Hello guys,

I wonder if anyone would be able to offer advice on resolving a problem with our LHD 2007 LR2 i6 3.2 HSE Auto?
A few months ago, whilst driving in France, a bottom hose burst. The temperature went ballistic and after stopping at the first garage and buying over 15 litres of premixed antifreeze, I was able to make it home. (About 20 kilometres). The engine temperature was high during this time and water was leaking almost as fast as I was putting it in.


We are in a very rural area of France, (The Auvergne) and the nearest Land Rover garage is about 160kms from us. There is a Ford garage about 25kms but since they no longer have the JLR empire they aren’t particularly helpful. The local engineer feels that the marque is too complicated for him.


We have a few Agri vehicles and plant so thought that we would have a go ourselves… (actually that means me!), I must stress than I am not an engineer but can understand, manuals, instructions and process.


Whilst stripping down the car to get to the hoses, we, (I’m using the Royal ‘we’ here), decided to replace all the things that may give concern in the future. There was already an intermittent fault with the generator, (identified as a connector), so that was replaced along with gaskets, belts, pulleys, waterpump, steering pump and reservoir, thermostat and a set of hoses. The engine wiring was quite brittle in places so a new one was purchased.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Do you want to come to Australia for remote outback support?

I had a Peugeot 504 & briefly a Lancia Beta 2000, each had to have the head gasket replaced & each had their cylinder head machined.

Beyond this I can't really help as I let my mechanic do these things for me.

My Pug & Seat Ibiza each did 250,000 km & their petrol engine's were perfectly ok. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Take off the rad cap and with the level set correctly at cold let the engine then idle until it reaches running temperature and see if once the thermostat opens it coughs any air into the header tank (self bleeds). If the head is OK it should not keep throwing loads more air out, so top up, rad cap on and enjoy.

No mention of cooling fans cutting in ? FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

Hi Lightwater, Lovely car you have!! I guess it does feel isolated at times although not quite the distances you likely have, we're right in the centre of France. There was a JLR dealer about 25kms but they are Ford and are no longer agents. We do love this area but sometimes it's like stepping back 50 years...


Thanks Yorkshire Bob, sorry I didn't mention the fans, they work fine and because the car was a hot climate export it has two.


I am confident that I established that it wasn't latent air in the system and went through the bleed procedure a few times because the implications of it not being an incomplete bleed were... Profound!


In any case I have already drained the system, (radiator and block) and removed, Inlet manifold, alternator, a/c bracket, belt tensioner and purchased a head gasket set in preparation to remove the head. It is the exhaust manifold which is giving me a headache.


Following the workshop repair manual I need to remove the catalytic converters, (x2), the heat shield and 14 manifold bolts. But I can't see how to get at them, or at least all of them. Of course being exhaust bolts they won't just pop off and I have already struggled with the first two which are accessible. I know that the i6 was mainly an export as the LR2 but if any engineers are forum members they might consider giving me a few pointers. I did think that if I am able to at least free the two cats at the bottom that I might be able to lift the head off the dowels enough to gain access to the manifold but I can't find any information and I truly don't want to make a mess of it.


The repair manual makes no mention of dropping the engine so I assume that there must be a way to do this.

kind regards,

Emma x

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I am not an i6 owner so the answers are maybe with them.  FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

Hi Bob,
thanks anyway,
Emma

'How do you access the manifold bolts hidden by the engine/gearbox?'

I have no idea what the i6 engine layout looks like & I'm sure I am asking a stupid question to someone with your experience. Have you got the right spanner for the job? Companies like Stahlwille have a lot of specialised spanners. Their equipment is top quality. I don't need to tell you but the last thing you need to do is damage a bolt trying to remove it.

The 'GT 85' that you sprayed on, have you been patient enough so it has time to do it job? Just getting away from the job for a few days is the best "tool" to think clearly & from a new perspective.


Thank you for the comments on my car. I was in France in 2010, with relatives from England, we drove from Le Havre to Paris, we were there on 14 July, it was the best time to see Paris as all the locals had gone away! In 2011 we drove from Italy to Saintes Maries de le Mer then north to Switzerland. You have extremely lovely scenery, towns & villages are absolutely stunning!


If you look up 'QF32 Peter de Crespigny' he is a pilot who saved an A380 staying clam & thinking clearly under the most stressful situation. Incredible inspiration for anyone with their car in a million pieces! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Have you tried pouring boiling water over the surrounding metal to create thermal expansion difference to the bolt. Let in all cool down as cold as possible & repeat a few times.

