Head Gasket / Cylinder Gone??

So, Today went very badly.

I finally got the exhaust fixed and replacement prop however upon finally starting the car after my last encounter where it suddenly stopped then smoked from the intake, it would crank nice and easy, however it would not start up, it sounded like it was losing compression, however I was not sure why, I unscrewed the lid to the coolant and no signs of blow-by, I turned the engine by hand and it was nice and smooth no tough spots but then I took the oil cap off... and I could see the blow-by which means somehow the exhaust gasses or the combustion is getting into the crankcase and finding its way out the oil cap.

So I guess now it could be a few things;

It could be the Head Gasket actually it is incredibly likely, especially as I think this car is still running the Original Factory head gasket at 85k Miles, however I am not massively sure as the blowby is quite significant and after the spectacular failure, I am afraid the cylinder wall / head may be cracked, however to build on top of that the car does not have any oil or coolant loss during it's time being stationary.

My main question I suppose is, I wonder if anyone has had any issues with cylinders cracking or oil blow-by as I am not familiar with the layout of coolant and oil galleries in the block or how likely those kind of issues are.

I guess question 2 is that if the cylinder is cracked/f***** then I would be seriously considering an engine swap, of which I would like those that have done it or thinking about it opinions on the best engines taking into consideration, difficulty, compatibility and reliability, I think the Rover 75 engine mounts to the 1.8 Petrol Gearbox but not sure about the IRD, any help would be amazingly appreciated!

I'm guessing that it is the K series 1.8. I've replaced a h'gaskets myself. It is quite likely that the head gasket has failed. Other common failure points are the intake manifold gasket and possibly the coolant pump. If you have careful visual scan with a good light you may see staining from the coolant. I'm not aware of cylinders cracking. Overheating will wreck a head. Gasket replacement isn't too bad a job. You'd naturally replace the inlet & exhaust manifold gaskets, timing belt, tensioner, coolant pump and head bolts too. Have the head checked for hardness & flatness, it could likely need a skim...

Liner heights are an important aspect. They should all be proud of the block. They may be a differing heights - one or two could be flush or very nearly flush. Below the block face is a death nell for that motor. If they are all fairly even and proud it's recommended you use the MLS h' gasket. If they are at varying heights then the elastopolymer gasket is your friend [ Payen BW750?]. If liner height is an issue there are shims available available to sort that. I've not used them myself so others may advise you more accurately.

Look forward to reading how you get on.

have a look at this sit here this is a good read too here

Took Today to get the head of the block to see what form of gasket I would need and I guess before I go buying a head gasket kit, what yall's opinions be and or thoughts?

First of all, I didn't take apart the camshafts, I simply lined them up then took the head off, is it worth disassembling the cams, rockers, tappets etc or really not worth my time? the motor has only 85k on it and the engine looks really good of those that I have seen, extremely minimal wear


Seeing the engine this nice was good news as that means the damage that could have happened to the block was unlikely as nothing not only was the oil new looking, it only really had about 100 miles on it before the gasket went silly me... But anything that may have been in the oil did not cause any issues.

I am replacing the belts and water pump while I am there, because that would be stupid not to, however is there anything else that I should replace while down there, this is the last thing I want to do again... That and that stupid a** gearbox

Moving on after finally getting the seized exhaust manifold and surprisingly easy intake manifold off, the head was unbolted in the correct sequence a little bit at a time. Ready for it's removal, by rocking it side to side as per Land rovers advice, it came off nice and easy without any huge issues revealing the beloved head gasket...


useless thing so I chucked it on the floor, anyhow it already looks like an uprated one, possibly the MLS one but not massively sure as I have not seen all the gaskets side by side to compare... BUT I did notice where I think it failed, that being in between the metal layers... The below pictures are hard to show but does show it somewhat;



As you can see on the circled part you can see through all the layers whereas the rest is all held together nice and tight, so it seems to have failed quite badly and I think there could be coolant in the oil sump, would it be within my best interest to remove the sump and clean it out to make sure all coolant is removed?

The Actual head looked pretty good too!


All the spark plugs look good with no oil burnt on them it all looks okay but I have not fully cleaned it, which I suppose leads me to another question, what is the best tool to use to scrap off the debris without scraping into the head? Same goes for the block too I suppose

After the head was off and dealt with, I had to turn my attention to the block and pistons all of which looked okay, I could not see any signs of cracking on the liners or cylinders, the walls looked good. I was using the Haynes manual for removal and it said to take note of the dowels and make sure they are not plastic which they are metal which leads me to think this is not it's first head gasket...

As for the liners they are all equal height except for the liners 1 and 2 they have a very very small lip but enough to be felt with a toothpick but couldn't feel it with the end of my finger (not nail I could feel it with my nail)



Another Question would be then what head gasket would I need? I think as the liners are all the same height bar one tiny discrepancy that an MLS would work just fine, however, maybe that is how I got into this situation in the first place? it may be safer to get a BW750 as I understand they are better for those with uneven liners?

