Requiem for a V8

[PeterN]

Interesting. Loss of power and oil in the cylinder would indicate a dropped valve or a broken piston ring.

Was the remanufactured engine a short block or a long block?

It was a short block.

 

[PeterN]

Thanks for the update. It would seem the remanufactured block and top hat liners did nothing for the longevity of your engine.


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There certainly wasn't much longevity going on with this motor. I'm almost concerned that Land Rovers might have reliability issues

(oops...had wrong link originally) http://jalopnik.com/5958901/the-ten-best-used-vehicles-for-exploring-the-world

 

[proper4wd]

At this point its impossible to blame the new short block for the failure. Needs further analysis - what kind of heads were put on the engine?

 

[PeterN]

I believe there were reconditioned original heads. I can certainly find out.

 

[proper4wd]

Depending on your situation, the engine may be financially feasible to repair. Is your mechanic a "repair" kind of guy or a "replace" kind of guy? (You may need to find the right person for the job - sadly many mechanics these days don't know how to tear down, repair, and rebuild an engine - they would rather just replace another short block)

 

[PeterN]

I'm just not in a financial position to sink more cash into this project at the moment whether he is or not. I need a new daily driver.

 

[superbuickguy]

15k for a diesel swap... damn, I better get to spending some money because I have 1/3 of that price that in mine... I'm still not certain why people get so scared about diesel swaps, the ENTIRE point of a diesel swap is better mpg, not faster car. You get a more reliable car, that is breathtakingly slow; which, in a sense, kind of makes SLABS pointless. There used to be a day when people didn't have ABS or traction control and yet somehow managed to go off-road successfully. Heck, and this is just rumor, there was no SLABS on the Camel trophy trucks. So, SLABS is the best anyone can come up with to say "don't do it?" it doesn't screw with your throttle (no drive-by-wire), and the sensors all stay in the same place. Best of all, if it doesn't work the car will still stop! amazing, no? ... but whatever, I'm done arguing - it's one of these, I love Land Rover vehicles, but the self-appointed experts. Too much drama, I go outdoors for fun, I love 4x4ing, my hobby is building cars and I derive a great deal of enjoyment from it. I think overlanding and the people I've met while doing it are some of the best people in the world - but paradoxically, I can't stand the people on here. Good grief, listening to the people on here shout down everyone else who are doing things a different way - not a wrong way, just a different way - drains every bit of enjoyment I get out of the above stuff.

All of this is saying "I'm done" I've no reason to continue posting my build. If anyone is interested, I post under this screen name on other forums.

OP - sorry for dumping on your thread, good luck with your build. LS, rebuild, 300 TDI, Cummins... all have some real benefits - and the best part of all of that is telling the snivelers that you did it yourself.

 

[dallas]

Who does the reman for the Atlantic british Discovery engines?

 

[spikemd]

Ouch! That really hurts. So much money and so little return.

My buddy just blew his 2002 Disco motor. We are in the process of sourcing another one for him, but will most likely go used. We can find an engine for $1500 or less. He will be upgrading from 4.0 to 4.6. A straight engine swap is actually pretty easy and just requires patience, labeling and some tools.

 

[proper4wd]

My buddy just blew his 2002 Disco motor. We are in the process of sourcing another one for him, but will most likely go used. We can find an engine for $1500 or less. He will be upgrading from 4.0 to 4.6. A straight engine swap is actually pretty easy and just requires patience, labeling and some tools.

Might as well take your $1500 to the roulette table. All of these Discovery engines are suffering from temperature related failures over time.

Replace with a proper rebuild, change the thermostat to the Freelander unit, and take care of it. Use good coolant.

Edit: To expand on this... unknowingly to most Series II Discovery owners, the thermostat assembly is frequently running these engines at an operating temp in the 210*+ range. It's designed this way so that the engine management system can lean out the fuel mixture as much as possible to meet emissions regulations. The sustained high running temp is what kills these engines - they just weren't designed for it. In the 1970's, you would have found a 180* thermostat in the Rover V8. Back when they ran forever with very few problems aside from oil leaks, noisy lifters, and horrible fuel economy.

The Freelander thermostat is a direct replacement for the Discovery II unit, and brings the operating temp back into check (190* range I believe).

 

[PeterN]

I spoke with Stephen at cannibalV8.com and will definitely consider his products if/when I can afford to make my Disco 2 shaped paper weight into a vehicle again. He re-manufactures long and short block V8s for rovers, tests and installs them. Check him out.

I'd considered doing a diesel after motor #1 went toes up but didn't come up with a good shop in my area to do it for me. I'll definitely take another look at that option in the future.

 

[PeterN]

My mechanic spoke with Atlantic-British again today and they may be willing to supply parts if I'm willing to pay to have the work done to figure out what the origin of the problem is. To my mechanic's credit, he is offering me a substantially discounted labor rate...he feels pretty horrible that this happened. He told me he's installed about 10 of these motors and so far they are all running fine. Even though it's a small sample size, when you add my blown motor to the mix, it's a pretty poor run rate for his shop. He'd like to get to the bottom of it as much as I would.

He proposed to do the work with the engine in the compartment (all the bits are already stripped off and in boxes in the back of the truck). He'd take that head off and see what there is to see.

If he finds that the cylinder is scored, I've just lit another pile of money on fire. So I'm not sure what the right decision is.

Can anybody think of a scenario that has oil above the piston that doesn't involve catastrophe for that cylinder? I'm just imagining bits of piston ring grinding in that cylinder. Can a ring slip without tearing up the liner? I just don't know enough about it to make this call. I'd love to hear from people with knowledge in this area.

 

[proper4wd]

Yes. If the piston rings were not properly installed (aligned), then oil can move through without causing any wear to the cylinder. (essentially there are three rings... each one has a gap, and each gap must be properly aligned with the next to ensure the best seal)

It's also possible that you have a valve problem which may not have impacted the block or piston at all. A badly worn valve guide would cause a loss of compression and an oil leak into the cylinder.

 

[roverandom]

Interesting about the DII thermostat. I didn't know it had a different rating to earlier Rover V8's.



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[proper4wd]

It would be possible to have a fairly good understanding of what is going on without doing a complete teardown. A compression test, leakdown test, inspection with a borescope, and inspection of the engine oil would reveal a lot.