I have a 95 Range Rover 4.6.....and the really bad part of the story is i live in France and you cannot beleive how bad the service is over here! Anyway...I have very recently been loosing alot of water and the little garage i use, have taken 4 visits to decide it is the water pump. I have just ordered that and am waiting for delivery. However they now say they think it needs a new head gasket which will take 20 hours labour! I am not sure if it really is the head gasket because the engine is running perfectly apart from loosing water and the water very clearly is coming out of the pump. I have looked in the oil filler and the oil looks fine...Also oil consumption is normal. Oh, for the first three visits they made no mention of the Head gasket, but it suddenly became a very urgent problem when i said " do you think it could be the head gasket?" Until then it had been, no water loss found, maybe a heater leak, and then the water pump.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to verify that the head gasket is gone. Another thought is whether to try one of the " magic sealers" that are around, that seal small cracks in heads and rads. Any oppinions would be very gratefuly received.
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if it doesnt suffer from pressurisation of the cooling system i would say its not the head gasket. water pumps can leak at a slow rate which often leads to HG faillure. is it overheating?
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also is there white smoke at the exhaust?
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Sorry to say but it could be worse than a HG, any of the RV8s bigger than 3.5 are prone to cracking blocks down the side of the liner. Sounds like you need to find an independant rover specialist who knows what he's talking about.
Jim
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The 4.6 is the 3.5 overbored consequentlly due to the increased heat and inadequate water journals it tends to crack the heads or worse the block these are renowned for this fault.If I were you just fit the water pump and then have a pressure test and take it from there
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Ok, how to check for head gasket failure:
1. Oil in Water - Murky water, deposits in expansion tank
2. Water in oil - 'Mayonnaise' seen on underside of oil filler cap
3. Water to cylinder - Pressurised expansion tank, even when cold. Loss of water. Possibly white smoke from exhaust. Overheating. Loss of heat from in-car heater.
If the water is coming from the water pump i would have thought that the only way the head gasket could be damaged would be if the engine overheated due to the lack of water.
I'd be amazed if the head gasket was 20 hours labour, even on this big car.
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From my RV8 experience 1, 2 are rare when they fail. 3 is the more common nad if the block cracks it can heavily pressurise the water system and force water pass the pump seal.
Jim
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First of all thank you all so much for your very kind responses.
Re the 3 signs, 1. No murky water, 2.white gunk or mayonaise of any sort,3. there is a very slight pressure in the expansion tank but nothing too much.
Finding a specialist is a non starter over here. I had the official RR garage replace a windscreen last year ...It took them nearly a week, and when they gave it back the dashboard squeaked for a a few days and then cracked the screen. Fortunately i showed them the problem the day after they fitted the screen. They said it was nothing until i pushed at the " squeak point " and it stopped! All in all from the screen getting damaged to the job being finally done took nearly 5.5 monthes including waiting for parts.....all for the bargain price of more or less £2500!
Other symptoms. The engine drives very very well....goes like a rocket in fact. It looses about 1 litre of water in about 1 hour of driving but does not get too hot, as i stop before a problem starts and let it cool and then top up. When i first noticed the problem the temp gauge went into the red, so i stopped, let it cool down for half an hour, then filled up the water and it was fine for a week. The problem got progressively worse so i now do not make journeys of more than an hour without topping up the water after an hour or so. 80% of the journeys I make are fast motorway trips ......about 70mph....as i would not want to break a speed limit! Also the air temp over here is very hot so despite battling the elements, if it was not loosing so much water from the water pump ( which it is relly dripping big time) it is doing pretty well IMHO.
I have orederd some stuff called seal up which apparently seals minor engine cracks...fingers crossed...am also replacing the water pump.
Any more advice would be gratefully appreciated!
Thanks again
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From what you say, if it was the head gasket, it will be a failure of the barrier between combustion chamber and a waterway, thus allowing combustion chamber gas to go into the coolant and coolant to go into a cylinder.
If this was the case, it would normally be associated with an unually high pressure in the header tank when hot. It could be what is forcing coolant out of the waterpump, but unlikely.
A hydrocabon test on the coolant would be a good start, this usually invilves drawing some off, and adding to a test kit and measuring the colour change against a chart.
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Great name sooty!:)
I'll try and get a test kit...any ideas?
Do you think it is safe to keep driving the car in the same way as i have been if i just change the water pump and add the sealent solution?
Thanks again everyone for the responses.
JB
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www.arrowheadradiator.com/head_gasket_or_combustio...m
That's the kind of thing, not sure where to get it in France or UK as I have only seen garages who already have it - use it...As long as you keep the coolant topped up and remain vigilant, I doubt you will have a catasrophe, I'd change the waterpump, and hold off with the additive otherwise, you won't know what cured the problem if you do two things at once...It may just be the waterpump, I have had loas leak over the years.
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Suggest you this post on the Rangerover specialised website at WWW.LRO.com and then select Q and A boards then select Rangerover.
If you can see the water coming out of the water pump then its most likely to be that I would think. No wet area in the passenger footwell (left hand drive vehicles) or drivers footwell (RH drive vehicle) ? Not using oil ? It is true that some of the early P38a did suffer from block porosity but tyhetre is a good chance you can fix that with seal up compound. You will find a lot about this on the above website.
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4.6 RR suffered from liner chatter/fretting - this is costly to repair and not always fixable. A recon engine is then the only remedy.
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
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