D3 ENGINE FAILURE!!!!

If your engine stopped and there was sufficient space between the gasket and head/block it may have leaked coolant into the cylinder and resulted in something giving when the starter tried to compress the coolant. The smaller valve is the exhaust valve and that should not try to open until after TDC so the posibility that the valve opened against the coolant lock would only have happend if the starter could push the engine past TDC and this would only happen if the piston gave way and allowed thew coolant into the crankcase or the con rod bent to allow the engine to turn far enough.

I suspect more likely you dropped a valve which resulted in the damage, I suspect you would require a few turns of engine to emulsify the coolant and oil so the engine must have run for a a little while inorder to get the mix happening.

I think the white piston crown is due to the headgasket leak and water having been in the cylinder at various times to get that white look to the residue on the piston crown.

Good luck with it, it is a $30-40k vehicle, a replacement engine will see you get years of motoring out of the car. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Damage appears to be consistent with the scenario I mentioned earlier. I would be looking for a manufacturing fault in the valve.

John

I've had the results back from the post-mortem on the engine and it turns out the exhaust valve spring broke and caused all of the damage to the engine. The oil and coolant both appear to have been the correct grade and levels were good. Sounds to me like it was a material defect?!

I've been quoted $8k for reconditioning and $10k for a full replacement engine :mad:. Land Rover AU have refused to contribute anything, not even good will gesture contribution as its an '05 vehicle and out of warranty:thumbsdown:, fair enough but valve springs breaking has to be abnormal?!

How many other vehicles are out there with the 4.0L V6? how many times has this happened, it's the first the dealer has seen. If I replace the engine who says it won't happen again; I've lost all confidence in this motor...should I risk repair and keeping it? will it be reliable? a new engine only comes with 12month/20k warranty???

I've not been able to track down a 2nd hand engine; should I wait to find one or bite the bullet, go the whole hog and buy the new engine, replace all the coolant hoses etc while its out; even go to the trouble of servicing the "sealed" gearbox? and hope the original engine was a one off duffer?

what would you do? :bangin:

This is indeed very unusual . All the Yank Explorer 4.0 failures are
timing chain related. The only sping failure I've seen was on a 1984
Mini Metro 1000 cc( in 1990 ) . That just caused it to not function since it
couldn'd compress on one cylinder. Did your valve just shear off
and drop in the cylinder ? So it's k8 for $hit or k10 for new ; buy new ..... Contact LR UK for advice .
I don't believe in Re-cons ; built to a price , not a quality . New or All Jap ( obviously not
in this case ) is the only option . I like partly used Jap stuff . Cheap and reliable.
Do not have it rebuilt !

If you are a member of the WA equivalent of the NRMA use them to put pressure on Land Rover.

Putting that aside and the Land Rover warranty - you also have statutory warranty rights - basically goods must be fit for reasonable use - at $70K, a few years old and the type of damage - something that does not normally break - I would be getting legal advice on this - again your NRMA should be able to help - this initial pressure needs to be levied against Landrover.

Again after legal advise I would give Land Rover the opportunity to repair the car (or at least agree to it) by a given date and advise them that if they refuse you will have the work done and seek compensation via statutory rights via the court system.

You need to convince them you are serious and are liable to cause them grief - if they think you will not follow through then they will call your bluff.

I had a problem with an expensive TV a while back that the manufacturer refused to deal with.

I sent a letter via registered post to the CEO demanding repair (respectful and to the point) by a certain date (one month) - they did not respond - when I contacted them they denied receiving the letter but I had the evidence via registered post - when the date came up I contacted them again and and they said it had just been received and they would deal with it in due course. The day after the due date the issue was handed over to the ACT Office of Fair Trading - three days later the TV company contacted me and as a goodwill measure they did not repair the TV but replaced it with a much better model.

Clearly a TV is different to a car (but I was talking $4k of Tv vs your $8-10K) but my point here is that there are options open to you, persistence pays off, but you need to be nice and professional, giving them the opportunity to repair with reasonable deadlines.

Good luck with it

Garry

Contact TLO on uk sitefor a price of new engine. If you can wait for surface shipping it might be worth it with the exchange rate being what it is.

I have a V6 petrol D3 with 150k on it and it runs very well but I have wondered in mad moments whether I could do a V8 conversion on it and if I had an engine failure would be actively considering it... Now, the Jag 4.4 looks like an expensive proposition to me no matter how obtained. But... what we have here is a Ford motor - dime a dozen in their home country and a new Ford V8 is now on the market ('Coyote'?) also mated to the ZF 6 speed, so... what's the chance of a conversion from the Ford side of things? Just a persistent thought.

Tried the 247 spares site in UK, asked for a 4.4 Jag motor, they came back overnight with a low mileage spare for 4700 pounds. Expensive?

$7300 at todays exchage rate. Doesn't sound cheap.

What was your decision on fixing this ?