Cylinder sleeve failure or something else?

Andrew I think we all get you don't have much time for Land Rover V8's any more but there are a lot of people on here who are and getting a mid 90-s 4.6 is a very good option to keep a D2 going strong. Dropping it straight in is reasonable but setting up a VERY reliable 4.6 is as easy as a good machine shop doing block and head (although the heads are very reliable) pressure and hardness testing, machining , putting in top hats and high comp pistons, decent and head studs and then running a clean radiator and you can say goodbye to concerns for 300,000ks easily.

Cheers

They are an excellent car except they have at least one significant flaw and then a few other niggles as well.

If I was Fred Flintstone I could look past the significant flaw.

The Flintstones GIF - TheFlintstones - Discover & Share GIFs


If you can find a 4.6 litre for $1k to $1.5k then it's a reasonable option. (The price range is how much money I would be willing to lose on the exercise. Same head space to walking into a casino)

Personally not into re-engineering a motor with top hats etc. Just doesn't sit right that that's what the consumer has to do to make the product usable/reliable.

I take your point regarding re engineering but try to find a car that does not require mods to make it reliable or safe eg RAV rear suspension failures that can kill. 😐

Having said that these engines should have been binned by LR. ..hence their terrible reputation even nowadays. Shame on LR.

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Originally Posted by Andrew D

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Personally not into re-engineering a motor with top hats etc. Just doesn't sit right that that's what the consumer has to do to make the product usable/reliable.

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You could say that about many vehicles, and a lot of those vehicles are much more modern, and their manufacturers should know much better than the solutions they've offered to their customers

as an example. the 79 Series Landcrusiers rear axle width(and hence rear wheel track) issue.
Rear axle a couple of inches narrower than the front axle.
Over the years other manufacturers have also had this design in their vehicles too, but on a 4WD where wheel tracking is a bit more important ... not a good idea.
So much so, that some companies have gone to great lengths to provide owners with vastly more expensive solutions to the issue.
A ton of info on the issue from ... well just about anywhere.

Then there's the potential issue of the Mazda/Ford ute where it's possible that if you stop for a brief time on tall dry grass, that the DPF system could ignite the grass and you find yourself in a much more life threatening situation than an overheated motor does.

As already noted by others, we understand your issue with LR and the V8, it's been very well noted.
There are many here that drive their V8s and have no issues and they have been very reliable, so it's not as widespread an issue as you've made it out to be.
That is, not every single V8 has had the issue.
Yours did, someone else's has, mine has too .. some of us get over it far more easily than others.
It's just a motor, and you either put up with it's issue, or move on.
But to be sure .. not every single RV8 of this era is affected.
Counter that with the 79Series rear track issue, where every single vehicle is affected.

You say you're not into re-engineering your motor with top hats and suchlike, and yet you've probably done mods to your std recreational vehicle(whatever you replaced your D2 with) in some other manner or possibly bought one already modded .. maybe a bullbar, maybe suspension, maybe lighting or dual battery kit.

And this is different how?

A mod is a mod, some could be more 'perilous' than others, for example, adding a bullbar could be more perilous to a pedestrian in an incident, or just adds more weight to the std vehicle and could affect it's safety or performance by a percentage point or two in a marginal situation .. etc.
Yet a simple mod like a top hat build of a motor offers zero potential risk to personal life to anyone, probably makes the motor more reliable compared to the possibility of having lucked out and got another iffy V8 block .. and really not for a overly large outlay!

Your comments are akin to implying that the RV8 is the only motor in history to have had some issue in quality and that no other manufacturer ever has .. or something.
Or that no other motor has ever required a rebuild and or modification to make it operate well or reliably .. ever!

On a more personal level, I have all the time in the world for the RV8, just about any model from any era.
I've had about 20 over the years, up until my 2000 D2 model, they've all been early incarnations, 1 RRC, and half a zillion Rover cars over the years.
Only 1 had ever totally killed itself on me, and I was never overly kind to them. I've overheated many of those cars, not always deliberately, but in a couple of instances the issue started and I just kept going along .. damn the consequences.
One of them, was my 1980 SD1 my first injected RV8. Had to drive 30 mins, and about 25 klms with zero water through the cooling system, when a core plug holed itself. no water other than a few drops remained.
Like I said. .. little care if the motor died, I just needed to get home at 2AM.
Car got home, the last 500m of the drive was interesting, and even more interesting was that once parked up, it ran-on it's own fumes for about 2mins or more.
The temp gauge was hard up against the RHS of the arc, where max temp range was marked at 130°C.
For all intents and purposes, this motor should have gone to god that moment.
I changed the welsh plug that same night, filled with water .. no coolant! started it up and ran fine(once it all cooled a little).
This car was a pure banger, RWC, but in ugly condition .. cost me less than 1K back then to get it on the road with a RWC.
Ran it for about a year after that without issue .. still no coolant straight water in the cooling system .. why waste money on a potential grenade! [bigwhistle]
No worries. A year later, it was traded for a '90 model Statesman VQ maybe, as this SD1 was my worst cond vehicle, and the dealers offered min 2K trade in .. it made sense to knock a couple of grand off the price of the Statey.
The only reason I got rid of it then ... still ran fine to that very day

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Originally Posted by Andrew D

If I was Fred Flintstone I could look past the significant flaw.

