Do I sell or repair? Range Rover 1999 4.0 V8 SE

garydavidson123 said:

No, it has been professionaly diagnosed as HG.. Fortune 4x4 definately know what there doing.. there also part of 'the good garage scheme'. there quote inc all new heatshields, head skimming, all new gaskets, bolts, coolant and oil.. labour only comes to £500...

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Fair enough. I'd be fixing it but it sounds like you've made your mind up to call it a day with it. Shame really, I appreciate that the garage is professional and reputable but surely the price they gave you should leave you with a repaired and fault free car, not a 'see how it goes' car.

Well yes, in theory it SHOULD leave me with a fault free car, but the way my has been going these last few weeks I'm very doubtful..

I dont suppose there's any other way of diagnosing a slipped liner without taking the heads off is there?

I'd love to keep this car.. but I just dont know if I can take the risk this close to xmas

Does it make any noise like tapping when its cold?

quote{The cars worth about £3500 if it was working.. and I've thought it over and if I could sell it for £1500 i'd be happy.. i just know if they pull the engine apart and IF it is bad news then there gonna want £3500 for a new block and i'd lose so much.. at least if i sell it for £1500 i'd only be losing 2k instead of 3.5k
Do you think someone out there would buy it for £1500 as it stands? I've seen worse go for a grand on ebay.. }quote

hi gary, i have been in a similar situation to you, and the part where your relationship is mentioned, was dear to my problems too. we bought one of these beautiful cars, only to be beset with a few problems to start with, but after fixing them, there were so many other 'qualities' with owning this marque that drove me mad, all though i was able to see through them, and remedy with help from this site! -but it kept letting it self down in front of the missus, and with kids onboard with caravan on tow etc. there were so many annoying flat battery faults, keycoding problems, beeps on the dash warnings, that the towel was thrown in after being towed home for the third time. We both loved that car. I had water loss problems too, i was topping it up. i knew it was dreaded cracked block scenario. yours has manifested to blowing the head gasket, when you fix it, it will still loose a little water, and reappear when you forgot to fill it up. the problem is, all the p38 v8's have the inherent fault, 4.0 4.6 new and old. that cause them to crack and start to loose water. if you get away with it today, it will come back, as the block made by land rover is a bad design. the ONLY way to remedy it is, to buy a remanufactured block, from a specialist, and build it up. some have different ways of addressing it, for instance, RPI and turner enginneering, know what they are doing. but it will cost you about £1500 for a block, and then some rebuild parts,and your labour. you have to think as i did, after you have fixed it, and with its bad design, that it will happen again, with the old block. if you take some real nice pics of it, and describe it well, and list it on ebay, buy it now or start it, at £1500, i'm sure you will get it. mine went for £2500 though it was an autobiography, but was 2yrs older. (last year) and with disclosed water loss problems.+ others.
If its all together it looks better than it all being in the boot. but dont pay to reassemble it. trust me Gary, you DO get over owning the king of cars, but you do watch them go past and let your tongue hang out just a little. though you dont see the ones on people's drives, that dont go. we used our money towards a disco 2 Td5 ES7. diesel. its slow, and small, but it never lets us down in a year! not one thing (yet!) i wanted a newer range rover td6, but needed to know more about them, so this is our inbetween car. When you have had a lick of something that tastes nice, you can't go back to a smaller lesser car. but you have to make a bold decision. if you have to have another, buy one with a replaced or relined block, with invoices to prove, and with lpg multipoint system on, a much better car. read on RPI site v8engines.com loads of info.

johnboyairey said:

quote{The cars worth about £3500 if it was working.. and I've thought it over and if I could sell it for £1500 i'd be happy.. i just know if they pull the engine apart and IF it is bad news then there gonna want £3500 for a new block and i'd lose so much.. at least if i sell it for £1500 i'd only be losing 2k instead of 3.5k
Do you think someone out there would buy it for £1500 as it stands? I've seen worse go for a grand on ebay.. }quote

hi gary, i have been in a similar situation to you, and the part where your relationship is mentioned, was dear to my problems too. we bought one of these beautiful cars, only to be beset with a few problems to start with, but after fixing them, there were so many other 'qualities' with owning this marque that drove me mad, all though i was able to see through them, but it kept letting it self down in front of the missus, and with kids onboard with caravan on tow etc. there were so many battery faults, keycoding problems, beeps on the dash warnings, that the towel was thrown in after being towed home for the third time. i had water loss problems too, i was topping it up. i knew it was dreaded cracked block scenario. the problem is, all the p38 v8's have the inherent fault, that cause them to crack and start to loose water. if you get away with it today, it will come back, as the block made by land rover is a bad design. the ONLY way to remedy it is, to buy a remanufactured block, from a specialist, and build it up. some have different ways of addressing it, for instance, RPI and turner enginneering, know what they are doing. but it will cost you about £1500 for a block, and then some rebuild parts,and your labour. you have to think as i did, after you have fixed it, and with its bad design, that it will happen again, with the old block. if you take some real nice pics of it, and describe it well, and list it on ebay, buy it now or start it, at £1500, i'm sure you will get it. mine went for £2500 though it was an autobiography, but was 2yrs older. (last year) if its all together it looks better than it all being in the boot. but dont pay to reassemble it. trust me Gary, you DO get over owning the king of cars, but you do watch them go past and let your tongue hang out just a little. we used our money towards a disco 2 Td5 ES7. diesel. its slow, and small, but it never lets us down in a year! not one thing yet! i wanted a newer range rover td6, but needed to know more about them, so this is our inbetween car. if you have to have another, buy one with a replaced or relined block, with invoices to prove, and with lpg multipoint system on, a much better car.

