Ian Barclay,

details in this thread http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic19950.html

I hope so for you too, let us all know what it turns out to be. Worse things happen at sea! Well thats what swmbo said when WRENS came to sea!!!

Ian Barkley will just farm the work out to Birkenhead engines. Try cutting out the middle man?? If it's on a trailer you wouldn't go far wrong with Deeside 4x4 or Landranger as it's sometimes know. They do the work on my dad's friends bowler. There very friendly with the engine builder who do race engines over the road. BIG landy fans in there.  [img]http://www.fuelly.com/driver/rob2529/range-rover[img/]
04, 4.4V8, Vogue Oslo Blue with LPG.
"You can sleep in your car, BUT you can't race your house!!!!"

If something can't be fixed with a hammer....... You have yourself an electrical fault!

I was unaware that Barclay would subby the work out, are you sure of that ?
I did get a brief price off him today on doing the head gasket work.

The problem with these lumps is you cant get them anywhere easily if they cant be driven. I don't have it on a trailer and it has to be moved to where ever via a recovery wagon = more expense. Luckily a friend of mine who is a 'top drawer' mechanic has had a look at it and seems confident its the oil cooler and not the head gasket so he is going to fit a new 1 to it outside my home. Fingers crossed that fixes it !!
How kind of Dan @ Duckworths to cancel his holiday and sort out my requirements, top bloke
Also Dan offered some words of wisdom stating he had never heard of a TD6 engine blowing its head gasket but its not unheard of about the oil cooler failing.

I need to speak to Barclay's place tomorrow to finalise a price on the job but it wont hurt to give the deeside guys a call. These guys http://www.bellautomotive4x4.co.uk are meant to be good as well but a good portion of handing over a chunk of change, for me, is accountability and if I have a problem after I have paid I want to know I can return to have it solved without fuss

Pleased to hear my initial thought & guess may be right  Worse things happen at sea! Well thats what swmbo said when WRENS came to sea!!!

I know Ian wouldn't sub the work out!

He will send the head to get skimmed like the majority of other garages but all the work to strip and rebuild the engine would be done by him or one of his lads there. It's mainly Ian who does all the major jobs like heads and engines!

Last time I was down there he was stripping down the heads on a supercharged sport to replace the gaskets! 2009 TDV8 Vogue SE - Bonatti Grey

I agree Mark most of us have a trusted engineer who skims our heads but the stripping down & assembly is always done in house. The only reason we do that is the cost of the gear to do it compared to the amount of heads that come through the workshop make it non cost effective, unless you want to attract the work from other garages then you become an engineering workshop! Worse things happen at sea! Well thats what swmbo said when WRENS came to sea!!!

Is it always necessary to skim the cylinder head if it blows a gasket ?

Does the amount taken off the cast aluminium block mean that other internal parts being changed to compensate ?

@ mike we will find out for sure mid week when the job gets done

Not always but in any doubt most do, cheaper than doing the job again. Depending on the amount Skimmed it may need a thicker gasket,manufacturers always state the max that can be skimmed & the heads are often marked. A good engineer will always know & advise accordingly. But like I said I think you will find its the oil cooler even though I cant be 100% without a compression test & coolant pressure test to see where its leaking. Hope that helps. Mike Worse things happen at sea! Well thats what swmbo said when WRENS came to sea!!!

Yep that helps

Check the oil cooler first. On my car both coolers (engine and transmission) went within a month of each other causing similar problems, however I have a SC and not a TD6 so not familiar with the engine and ancillaries, but it sounds like you should check the "cheap" failure possibility first.

From what I can see in the workshop manual, the cooler could be different from the ones used in the SC but if they are from the same manufacturer, they could have the same problems as the heater matrix is probably identical and that is the part failing on them. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

my input on Ian sending work out is based on what he told me when I thought my heads had gone. he may have changed what he does but that's what I was told as to have a bay tied up doing the job wasnt cost effective compared to having a few easy jobs in and out in that time. I cant say his service was bad or good etc as didn't need work doing in the end. [img]http://www.fuelly.com/driver/rob2529/range-rover[img/]
04, 4.4V8, Vogue Oslo Blue with LPG.
"You can sleep in your car, BUT you can't race your house!!!!"

If something can't be fixed with a hammer....... You have yourself an electrical fault!

My two pence,

Normally with a head gasket you'll get symptoms before a complete failure (black smoke, overheating, frothy oil, oily/sludgy coolant and so on and on).

If its the oil cooler which we all hope it is BTW, all that's going to happen is your coolant becomes less and less efficient at cooling the engine. you may notice a smell and should see engine temperature increase over time.. Depending on how bad the leak is. But normally you don't notice it until you change your coolant or it fails.

if you have just had a major service and the mechanic didn't notice anything then, IMHO it sounds like you've had some sudden damage to your oil cooler, or a weld/matrix has failed.

Good luck and I hope it doesn't cost too much.  Bushy

2003 RR Vogue Monté Carlo Blue

The beast had been running well for a while, nothing unusual to note. I recently had the gearbox serviced then shortly after that a service including changing all the filters, engine oil change, cam breather modified filter and new valve assembly, EGR bypass kit, water & anti freeze mix and some external bits and bobs. All fluids were nice and visibly as you would expect to see them. I must have done at least 300 miles maybe 500 since the service with no issues, in fact it was running better than ever

The only time I noticed the engine temp rising above half way was just before I managed to pull off the main road and shut it off, other than that its always at the halfway point.

I had to move it a small distance (few yards) this morning and was told this wont hurt it but pay attention to any smoke etc. The beast fired up and purrrred away as I gingerly drove it a few yards, you wouldn't have even thought anything was wrong.

I hope its just the engine oil cooler so I can continue to save for my facelift

update:

Had the oil cooler replaced on Wednesday evening by my good friend who gave up his time to work in cold and windy conditions. Getting the part off was a bit awkward, best approach was to take it off with the oil filter housing still attached. The thick congealed oil and coolant was not in short supply, trying to get this out was extremely messy, however much water and rad flush later the system was at least running a liquid through instead of this thick treacle type goo. The coolant system needs thoroughly cleaning & flushing through and unfortunately I dont have the facility for that so off to the garage next week (fully booked as usual). Good news is I can drive it to the garage as the motor is functioning again and mobile albeit taking it easy and not long journeys as the cooling system is only filled with water and more rad flush for now. The engine temp isn't moving past the half way point on the gauge so far

I missed my FFRR like mad and it was only 4 days I was without it, how did I ever cope with just cars in the past ?
I did have a ride in a car the other day and it was horrible