Thread: Buying advice for Discovery 4

Nobody has a definitive answer on the bearing issue. I've read everything from soft cranks through to the block shifting as it ages. A preemptive bearing roll sounds like a good idea, and I've done a lot of reading on it but still not managed to find out if it's actually possible.

I've read somewhere there is a youtube video of some bloke in Eastern Europe doing it, but I've been comprehensively unsuccessful in finding it.

Yes, but the diff has to come out to get the sump pan out the way, actually I think there's two pans. My mechanic doesn't like doing it for inspection as the bearing caps may not go back exactly unless they are cold break conrods, not sure how all this applies to fitting new shells in situ.

Mine got new bearings at 225,000km. It’s now 385,000km. The engine was removed as part of a body off but it wasn’t a complete strip down, and was done from the bottom, leaving the heads in place.

Originally Posted by RANDLOVER

Yes, but the diff has to come out to get the sump pan out the way, actually I think there's two pans.

The 2.7 has 2 pans, the 3.0 only 1.

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

Mine got new bearings at 225,000km. It’s now 385,000km. The engine was removed as part of a body off but it wasn’t a complete strip down, and was done from the bottom, leaving the heads in place.

I can see that on an engine stand. You just flip it over, and pull the crank out. Easy if it's out of the car. What I'm wondering is if it can be done with the crank mostly in place? I've done it once on a much simpler and smaller motor. I made up a pin that went into the oil hole in the crank, and as I rotated the crank by hand it slipped the bearing shell out. I could then push the new one in the same way (no tabs or pins on these).

Looking at what I've been able to find on the net, I can see that working for the middle bearings, but I don't know how they're managed at the nose and thrust ends.

I suppose if you drop the oil pump and gearbox you could drop the crank out entirely, but by the time that's done it might be quicker to pop the body and pull the block out.