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Thats good advice. Put it on Ebay as it is being honest and you might find you get the money what you want

Yup, I gave a grand for mine my '97 R reg, non runner, 6 months MOT, no tax, suspected head gasket and took a chance.
Mine isn't what I'd call immaculate but its clean, look the nuts, and has over 150K on it but now I got it running, I'm ready for the next fault haha.

If I had the cash I'd be coming picking yours up tonight.

i know the lads at fortune and some of the racing team.They know there stuff but they aint cheap.Id suggest a second opinion/price

Sounds like you need to consider whether you need a Rolls Royce solution or just get it fixed.

If they take it apart and find a slipped liner then you don't need to pay to put it back together - what would be the point?

Depending how much you love the car, you could consider a replacement engine at that point.

As to the comments about the v8 being a bad design - bollocks. It's a fantastic engine let down by bloody accountants. When they increased the capacity they should have linered it properly but they didn't.

I very much doubt you will need to worry about cracked heads though.

Don't slipped liners make a noise?

I thought they made a tapping noise when cold Kooky, thats why I asked if the engine run quiet.
Like I said, if I had the cash, I'd buy it and fix it myself, getting good at em now 3 sets in 6 weeks lol (my fault, not the car/design).

Hamster97 said:

I thought they made a tapping noise when cold Kooky, thats why I asked if the engine run quiet.
Like I said, if I had the cash, I'd buy it and fix it myself, getting good at em now 3 sets in 6 weeks lol (my fault, not the car/design).

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How loud is the taping noise when a liner has sliped? is as loud as a badly adjusted tapet or worse?

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but i had an identical spec ( year, model, colour, trim...) and in January this year i also started to have suspect HG problems. On further investigation i found severe corrosion of the block between the water way and the drivers side front cylinder liner.
I went through all the options of doing a repair or buying a new block for 3.5k pds, but in the end i just could not justify the 3.5K pds on a car worth not much more when fully functioning. I therefore scrapped the car under the Govt scrappage scheme and bought a new FL2 as i needed to have a reliable car that i could trust.
I still have the following bits avail if anyone is interested:
2 cylinder heads with 6 thou ground off.
Complete Payen HG set.
New head bolts.
New heater matrix with the two pipes 'slightly tweaked' to give a better fit on the matrix connection as the new heaters have a slightly different angle for the connections.

Whatever route you choose, good luck and let us know what you decide.
If you decide to let it go i can assure you that you will look at other P38's on the road with envy. I know I always do.
Nigel

Folks

Is it not possible to get the engine replaced with upgraded liner solution for circa £2.5k ? Seems a crying shame for a great spec car to end up scrapped :-(

tonymccandless said:

Folks

Is it not possible to get the engine replaced with upgraded liner solution for circa £2.5k ? Seems a crying shame for a great spec car to end up scrapped :-(

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The engine from Turners Engineering with the solution /fix for the liner problem inc the dreaded VAT is £2900 then with labour to refit engine will total £4000. I know cos I did it last year.

Its a lot of dosh

hi i have two ford v8s 5.8 would they fit into p38 (spare boat engines)

From what I read though David it is an absolutely solid engine from Turner and even gets to 20 mpg which could really help my 12mpg challenge !!!

If I had £4k lying around I would probably just go buy one as a stand-by.

Here's a different view.

Currently my RR does 12mpg = 45p per mile in fuel. If I spent £4,000 on a Turner engine that gave me 20 mpg then within 8,949 miles I would have my money back.....

^^^^^^^^^^^

id go for it. you will regret selling.

Too late.. the decision has been made (mainly by the Mrs.) the car is now for sale for the bargain price of £1400! COME AND GET IT! who evers 1st to get round here with that much cash and a tow truck its yours!

just remind her of this the next time she wants to buy a new handbag or shoes...

i'd have it at that price frankly but its just impractical for me at the moment as overseas.

The car needs to go tommorow! I am willing to accept £1250 from the 1st person who turns up with a trailer to be able to take it away. I need a working car for monday or basically I lose a well paid job, so realistically losing a couple of grand on this car at the moment is my only option.

Its on ebay but that runs out sunday, which is too long away, it needs to go tommorow! and i need to find a new car sunday... its up to about £1070 on ebay...

£1250!!!



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