
. System is bled
. 190k on the clock

well what do you think should I whip the head of and replace the gasket, bolts and dowls or am I going to far to fast.

This is just another thing I've had to do to my landy in the past 12 months it's slowly starting to get me down a bit, don't know how much longer I can sustain the constant phone calls to rovacraft for this or that it's never ending just did the clutch and flywheel not cheap........

Well any input into the new dilema will be appreciated.

cheers matt

HHeeyyy buddy welcome to the club!!!!!!!

Thing is i had no symptons as well until my spanner took the head off to find that the head had cracks in it and the gasket has rooted. Coolant was fine, no water in oil, not overheating nothing at all, JUST alittle more smoke than usual. Mate i am down as far as i can go with all this stuff happening with my landy BUT still love it!!!!!! keep your head up champa and fix the bloody thing!!!

cheers simone

It just goes to show, that even with a full service history weaknesses will show through no matter what. It just seems to be never ending, I work as a diesel fitter when i'm at work then as a land rover mechanic on my time off.

Originally Posted by matt39788

It just goes to show, that even with a full service history weaknesses will show through no matter what. It just seems to be never ending, I work as a diesel fitter when i'm at work then as a land rover mechanic on my time off.

yeah it can be a pain in the ass i could imagine!!!!

Thing you got going for yourself though is that you know your way around a diesel engine where someone like myself would have to get someone to fix it for me while i'm slowly learning about the darn thing. i'm packing myself right now with this new head going in, just wondering when i get it back whats next going to go on it and i dont have any money left lol

Hi, before you go & do the head gasket check the coolant plug in the side of the head.
You wont see a leak without removing the heat sheild and accoustic cover.
An inspection mirror makes it easy.
Mine was loose and coolant was running down the side of the head, back to the bellhousing and ultimately on to the ground. It didnt seem to reach the ground for some time. Ive have also found that a minor clutch shudder has gone since fixing it also.

The bubbles dont sound good though, but worth a look before spending the bigger $

I did run it up to temp though, and left it idling for 20 min then let it sit turned of for a further 20 min and not one drop of coolant on the floor at all. The bubbles are only very small but they are there when it is reved.

Strangy

Where abouts is this coolant plug? I had some coolant dripping off the bellhousing the other day and thought "where the *** is that coming from!!".

Pulled the acoustic cover off the head (and have since left it off) and couldn't trace where the coolant was coming from. I thought initially it was one of the heater hose connections, but it hasn't leaked since and we just did a big day at Stockton on the beach where it was working pretty hard up and down the sand dunes. The coolant level hasn't dropped and I've got a low water alarm as well. Although the water pump is making some average bearing noises ....

Cheers

Goldey

sounds like what my car did, it had a cracked head, but was also creacked between fuel and water galleries and so was pumping a small amount of diesel into coolant that led to coolant overflow occasinally but only rarely and so no loss of actuall coolant level, just was swapping coolant for diesel over a long period until i worked it out. all is good now with a new head

Well pulled of the head today and found one broken dowl and one that looks like it has been disfigured due to the heat, the head has been moving about 3mm by the looks of it and letting coolant through, lucky I caught it early on

So I have ordered all the parts a full gasket set for the head including intake and exhaust gaskets, injector o-rings, head bolts, head gasket and dowls the total was only $269 pretty happy with that so i'll clean up the head and fit her back on when I get the parts.