Range rover l322 timing chain probs ?

Hi Everyone
I am new to the site I have a Land Rover TD5 and my Range Rover L322.
my 2003 Lr322, it is a petrol 4.4 V8 Bmw engine, and am getting a bad noise comming from the engine, started as grating sound then progressed to Tappet, changed the oil and filter, but has not helped the engine has 96k miles, it sounds like timing chain issue, the old oil filter had very fine filings of metal in it ? very worryin, would I been safe to get simply timing chain rplaced ? I need to repair as economically as possible, not sure of the damage or indeed of a trustworthy garage to administer the works, does it sound like the whole engine should be replaced ?? swap out for a recon or at worst used ?
Any suggestions would be really appreciated don't want to have to loose her, but at the same time need a solution.
I thank anybody in advance for any input and guidence and look forward to all aspects of this forum and site, I hope to be a good contributer as well as hope to get some questions answered.

I think the timing chain has 2 tensioners on it. There is 1 at the top of the engine inbetween both pullys on the end of each cam (the top 2 points of a V) then there is another where it goes onto the crankshaft, this is a longer distance. Maybe this tensioner is knackered and the chainer is hitting against the casing.

Mine makes a racket when it is very cold first thing in the morning, then after a second or 2 it gets upto pressure and noise stops.

Best take it to your local specialist. It might be this but it is probably the chain, good luck.

Adam

when bmw stopped makeing the m60 v8 which had duplex timing chain and they started making the m62 which is the engine you have they went back to a single row chain to save money. with other bmw engines it is advised that a single row chain is changed at 100k miles.

If your engine has been worked hard and/or not had its oil changed as often as advised then it could well be on its way out, trouble is just changing the chain might be a bit late now as you have all that swarf floating around in your engine.

I believe this engine is fitted with a Vanos unit which when breaking down gives the engine a tappety diesel knock from the top end. If you google Vanos unit there are some interesting videos where owners have recorded the noise and a BMW forum with a detailed stripdown of the top of the engine showing the unit and explaining what it does. Hope it helps.
Regards Ian

Yes they have Vanos- just more to go wrong. They normally growl rather than tap on there way out. They arnt cheap either!

I have heard of some independant bmw specialist rebuilding them now as its cheaper, it depends on the fualt though.

I wouid recomend you change the chain gears and tensioners also the guides but you wont really know whats going on till you strip it down.Dont buy any new bits till you know how bad things really are.My 54 reg 4.4 has done 80,000 (never towed) and its silent from start up hot or cold.
Best of luck and let us know what you find.

swast4 said:

I think the timing chain has 2 tensioners on it. There is 1 at the top of the engine inbetween both pullys on the end of each cam (the top 2 points of a V) then there is another where it goes onto the crankshaft, this is a longer distance. Maybe this tensioner is knackered and the chainer is hitting against the casing.

Mine makes a racket when it is very cold first thing in the morning, then after a second or 2 it gets upto pressure and noise stops.

Best take it to your local specialist. It might be this but it is probably the chain, good luck.

Adam

Click to expand...

Thanks for your time, reply and advice,
since posting the problems I have had a very good mechanic evalutae and diagnose the problems, it appears that the car may have overheated in the past, the signs are a bubbling up on the engine covers, I have always babied the car and never really pushed her too hard, regular oil changes, however once the heads were off we could clearly see, that the timing chain guides were broken on the left bank, upon further investigation other faults were detected, the good news is the Vanos units were good and the pistons and the cams, however upon picing up parts and labour it appears to be uneconomical to repair and I now find my self in the position of needing a new engine complete, if there is anyone who can suggest or who has one in good condition I would be much apreciated, once again it is a 4.4 V8 M62 BMW engine required. I am optimistic but so far have been unable to locate a good unit, any advice would be very appreciated.
Thanks again in advance.

fett said:

when bmw stopped makeing the m60 v8 which had duplex timing chain and they started making the m62 which is the engine you have they went back to a single row chain to save money. with other bmw engines it is advised that a single row chain is changed at 100k miles.

