Head gaskets

big tim · Post by **big tim** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 8:21 pm

Right then where do i start lol i have a 1998 land rover discovery 3.9 with the serpintine belt which has been slowly losing coolent for the past 10months or so. just recently ihave noticed there is what looks like coolent resting in the casting on my front diff. upon further inspection it appears that the head gasket is leaking from just below the exhaust port on no2 cylinder and also seems to be the same on no7 cylinder what i would like to know is this some thing others have experienced. The engine has 120k under its belt and belive it has never had the heads off. my second question is what is the best sort of head gasket to use a i have read some other posts and i cant make head or tail of which gasket for which engine and also a want to keep it as standard as possible. Cheers Tim

sidecar · Post by **sidecar** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:03 pm

I hope that it is just a duff head gasket but you should Google "Rover V8 dropped liners".....

Post by **Rossco** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:13 pm

My question would be has the engine ever overheated?

big tim · Post by **big tim** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:24 pm

Rossco wrote:My question would be has the engine ever overheated?

It hasnt overheated in the 3 years i have owned the old gal and has been faultless in the engine temp department and still drives perfect bar the very small coolent leak

Post by **katanaman** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:30 pm

if your engine is meant to have the serp on it and has 10 bolt heads I believe you only have one choice in head gasket and that's to use the comp gasket. You could use a tin gasket but that would raise your comp ratio. Not a bad thing but if its stock your after then the comp is the way to go.

Post by **Rossco** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 1:40 pm

big tim wrote:
Rossco wrote:My question would be has the engine ever overheated?
It hasnt overheated in the 3 years i have owned the old gal and has been faultless in the engine temp department and still drives perfect bar the very small coolent leak

If that's the case then unless you are really unlucky you should not have a dropped liner.

Pull the heads off, get them skimmed and as Katanaman says use composite gaskets.

big tim · Post by **big tim** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 2:27 pm

Think its sorted i spoke a guy at v8 delelopments this morning who pointed me in the direction of looking at the valley gasket . which can leak around the coolant ports so this afternoon i got underneath wiped around the block/head and then started the engine it didnt take long before i could see a very small stream of coolant running around the channel between the block/head. So i whipped the inlet manifold off and it is looking like the valley gasket has been weeping around the front drivers side coolant port . when i removed the bolt next to this port it was furred up with rust so hopefully this was the culprit the only down side is i have to wait till tommorrow to get a new valley gasket and refit it with some sealent around the coolant ports.Cheers for advice guys.hopefully the headgaskets can wait abit longer lol