Water Usage and slight tapping

Guys... 1997 P38 V8 4.6 on LPG.

Used about `lit of water running up from London (300miles).

Temp is bang on centre, heaters work well both hot and cold.

128K miles, slight tapping from left hand side of engine (looking from the front to be back).

Any ideas?

could just be worn rocker arms/sticky or worn hydrolic tappet and a slight leak somewhere.

Or it could be a whole list of nightmare expensive p38 problems.

I would just keep it topped up with the correct mix of coolant and see how it goes.

Obviously look hard for any leaks though- as they are the cheap option on a p38

Tapping when engine hot or cold, is it at valve gear or piston speed & (if it's only just started) does the tap go away if you switch over to petrol for a few miles? Thinking liner but hopefully I'm wrong.

Tapping is louder when warm. Seams to be louder on the drivers side of engine but does sound to be on both sides. Main sound is around the same level as the plugs... but I'm still trying to establish this.

She's also a bit gutless for a 4.6. This is wrong isn't it? If you go uphill and dump the right foot - then she kicks down ok - jumps to 3, 4 and 5K rpm but with nothing over than just a slight rumble or vibration.... could this be a worn auto box or just a torque converter? or is this marry up with water usage, tapping etc???? how do you check these things??

worn cam sticking follower,worn rocker arm sticking valve tired in need over a revamp?

All that sounds expensive! How much do you think I'm looking at?

slipped liner

doesn't the slipped liner mean opening up the engine ? would I look at doing the cam, taps, heads and liner all at the same time. I can get the engine manufactured for 1800 squid.

jwaldron said:

doesn't the slipped liner mean opening up the engine ? would I look at doing the cam, taps, heads and liner all at the same time. I can get the engine manufactured for 1800 squid.

Click to expand...

top hat liners or new block-been discussed numerous times on here

Understood. Basically do a search yeh? Problem is that I don't have a enough knowledge to know what to search for other than the fact it taps when warm and has low power. I'll do a search and see what it throws up.

try this thread- epic http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f10/knackered-range-rover-80056.html

not recommending them, but a good read http://www.rv8r.co.uk/flanged liners.html

see what you mean about being a bit of an epic... A complete newbie question.. but would the cam and followers be deeper than this or about the same? If a good mech did the job - how many hours would they expect to take to do new cam, folowers and gaskets? RAVE give no job length does it.

i would look at getting it stripped first and inspected i would normaly charge 4 hours to strip and inspect then be able to quote as to what is needed