P38 4.6 oil rings - £££££ ?????

Hi each,

Has anyone had their oil rings replaced, mine has started to show tell tail blue smoke...........

If so can you give me a ball park figure of the cost please? Unfortunately I am having to consider letting her go if the cost is too much.

If anyone is a mechanic nearish to the Midlands maybe you would let me have a quote.

Thanks,

Al.

Heads off, sump off, pistons out, new rings,new big end bearings,new valve stem oil seals, hone bores and reasemble. If you can DIY then only the parts to buy, probably less than £150 if you shop around. Not a 5 min job.

I did mine last year and the job is just a long, long list of relatively straightforward tasks. Nothing complicated but took me 3 days and many cups of tea. I can't remember how much it cost in parts but if you are like me you will stray into the "well I may as well replace it since I'm in here anyway" territory. I ended up replacing the camshaft, followers, rocker gear, big end and main bearings and few other bits to boot. All in all it was a therapeutic and somewhat enjoyable job..

It could be valve guides, valve stems and valve stem seals, the only problem is you won't know until your've stripped the engine. Then if the piston rings are shot or the cylinder bore worn, you'll be possibly looking at a rebore or ridge reamer depending on cylinder bore ovality/wear.

I'm afraid there are 3 choices.

1. Run it until it fails an mot and sell it for spares/repairs.

2. Take a chance that its just oil rings strip it and be prepared to have to spend more money than your willing to, even taking it off the road and saving up with no transport.

3. Be prepared to do a full engine rebuild.


Personally I'd be looking at a full rebuild and if then something doesn't need replacing that would be an added bonus, but I can do all the work myself, apart from machining costs + parts.

l'd be surprised if you'll find a garage willing to strip/rebuild an engine for less than 1000.00 GBP labour + parts.

If you can do head gaskets you can re-ring your motor. Like said.. it's just tedious in the car. Lots of cleaning. I did a 4.0 no re-bore, just a quick ball hone, stock size rings, new bearings. 120,000 miles, motor runs great, no issues I think I was under 800$ but thats USD to early here for me to do the math. Did the work myself.

By the time you get the motor stripped enough to do this job, you might find it easier to just pull it and put it on a proper stand, then your rear main seal won't leak like a bitch when you put it all back together.

For a P38 HSE here stateside its worth it, if its in nice shape they still can fetch good money.