Freelander 1 My Brother Freelander k series hgf engine knackered

Hi there guys i been trying to help my brother with his freelander that his exgirlfreind roasted. I am a mechanic and have done work on freelanders before but never had to do engine change on one. i asssume i cand drop whole uint out from the bottom or is it easyier to take engine and box out from top I have read that alot of people take out just the engine leave gearbox in situ its a 2002 with coil packs on top of head. i bought a cheepo freelander with knackard dif and was just going to swap engines over but . On looking at the cheepo one i thought it was too good to break as everything is in good working order bar diff and diff only being cheap i thought i might repair it and him use it while we sorce an engine for the one that has been roasted. I hear all the time you should not buy petrol ones as they overheat all time now i have owend 3 rover 45s and two mg zr both had my 45 and zr had hgf and i bought for pennys repaired. but fortuntly for me it was just heads that had been roasted. Unlike the freelander engine is knackard.any addvise or info will be taken on board.thanks again guys

The K petrol is actually really easy to work with.

I'd start by pulling the head off the roasted one - you can buy complete replacement heads for about £250-£300 on ebay brand new. Check the liner protrusion and the bore walls - if they look good just slap a new head on it and be done with it? If the liners are discoloured and/or melted you've spent an hour of your time and the engine is scrap anyway - if that makes sense.

If the liners look good, bin the head anyway as the heat will have caused it to become scrap.

It'll be cheaper and means you get a known quantity, a scrap engine will likely pop the head gasket in a few months anyway.

Thought about this some more, try to avoid using scrap K series if you can - 95% of the ones in scrap yards will be there because their head gaskets have blown and people perceive them as not worth the effort repairing.
"Runs well, no issues, 70k" will be for the 90 seconds they started it up before ripping the engine out of the 250,000 mile scrapper.

Anyone ever noticed that ALL scrap engines mysteriously have 60-70k on them?

I should also have pointed out on your spare one - the exploded diff is a symptom and not a fault.

Your viscous coupling will be shot - if you replace the diff your IRD (the bit that's effectively a transfer box) will explode next, which is considerably more expensive.

+1

Couple of thoughts re engine... overheated heads are scrap because they are alloy - steel ones might be skimmable. But isn't the block also alloy? If that's the case, why isn't the block scrap? Only the liners are steel I believe.

Assuming I'm wrong... If a scrap yard head is straight (easily tested), and not straight because its been skimmed, would it not be safe to use it? Could they still be straight but also to soft to give a 'decent' life.

Sounds like the OP is more than familiar with K Series, but if its been overheated badly, but the block is salvageable, should the liners be resealed even if they look OK "just to be safe".

Couple of thoughts re cheepo Freelander... you're obviously more than familiar with the Rovers and MGs, but when you talk about the 'diff' in the Freelander, which one do you mean? Are you talking the rear diff (which is what #B34R is referring to) or the front diff which encompassed together with the drive for the prop shaft into what is know as the IRD? In Freelander terms (unlike other Landies) the 'diff' is at the back and the 'IRD' is at the front of the car. Before anyone on here can really give any reliable advice on this, we need to know explicitly that you mean the rear diff. Also, you need to confirm exactly what's wrong with it - and even confirm that it is what you think, or were told, is wrong, because many many people have assumed or come to a diagnosis that its one, when in actual fact its the other or something completely different - including Land Rover mechanics with years of experience, but not on Freelander.

Assuming its still got its props on, my advice would be to spend 30 minutes and take them off - literally unbolt the rear from the diff, front from the IRD, the 4 bolts holding the VCU in the middle and take it away (all bits are heavy so be careful!). See if it drives any differently - you can make some more judgements on it then. Having heard the words of caution about the state of engines from breakers yards - I'd say you're more likely to buy a worthless heap of junk buying diffs and IRDs from breakers yards. It really depends on whether you want to retain 4WD or go 2WD. Regardless of what's broke you could probably get it road worthy as 2WD for about £5 plus some oil.

Good point, but thinking about it the block is more likely to survive for two reasons:

1) remember that the block is alloy, but none of the combustion gasses touch it. The exhaust flowing through the head and against the face of the head super heat the thing in no time at all.

and, possibly more importantly;

2) Once you start to lose coolant, the level drops, the head is the first bit to go as it's the highest point in the cooling loop other than the internal heater. This means once the initial pop happens coolant will remain in and around the cylinders for a while as the coolant level slowly drops - in fact I don't think I've done a head gasket on a K series yet where there wasn't coolant still around the cylinder liners. The coolant comes in at the back top of the block and then has to gain height to exit through the head, meaning the block is a natural water trap. Even if your main rad hose goes you'll still end up with a litre or two of coolant around the bores.

Big whoop, it's no longer circulating?

Remember that boiling water takes a massive amount of energy out of it and will more than likely survive for a few minutes as it boils off - it won't stop the block overheating, but it'll stop it running away to the same ridiculous temperature that the head will quickly get to - even if only for a few minutes.

If it's been persistently driven while overheating, you may have a problem, but it depends on how fast the leak was and where it was.

Food for thought!

B34R is spot on with his description of why the block is generally ok. The worst I've seen was the oil way around the livers full of oil instead of coolant. This transferred lots of heat to the block, melting the cam belt back cover!! I'm still using this block fitted with a replacement head. The heads are heat treated at manufacturer, this treatment is lost when overhead, softening the alloy. The blocks are also heat treated but to a different spec, which isn't so easily lost by heating. Additionally the lower half of the block is cooled by oil thrown from the crank bearings. This helps the block survive such overheating events. Liner hights need to be checked though.