If your engine has been worked hard and/or not had its oil changed as often as advised then it could well be on its way out, trouble is just changing the chain might be a bit late now as you have all that swarf floating around in your engine.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your time, reply and advice,
since posting the problems I have had a very good mechanic evalutae and diagnose the problems, it appears that the car may have overheated in the past, the signs are a bubbling up on the engine covers, I have always babied the car and never really pushed her too hard, regular oil changes, however once the heads were off we could clearly see, that the timing chain guides were broken on the left bank, upon further investigation other faults were detected, the good news is the Vanos units were good and the pistons and the cams, however upon picing up parts and labour it appears to be uneconomical to repair and I now find my self in the position of needing a new engine complete, if there is anyone who can suggest or who has one in good condition I would be much apreciated, once again it is a 4.4 V8 M62 BMW engine required. I am optimistic but so far have been unable to locate a good unit, any advice would be very appreciated.
Thanks again in advance.

joolsdale said:

I wouid recomend you change the chain gears and tensioners also the guides but you wont really know whats going on till you strip it down.Dont buy any new bits till you know how bad things really are.My 54 reg 4.4 has done 80,000 (never towed) and its silent from start up hot or cold.
Best of luck and let us know what you find.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your time, reply and advice,
since posting the problems I have had a very good mechanic evalutae and diagnose the problems, it appears that the car may have overheated in the past, the signs are a bubbling up on the engine covers, I have always babied the car and never really pushed her too hard, regular oil changes, however once the heads were off we could clearly see, that the timing chain guides were broken on the left bank, upon further investigation other faults were detected, the good news is the Vanos units were good and the pistons and the cams, however upon picing up parts and labour it appears to be uneconomical to repair and I now find my self in the position of needing a new engine complete, if there is anyone who can suggest or who has one in good condition I would be much apreciated, once again it is a 4.4 V8 M62 BMW engine required. I am optimistic but so far have been unable to locate a good unit, any advice would be very appreciated.
Thanks again in advance.

spitfire said:

I believe this engine is fitted with a Vanos unit which when breaking down gives the engine a tappety diesel knock from the top end. If you google Vanos unit there are some interesting videos where owners have recorded the noise and a BMW forum with a detailed stripdown of the top of the engine showing the unit and explaining what it does. Hope it helps.
Regards Ian

Click to expand...

Thanks for your time, reply and advice,
since posting the problems I have had a very good mechanic evalutae and diagnose the problems, it appears that the car may have overheated in the past, the signs are a bubbling up on the engine covers, I have always babied the car and never really pushed her too hard, regular oil changes, however once the heads were off we could clearly see, that the timing chain guides were broken on the left bank, upon further investigation other faults were detected, the good news is the Vanos units were good and the pistons and the cams, however upon picing up parts and labour it appears to be uneconomical to repair and I now find my self in the position of needing a new engine complete, if there is anyone who can suggest or who has one in good condition I would be much apreciated, once again it is a 4.4 V8 M62 BMW engine required. I am optimistic but so far have been unable to locate a good unit, any advice would be very appreciated.
Thanks again in advance.

Thanks for your time, reply and advice,

since posting the problems I have had a very good mechanic evalutae and diagnose the problems, it appears that the car may have overheated in the past, the signs are a bubbling up on the engine covers, I have always babied the car and never really pushed her too hard, regular oil changes, however once the heads were off we could clearly see, that the timing chain guides were broken on the left bank, upon further investigation other faults were detected, the good news is the Vanos units were good and the pistons and the cams, however upon picing up parts and labour it appears to be uneconomical to repair and I now find my self in the position of needing a new engine complete, if there is anyone who can suggest or who has one in good condition I would be much apreciated, once again it is a 4.4 V8 M62 BMW engine required. I am optimistic but so far have been unable to locate a good unit, any advice would be very appreciated.

