hi - a brief background - our vehicle suffered head gasket failure but due to driver not stopping we needed a new engine - this was bought off ebay and fitted by a local company - five minutes after collecting it overheated and we are back to square one - apparently it was shipped with a thermostat fitted behind the engine as you look at it and ours had the front fitting thermostat connected to the top rad hose - the garage then wanted another £1000 to scrap the existing head and put a "new" one on -we had already paid £1600 at this stage for engine and fitting so I decided enough was enough and I would sort it myself - I took the head off and first things first took it to place in Hyde to be checked over (bridge cylinder heads) they immediately pointed out that it had previously been skimmed beyond tolerance and not even level - the marks faded accross the four cylinders from visible at one end to not at the other - I contacted the company who sold me the "reconditioned engine" who rather begrudgingly sent me a replacement head but advised me to get it checked out. back to bridge and I had it pressure tested, skimmed etc and now have what I assume is a perfect serviceable cylinder head
my questions revolve around if I need to replace the rail in the sump that the head bolts thread into - landrover dealer say this should be done and secondly I noticed on the bottom half of the engine that someone had previously tried to remove the locating dowel and has scored the face -
you can see the marks above the hole for the dowel at approx 2 o'clock -
my questions revolve around if I need to replace the rail in the sump that the head bolts thread into - landrover dealer say this should be done and secondly I noticed on the bottom half of the engine that someone had previously tried to remove the locating dowel and has scored the face -


you can see the marks above the hole for the dowel at approx 2 o'clock -