Disco 3 (LR3) Oil Pump Dilemma D3 and D4's

Evening all

I am seeking some clarification on the oil pump replacement upgrade

Over the past three weeks I have spoken to two known independent LR garages as my D3 is going in next week for various replacments

They have both told me that they are aware of this issue but one stating:-

" The 2.7 is a better engine than the 3.0 as we have seen crankshaft issues with these engines and I have never seen an oil pump failure on a 2.7 and we have seen a LOT of Discovery 3 and 4's over the years "

The other said the following:-

" We know about the possible oil pump failure but we have never seen it, keep on changing the belts at the required time and also the oil every 6000 mile "

They both told me to stop reading the internet as well?

I am in the process of arranging oil pump replacement, belts, water pump, tensioners, antifreeze etc but has it unfortunately happened to any of you lot?

Cheers

The pump should be changed at the 1st chance you get

The oil pump itself does not fail, it is the oil pump alloy casting that the cambelt tensioner bolts to that fails.
I think early cars are mainly ok, it seemed to kick in mainly 2007 onwards.
LR independentss are strange, one will say they see 50 D4 crank failures per eyar, yet others have not seen one failure.

One local to me, reckons they do two sdv6 engines per week, not always crank failures, cracked pistons and other expensive defects.
Another one ran a sweepstake on the D3/4 forums, they specialise in engine refurbs and replacements, they rekconed they only saw 15 failures in the whole year, I reckon they are protecting their future, as to much slagging makes the risk of running an sdv6 unviable for most folk.

I have seen the same thing happen on trucks, you can work at company A and they have certain things fail all the time, yet go and work for company B, running the same make/model of trucks, and they have different components fail?

Land Rover themselves must of realised there was a fault with the original D3 oil pump as they designed out the weak section of casting in the later pumps. while it’s all stripped for belt change it’s a no brainier to change the pump if you have the old design.

The oil pump casting isn't connected to crankshaft failure.

They are 2 different faults, both resulting in expensive damage, the latter an engine replacement.

All you can do is sort the oil pump at the same time as the belts and change the oil at regular intervals, making sure the filter is correctly seated in the housing.

Then just hope your engine isn't one with a duff crankshaft.

Is it necessary to change the oil pump and water pump on a D4 at 100K just because I’m changing the cam belt? I get the importance of changing the pump on early d3’s because if the causing issue.
If I do need to swap the oil pump, What sort of job I’d this? Eg do I need to drain the oil? & which gaskets/desks do I need? I can seem to find this detail in the forum.