my mate as a freelander with the rover petrol engine think it is a 1.8, it is belching out grey smoke at start up and missfiring badly also using lots of coolant, the oil seems ok but there are no leaks so im suspecting head gasket? or do these alloy heads crack? he's hoping it's just the gasket!!.
not done a commpression test yet but it's looking quite obvious, any idea of cost for head gasket/or replacement head???
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K-series heads in bigger vehicles often suffer from temperature distortion. The engine's under load right from the start and heats-up too quickly. The thermostat then opens and a rush of cooler water comes in.
I think a new headgasket plus a skimmed head is around £500.
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bigtee
Wide experience with many garages that have struggled with these nightmares would lead me to suggest that you follow the dealers example and fit a reliably-guaranteed exchange engine.
They seem to have a nasty habit of cracking the heads etc. shortly after gasket replacement. As this can quickly lead to finger-pointing/accusations and things getting all bitter and twisted I'd now always go the new engine route.
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I'm not so sure the cracked head scenario is a common thing on this engine, however unfortunately the head gasket is. Whilst the head is off for the gasket a crack test can easily be performed anyway.
Ensure that the new gasket is the uprated one from Land Rover and there should be no more problems as it is far more tolerant than the original - shame the started fitting it new too late!
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I've had alot of experience of HG failures on the K-series, especially the 1800's, I have a Rover 218iS which is currently layed up awaiting its 2nd HG replacement in 6 months. Granted its got a modified head, and was driven hard.
The problem is there is very little coolant in the K-series, and in my case the 2nd failure was due to a coolant pipe jubilie clip snaping and dumping the coolant over the drive. Unfortuantly even though I switched off within 3-5 seconds, its not normally enough for this engine.
Within the MG club many people have HG problems with MGFs, and a yearly HG change seems to be accepted!!!
I'm just preparing a Rover 200 race car, and i've decided that racing in the bottom class with an 1100 K-series will be more reliable!! :-)
--
Neil T
E90 BMW 320d M Sport, E91 330d SE Touring
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the jeep is in the garage now so they quote about £480.00 and fitting a new cam belt.thanks all!!
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And then get rid of it before the same thing happens again. Best as a diesel either the rough but tough L Series or the super smooth BMW engine.
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>>And then get rid of it before the same thing happens again
If its fitted with the uprated gasket it wont fail again, or at worst highly unlikely.
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I thought about buying one ages ago and was told if I did to drill a hole in the thermostat as this let it pass some water through all the time and stopped the sudden change in temp in the head,downside was it was slower to heat up.
didn`t buy it so dont know if it worked or not but can see where the comment came from
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Don't buy anything fitted with a K series engine unless you want expensive grief. The thing has fundamental design problems - let the Chinese keep it.
659.
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I thought about buying one ages ago and was told if I did to drill a hole in the thermostat as this let it pass some water through all the time and stopped the sudden change in temp in the head,downside was it was slower to heat up. didn`t buy it so dont know if it worked or not but can see where the comment came from
The later thermostats had a small valve which performed this function, however Rover never got round to moving the thermostat to the cylinder-head outflow which would have allowed the engine and cooling system to warm-up more evenly.
Hopefully the Chinese will!
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I have heard of people still having problems with these engines even with the 'upgraded' head gasket and metal cylinder head alignment dowels installed (they used to be plastic). The 1.8 seems to be the worst affected engine. I would not be prepared to put my hard earned money into one of these.
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2004 onwards the head gasket issues should have been ironed out regardless of what the K series were fitted too. LandRover now offer an uprated gasket set for the engine from early 2004 so would be supprised to see any repeat failures unless the original repair was not done correctly, or the original reason for the HG failure rectified (radiator, water pump, leaking hoses, pressure caps etc..)
The cylinder head alignment dowels were changed from plastic to metal when BMW parted company so some significant changes have been made since their departure in 2000.
Only time will tell if very recent engines suffer HGF and close eyes should be kept on all face lift MGR products and freelander engines from the back end of 2004 as the HGF stigma should be a thing of the past.
Lots of work went into the K series before the demise of MGR and now looks to be the reliable engine that it should have been from the start. Interestingly the K block was changed around 1995 to accomodate the 1.8 capacity which has seen higher than normal HGF across the full range.
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drive. Unfortuantly even though I switched off within 3-5 seconds, its not normally enough for this engine.
They can overheat in 5 seconds?!
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fit a decently large expansion bottle under the bonnet (theres loads of room//////// (if you look there is even the brackets for a left hand drive bottle if you wish to keep it symetric)
this will give you time to turn the engine off and save the headgasket when you get the warning signs..........
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Brown and Gammons actually sell a high capacity expansion tank, for this very purpose.
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