Land Rover Repair: 2001 p38 4.6 HSE overheating, radiator cooling fan, trip down south

Question
Hi,
I own a 2001 p38 HSE Range Rover with around 100,000 km on the clock. It began overheating a while back on a trip down south, dumped all the coolant. I let it cool down and reloaded it with coolant and drove home - all OK not overheating at all. Then it happened again, same deal-cooled it down, relaoded coolant and drove home, this time I took it to the dealer who flushed the rad, checked the thermostat and gave it the tick. THEN it happened again and the engine started missing so I was advised to have a top overhaul including head checks and any repairs (the bill did not say whether any cracks were found. OK so I get it back and guess what - overheated within 100km of the service/repair. This time they could not fault it but installed another new thermostat and sent me on my way. Guess what - yesterday it overheated again after a 10km round trip. Any thoughts please. radiator, cooling fan clutch, ECU, whatever. I need some help, at present I cannot trust the old girl (my P38) on any sort of a trip.
Best regards to all.
Chris R. Australia.

Answer
I'm sorry to say your story sounds like a classic example of liner failure, a failure of the engine block itself.

There's an article on this on the Robison Service website, and it's well know to Land Rover dealers.

In the USA, the 4.0 short blocks cost about $3,500.