Buying advised on 2000 discovery which have overheat problem

[tjp74]

I am considering a project car to play with. I have over 20 years of exprience in working on Alfa Romeos and Peugeots so troubleshooting a nasty electrical problem or tearing apart transmissions and engines does not faze me a bit.

I found this 2000 SE7 for sale with overheating engine. Owner claims he replaced the gasket per land rover shop's recommendation but it still overheated and shop thinks it's just a radiator problem.

Should I be concerned with engine that has been overheated? Could that lead to premature issue down the road? If it drives fine, is that good enough?

Any other issues I should look out for? Is overheating issue typical in this model and year? typical problem? am I looking at possible new engine? Thanks.

 

[Disco Mike]

Yes, be real concerned, it could have dropped a sleeve, so steel it if you are going to buy it cause good used engines are become hard to find.

 

[tjp74]

Thanks for the advise. What would be the symptom of a dropped sleeve? I know what is a sleeve but never exprienced a such issue. Would I find oil in the coolant or trace of it like brown mayo inside the oil cap and such? low compression on one cylinder? Wouldn't the land rover repair shop that did the headgasket notice the dropped sleeve or any other issues?

 

[joey]

The big issue with rovers overheating, is the problems may not show itself to months... you could replace the radiator or the t-stat and a months down the road start having odd noises or low compression in one cylinder or typical loosing coolant.

By the time you find the issue it may be too late to save the engine... of course this really depends on how long it overheated and hot hot it got.

 

[Disco Mike]

If you drop a sleeve, there is usually a couple quarts of coolant in the oil and it will be hard to start because of too much coolant in a cylinder.

 

[tjp74]

Well.. got the truck anyway... price was decent and condition was very good. And low mileage under 65K miles. And frash headgasket job totally over $2000 done few files ago sounded good to me so I don't have to worry about headgasket problem for long time.

Now the good news is that it doesn't overheat! I see a sign of coolant over flowing over time but I can't get it to overheat. I let it idle on my driveway for like 40 minutes. Temp gauge rock solid at middle. Drove it around for another 40 minutes, idling at the stop light to full freeway speed at 65mph for good 2-3 miles and no overheat.

Got home, pop the hood and I can hear some hissing sound near the expension cap as if some steam is leaking but I don't see any coolant over flowing.

Outside temperature was cold at about 55F, heater on and A/C off.

I don't think it's a radiator issue. Could it be a bad expension tank cap not holding the pressure correctly or occationally malfunctioning thermostat? I am thinking about replacing these two items as a precationary measure.

Where would be the best place to order these parts? I am looking at AB and Rover Connect.

 

[joey]

T-Stat design on the D2 and RR are not the best and this could be the issue, of course a new one could go bad too (got to love whomever engineer this part.

 

[Disco Mike]

When you got home and or while driving, did you ever hear the electric fan come on, if not, that is part of the problem.
The hissing noise may ne because of a weak cap, Napa has them for around $18 if that doesn't fix it, get back to us.

 

[tjp74]

ok, it did overheat finally. I was suspecting the thermostat so I touched the hoses round it. Top two hoses are hot to touch but bottom one, connecting between the termostat and radiator is cool. Sounds like this is it?