PS. Why the F*** were the ignition coils stuck to the plugs with the force of a million stars? I now need 4 new coils to replace the ones I had as the weak a** plastic snapped pulling them up because they were stuck...

If y'all spot something I haven't please point it out and I will get it looked at and sorted, hoping a new gasket will get 'er back on the road!

Thank you for reading!

Dmgrs have a good deal of info on the head gasket.
I think a head skim is definate

Thank you @J_D I read through their entire 1.8 K Series guide and a thing I saw was that LR recommend that the threads of the head bolts be lightly coated in oil, I assume as it is not mentioned that they mean just use 15W40 oil nothing special?

If you could let me know if anyone has done this what oil did you use?

Will update you all this weekend, when I reassemble this engine

Another thought, is that the engine never overheated, it seems like the gasket just failed spontaneously it was on a cold start the engine was idling okay I let it warm for about a minute then moved off and it died, I don't have a precision bar to test for warp and don't have the time to wait for one to arrive I can't imagine there would be too much warp considering it never got warm enough to warp, it just died

If you have a standard steel rule, use that to check for flatness. Put it edge on to the block & head faces in various positions & check if you can see light underneath it.

On a rover I didn't oil the threads. If recommended then maybe engine oil. I think in the engine it's open so the oil won't give false torque readings.
I don't know if it is the heat that affects the head or just it being bolted down and removed. I'm sure I saw the recommendation to always skim. Maybe check with dgmrs.

When fitting new head bolts put a small amount of engine oil under the bolt's head before you slide it into place. Then tighten all as recommended by LR.

I spoke with Dmgrs and they have helped quite a lot, explained that I should use engine oil on the threads however most now come with pre oiled and if oiling them myself then only use a small amount on the end of the threads, after after hearing the failure recommended an Elasto-polymer gasket and replacing the oil rail with the studier model, will be sure to update y'all when I get all the parts and install them!

So it took a while but I got the head off and the gasket changed, it all seemed okay, got everything back together, however the car now still cranks/turns-over but does not start it is just refusing to start. I think something is missing...

I thought that because I had a slight misfire while greenlaning I thought that maybe water got into the distributor, so I got a new dizzy and replaced it and to be fair to myself the old one was F***** it was horrible in there but upon changing it, it still did not fire properly it would try every now and then like only 1 cylinder would fire every 10-15 cranks but would never run constantly or even a few cranks, so I thought the leads could have been damaged during removal, so I replaced them all, along with the spark plugs but still NOTHING.

Another thought was Fuel, however I can hear the injectors ticking when using a PVC pipe pointing at the injector so I would assume they work alright but I have no tools to test them...

My last idea would be fuel, however upon pressing the fuel cut off switch I can hear the pump prime when switching to the run position on the ignition, so as far as I am aware it is getting Fuel, Air and Spark oh I know it's getting spark because I felt it... not fun, the only thing left is timing.

The timing could be off, however when using the marks on camshaft I was sure the belt went back on timed correctly, however I would not be surprised if it was like 1 tooth off, I am planning on taking the belt off and retiming everything again, however when cranking nothing hits anything, I don't think...

I would make my life easier and read the codes, however even though I am using an Icarsoft V3 with the Land Rover software loaded onto it, my land rover will not provide anything, it says it is not supported and when reading all codes available, it reads ABS and says not fitted, which it isn't so fair enough I guess... but It won't give me anything... At this point I may just swap the motor... (Any recommended motors )

Just hoping someone has some ideas about what could be causing this but at this point with now OBD scanners working, it is free game.

You want a Pscan really - that will read all the ECU’s and give live data

… check the camshaft sensor is ok

Freddie17 said:

… check the camshaft sensor is ok

Click to expand...

Had look around and for the dizzy model of 1.8 K Series I cannot find any inkling on the location of the cam sensor, should I check the crank sensor too?

Did you turn the engine over first with a spanner on the crank pulley? Did you feel regular compression for each cylinder?

J_D said:

Did you turn the engine over first with a spanner on the crank pulley? Did you feel regular compression for each cylinder?

Click to expand...

I have tried to turn the engine over and it turned with all cylinders having good compression. But after some time turning it over again revealed a very tight spot which I could not turn through, I won't be at the car again for a while, but when cranking it, it still sounds okay it has oil pressure, it doesn't sounds like it's hitting a tight spot, can I only turn it one way? or doe it sounds like the motor is cooked? it could be a little out so the valve and piston are touching enough that I can't get through but the starter could, let me know

This is where it went wrong. If it won't turn by hand don't use starter and certainly don't run it !! Looking at the resultant bag of broken valve, piston, liner and block I would say the timing was miles out.

Lock the crank in safe spot and align the cams locking them with the correct tool.

To late now, but I always mark each pulley and belt before removal with tippex and then mark the new belt in same place. It is a double check that it all lines up as it should.