Respay with your GT85 & leave for another day. More boiling water....

Aluminium has twice the thermal expansion of Steel. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Had to change head and gasket on my Td5 discovery. Not long afterwards the head gasket went again, pressurisng the coolant system in the manner you describe.😤
Total PITA but second strip down and new gasket sorted it. There are occasional tricky items to remove. Logical thought and someone with smaller hands often helps! Good luck, you'll get it sorted. Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

Hi Bob, love the avatar!! and to Lightwater again for your advice. I must confess to feeling a little nervous about posting in case I came across as either a complete idiot or unrealistic. So thank you for your help. Thanks too for sharing your experience with your TD5 and your advice about the gasket itself is good. Although I would never describe myself as, 'Petite', yes small, is an advantage in confined spaces!! The problem so far has been that, (and as you mention) my fear of rounding one off, or the horror of horrors, snapping one... The hot and cold treatment makes sense, I did think about a small propane/oxy torch but maybe that would be too much, actually we have a hot air gun which can be used for pe/pp/plastic welding, it has a narrow nozzle which also might help. I guess the best option would be to direct the heat onto the surrounding metal rather than the bolt itself as this would allow some expansion? The downside of smaller hands is that they aren't as strong hence ordering a longer 72 tooth ratchet which should allow me to make smaller movements on the bolts. The ones that I was using were either to short to get any leverage or so long that the bar itself was flexing and using the available space.


You're absolutely right about walking away and rethinking the problem and using logic and process rather than brute force or anger Mind you Captain Richard Champion de Crespigny probably wasn't able to walk away for long and ponder on the 58 potentially catastrophic faults lighting up the panels in the cockpit... Wow!

So thank you guys, I really do appreciate your posts. I guess I was beginning to panic a bit and was putting myself under more pressure, simply because I wanted to bring the head back with me and get it refurbished. Just arrived back after twelve hours in the baby Merc, Wasn't so bad, and it at least gives me time to take another look at the problem and of course some more GT85 I will do some more research on specialised tools and Stahlwille as well as a wider search on removing/looseing ruster and frozen manifold bolts. Our fibre optic t'internet here in Southampton is about a million times quicker than the Edwardian wiring that makes up the telephone lines in rural France


Emma xx

Have a look here from Geotrash

http://www.freel2.com/forum/topic32575.html Common sense isn't very common.
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2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

Hi Axel, thank you darling for sending the link to Geotrash's post on removing the exhaust manifold. It's prefect and gives me direction to remove the cylinder head.

Thank you.

Emma x

Your more than welcome.  Common sense isn't very common.
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2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

Hello guys, it’s been a while since I started work on FreeDeux’s bad head. After replacing hoses, pullies and pumps I started her up and discovered that the head was warped and so stripped everything down again. I got the cat bolts off using several extensions and a long breaker bar following their frequent spraying with GT85. Head skimmed in Winchester.
I will write it up and post it if anyone’s interested, being an i6 and not very popular in UK/EU there wasn’t a great deal of information. Fortunately, the engine is also in the Volvo and it almost identical so I gained further information from searching Volvo 3.2.
There are a number of special tools required, the cam kit, (again Volvo 3.2 rather than LR2) was no problem, lots on Ebay but the bigger problem was the special tool required to set up the two-piece A/C pump bracket and the tool needed to place the timing cover seal. Volvo once again came up trumps.
So, the short story here is that having got it all back together I now find that I am unable to crank the vehicle. Turn ignition on, starts the system check and that’s it. The red battery light is on even though it is good (almost new and a Life-time) and even connected to a charger/starter there’s no crank, not even a click.
I have a yellow engine warning light but that shouldn’t be a problem for starting, (engine oil level is good but that and filter will be changed after running up the engine), Water level is low, (just distilled water) in preparation for flushing with distilled water and then filling with OAT mix. CHF Steering level is also low until I can get the car off the ramps and get the wheels off the ground to purge the air.

I notice the red flashing light on the left dash dial which I think indicates that the alarm is armed and engine immobilised. This didn’t happen last time so I’m a bit stuffed….
Can anyone offer any advice please? It seems that I have triggered this somehow. I have cycled the alarm off/on a few times, disconnected the battery but no change.
Would be very grateful.

Emma x

Only one quick thing I can offer is putting the battery leads together for 10 minutes or so once off the battery. As the starter motor is not turning maybe its decided to pay dead. Can you crank the engine over by hand ? FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current