Thanks again in advance.

Jaysus...with that many thread bumps, must be desperate !!!!

:nothingtoadd:

With regard to the vanos unit, the straight six petrol unit needed a an M sport mod to stop this noise, it is possible that its the same for the v8's. I use fortune 4x4 in Billericay for my p38 they do L322's too. Give em a call.

fortune aint cheap though, maybe try graytech too in malden

Yup its thise fookin singe row chaines and there fookin crappy guides, told ya!

Ebay- pay your money take your chance but there is always some of the 4.4 engines on there from bmws

just bought all the kit to do the job for one of my customers and i think i have found the cause!
4.4 non gas vanos units rattling then engine stopped found inlet valves on pas head bent found vanos unit on pas side loose found cam badly worn, rebuilt both heads replaced vanos unit's and pas side inlet cam and actuators,and all the followers tooand all the chains and gears and adjuster and slide/guides too! drained the oil and the filter too find poor servicing is the culprit! the filter has dissintigrated and blocked the oil ways to the engine always showed good oil pressure will do with the filter blocked as the switch is there!
am now in the process of cleaning the oil ways out! and hoping it is not more serious!
on parts alone it has cost £3,500+vat at trade and have spent inexcess of over 30 hours so far trying to fix this engine.

so the moral here is do more oil changes a year first and if you here it tapping do expect the worst as it will be the cam and vanos units minimum first!

one thing that has puzzled me this is the first engine you set the vanos preloads with a multi meter and also preload the chain 0.7nm and trust me it is more than finger tight!

Sorry to here about your troubles, i can garantee that your looking at a major expense to get it up and running again, getting a good second hand engine will be a major task.

I have just rebuilt my engine having had similar problems to yourself, therefore i know how much it will cost, one of the main problems i found was getting someone who had ( and had the knowledge) to set up the vanos. I found it easier to buy the set up tools and do the works myself as i have rebuilt many engines in the past.

Due to the costs etc involved it may pay you to sell the car and let someone else do the work.

Bob

Hi
Im new to the sight but work for a Landrover specialist, I know what noises you are on about, and what a nightmare the vanos is to set up! we Just had a L322 in with the clattery front end of the engine, upon strip down the chain rail on the left hand side of the engine had actually broken up! and the chain had started to eat its way through the lower timing cover, this is a 2003 model and it has a single chain and one plunger type tensioner that screws in to the right upper timing cover.
I think a lot of the problems with these chains wouldn't have occurred if they had used two chains, one for each side of the engine and two tensioners, but I suppose they are trying to keep costs down, the one we did also had not been serviced well in the past as it had tar like oil on the inside of the rocker covers and on the inside of the timing chain covers.
A good place for second hand parts on all land rovers is CWS in Glastonbury Somerset, they break everything from the old series landrovers to the later discovery 3s and l322s.

an old resurection of this thread, I wonder why?

Good to know somone else agrees that the m60 with its duplex double row timing chains would have been better then the m62 just like I said over a year ago though

Sinan Mehmet said:

Hi
Im new to the sight but work for a Landrover specialist, I know what noises you are on about, and what a nightmare the vanos is to set up! we Just had a L322 in with the clattery front end of the engine, upon strip down the chain rail on the left hand side of the engine had actually broken up! and the chain had started to eat its way through the lower timing cover, this is a 2003 model and it has a single chain and one plunger type tensioner that screws in to the right upper timing cover.
I think a lot of the problems with these chains wouldn't have occurred if they had used two chains, one for each side of the engine and two tensioners, but I suppose they are trying to keep costs down, the one we did also had not been serviced well in the past as it had tar like oil on the inside of the rocker covers and on the inside of the timing chain covers.
A good place for second hand parts on all land rovers is CWS in Glastonbury Somerset, they break everything from the old series landrovers to the later discovery 3s and l322s.

Click to expand...

good i suspect the op has waited so long to repair his car.