2001 Land Rover Discovery II - Discarded Discovery: Part 1 - Four Wheeler Magazine
We love a good deal and aren’t afraid of hard work, so when a 2001 Land Rover Discovery II was dangled in front of us for a mere $500 we jumped at the chance. When we took possession of this “Discarded Discovery” it had every indication of a blown head gasket, which is a common problem for the Bosch 4. 0L V-8 installed in these vehicles. With parts and our free labor, we figured we could tackle the task for a minimal cost and still have a running Disco for under $2,000. These particular Land Rover motors are plagued with failures, and the most common seems to be the head gaskets... We planned to replace the problematic factory head bolts with ARP head studs in hope of possibly alleviating this problem but stumbled into some unfamiliar territory dealing with the proper torque spec. This was based on the bone-dry cooling system, lack of compression while cranking (on the driver’s side), and apparent seepage from the driver’s side head gasket area. Also, it’s a given that the Discovery II head gaskets fail every 90,000 miles or so. Its time was up. Land Rover Head Bolt/Stud Torque Specs. With Land Rover engines, head bolt torque spec is always a tricky bugger. The OE specs call for the TTY (torque to yield) bolts, which use a beginning torque spec of 15 lb-ft, then call for tightening in two steps of 90 degrees each. Source: www.fourwheeler.com