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From the look on Freds face,, I dont think he cares!! [bigrolf]
https://media1.tenor.com/images/b3ae...temid=11422386

The track width difference on the 79 Series isn't near the issue people make out.
Every race car I worked on had a much wider front than rear track, from an engineering POV it isn't an issue.

Anyway, an LS in a D2 would be sweeet!

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Originally Posted by rick130

The track width difference on the 79 Series isn't near the issue people make out.
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Fully understand that, but on a 4WD when you really want every advantage, especially in something like soft sand.
Toyota should have known better, and considering the premium they charge for that model range ... no excuses for not updating the width of the rear axle to suit the front.
For Toyota it would have been a simple design tweak, costing hardly anything(relative to the price charged for the vehicle).
Obviously some folks think it is an issue, and major flaw(whether it's real or just imagined) that they spend $3K or so to rectify the design.
The point being that Toyota could have easily charged $1K more, even tho it's barely cost them a few dollars more in manufacturing cost, where you have owners spending 3x for their peace of mind.

The Toyota issue wasn't pointed out to vilify Toyota in this example ... merely to highlight that design and manufacturing flaws aren't as uncommon as Andrew D has lead himself to understand.

The major point of my reply was more along the lines that '<things> happens'

You buy something thinking (or hoping) to get usable life out of it. Doesn't always work out that way. Patience or perseverance with the product tho is the difference between our relayed experiences.
For me, I don't trust the supposed bulletproofness of Toyotas and Nissans.
Bro had a GU, the supposed comments on getting it by all and sundry was that it's bulletproof and will get the job done.
BS! worst vehicle anyone on my family had ever owned. Nothing but troubles from an unsolvable death wobble to then overheating(probably head gasket) to having fixed it with new cooling system to overheating!

Dad had a 62 series Cruiser. Did my head in with it's niggles and issues over the years.
Of course dads driving style had a lot to do with it, but his eventual Explorer replacement only ever had a clutch done(actually two!)

Both those supposed bullet proof pieces of carp had me up at all hours helping recover them in one way or another.

My supposed RRC bought with 150K klms on the clock, never left me stranded. It had it's issues, and wear and tear, but never left me calling anyone for help .. in the 550K klms I did in it in about 15 years or so.
Had it for 21 years but the last few were very sparse, and it seriously needed an engine rebuild. Actually needed it from about the 300K klms mark, but it never complained or broke terminally(unlike the GU and the 62).
The issues it had(mainly LT95, or more specifically the centre diff) were rectified once, then 're-engineered' with an LT77/LT230

I read somewhere quite a while ago that there is an ADR which stipulates the maximum difference in track to spring on the rear of a vehicle.
Apparently Toyota would have had to completely redesign the rear chassis to enable the same track as the front and comply with the law. I guess this would have also required a redesign of everything between the rails .
This was deemed to be too expensive.
Regards Philip A
BTW getting back on topic, 4.6 Discos are far more common in the USA than here where they are non existent. I wonder if Mr Robison would have access to more and cheaper 4.6 blocks.
JE Robison Service | Service, repair and restoration of fine motor cars . There are many wreckers in the USA also but whether you could trust them is another matter.

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Originally Posted by AK83

You say you're not into re-engineering your motor with top hats and suchlike, and yet you've probably done mods to your std recreational vehicle(whatever you replaced your D2 with) in some other manner or possibly bought one already modded .. maybe a bullbar, maybe suspension, maybe lighting or dual battery kit.

And this is different how?

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Far out Arthur, that's a big read.

Only mod I did on my rig was Option B for the three amigos (SVS and solved). Still in the honeymoon period of ownership so it was a novelty.

Plenty of other wear and tear stuff but no mods. Soccer mums car to be honest.

All like for like and predominately genuine parts

• Replaced the suspension
• Replaced the rotors and pads
• Replaced the front drive shaft
• Replaced the brake reservoir on the master cylinder
• Binned the wheel lock nuts and replaced with normal ones
• Replaced 1 door actuator
• Replaced 2 window guides
• Replaced the front plenum
• Replaced the rear door trim rubbers
• Replaced the trim on the two front A pillars
• Replaced the interior roof trim (twice)
• Replaced the leather on the front drivers seat
• Replaced the XYZ switch
• Replaced the expansions bottles
• Replaced the radiator
• Replaced the oxygen sensors
• Various exhaust bolts
• Replaced the dash molding over the instrument cluster
• Replaced the dash molding for the radio etc.
• Replaced the brake and CDL lever gaitors with genuine leather
• Installed a leather steering wheel cover
• New ear muff foams for the DVD player
• Replaced the Rotorflex
• Various trim clips and other bits and pieces
• Repainted the Roof
• Serviced at 5k or 10 km intervals. Always replaced the air and oil filters with each service.
• Replaced the water pump
• Replaced the brake switch light
• Replaced the rocker cover gaskets
• Replaced the head gaskets (twice). - AKA coup de grace

That's about it. All maintenance, which were good even the last one although the final result was disappointing.

It will be interesting how the VW Tiguan holds up over the next 15 years especially that dreaded DSG trans[thumbsupbig]

Every make model of vehicle i've ever known has inherent problems and i've worked with Rolls Royce to Lada's

Come back to Land Rover you know your missing the fun[bigrolf]



p.s that list looks very reasonable