thanks,
surprisingly (to me) there are used and recon motors available,
I thoroughly cooked the engine (thought it was a fuel problem 20km after fill and even forgot about how the temperature gauge fails when water is lost - catastrophic hose failure).
Engine starts but boils within 5km. Radiator pressurised within a few seconds of starting (when I drive it now I leave the cap half open). Thermostat tests ok, I removed it anyway.
Thought I'd try head gasket replacement at roadside but exhaust side rusted and had been worked on before I purchased (surprise ....!). Rather than break studs, etc, I decided to keep vehicle mobile - I drove it onto back of road train to get to Derby.
Discussion with a Derby heavy equipment fitter decided replace engine rather than opening old one up as probably shortened life of old one. Long engine would re-use my fuel pump etc which would need recon - which would be ship to Perth, etc, etc.
Replacing engine also helps accommodation. We only loose "our house" for a couple of days. There's a trade-off between accommodation cost and repair cost ... replace engine is more predictable cost than "let's take it apart and have a look".
I now have a used / tested engine with 125,000 km on its way from Sydney. It will take at least a week to get here .... more than 5,500km. From a 2wd so have to swap sumps ..... does anyone know if it has a sump gasket or uses goo like toyota?
I'll replace radiator hoses, possibly radiator, and clutch while engine out. Any other thoughts?
It could have been worse ..... although Gibb River Road is marketed as an adventure it looks like a (corrugated) "highway" to us. There's at least three companies offering vehicle recovery services. A couple of days later we would have been somewhere on the Munja Track!
