Good day, bad day.

**p38arover** · 6th February 2019, 08:36 PM

My L322 V8 sump plug had stripped the thread in the lower sump. The plug only had about 10mm of thread in a hole twice as deep. I had a longer temporary plug with an O-ring seal in the hole while I got a helicoil kit and new longer sump plugs. See Stripped sump plug thread M62 4.4 V8

Yes, I know, that was a year ago!

Today Scouse and I dropped the lower sump and, with me interfering, the sump was retapped and a helicoil inserted, a new gasket fitted, oil and filter changed. I decided to not refit the large plastic under engine cover as I wanted to check for oil leaks when I got home.

Well, I got halfway home when there was a ruddy awful noise as I took off from the lights - it sounded like the engine was racing. I checked the tacho and it was fine. Initially I thought it was the car (SS Commodore) in front of me hitting the throttle hard as he took off. It took a little bit for me to realise it was the Rangie, not some other car.

Naturally, I was in the RH lane and by the time the road narrowed to one lane, there was nowhere to pull over. I went a bit further and pulled into the entrance to a new unfinished street. When I turned the corner smoke was coming out from under the car.

I opened the bonnet and saw a broken fan belt. No problem, I had a spare - but I didn't have all the right tools- some but not all. I rang Scouse and he loaded up his P38A and came out to rescue me. I had the workshop manual on my iPad and I had that with me. It indicated that one could change the belt without removing the fan and shroud. Oh yeah? I bet the technical writer had never tried it.

Fortunately, Scouse came with a fan spanner and managed to get the fan and shroud off. I started the engine and all sounded good so Scouse put the new belt on. We buttoned it all up and started the engine. Gaahhh! The noise was back. Off with the fan and shroud again. Scouse rotated the alternator and it's shot. I think the bearings have collapsed and the rotor is hitting the stator.

While he was there he checked the water pump. Oh dear, the bearings in it are a bit slack, too. He also checked the idler tensioner as the new belt when fitted was a little loose. Yep, you guessed it, I need one of those, too.

It was a good thing we hadn't refitted the undertray.

So it was a ride home on the back of a tilt tray (I had just renewed my NRMA Premium cover). The belt must have broken shortly after turning into the side street as I still had power steering (and hopefully a water pump circulating coolant). When I got home, got it off the truck, and went to drive it into the back yard, there was no power steering.

It could have been worse, I could have been well away as i had been a couple of weeks back.

So my sincere thanks to Scouse. I completely wrecked his one day off.

**rar110** · 6th February 2019, 08:53 PM

Overall, bugger.

But like you say, better to have this happen near home. Good on you Scouse.

Good luck getting this stuff sorted soon Ron.

**87County** · 6th February 2019, 09:04 PM

Gosh Ron, that's all bad luck....

There used to be an apt expression one could use that harked back to the gold-minng era but it would no longer be PC because of racial sensibilities - I'm sure you will know what I mean.

Good luck with the repairs - I do know of a certain LR repairer slightly to your NE who no doubt would assist if you need him to.

**p38arover** · 7th February 2019, 09:53 AM

A couple of weeks back I was on the Wombeyan Caves Rd between Mittagong and Wombeyan Caves. Had it happened there, I would have been blocking the road as a lot of it is narrow, winding dirt road with steep drop-offs to the side.

Originally Posted by 87County

Good luck with the repairs - I do know of a certain LR repairer slightly to your NE who no doubt would assist if you need him to.

Yep, I've just been talking to him.

I had the car brought home, I probably should have had it taken to his workshop.

**p38arover** · 9th February 2019, 07:02 PM

NRMA agreed to take to the workshop.

I drove it in, broken, yesterday arvo and drove it out, fixed, today. I did all the work myself, new alternator, new water pump, and new drive belts.

Now I know why BMW dealerships have a defibrillator in the service dept. The RRP for the alternator is more than what one can buy a P38A for and approaching what one would pay for an L322.

The alternator is inside the engine - it's water-cooled.

L322 V8 Alternator.JPG

It's easier to replace than the water pump. The engine has two pipes leading back from the water pump to a distribution manifold at the back of the engine. The W/S manual warns one to not disconnect those pipes from the manifold. If one does, it looks like a mongrel of a job to replace the O-rings where the pipes plug in. Getting the water pump off without disturbing those pipes is difficult. They plug into the water pump and are sealed by O-rings. After so many years, the O-rings do not want to let go.

In the image below one can see the coolant manifold behind the pump. There are two pipes (shown in second image), one large, one small connecting the manifold and pump.

L322 V8 water pump.JPG

L322 V8 coolant manifold.JPG

One has to remove the secondary air injection pipe, too. It goes across the front of the water pump.

Replacing the rearmost (air conditioning compressor) belt requires removing the front (ancillary) belt but that was off as it had broken. It was relatively easy to do it now even though the old belt looked OK.

I gave it a short (couple of km) run to get it up to temp and to pressurise the cooling system. I'll check it out for water leaks tomorrow. If all is OK, I'll flush it and fill with coolant.

**Xtreme** · 9th February 2019, 08:38 PM

Looking on the good side Ron, at least they all packed it in at the same time, eliminating the possibility of multiple breakdowns.

**p38arover** · 10th February 2019, 07:04 PM

I had a look on the floor under the Rangie today to see if there was any coolant. None!

But there was a puddle of oil about 100mm in diameter.

I'll get it onto a hoist tomorrow for a look. I couldn't climb under today as I was dressed for lunch with my wife. Curses - I just remembered my overalls were under the floor with the spare wheel.

**Pedro_The_Swift** · 10th February 2019, 07:22 PM

I wonder in what Universe a watercooled alternator makes sense...

**p38arover** · 10th February 2019, 07:33 PM

They are a 150 amp alternator. They must get bloody hot if one cools them with 100 deg C coolant! (The engine normally has 104 deg C thermostat. I've cut that out and fitted a mod with an 88 deg C thermostat.)

**p38arover** · 14th February 2019, 06:18 PM

I've been looking around the BMW fora and it seems the Rangie's BMW M62 V8 petrol engine is notorious for leaking oil. I reckon it's worse than any LR-engined car I've owned.

Maybe that's why LR used the engine.

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