Night of the Living Landrover

[BenDronsick]

Coolant in exhaust; belches thick clouds of sweet white smoke. Low to no oil pressure; light won't go out.

Engine sounds and runs like brand new.

Mech. says she is dead, and to keep driving it.

How long before The End?

 

[XCELLER8]

without more info as to the maintenance and condition of the vehicle...I would say that you AT LEAST need head gaskets...quit driving it ...It may be repairable at this point.....but not if you keep driving it.

 

[Bloodnok]

Sound like your mechanic wants you to pay him for a new engine.

 

[Wander]

I agree-sounds like a failed head gasket. Did the mech say the head is cracked? That would match the "she dead" comment. If so time for a rebuild or engine swap-you always wanted a 300Tdi anyway right??

 

[Quentin]

Fire your mechanic

 

[Roverrocks]

Fire your mechanic

Ditto that. He sounds like a bad one.

 

[flyfisher11]

Fire your mechanic

become one!

 

[soccrscot11]

I'm in line with the head gasket. Are you losing coolant? The block is AL and if you keep driving it with low coolant the engine will be toast in a no time. Ask me how I know. I'm on engine #3.

 

[discostew]

so I agree the head gaskets may be causing the smoke. But what about the oil pressure guage bouncing off nothin. sounds like the mechanic is paying attention. the good lord says im going to get out of this. he says your screwed.

 

[BenDronsick]

Head gaskets are losing oil outside, and coolant inside. Oil pressure is 5psi at idle with mech. gauge. Goes up a bit under throttle. But if you drive it the light never goes out.

I have about 250 miles on it with the oil light blazing (been living with the head gasket leaks for years).

No noise at all, 15MPG, and as strong as it was brand new (which was 8K to me).

Running Mobil1 15/50 +filter, with one quart of Lucas and one of MMO.

I think that with the oil pressure so low (and this is after changing the sender, cleaning the pan/screen, and replacing the front cover w/brand new) there is something seriously wrong with the block and a head job would be a waste of money.

Yes it's on life support, but I honestly think it will go another two years at least. Regardless every mile on the dead engine is another dollar in my pocket. I'll drop a turner.uk block in there eventually. Time will tell

 

[DiscoS2]

^This post is inspiring me to drive my D2 into the ground.

 

[Ed Cheung]

You think the engine will go on for another 2 years, with coolant in exhaust; belches thick clouds of sweet white smoke. Low to no oil pressure; light won't go out?

What are you smoking?

 

[DiscoS2]

What he's not telling you is he only uses it once a week to drive a mile to get the Sunday paper.

 

[BenDronsick]

No, drove it about 100 miles f.t. today to Walid at Loudoun Rover for him to put the pressure gauge back on it again. Still only 5psi at idle; slightly higher at throttle. The smoke comes and goes. Mostly at startup. Sounds fantastic. Runs smooth and pulls hard. Apparently the legend that these things can live on astronomically low oil pressure is true. It's worked for almost 300 miles so far. We'll see.

 

[NikeCheck246]

This thread is so completely full of win!

You need to quit driving it, unless you have some ulterior motive, or a pocket chock-ful-o money. You need to walk away from your mechanic and not talk to him ever again...he honestly sounds like a local guy here in town who doesn't know shit about fixing a Land Rover but somehow works at the Land Rover Experience.

You can probably fix it, if not do the work yourself, but use your brain and do the right thing.

 

[group captain mandrake]

Running Mobil1 15/50 +filter, with one quart of Lucas and one of MMO

Mobil 1 oil & filter = good
15/50 = I would run a 10w30 or 5w30
Lucas & MMO = I wouldn't put that shit in my engine-engine oil means engine oil.

 

[BenDronsick]

"Fix it"?? Where am I supposed to get oil pressure from? $2,500 head job? $3K bottom rebuild? Next? I already put a new $500 front cover on it, but I can leverage that to the next long block when it finally quits. Which does not seem imminent. We've always heard they can run on 5psi. Now we shall see for how long.

 

[p m]

become one!

What Mike said.

 

[p m]

Yes it's on life support, but I honestly think it will go another two years at least. Regardless every mile on the dead engine is another dollar in my pocket. I'll drop a turner.uk block in there eventually. Time will tell

My SJ Cherokee ran 0 psi oil pressure for a month.
It was a very dead engine afterwards. And that was a cast-iron, high-nickel-content block, forged crankshaft engine.

Every mile on your engine is five dollars OUT of your pocket.

 

[discostew]

The only real problem I have with what your thinking here is that You are going to drive this engine into the ground, then take your "New" frt cover off it and put it on your new engine. Thats really not going to work out. I think the new oil pump is already scored.