Thread: 3 Slipped Liners 4.0 P38A

That's a real bit of bad luck Brucep. From the money and effort you have put into your P38 the common sense thing to do seems to be to 'fix' the engine even though the financial market value of the car says don't spend money

I was in exactly the same boat with my Rangie [3.9V8] a few years ago and opted for a new short engine and had the heads redone etc.

But I wish I had researched about the new short engines on the market. I assumed all would be good but it seems some have a habit of cracking. Touch wood mine has been good so far but it did spit a head gasket at the 40 thousand km mark. Pressure tested the block and all was good. The other thing I would have done if I had known about it was to fit a 4.6 litre. This is something you are now in the position to consider.

Good Luck.
Grumbles.

Wow, there's no argument possible about whether the liners are actually slipped is there???

In a way its probably fortunate as you do not have to test for it, except with eyeball Mk1.
Regards Philip A

Out of interest what fuel do you burn mostly in your P38?
I always look at slipped liners and think why cant we glue and pin them in place after all if we prevent them from moving in the first place they cant slip can they?

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

That's a real bit of bad luck Brucep. From the money and effort you have put into your P38 the common sense thing to do seems to be to 'fix' the engine even though the financial market value of the car says don't spend money

The only way I can justify (live with) it is using it as a learning experience.....I've never rebuilt a complete engine before.....now I have the chance to do just that.....It's not ideal, and I wouldn't choose to do it if not required....I'd hate to trash the car, it deserves better than that.

Wow, there's no argument possible about whether the liners are actually slipped is there???

In a way its probably fortunate as you do not have to test for it, except with eyeball Mk1.

No, I was actually really shocked when I saw them as bad as that. The thing is I have never seen any signs of this damage until the cooling started to pressurise on Monday. There has never been any coolant loss, or excess oil useage.....and even just backing the car into the garage Friday to start the head removal it started straight away, no strange noises, idle was fine, no noticable loss of power.....just a trail of green coolant from the expansion tank.......so it was a real suprise.

I'm glad it happened while I was local.......It would have been a real pain if I was out bush, on holidays, or towing something!!

Out of interest what fuel do you burn mostly in your P38?

Mostly Shell standard unleaded, probably fill up with premium 6 times a year.

-Car is only really driven weekends, picking up/towing something, or standard Bunnings weekend run - it probably would be lucky to do 15,000 km's a year.


Regards,

Bruce

Damned shame! still, given you are on a "Rolling R R Regeneration" project with all the other things you have done to date I'd probably look around for a 4.6...

Here's the thing: If it costs you $10k all up, that's still a lot less than what you would lose in depreciation over a couple of years were you to buy another LR and have to write off 97 Rangie as is!

Ron P38arover had slipped liner(s) and went tophat as I recall, as well as HC pistons etc. There's a write up on progress in these threads somewhere...others will join in no doubt with help ...TRS Adelaide, Bruce Davis in NSW are sources of repair etc... sorry I don't know the Melb. scene for reliable repairers... but there is one in Tassie

Damned shame! still, given you are on a "Rolling R R Regeneration" project with all the other things you have done to date I'd probably look around for a 4.6...

Hi, Thanks for the reply. If I did go the 4.6 route roughly what would be involved? Can the 4.0 heads I have now be fitted to a 4.6 block? Sorry if the question is silly.....but I'm not sure where the actual extra volume comes from on the 4.6 ; as most parts - pistons etc seem to have the same P/N's for both the 4.0 and 4.6. I do have a good used Gems engine ECU from a 4.6 HSE that I have kept on the off chance I needed some parts for mine. I also have a Blackbox MSV system......are there any extra sensors that need to be fitted? The 4.0 I have does not have oxygen sensors, would I have to add those for the 4.6?

Sorry for all the questions......I'll do some searching, and reading over the next few days.

Regards,

Bruce

Pretty sure most of the rangie/disco "series" engines have a common bore, with the 4.6 being simply a stroked version of the 4.0 in which case all the sensors etc should be the same. I'm not sure the 1997 GEMS 4.6 had oxygen sensors... do you have a copy of RAVE? ...

I'm not sure the 1997 GEMS 4.6 had oxygen sensors... do you have a copy of RAVE?

Hi Hoges,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I have the RAVE manuals. It is confusing (to me).....It's hard using the repair manual to work out the differences between 4.0 & 4.6 engines, and I'll do some more research on the difference between the 4.0 and 4.6. In RAVE there seems to be 2 distinct ranges of VIN's....my concern was how to identify a newer block, that was run with O2 sensors, in a closed loop.....I didn't want to add unknowns to the reliability of the rebuilt engine.

I'll keep reading. Thanks again for your reply....I really appreciate it.

Regards,

Bruce