Good afternoon all.
I recently bought the above freelander with suspected head gasket faliure, it has 186k miles on the clock and seems to run well enough but i have concerns.
I was told that it overheated due to a low coolant event, but that it didn't boill up and die in a cloud of steam. Temp gauge reached max, they stopped driving and had the car recovered. It was diagnosed as head gasket faliure and an expensive quote to fix was presented.
So, there is no sign of coolant in the engine oil, no condensation on oil filler cap, and no obvious signs of oil in the coolant.
There is a lot of blue white smoke from exhaust, but not always, sometimes the exhaust is clean.
The PCV pipe that joins the air intake pipe after the air filter housing blows out a lot of smoke and also spits large blobs of thick oily gunge (the consistancy of thick yoghurt) at idle, and worse when revved up.
I tried my luck with a bottle of "instant head gsaket repair" figured i had nothing to loose, gut the cooling system is still bubbling and exhaust gasses are still present.
My questions are.....could the exhaust gasses be entering the coolant via the EGR Cooler or somewhere other than the head gasket?
Could the smoke be due to coolant entering the exhaust?
Could the smoke be related to the oily substance blowing out of the pcv pipe?
Could the smoke be due to a worn turbo?
Does it sound like at 186k the engine needs rebuilding / replacing?
If i were to replace the engine with a 2nd hand unit, will there be electronic / coding issues with the ECM etc?
I'm sorry this is such a long message, and i fully understand diagnosis without physically seeing the car is very difficult, but i'm hoping the above info might give you a clue with all your years of experience with Freelanders.
Any thoughts on how i can move forward with this project would be very gratefully recieved.

Regards, Jamie.

First off, if the PCV hose is blowing large amounts of bypass gasses, then it's very likely that HG has failed. This would be confirmed by large amounts of air entering the cooling system.
The slightly puzzling thing is how are combustion gasses getting into the crankcase when there's a water jacket most of the way around the perimeter of the cylinders, with only 2 small locations where the crankcase is close to No1 and No4 cylinders.

For the HG to fail on these engines, I suspect a good amount of overheating has occurred, as its a bonded MLS gasket which are generally very resilient to moderate over temperatures.

Mine is suffering from coolant pressurisation and loss if I use a decent amount of throttle, and it's been getting steadily worse over the last year or so. I have to put about ¼ litre in every 100 miles or so, but it varies depending on the use of the vehicle.
I replaced the head on mine (after a piston was damaged too) and at the time I decided to use a cheap HG, and then discovered my torque wrench was under torque by about 50%, so I'm pretty sure my HG and under torque bolts are to blame. I've got replacement genuine LR gasket to go in, and I've replaced the torque wrench too.


How much was the quote to replace the HG? I'm curious because it took me about 2 half days outside in the open, with lots of tea breaks and taking lots of pictures. It was possible a 10 hour job, so labour could be a decent chunk of change. It's not beyond a competent DIYer though, and only a couple of cheap special tools are needed.

DIY you should be able to do the job for about £300 if you choose what parts to buy and from where from. I'd avoid a cheap HG, but a cheap HG kit is a good source of the less important gaskets and seals needed for the job, and the head bolts often come in HG kits too, which will also be needed.

Here's a couple of pictures showing just how small the passages are for combustion gasses to enter the block, it's just the 2 small slots each end of the block, all the rest is coolant gallery's.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Thankyou for the helpful and detailed reply, i think at the current mileage and with the variety of problems, a replacement engine would be my preferred route, or maybe just sell the car on for spares/repairs.

Not sure if common on freelander, but on our John Deere tractor, there was an overheating issue and pressure in coolant tank due to bad intercooler radiator. Another issue (and I hop its not the case) could a crack in engine block.

The Freelander uses and air to air intercooler, so not connected to the coolant at all. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ionic 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

When I have seen people buying old cars with problems on YouTube etc I have often wondered if it really pays off, or would it be better to do an extra shift or overtime on a Saturday and buy something that’s better. I know I am probably biased as I can not say I would find being underneath a motor on a cold wet winter’s day very appealing.

ditto!and im in the trade.

If it’s a 2007 car with 187,000 miles I would say it’s time to let it go to the scrap man.

It's lucky dip when buying with known problems, but then buying a clean, low mileage car can also go badly wrong.
At least my car was only £400, if it's not worth doing it'll break for considerably more money than that.
The body and interior are in good condition, so i'm going to pull the head and see how it looks.
Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions people, will update as i go with investigation

At £400 if the wheels and tyres sold and sucked the diesel out of the tank you would be well on the way to breaking even

Jack frost wrote:

If it’s a 2007 car with 187,000 miles I would say it’s time to let it go to the scrap man.

I had 3 sensible options, replace whole engine, carry out head gasket repair, or re-sell the car, i've decided to pull the head and see what the damage is, so now option 1 and 2 are in play. Which special tools do i need please, with links if possible.

Thanks
Jamie

I presume you've got the freebie JLR workshop manual - I'd have thouhgt that everything you need to know is in that.

Probably something on Utube too. Jules

No, i don't have the "freebie" Landrover manual, a link would be very much appreciated.
Will start pulling her apart as soon as weather permits

Look at the Home Page for full index of Forum Contents and then look at Alex's post for Service Manual.

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