Last weekend I started to get cheep cheep cheep sounds from my V8 under any kind of load (but not idle). I replaced the LH head gasket earlier this year. This time it seems to be the RH one. Not sure what triggered it, I had a minor over-heat in slow traffic on a hot day a couple of weeks back, but pulled over very quickly, let it cool, and as soon as I was on open road the RR ran fine.
After removing the HT leads to plugs 2/4/6/8 one by one - the cheep disappears on 4 - so I'm hypothesising there's a failure coming on 4, which I'll deal with in due course. I'm just trying to work out how driveable this is...if the HG leak goes to a full chuff chuff steam engine sound, and I were in the middle of nowhere (say 100m away from home) and I had to remove the HT lead and disconnect the injector on no 4, would that do any damage to the engine (and assuming the other 7 cylinders run fine, which they do)? I'd much rather be able to self-recover than call out Admiral and wait x hours etc etc Tnx, Rob

After I did my head gaskets last year I had a bad misfire on at least one cylinder.

Even at idle on the driveway this was enough to heat the cat up to the point it set the heastshield on the body on fire. I got a fire extinguisher on it pretty quickly but it stayed smoking and glowing like fire embers for hours after.

I assumed that the injectors on the affected cylinders were still staying fuel in that wasn't getting burned until it reached the cat.

I wouldn't want to drive 100 miles with a misfire unless I was certain the fuel was being cut off to that cylinder first.

Have a look at this https://rangerovers.pub/topic/1147-at-just-the-wrong-time-of-the-year It was driven 40 miles to me and had been like it for a couple of weeks. It was only because the noise it made was becoming embarrassing when doing the school run he decided it needed something doing with it. The engine had top hat liners and no marks on them or the block face at all, but the head was skimmed anyway but only needed a couple of thou taking off it, so no damage to the head either.

Thanks Rutland, I was planning on pulling the injector lead too, to stop the excess fuel - sounds like a sobering experience you had there. Anyway, I did a short drive as proposed ie no 4 with a disabled HT and injector, and it would make it to the next service station like that, but I'd worry about going a long distance, that said lesser cars run on 4 cylinders, so 7 might have been ok in an emergency.
Thanks also GIlbertd, i think this is me. Have started tear-down already, I couldn't resist, once i had the diagnosis, and I have all the parts on hand. Let's see what the head gasket looks like tomorrow - once I've navigated the usual crap with the heat shield bolts, I might have to try and pull out the cylinder head and exhaust manifold in one go

It is possible to take the head off complete with manifold and heat shield but you need a short socket that will fit under the heat shield to get to the top head bolts. As the bolts come out you need to lift the head up to allow room for the socket. I've done it using wooden wedges, someone did it on my car shortly before I got it but jammed screwdriver in there and nicked the head face causing the head gasket to blow shortly afterwards.

Driver's side, Gilbert? I previously lifted the passengers side as one, but driver's side has been a PITA, and I don't think I would have been able to safely remove the head bolts without getting the exhaust manifold off ( oh yes, one of the exhaust manifold bolts sheared too - mirror image of the one that sheared on the passenger's side). I'm now down to one earth strap at the back of the cylinder head and I can whip it out. Why the hell did LR think it would be a good idea to fit a load of inaccessible M6 bolts around the heat shield? Grrr

Yep, it was early stage gasket loss to outside on no 4. The left hand one I did before went at no.3 in the same place. I sent it for skimming today, and drilling that f-ing exhaust bolt

Took a while to get machined - now back in and engine seems to be fine, first time, however, I shall be starting a new thread with something else !!