Land Rover Repair: overheated and not starting, gasoline smell, head gasket

Question
Hello ATTILA,
 I have 1999 DISCOVERY II.My return hose on the radiator came off and I lost almost all the coolant LEAKED OUT while driving in the highway. soon after that I pulled over and stopped.Now the truck will not start.A local repair shop said that the compression was low on the engine and that there was a gasoline smell in the oil.What could be wrong with my truck??HELP ME PLEASE!  

Answer
These are very wrong signs. If the cooland has leaked, and if you didn't realize quickly, the engine can overheat in 2-3 minutes! Mostly if the engine's load is great.
The piston can stuck and dissolve where it touched the cylinder. When the engine had cooled down, it can rotated easily, because there was a lot of waste in compression.

I think if the low compression is true, they must dismount the cylinder head from the engine. Then the pistons and cyilnders, and the cyilinder head gasket shows themselves.
At that point they can tell you how big the damage.

Gasoline in the oil may by the burned out cyilnder head gasket.

I cannot tell you much good news, because it's oftenly happened by the same way. These engine's are very sensible to the overheating...