Possible blown head gasket. What next?

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Lephreek

Lephreek

Member
Posts
18
I think my Head Gasket has blown. Milky grey sludge under the oil filler cap and coolant has completely disappeared, dipstick looked very odd and running very hot. I'm not remotely confident in my ability to resolve this as a keen to learn but low skilled DIY'er. How much money (as a ballpark), am I likely to need to borrow off the wife (reduce the cost her birthday present by), for a garage to do the work?
 
No idea but a mate was just charged over £500 for changing a water pump genuin pump mined £153.27 for parts rest was labour think it takes me an hour or 2 for a water pump. If your gonna pay someone for a head gasket expect 1500 to 2000 minimum and that's if nothing else breaks while they do it
 
Lephreek said:
I think there may be too much to go wrong for me to attempt this myself, unfortunately,
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Sadly this is the choice. You either pay someone or have a go yourself.

If you have a couple of mates and some hand tools. Then doing a head gasket isn’t that hard. But as a first ever job I can see it being a little daunting.

On the flip side. The Tdi (well the entire Land Rover really) is a super basic vehicle. You don’t need “specialists” to work on them. Any half competent mechanic would be able to do a head gasket on a Tdi. So well worth asking for some quotes. I’d say they should be pricing at 1 day max and maybe as little as 1/2 day labour. Parts will be cheap too.
 
It's a reasonably easy job. With a manual and LZ on hand you may be able to do it in an afternoon.

(The 'may' is because the head might need skimming. Mine didn't, you may be equally fortunate).
 
I did one earlier this year, its not hard to do. Take you time and find a guide/manual to follow.
I reckon atleast £1.5k to pay to get it done, cost £500 for a timing belt 5 years ago.
Just ring a few landy garages for a few quotes and let us know, bit pointless guessing.
Besides if you do it yourself then you can happily do you wheel bearings, steering box, propshafts, diff seals when they go wrong.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I've taken it to a garage, as although I'm keen to learn to do things myself, I don't have a covered space to use and doing it on the roadside seems a tall order, for me anyway. Also, if it does need skimming or it turns out to be something else, I'll be completely out of my depth. Fingers crossed that it just the head gasket. I live in farming country so the mechanics around here work on old defenders a lot, so at least there's that.. I'll report back when I have news. Thanks again all, for your advice.
 
So, I've had my 90 back since yesterday after 2 months (!!!!!) in my local garage. Head skimmed and re-installed, also cam belt and water pump replaced, as well as clutch master slave, 1 coil drilled out and replaced, as well as all fluids...Wait for it..£2088. Completely lost the summer, what there was of it and my wife is furious with me. I should've bought a Toyota..
 
Lephreek said:
So, I've had my 90 back since yesterday after 2 months (!!!!!) in my local garage. Head skimmed and re-installed, also cam belt and water pump replaced, as well as clutch master slave, 1 coil drilled out and replaced, as well as all fluids...Wait for it..£2088. Completely lost the summer, what there was of it and my wife is furious with me. I should've bought a Toyota..
Click to expand...
That's of no surprise to me. We got quoted £700 for cambelt alone.
2 months is excessive though.
 
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Just in case this helps anyone else...£2088 in total.
 
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