Disco Isn't Dead

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
03/20/2018 at 10:25 • Filed to: Disco Inferno

I can barely believe it, and I am certainly waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the Discovery rose from the dead last night.

Catching up

For those who haven’t meticiously followed my saga, the tl;dr is I found out my Land Rover Discovery had blown head gaskets. Faced with a potential $4300 shop bill, I opted to do the work myself even though I’d never done any wrenching quite this ambitious before.

Last night I reluctantly turned the key

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, mind you. After finishing off connecting the cooling system and ancillaries, the first thing I needed to do was a coolant pressure test.

I know I say this a lot.. but it did not go well.

The system wouldn’t charge past 0.2 bar. When the tester removed there was a loud hissing noise coming from the intake area.

Having unsuccessfully identified the leak using a stick of incense for a poor mans smoke test, I figured I needed access. This meant disconnecting the serpentine belt and removing the alternator... again.

Once exposed, I got lucky. The problem was one of the heater hoses that ties into the top of the block. after muscling it out, it was revealed there was a chunk missing out of the o-ring.

Not having a suitable match in my cache and it being just past 9PM, I ran to Home Depot and picked up some #13 faucet washers.

They fit perfectly.

No idea if they’ll hold up to coolant or engine temps, but that is a quest for another time.

That solved, I rechecked pressure and managed to get it up to the recommended 0.8 bar. The pressure didn’t hold, but the drop was gradual enough I called it a pass and moved on.

Time to start

After connecting the rest of the intake system, checking fluids, reconnecting the battery, and otherwise stalling, I put the key in and cranked.

I’d drained the fuel system and assumed this would give the starter enough time to build oil pressure before the thing actually started. In hindsight, that was only sort of true.

It cranked and cranked, and there were no terrifying noises to speak of.

Then it started... ish...

The whole car felt like it was running down a few cylinders, the power steering pump was making terrifying noises, and, most distressingly, the oil pressure light was on.

I shut it down.

Had I somehow mangled the oil pump? Was the sender bad? Was everything connected? Had I damaged the wiring loom?

First step was to try and build oil pressure in a more controlled environment. This meant pulling the fuel pump fuse and turning the engine over on the starter until the dumb light turns off. Pretty basic stuff.

I checked all the fluid levels, added oil (turns out the oil filer holds like a quart of oil so... now we know that), did a quick visual inspection again, and pulled the fuse for the fuel pump.

I turned the key again...

And it just started right up. Fat, dumb, and happy. No oil light. No misfires. No check engine light.

I... wait what? Apparently the residual fuel pressure was enough to keep the car running without the fuse. I... did not expect that.

I also didn’t expect it to not fight me on this one.

I puttered over and reinstalled the fuse and just stared at the engine in amazement.

Smoke started pouring off the engine as all the accumulated grease and PB blaster began to burn off the exhaust and the power steering pump still sounded unhappy, but overall we were in good shape.

I shut it down, went inside, and poured myself a large glass of wine.

Still to do

Honestly not a lot. Obviously the car needs to be run up to temperature and the cooling system checked. I need to start securing harnesses and hoses that have their own special brackets for that purpose, go a general clean, and finish installing cowling.

I also burned off a small hose near the transfer case breather... so I need to figure out what that was and how to repair it.

Then the hood needs reattached and I think it is time for a road test.

But still...

I seriously can’t believe it started and ran.

Still waiting for the other shoe...

DISCUSSION (17)

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 11:02

Land Rovers: they might break all the time, but I’ll be damned if they just don’t want to die

functionoverfashion > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 11:48

YES!!!

razorbeamteam > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 11:52

Congrats man! You earned that wine. No doubt the most nerve racking part of that is the first start. I had used a buncha carb cleaner on my pistons to try to get a lot of the buildup off, as well as painted my headers in non-heat resistant paint so mine was quite the smokeshow when i first started it. Here’s to at least 10k miles before the next one.

arl > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 12:03

Excellent - congrats!

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > razorbeamteam
03/20/2018 at 12:06

painted my headers in non-heat resistant paint

O_O Yeah that must have been a thing! I’m surprised it didn’t catch fire!

I’m a little disappointed with myself. I’d bought assembly oil but forgot to put it on some of the stuff I’d meant to (cams, rockers) because I was on a rampage. Hopefully the momentary low oil pressure didn’t screw anything up too bad.

But yeah, here is to the next 10k haha

XJDano > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 12:13

I have yet to this for my daily Driver equinox. It shows signs of needing done and it’s been pissing oil in its parking spot on the driveway more and more.

I can take things apart, but the reassembly of a job like the head gaskets got me hesitant.

I also figure if others can do it, it’s not rocket science. I should be able to handle it. And off it goes caput, well it lasted 205,000 so what. Time for a truck.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > XJDano
03/20/2018 at 12:22

Yeah, I can’t say I’d be super excited about doing it again, especially on a more modern vehicle. As far as I can tell the trick is having a lot of space and documenting everything really well. We put tags on all the components (including the obvious ones) and put every nut, bolt, clip, and fitting in a ziplock bag with a label. This was invaluable when going to put stuff back together.

The Discovery is unique in that the head gasket job is shocking complex but also well documented. A lot of people do them, so there are a lot of videos and kits.

That said, leaking oil doesn’t sound like a typical head gasket failure to me. Every car is different, I guess. But it probably wouldn’t hurt to do some further investigation.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > XJDano
03/20/2018 at 12:24

Oh and also time. Lots of time. While I’ll admit I did a lot of extra work and could do it faster in retrospect, this probably took me... 100 hours? Probably worked on it 4-5 days/ week for four weeks with an average of 6 hours a day?

XJDano > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 12:53

The leaking oil is a separate issue that has shown itself within 6 months. I got some goo on oil cap before, and it’ll run low on coolant where I put more in the overflow and the heater works again.

I have some space to do it now, freed up a bay in my garage (mostly) and can borrow a car while I do the work.

Just need to make time to get it done.

Congratulations on your success of the repair. I will be doing same probably in spring time done for summer.

kgman > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 13:22

Awesome!! Congrats! I’ve really enjoyed this saga and hope that the other shoe stays indefinitely suspended

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > kgman
03/20/2018 at 14:06

Thanks!

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 15:54

That coolant pipe has burned me a couple times too!

Make sure you too of the steering fluid and turn it lock to lock a few times before starting it again. Aerate it too much and you’ll be doing a pump sooner than you’d planned!

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
03/20/2018 at 16:00

Yeah that was a massive bummer! The new serpentine belt hadn’t stretched at all yet, so it was a complete pain to remove and refit. Not to mention I have three o-ring kits and none of them had one that would work. Hoping the plumbing one holds...

MM54 > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 19:57

Congrats!

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/20/2018 at 22:45

Weird you couldn’t find a generic o-ring that would work. I often used them. The castings were often shitty so I often put a bit of sealant on them too, just enough to take up pitting and porosity.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
03/21/2018 at 00:09

Such is life, I suppose.

Unrelated: I dove into the CDL thing today. I have an 04 linkage but just discovered the seller didn’t include the brackets, although they were pictured. Thoughts on options? (Aside from trying to get them from the seller, obv)

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/21/2018 at 00:37

Kind of useless without brackets unless you can fab some. Either get them, fab them, or find a different linkage set altogether.