What price a new engine?`

6 hours i think is taking the **** i stripped the heads off mine in september in the rain and only took 3 and a half hours and that included stopping for tea and fag breaks to try and dry out a bit,for what they are charging,bring it up here with all the bits and i,ll do it for you

I agree 100% with Andy..it's no rocket science. Ok., for the uninitiated, looking for the first time at the top end of the V8, it's daunting..we have all been there at some time. However, working methodically and if in doubt, there is a fountain of knowledge on here, you will find that the V8 is a pleasure to work on and not half as difficult as you think.
If you have RAVE, read throught the engine section and familiarise yourself first with the general stripdown procedures, any queries SHOUT on here. Might get a bit of p*ss taking but I can guarantee you will get answers and guidance.

the easier way to put it is,the rover v8 is one of the easiest engines to work on,when your removing the heads on a v8 you don,t have to **** about with the timing,unlike the little engines with timing belts and tensioners,like john said get a copy of the rave,go down to a tool shop get some half decent tools,and some bits of cardbord,masking tape and pen,and as you strip it down label what came from where,and if you get stuck just ask

and heres a cheap block that ive found
TVR POWER STORE

and if you want a good head gasket use these with arp head studs
http://www.powerstores.co.uk/?t=si&item=554

Hi, it may be worth explaining my situation a bit better. I have a warranty on the car which covers 100% of the labour and 60% of the parts costs. The car is not with a main dealer but a landrover specialist who come highly recomended in the area and charge £50 an hour so thats not too bad. Plus to use this all work must be carried out by a VAT registered garage.

My issue is that if only 60% of the parts are covered then this still leaves a £2k bill for me on the new engine price they have quoted hence me looking to see if this price is too high which looking at other prices around it is. So this site has proved to be usefull. Given so far in the last 12 months the car has had new MAF, Crank sensor, rear diff, LPG injectors, lpg temp sensor, discs, PAS pump, PAS box its too far down the line to give up on it. Most of the work I have done myself but to be honest I dont have th confidence or time at the moment to take the heads off

Saw your link for the block Andy and they are looking for a grand plus VAT for a bare block. Surely better to pay the extra and get a short engine..new not recon. which has new crank & pistons, hydraulic lifters and chain & sprockets already fitted. With the bare block, you would need bearing shells, and at the least new piston rings for starters.

Right well it looks like I'll be getting my hands dirty Warranty company have said that the warranty covered the first 12,000 miles and as its now done 12,656 they wont cover anything.

So given its either me do it or leave a 2001 car to rot away then it looks like I'll be doing myself as I cant afford the £4k+ for a garage to do it as were fitting a new kitchen etc at the moment as well and the wife is a scarey being when told she cant have her new kitchen

So, if I can confirm, the coscast engines from RPI are ok to use as a worst case. Whats the cahnces of it just being a head gasket, poor or a fiar chance (he says hoping

To take the heads off is there anything I need to specificaly look out for in doing it? also as its has LPG can I just disconnect the LPG system while doing it or does it need any sort of special proceedure?

im not sure about the gas side,never touched them,but gavs probably the man to ask,as for stripping the heads download the rave from the common faults and questions section and have a good read to get familiar,then strip them off,if it,s the head gasket you will probably see it where it has gone if it is the gasket,then check the liners,gav has put some pics up on another post to give you an idea.

i would strip the heads off before thinking about a new block,rather than spending money on something you may not need yet

just look in the boot or where ever the tank is and there should be a valve to isolate the tank. turn it off (usually fully clockwise) after this is done there is no way gas can escape from the tank. if there is no valve then there should be solenoids. take the wires off the one on the tank and it will also isolate it. i dont bother to be honest i just carry on as is because the engine is off and the battery is off so no power = no gas flow, unless you cut the gas pipe!

as for stripping the standard block, just work your way down, with everything it is almost always symetrical so if there are 4 bolts on one side then there are 4 on the other to undo. try to slacken everything evenly if you can. start by taking off the ancillaries from each head. belt off first of course. take off the air intake(is it a thor engine, not sure how to do this on a thor) the pulley on the steering pump will have to come off, do it before belt or just put a screwdriver in there and jam it up on the other two of the three bolts.

once the air intake and ancilaries are off everything is straightforward.

before any work tho are you sure the water is going into the pots? there are many place water can go. be 100% before you start disturbing them! if your sure, it will be a great learning exorcise AND IF YOU NEED ANY HELP OVER THE PHONE, PM ME and i'll do what i can!

if it,s the thor engine bannana type intake manifold pm me and i,ll help out as much as i can

Guy's

Cant thank you enough for the offers of help and trust me I'll be taking you up on them in exchange for beer tokens of course

Starting to plan things out a bit, going to buy a run around car to keep me mobile while I'm doing this then take the heads off and have a look. I'm half looking forward to it really.

It isnt showing any problems on a pressure test on the water system and the garage couldnt find any leaks form this so they can only assume its getting into a bore. Going to take the plugs out tomorrow to see if any are clean, is there any other test I can do. I've seen these chemical tests on ebay etc are they any good to test the bore? Oh and by the way it is a thor engine.

that case when you decide to make a start pm me and i,ll give you my no. and that way i can help guide you whilst your looking at the engine.

i take it you mean a sniff test kit,ive got one and it,s identified a few head gasket leaks on various cars,another test is when your motor has been for a good run out or up to running temp,let it go completly cold and see how hard the top hose is,but also check the plugs see if any look steam cleaned,or if theres any trace of coolant

the garage saying its h/g or liners from an asumption is a bit poor. i would inspect plugs as a first step, then as you remove the ancilaries check any and all water ways, pipe joins and the drain plug. on most of the joints especially to the alloy parts it wil leave a kind of limescale if it has leaked at all. depending on these outcomes i would continue as previosly said.

also for a second car i would get something cheap but something that will sell on at not too much loss! that way you will keep the overall costs as low as possible

dave_r said:

Starting to plan things out a bit, going to buy a run around car to keep me mobile

Click to expand...

I've got a KA for sale! £1000 tho...
Failing that, get a merc 190e. You can buy one for next to nothing, and it should chug up the miles without giving you any problems at all... ever! Think I'm in the same boat as you. I'm clearing out the garage and looking at replacement engines, along with an engine hoist. let the adventure begin