Hi Everyone,
We recently purchased a 1996 Disco 1, V8 3.9L Auto which has done 110kms (69k miles) in pretty good nick - passed all the checks.
Very soon into ownership we noticed minor coolant leaks appearing, trouble starting when cold and pretty poor open road performance. Whilst annoying, I wasn't that concerned as the Disco was destined for easy retirement - being our back up 4WD as we live 1km up a 4WD forest track.
After 4 weeks without starting, she turned over twice and blew apart the starter motor. New starter motor in and compression test showed Cylinder #1 was down. Upon starting she ran rough when cold with white smoke with the glycerin burning smell. She ran pretty good though when warmed up. Seemed like the coolant leak filling up #1 had caused a hydraulic type effect to have blown the starter apart.
In the hope of a head gasket issue, I took the heads off and had them checked by a local Rover mechanic. He ran a hardness test on the heads, producing a failed test due to a reading being below '60 Rockwell.' He said this is a sign of how hot the engine had been in the past and it is likely the block and the liners will have an issue in them as well / citing not economic to repair. The Disco is 100kms away from the mechanics shop, up a 4WD track and we live off grid so I'm fairly limited on testing equipment for the block.
My notes from taking the heads off also included:
-The front and rear manifold bolts (RS when opening bonnet) had risen up 10mm and had obvious signs of coolant leaking - one of those bolts above low compression cyl
-The exhaust manifold bolts were finger tight - I thought it was a miracle and had a few beers to celebrate!
-The head bolt (on the LS when opening bonnet) between the two rear cylinders was loose and the bolt was rusty. Obvious signs of leakage around the gasket.
-Approaching the previous owner (who had now moved countries) they then remembered it had overheated twice. It looks like the gaskets were replaced recently so I'm contemplating if it was just a bad gasket replacement without any bother to fix the cooling issue.
My question to the forum is
a) Whether you would recommend just putting new gaskets on - on the assumption that the 3.9's are fairly resilient to overheating and chancing that was the issue??
b) I have found a second hand engine with a mechanics warranty but It would be the same price as purchasing the vehicle.
Many Thanks All
We recently purchased a 1996 Disco 1, V8 3.9L Auto which has done 110kms (69k miles) in pretty good nick - passed all the checks.
Very soon into ownership we noticed minor coolant leaks appearing, trouble starting when cold and pretty poor open road performance. Whilst annoying, I wasn't that concerned as the Disco was destined for easy retirement - being our back up 4WD as we live 1km up a 4WD forest track.
After 4 weeks without starting, she turned over twice and blew apart the starter motor. New starter motor in and compression test showed Cylinder #1 was down. Upon starting she ran rough when cold with white smoke with the glycerin burning smell. She ran pretty good though when warmed up. Seemed like the coolant leak filling up #1 had caused a hydraulic type effect to have blown the starter apart.
In the hope of a head gasket issue, I took the heads off and had them checked by a local Rover mechanic. He ran a hardness test on the heads, producing a failed test due to a reading being below '60 Rockwell.' He said this is a sign of how hot the engine had been in the past and it is likely the block and the liners will have an issue in them as well / citing not economic to repair. The Disco is 100kms away from the mechanics shop, up a 4WD track and we live off grid so I'm fairly limited on testing equipment for the block.
My notes from taking the heads off also included:
-The front and rear manifold bolts (RS when opening bonnet) had risen up 10mm and had obvious signs of coolant leaking - one of those bolts above low compression cyl
-The exhaust manifold bolts were finger tight - I thought it was a miracle and had a few beers to celebrate!
-The head bolt (on the LS when opening bonnet) between the two rear cylinders was loose and the bolt was rusty. Obvious signs of leakage around the gasket.
-Approaching the previous owner (who had now moved countries) they then remembered it had overheated twice. It looks like the gaskets were replaced recently so I'm contemplating if it was just a bad gasket replacement without any bother to fix the cooling issue.
My question to the forum is
a) Whether you would recommend just putting new gaskets on - on the assumption that the 3.9's are fairly resilient to overheating and chancing that was the issue??
b) I have found a second hand engine with a mechanics warranty but It would be the same price as purchasing the vehicle.
Many Thanks All
