P38A Project P38

monkfish24 said:

Ran the tap through and there was no swarf when it came out, cleaned, de greased and blown out with air. They may have weakened and snapped though as you say.

Better not be the bloody head gasket!

Sequence?


Just kidding, ten bolt, centre working outwards at diagonals. Same as RAVE and the instructions that came with the head gasket.

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Had a 7/16th" UNC tap handy then, that's good. Always pays to run a tap down then blow out any oil or debris. Bolts to be angle tightened should be lightly lubricated as should below bolt washer and bolt head. Light lithium grease for that application.

monkfish24 said:

There is enough material for it to just catch my fingernail if I ran my thumb nail from liner to block.

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To me that reads like liner is lower than the block but maybe thats just me.

kds said:

To me that reads like liner is lower than the block but maybe thats just me.

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Could be. Don't they normally tap when hot as the engine expands?

Grrrrrr said:

Could be. Don't they normally tap when hot as the engine expands?

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they rattle like shyte..

It's a distinctive noise too.

So is it just me then thats thinking slipped liner and it matters not who made the head gaskets its still going to leak.

I haven't spent a lot of time/no time looking at it recently, it had to be put to one side while I make a start on restoring the barn and building a car port for my new car.....

I have spent a bit of time looking at pictures of slipped liners online and I am convinced, along with you guys, it is a slipped liner. I return to work in a few weeks time so it'll be a good time to start building a parts spares list and next time I come home, it will be a full engine out and 100% rebuild this time. I may have got a bit carried away and excited about just getting it running.

But next time, I will have a full workshop to play with as I will finish that before I leave.

original idea was to pull it out first as last. I know ŵhat it's like when you just want to get it running to see before going mad with chequebook. Make sure she's cwtched up under cover safe before you leave her

RangeRoller dt said:

original idea was to pull it out first as last. I know ŵhat it's like when you just want to get it running to see before going mad with chequebook. Make sure she's cwtched up under cover safe before you leave her

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I managed to limp her back in the garage, poor thing. At least if I build a full engine, from scratch, in accordance with RAVE, I've got an engine that SHOULD last me.....

This is a pic of an engine I did last week, albeit a 4.0 Gems..



Cylinder 6 had dropped a liner, you can see it is below the deck surface, and the nail test was pretty conclusive


If i was you now, I'd pull the motor and, give it a full autopsy and rebuild either it or a fresh unit.

You could just bolt in a decent engine and keep that one for spares? For £160 +engine n becm etc with your treated heads ; you've still had one hell of a steal, and have a donor unit for future

monkfish24 said:

I managed to limp her back in the garage, poor thing. At least if I build a full engine, from scratch, in accordance with RAVE, I've got an engine that SHOULD last me.....

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A Rover 4.6 v8 lasting? With no issues? ... oh crap. Some urine came out.

I refer you to post #162 the cracked block was obvious some time ago.

Grrrrrr said:

A Rover 4.6 v8 lasting? With no issues? ... oh crap. Some urine came out.

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It's all relative my dear....
One of my other LR has a K series from Rover!

monkfish24 said:

It's all relative my dear....
One of my other LR has a K series from Rover!

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Spanners at the ready!

So got back into the P38 again, I've got a few projects on the go now. Carport for the Mustang, An old IH 250 tractor which is running but just waiting on a few parts to make her complete, lastly a barn that needs tonnes of cement pouring in the walls and I can only do it by hand as nowhere down here has a cement pump to hire. But I made a start on getting the engine out of the P38. I have been looking online and found a few engines, there is also one at my local scrappy for £300 but it's a self remove one. Might just order one from Ebay and save the hassle.

I almost have the engine completely disconnected from the chassis, the electrics, fuel, exhaust, intake and power steering is all apart. Just the oil cooler and engine mounts to go before I can then get in behind the bell housing and separate the engine from the gear box, although something tells me it might be easier to just pull the whole lot and give it all a clean and check over/oil refresh and grease and then its good to go for a while.

I'm also taking mine out so I can practice taking the one out in the scrappy, although I might get away with just cutting pipes rather than carefully taking them off!

I'm very glad I wrapped the exhaust manifolds, The liner coming out of the driver side also sped things up massively, thanks for the tips from previous!

I'm also planning on moving the chassis out and giving the engine bay a good pressure wash but I won't have anyway of moving it back over the pit after it rolls out the garage!

I'd be careful when purchasing from a scrapper.

Its possible it would have the same issue.

At minimum a Scrap engine will need a top end rebuild.

Maybe even bearings.

Probably worth ripping it apart. anyway lol

Henry_b said:

I'd be careful when purchasing from a scrapper.

Its possible it would have the same issue.

At minimum a Scrap engine will need a top end rebuild.

Maybe even bearings.

Probably worth ripping it apart. anyway lol

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Yeah, I agree, the engine I am looking at is a 100K miler but does have an LPG kit which from what I read the theory is that it's a bit better on the engine as it runs at a lower temperature. They do offer a 30 day guarantee that the engine is good so I will only have lost time if it does turn out to be a bad engine.

I did the same for the K series turbo that's in the Freelander, new HG and bolts before it went in and it's done 15k miles at reasonable level of boost and not gone pop....yet!

I don't really have the right conditions in my garage yet for a clean workshop environment. it's very dilapidated!

monkfish24 said:

Yeah, I agree, the engine I am looking at is a 100K miler but does have an LPG kit which from what I read the theory is that it's a bit better on the engine as it runs at a lower temperature. They do offer a 30 day guarantee that the engine is good so I will only have lost time if it does turn out to be a bad engine.

I did the same for the K series turbo that's in the Freelander, new HG and bolts before it went in and it's done 15k miles at reasonable level of boost and not gone pop....yet!

I don't really have the right conditions in my garage yet for a clean workshop environment. it's very dilapidated!

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LPG burns cleaner and is on par with pez the Clororific ratio of gas is lower than Pez etc etc.

Bung it in and see what happens, if you have a 30day warranty then go for it,

Henry_b said:

LPG burns cleaner and is on par with pez the Clororific ratio of gas is lower than Pez etc etc.

Bung it in and see what happens, if you have a 30day warranty then go for it,

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I have the same reservations as you, believe me!

Am I right in thinking that the 4.0 and 4.6 is just different heads? I'm just thinking about If I'm going to take it apart and do the top end then I could broaden my search out to 4.6 and 4.0 blocks.

If I was to get top hat liners, is it a simple case of just taking it to a engine machine shop and getting them to countersink the block to take the liners? The channels themselves will obviously need some kind of repair?

monkfish24 said:

I have the same reservations as you, believe me!

Am I right in thinking that the 4.0 and 4.6 is just different heads? I'm just thinking about If I'm going to take it apart and do the top end then I could broaden my search out to 4.6 and 4.0 blocks.

If I was to get top hat liners, is it a simple case of just taking it to a engine machine shop and getting them to countersink the block to take the liners? The channels themselves will obviously need some kind of repair?

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4.0 and 4.6 Thor heads are the same.

The 4.6 is just a stroked 4.0.

The standard liners will have to bored out and the Top hats pressed in.