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[JamesV6CDX]

Just got back from picking up a project car we decided to take a chance on.

I bought it from a lady at work.

Late 2002, 52 Rover 75 Connoisseur.
50,000 miles, in the same family since 2005.

It's the 1.8 16v K series!

(Have a receipt for nearly £8,000 when they purchased it in 2005)

Black leather, all the toys, and is nothing other than mint apart from a couple of cosmetic bumper marks.

So, what's wrong with it? It's a project car, bought for project money, so there's bound to be something!

The lady told me she was driving along, and the temperature light came on, the gauge being v high.

She took it to a 'garage' (a garage I know and particularly despise), who charged her £40 for putting some radweld in, and saying "probably the head gasket, love".

B@stards! Probably done more harm than good.

The temperature still wasn't stable, so she decided to get rid and cut her losses.

The car does not misfire, and starts on the button.

I drove it a mile home, (we live close), and all the gauges seemed OK when I got back.

Once on the drive, I removed the header tank cap, and..... PRESSURE!!! The coolant came flying out at a serious rate of knots.

Would you agree this is comensurate with head gasket symptoms?

I know the early K series ate them for breakfast, but I thought something as new as a 2002 would use a multi layer gasket?

Would you skim, also?

Looking to do a proper, honest repair before moving the car on, (unlike the radweld guy!), but equally don't want to replace lots of components that don't need it.

In terms of the work, I've done lots of K series head gaskets before (haven't we Jaime!!) so no problem with that.

Opinions? 

[Olympia5776]

Did our Freelander K series a couple of years ago now .
Was showing signs of failure ,slow but steady water loss and emulsified oil on dip stick and cap.
Interestingly there was no oil in expansion cap and no excess pressure in cooling system but then again it wasn't a full blown failure .
Clearly the system should be pressurised but it depends if you feel the pressure release was greater than say a normal 13psi system ( not certain if the K series is 13 but you know what I mean ) could have originally been the poorly positioned thermostat stuck closed if there was no water loss ,the high pressure down to whaterver the garage put in ......
I would have a sniffer test done for HC's in the coolent before I did anything but if you're going to go ahead with the HG change then only use a genuine LR MLS kit cw steel dowels , new stretch bolts and remote grey thermostat kit , new water pump and belt kit too when you're in there .  Definatly have the head checked for true and only skimmed if neccessary.
You'll probably know about the oil rail but I didn't bother on the advice of several people in the know.
Flush  the radiator through and check all the hoses for the obvious.
It all soon mounts up but it's false economy otherwise.
Overpressure , if it is , can only be HG ,blockage or pump.
Good luck.
PS James ,I'm sure the MLS gasket  wasn't introduced into production until much later circa '04 -'05.

[Gaffers]

HG repair on the k series is very easy, if you need to go down that route skimming is a definite.  However I would do a compression test first, I seemed to remeber that when it went on ours it was very obvious after the comp test.  That said yours could be a slight blow only evident at high temp so do a cold and hot test

[TheBoy]

The symptoms described indicate the usual k series hgf - the car overheated (probably due to low coolant), causing hg to let go quickly.

No Rover had the MLS HG, and nothing from 2002 had it.

MLS + Bolts + Ladder is the way forward.

[Filth_Mobile_Jim]

I think later freelanders had an uprated lower cage that is supposed to help.

[TheBoy]

I think later freelanders had an uprated lower cage that is supposed to help.

Yeah, LRs from around 2005 have the uprated MLS and uprated oil ladder

[JamesV6CDX]

Had a look this morning.

Filled up with water, and ran up to temp from cold, watching everything.

Very soon noticed that, the pipe from the thermostat was stone cold, despite everything the other side of the stat, being nice and hot.

We removed the stat, and boiled it in a pan of water.

As the temp of the water increased, even up to boiling point, the stat did not open, it hardly budged a mm..

Halfrauds had none in stock, so I just removed the internals of the stat today, and refitted it as if there was no stat there (along with re fitting the inlet manifold)

All seems good with the world now  I'll take it for a test run tonight, and if it behaves, a replacement stat is all that's required 

[henryd]

Had a look this morning.

Filled up with water, and ran up to temp from cold, watching everything.

Very soon noticed that, the pipe from the thermostat was stone cold, despite everything the other side of the stat, being nice and hot.

We removed the stat, and boiled it in a pan of water.

As the temp of the water increased, even up to boiling point, the stat did not open, it hardly budged a mm..

Halfrauds had none in stock, so I just removed the internals of the stat today, and refitted it as if there was no stat there (along with re fitting the inlet manifold)

All seems good with the world now  I'll take it for a test run tonight, and if it behaves, a replacement stat is all that's required 

"K's" don't cool well with no stat fitted