New liner 3 lots of head gaskets 2 lots of helicoils and

Bloody Marvelous success so new liner in no 8 heads skimmed v coiled the right bank 3 sets of head gaskets one after the cracked liner another when the thread let go between 4 and 6 after v coil moved when rad failed and now the ones installed.Plus when the block came back replaced all the shells and bearings
and completely rebuilt the engine with lots of help from the guys on here so thank you
It has taken me months doing it on the drive in the winter in the dark but she is running like a dream and there is nothing else wrong as I sit here everything works abso bloody lutely everything - for now anyway

Well done to you!

Nice to see you did it all yourself.

Yep me and lots of the guys on here with advice and encouragement

:5bparty::5bparty::5bsifone:

Fabulous. Enjoy youre driving.

Well done Sandy - I know these things can be difficult - you have done well.

My advice is NOT to drive along like a paranoid lunatic watching all the gauges and listening for hissing, ticking and rattles - just relax, enjoy your lovely V8 and drive the wheels off it.

:behindsofa:

Great stuff Bud...Well done !!!!

raise:

Well I have become so adept at changing the head gaskets that I fear nothing haha so will drive it just the way I always did thanks for the comments guys

hehe just done 200 mile round trip sweet as bloody marvelous

sandyt said:

Bloody Marvelous success so new liner in no 8 heads skimmed v coiled the right bank 3 sets of head gaskets one after the cracked liner another when the thread let go between 4 and 6 after v coil moved when rad failed and now the ones installed.Plus when the block came back replaced all the shells and bearings
and completely rebuilt the engine with lots of help from the guys on here so thank you
It has taken me months doing it on the drive in the winter in the dark but she is running like a dream and there is nothing else wrong as I sit here everything works abso bloody lutely everything - for now anyway

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Congrats mate, I'm looking at doing thee same thing myself, just waiting for spring to kick in as I don't even have a drive! Did you make any improvements while the engine was in bits? i.e diff crank, cam etc. Can I ask where you got the block from?
I Look forward to saying the same thing!!

My engine had only done 30 k I bought it from Landrover new when they were getting rid of p38 stock so it was a thor engine which I converted to gems it is also one of the smoothest I have come across so when I discovered the liner had a crack decided to just rebuild but used the same crank and cam as had them checked and no wear The blocks for the 4.0 and the 4.6 are the same its the stroke that gives the extra capacity so there are plenty of blocks around but there are a couple of places that do crossbolted with top hat liners for about 900 quid .
My take on it is that there are no problems with liners or blocks etc so long as the cooling system is tip top so put a new rad thermostat and water pump in. I didnt and it cost me a head gasket after 500 miles

The bottom end of the Thor has larger mains which are cross-bolted and is pretty bullet proof - shame about the liner issues - could have been a truly great engine for the cost of a few top-hat liners instead of the cheapy Rover lash up.

Gems and Thor bottom ends are the same,both cross bolted and same journal size.only difference is the crank shaft position sensor mount,some of the later 3.9 engines were also cross bolted.but used a different front timing cover with a distributor.the 4.0 and 4.6 difference is the stroke of crank and length of rods,pistons are Same size just different size dish on top to alter compression ratio.

StuckAgainSteve said:

The bottom end of the Thor has larger mains which are cross-bolted and is pretty bullet proof - shame about the liner issues - could have been a truly great engine for the cost of a few top-hat liners instead of the cheapy Rover lash up.

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Perhaps even better if the casting quality was more consistent and the alloy used better quality, they could have gone the Nickasil route then

dove said:

Gems and Thor bottom ends are the same,both cross bolted and same journal size.only difference is the crank shaft position sensor mount,some of the later 3.9 engines were also cross bolted.but used a different front timing cover with a distributor.the 4.0 and 4.6 difference is the stroke of crank and length of rods,pistons are Same size just different size dish on top to alter compression ratio.

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Thanks, I didn't realise they started cross bolting the older type engines - I used to rebuild Rover V8s a lot in the old days (usually fitted to other cars in the fast-road modding and amateur drag racing scene) and they weren't cross bolted then.

Actually after reading more about it,most of the 3.9 blocks are not cross bolted,but the later ones have the additional strengthening at the caps and could be cross drilled(expensive) but doable,my mistake,it's when they started calling it the 4.0 that they were all cross bolted