Help please?!

Here's the scenario, (sorry for the length - this is over a week and a half)

First trip out in my new toy, formerly Wiltshire Landyman's 4.2 bobtail Range Rover
Took it to Yeovil for an MOT which it flew through and I noticed the oil light flickering and then staying on when you throttled off or on idle. Checked the oil at the test station and was reading spot on, and the engine was sounding sweet, so presumed it was just a dodgy oil pressure switch

Took it out off road for the first time that weekend, dunked it in a hole that had got deeper than last time I was there, bit of a splash then cut out: slightly expected so attacked the dizzy cap with WD and boom back to life! Great! (Oil light still flickering as before)

Carried on for a couple hours and then got stuck in a bigger hole but it kept running, with assistance from 3 other trucks wasn't going anywhere. Than my old man dragged it out with his hydraulic milemarker (awesome winch that I rate higher than my own 8274 - especially as my 8274 plus an X9 couldn't get me out after 45 minutes! - one truck snapped a half shaft trying to get me out and another snapped a winch rope twice)
Then after it was out it started overheating (Kenlowe's weren't cooling it), turns out I popped the water pump belt off, fixed that over lunch and carried on.

Ten minutes later after a steep climb of 50ft I noticed the oil light was now staying on even with throttle, so checked the oil and it was barely reading on the dipstick, but the oil light definitely hadn't got progressively worse, just suddenly! Hadn't even started to sound 'tappety', so topped it up and carried on again, then within 2 minutes it did start to sound tappety.

So stopped and packed it in for the day where I was, and towed it home.

Did an oil and filter change at home and no difference, still sounded the same, I put in 6.6 litres of oil in and the dipstick was reading nearly an inch over max??? Also the oil on the dipstick was as clean as a whistle (like it hadn't been round the engine) however it now actually sounded worse, like it was missing as well, so dried out the dizzy cap cleaned up all the spark plugs and initially it sounded smoother then after 5-10 seconds back to how it was.

This suggested the oil pump was playing up and may have been why I started losing oil pressure on idle I thought. Checked the oil filter and it was about quarter full of BLACK oil, ie back fed from somewhere other than the sump

Under the instructions of a mate and his Haynes manual I took off the oil pump and packed the cogs with Vaseline, sealed it all back up and filled the oil filter with oil before refitting

That's where I was as of last night, haven't tried to fire it yet, thought I'd let the gasket sealer go off first.

But my question is, where can the 4 litres of oil have gone in a mornings offroading???? It's not leaking, there's only I tiny sign of oil spray from somewhere inside the engine bay and the exhaust gases look good enough to breath!

I've just put Magnatec oil in so I don't really want to waste it in the same way as before but I'm at a loss.

The only suggestion my Dad had was that maybe the rear crank seal had gone and dumped the oil into the bell housing of the auto box so I am intending to have a look through the access plate in an hour or so.

But any advice or if anyone has had similar problems or has any alternative suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I've trawled through the V8 section with no joy and gone through WLM's posts with no obvious signs of previous problems

I'm new to EFI V8s but had just as much water problems with a 300tdi defender so suggestions for putting a diesel in will fall on deaf ears!

Thanks in advance guys

Overheated, oil pressure release valve got stuck giving poor oil pressure leading to the oil light staying on?!

Maybe?!

RV8s do tend to leak like billy-o but not usually 4 litres a day!

Drop the oil again and refill with 20w50. That should cure any oil pressure/tappet issues you have.

And then see what's what.

dirtydiscov8 said:

Overheated, oil pressure release valve got stuck giving poor oil pressure leading to the oil light staying on?!

Maybe?!

Click to expand...

We did think that might have been a cause so had it out cleaned it up and put it back, but now got a new problem, it will not fire, we drove it to where it is, after firing first time, haven't touched anything ignition related since it was last fired up, so I don't know whether we've fixed the original problem because of this new one!

Mr Noisy said:

RV8s do tend to leak like billy-o but not usually 4 litres a day!

Drop the oil again and refill with 20w50. That should cure any oil pressure/tappet issues you have.

And then see what's what.

Click to expand...

Ok will give it a go, once I sort the firing issue

Check ignition timing. Mine once drove to an off road day for an hour, got there and parked up. Restarted and then started dying. Would not restart all day. Spent 4 hours.

Got towed home and checked timing, it was way out. Had only just set it days before so didn't suspect it!

Has been fine for a year since then - weird!

O.K. then, you "lost" most of your oil, the engine died and now it doesn't want to start.

First of all I think I would remove the wading plug from the front of the bell housing, if the rear crank seal has gone your oil might be sitting in the bell housing, make sure you have a piece of wire or something to make sure the wading plug hole doesn't get blocked with sludge as all the muck tries to drop out the bottom.

Second, oil pressure - sticky relief valve is common, they are peanuts - get a new one and check the original one for scoring.

Third, priming the oil pump. I have never used the vaseline method; I prefer to remove distributor and then spin the oil pump up with a slotted rod inserted in to a cordless drill. You will know if the pump has primed because you feel the resistance on the drill. It also then gives you the opportunity to check your timing from scratch. Don't forget to mark the dizzy so you know where it was before you took it out and note carefully the position of the rotor arm BEFORE you move it or take it out.

Lastly, non-starting - there are many threads about how to check and sort this. I would be inclined to agree with Noisy, timing is best place to start but you might want to check you are getting a spark and that you have fuel. Sometimes V8's are just stubborn, I have found a number of times that loosening the dizzy clamp and advancing the timing enables it to fire up, then just set timing and all is normally well.

yes what he said!

often the only way is to get a couple batteries together to crank it over as fast as possble, and then rotate the dizzy back and forth until you find the sweet spot and it coughs into life usually SLOWLY and STUBBORNLY. this is usually due to flooding.

sometimes a tow start gets em going nice and easy but check your mechanicals first!

Thanks guys, I will give it a go over the weekend, and keep you informed
But I was ready to throw the toys out of the pram last night so hopefully a night off tonight to clear my head will be good!