New member, looking for advice, Re sync possible

Hello all,
This is my first post on this forum, although I have followed as a guest for the past few years since I have owned a P38. I have caught the bug. My 2.5 DSE RR blew its head gasket a week or so ago, after doing 204,000 miles. I have access to an engine locally and cheap but it has done 190,000 and don’t want to waste time changing motors for the same problem soon down the line. I came across a P38 fairly local to me, it has done 80,000 genuine miles with service and MOT history, one owner for the past 10 years but hasn’t been driven for 2.5 years as it will not start. The old chap which is selling says he was jump starting the truck regularly as was too tight to buy a new battery as it wasn’t his only vehicle, one day he went to start and somehow the ECU has locked him out. He said that he hasn’t had the inclination to load onto a trailer and get it fixed and that now he is sick of the sight and wants rid. I am going on the proviso that if I cannot get the truck running again, I can put the engine into my truck (very clean for age) which still has lots of MOT left. I know that buying a truck as a non runner is a gamble but I tend to like the story and the chap seems believable. Long story short is that I have negotiated £850 on the truck, do you experts think that to be a good deal? I will be doing the work myself with any electrical stuff to be done by a friend which is very knowledgeable on P38s. I just don’t want to pester him as it is Christmas so I thought I would pester you lot instead!
Thanks in advance
Will

Hi and welcome
Depending on what imessages are coming up on the dash display if it's lock out entering the eka code or if there is no message and engine is turning over but not starting it probably needs the becm code and engine ecu code rewriting to match.

This is the conclusion I have come to from reading a lot on here and RR.net and really hope it is the case, I will take a battery and test it before I buy, do you think the price is worth the punt? I would never normally pay that much for a non runner but the mileage is swaying me.
Thanks

Ansomecarriages said:

This is the conclusion I have come to from reading a lot on here and RR.net and really hope it is the case, I will take a battery and test it before I buy, do you think the price is worth the punt? I would never normally pay that much for a non runner but the mileage is swaying me.
Thanks

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If it's in decent nick it's worth that inparts.

Proper job, a few people have been trying to put me off the deal so this helps, after speaking to the chap tonight, he says that it just turns over and will not fire, so hoping for the becm problem.
Thanks

I'd take a good battery and try it myself. To be sure....

Welcome and one other point please please don't refer to your RR as a truck

Ansomecarriages said:

Proper job, a few people have been trying to put me off the deal so this helps, after speaking to the chap tonight, he says that it just turns over and will not fire, so hoping for the becm problem.
Thanks

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Yes sounds like the engine ecu has lost sync with becm, that will require a Nanocom or similar diag, ones that will talk to diesel edc which is not obd compliant
Or it could just be the stop solenoid on the injection pump.

brianp38dse said:

Yes sounds like the engine ecu has lost sync with becm, that will require a Nanocom or similar diag, ones that will talk to diesel edc which is not obd compliant
Or it could just be the stop solenoid on the injection pump.

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As @Rubberknees posted it's NOT a truck!! Welcome to the gentleman 's carriage forum. when was it last running? It could be as @brianp38dse posted.get a fully charged battery on it and see if you have diesel up to the injectors

Thanks for all your help, going with a trailer tomorrow, hopefully it will all be straight forward, you have given me a good idea of what to look for. Thanks again, Happy new year to you all.

LZIR map might show a member near you with a Nanocom. Wasn't pastymuncher down that way?

I have had a look on the LZIR and there is no one with nanocom edc, but there may well be some one down that way just not on the map.

Proper that would be great if there was, my man can do it but I will have a job to get him out before the new year. I bought the RR, not bad pleased and knocked a couple hundred off the deal somehow so worked out at £650. I will post some pictures tonight

tomcat59alan said:

Welcome to the gentleman 's broken carriage in need of constant repair forum.

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Corrected that for you Alan.

Welcome to the OP.

It winched on the trailer fine in neutral, auto stick was going through the box fine, put in park and when we went to unload, the auto stick is now flopping around and light won’t go from P to anything else. Would this be something like a selector fork on a manual? I don’t really understand how an automatic works. Thanks

Ansomecarriages said:

Proper that would be great if there was, my man can do it but I will have a job to get him out before the new year. I bought the RR, not bad pleased and knocked a couple hundred off the deal somehow so worked out at £650. I will post some pictures tonight

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You would pay nearly that for a low mileage second hand engine so your quids in really which ever way you go with it, see if you can get it started check it over and may be try for a mot then decide which one to keep or you could always keep both

Shame someone has put on l322 front lights and side vents

brianp38dse said:

Shame someone has put on l322 front lights and side vents

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Yep, underpigeon.

For towing you need to put a five amp five in a slot to put the transfer box in neutral. F11?

I agree, I don’t know what’s going on with the lights and vents, I will put the lights back to standard as I have some, both trucks are very tidy really, I will probably get one of them going and then may play with the 3.0L swap in the one I have left, it’s a shame as my original has lots of MOT, it’s a shame it is a different colour as the plates may have been muddled up by accident.....