L322 Coolant loss dilemma td6

Hi all , after a couple of years absence from a land rover of any type I have recently " fallen" for a 2002 vogue - I restored a defender some years ago ( there is a build thread on here somewhere )
First of all its not mint by any means and has been to the moon and back but it's comfortable and great to drive and I can get any parts and welding gas bottles in I need so it ticks all the boxes
I've done a few silly jobs - ride height sensor - blower sensor and tailgate lock just to get rid of silly messages on dash and make it all work again .
Anyway I have noticed that I am loosing an amount of coolant and after 3-4 weeks and 700 ish miles the coolant level message came on the dash.
As I need to do a few other things which are going to cost time and money I thought I'd check the head gasket with a "sniff test " before spending either
As you can probably guess from the fact I'm writing this I got a reaction - however it took about 20 mins to react and had to suck the fumes through a good many times .
I have no emulsion in the cap and no sign of oil in water or vice versa .
I do have a smell of coolant under the bonnet like there is a leak somewhere but it's not obvious where it's coming from - by the left side of the rad would be my guess .
So after a long winded intro - is there anything else I can do to check gasket - can it be anything else ?
Any info on changing head gasket anywhere and what sort of time if required .
I am hoping that it's not HG obviously and want to be 100% before I decide to do it or just get rid
Thanks for looking and any advise in advance
Jon

Your best and simplest method is to put fluro dye in the coolant they usually come with a black light in a kit that will help you trace any engine bay leaks and if your engine oil glows under the black light you know your head gasket is cooked. That's the way I finally found my hg fault.

biketeacherdave said:

Your best and simplest method is to put fluro dye in the coolant they usually come with a black light in a kit that will help you trace any engine bay leaks and if your engine oil glows under the black light you know your head gasket is cooked. That's the way I finally found my hg fault.

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Great idea - thanks
Not used to vehicles that use water for cooling just air

Compression test maybe?

Saint.V8 said:

Compression test maybe?

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Steam cleaned injector?

I’m in a real dilemma with this as I have really fallen for the vehicle - it just ticks every box for me .
How hard is a gasket change on td6?

Have you found why its loseing water yet ? And where

I’d repeat the sniff test just to confirm or the dye combined with a cooling system pressure test with a gauge to indicate the pressure change and if it’s definitely the head gasket I’d be inclined to chuck in a decent engine friendly sealer to try and buy me some time until the transmission packs in and craps on your strawberries anyway, that way you will have two reasons to set fire to it.

I don’t think the head gasket would be too bad to do, at least there is only one of them.

biketeacherdave said:

Have you found why its loseing water yet ? And where

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I haven't yet - I have put it in my workshop for a while whilst I try and get some other stuff dome on other vehicles .
I'm not convinced it's the head gasket but sniff test would show otherwise

holidaychicken said:

I’d repeat the sniff test just to confirm or the dye combined with a cooling system pressure test with a gauge to indicate the pressure change and if it’s definitely the head gasket I’d be inclined to chuck in a decent engine friendly sealer to try and buy me some time until the transmission packs in and craps on your strawberries anyway, that way you will have two reasons to set fire to it.

I don’t think the head gasket would be too bad to do, at least there is only one of them.

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I think you have a fair point - from reading the forums it seams that I'm only ever waiting for something else to go wrong - just enjoy it until it all goes Pete tong

When i first got mine i repaired every little and not so little fault i could find which got very expensive very quickly and since then i have learned to ignore a lot of stuff, but keep a little bit of an eye on it, and most of the time it just goes away or nothing really bad happens.
I keep an eye on the oil and coolant levels and don't listen too closely and then park it up for another week

holidaychicken said:

When i first got mine i repaired every little and not so little fault i could find which got very expensive very quickly and since then i have learned to ignore a lot of stuff, but keep a little bit of an eye on it, and most of the time it just goes away or nothing really bad happens.
I keep an eye on the oil and coolant levels and don't listen too closely and then park it up for another week

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Taken your advise re sealant - using steel seal and will see how it goes - I fixed some of the major bits that effect how it runs and drives but can live with the rest - if it all goes wrong hay ho I can put a replacement engine in eventually

As long as that is a good one, there are many different types of sealer, some would say don't use any at all but do some research into which sealers best suit your engine.