Land Rover Repair: maybe you can help (disco 2 issues), gasket repair, head gaskets

Question
QUESTION: Hello,
 I recently had my head gaskets replaced by a land rover specialty shop. First off i took my disco that i recently purchased private party into have an evaluation done on it. My mechanic told me that it was in need of head gaskets and a few other issues needed to be addressed. I decided to go with the gasket repair and since then it has been one problem right after the other as far as the cooling side of the rig goes. the first thing to happen after the gasket repair was the rig kept overheating and blowing coolant out so i took it back to my mechanic and he said the thermostat went bad because the previous owner covered up the head gasket issue with some kind of gasket sealant that had been added to the coolant side. he replaced the thermostat and it ran good for about 150 miles, but it was building pressure slowly in the cooling side. Then just the other night it decided to go bad. while i was driving it the temp gauge tacked out all the way to the red zone and the light came on. i immediately pulled over and shut her down. After a few I fired her back up and all was well???? So I thought nothing of it and wrote it up as a bug in the system. The next morning I checked the fluids and everything seemed to be fine. I drove down the road for a few and then things went south again. Just as the night before the temp gauge tacked out in the red lights came on and that's when the anti freeze started to flow out from under my hood. Well there's my sob story. I ran across the blog that you posted called "The last word on Land Rover liner failures - I hope!" This was a great blog and it described most of the sounds and issues that I had been hearing and experiencing over the last month or so. The question that I am asking you is, in your opinion do you think that it could possibly be a bad head gasket job, or did my girl slip a steel sleeve? my mechanic is recommending a new/rebuild engine. this is very costly and i am just looking for suggestions.  Thank you for your time

ANSWER: Heath, I'm sorry to say you have already read the answer on my blog.  You almost certainly have a liner or block problem in the engine and the leaks and problems you experience are manifestations or side effects of that.  A "bad head gasket job" might leak or be sloppily done, but you had the cooling system problems before and you have them now so I would not blame them.  I suspect you just bought a truck whose engine was going bad.

We overhaul trucks like yours all the time at Robison Service because people love their old Rovers, but you should be prepared for a $9-12k repair depending upon the completeness and quality of the work

Sorry for the bad news

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the bad news... I kinda figured that was the case. So now I am standing at a crossroad. What to do next scrap it, get a new engine? I if I choose a new engine what engine do you suggest? I have the BOSCH as of now should I go with the same engine or is there another option of going with the GEM? Is this even a possibility?

Answer
The problem is that the tooling for these engines was totally worn out by 2002, and the engines made after that are junk.  What we do now is rebuild the blocks with flanged sleeves.  That seems to solve the problem.  However, I don't know anyone doing that in Nevada.  Not to say there is no one; just that I do not know of them.