C

chubba

Member
Just replaced water pump & thought seeings though the disco has done 240,000km's I'd change the head gasket, do a valve grind & be cool for awhile.

The gasket on it is a 3 hole, were these fitted at the factory or has it likely been changed already? I have checked the service book obviously & no sign in there of having it done.
 
On a mj 99 it is unlikely that the head Gasket is original. They were fitted with plastic dowels and tend to wear.
 
the holes are not in order, afaik 2 hole is the first

edit: yes, in order of thickness => 2/(1.20mm) - 1/(1.27mm) - 3/(1.35mm) so you have the thickest fitted
 
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Yeah seems original then, gets confusing when they all have different sized gaskets from the factory..guess we're not talkin German engineering though are we ;)
 
on the contrary... originally they came out with the thinest one(2 hole) so there should be a reason why on your's the thickest is fitted now
 
My local rover mechanic has seen them with 3 hole original gasket.. nothing in my service book points to one being done.
So much conflicting info flying around about td5 head gaskets do's/don'ts, its crazy!!?
 
I must admit that what i said with the 2 hole gasket was based on what my mechanic told me but on a second thought it might not be 100% true, i presume that he(like me) was based on logic and thought that a new head should have the thinner gasket and they go thicker as the head is skimmed though it's stated in the book to not do that with a Td5 head and always use the same thickness gasket as it was before, the official datas i've seen are all about selection of gasket based on piston protrusion measurement nothing about a pattern of how a new engine should be... what i know for sure is that mine had a 2 hole gasket as original... see this http://workshop-manuals.com/landrover/defendertd5/engine/cylinder_head_gasket_selection/
 
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still had the plastic dowels so was the first gasket on mine (3 hole), only getting a couple of thou taken off the head as its straight.
 
IMO the dowels are not a prove that the gasket was not changed, it's quite suspect to hace the thickest from the beginning anyway, some mechanics might be very scrupulous and not fit steel instead of plastic due to a technical bulletin:
Land Rover TSB 0011 ... said:
AFFECTED RANGE:

All Td5 derivatives within VIN ranges:
Discovery Series II (02 Model Year) 2A 736340 to 3A 793895
Defender (02 Model Year) 2A 622424 to 3A 647705

SUBJECT:
CYLINDER HEAD LOCATING DOWELS
Td5 engines fitted to vehicles in the above VIN range are fitted with plastic dowels to locate the cylinder head onto the cylinder block.

Land Rover Engineering has introduced steel locating dowels from the following VIN numbers:
Discovery Series II: 3A 793895
Defender: 3A 647705

INFORMATION:
If a cylinder head is removed from a vehicle in the above VIN range, the plastic dowels must be replaced with new specification steel dowels, which are now available from Land Rover Parts.

CAUTION:
Td5 derivatives prior to the above VIN ranges must not, under any
circumstances, be fitted with the new steel dowels. If steel dowels are fitted to earlier engines, cylinder head cracking may result
Click to expand...

i was paranoic enough to not let the mechanic fit steel on my 2000 either
 
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chubba said:
Yeah seems original then, gets confusing when they all have different sized gaskets from the factory..guess we're not talkin German engineering though are we ;)
Click to expand...
they have different sized gaskets to cater for piston height above the block face, you measure each piston and use the highest piston to determine the gasket , often when replacing poeple choose the thickest as is the safest to order pre removal of head or to counter the effect skimming the head has on putting the valves nearer the piston, the valves only just clear pistons by design
 
sierrafery said:
IMO the dowels are not a prove that the gasket was not changed, it's quite suspect to hace the thickest from the beginning anyway, some mechanics might be very scrupulous and not fit steel instead of plastic due to a technical bulletin:


i was paranoic enough to not let the mechanic fit steel on my 2000 either
Click to expand...
dowels just located head whilst its bolted down if heads moving that much that it either breaks dowels or dowels restrict movement you need to look at cooling or replace bolts
 
The head on mine was removed twice, first cos a glow plug balooned and was so stuck that it broke in second time when it had a crack in the first inlet port but i insisted for new bolts both times and used plastic dowels...so far so good :)

whatvu know is that mine and few others i've seen had 2 hole gaskets from the beginning
 
sierrafery said:
The head on mine was removed twice, but i insisted for new bolts both times and used plastic dowels...so far so good :)
Click to expand...
+1 ^^^^

Head bolts stretch during their first fitting and the only way to be sure that the cylinder head has been torqued down correctly is to fit new bolts every time the head is removed and replaced.
 
Bit of a mission doing the head gasket.. got it to fire again today, good feeling..thought it wasn't going to but it eventually stormed up!

Another point to make about head bolt tightening, I assumed you finger tighten bolts then start at number one & tighten to 30nm etc (stage one). However if you tighten bolts in sequence say to 20nm first thinking you will get to 30nm on step two, you may have significantly more torque as the bolts seem to loosen as you torque them down (stage one)..
 
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