Thread: Back on the P38 train

Get in touch with 'andrew e' on here. One of his customers has just bought a D3 & is letting his beaut P38 go for a song.

If I can put my 2 cents in; out of the two I'd go for the lower km one. It's been serviced by a reputable landrover mechanic and it's got the history - ULR are not the cheap option by a long way when it comes to servicing! There are many other things than just the motor, transmision, tranfer case diffs etc.

As far as i'm aware, new crate motors are just as succeptable to a cracked block, but apparently they have a lower lip on the block so the liner cannot slip down.

From my observations it seems a lot of these issues happen around 150 - 180,000km. Though if the cooling system has been looked after, it rules out 90% of these problems.

The liner issue is not really movement as such, it is the metals porous nature that is the problem, I would recommend "Chemiweld". I used it at 200km when I was away, the mechanic took the heads off, had them done up but wanted to put another block in. I told him to put it back together and to use chemiweld. I have since driven it back from Perth and have just done 6500km to Innamincka, Birdsville, Longreach and came back through Hungerford and Wilcannia. Have not had any problems but always have a bottle of Chemiweld with the car.

Mmm, that's quite interesting. I always thought it was the relatively thin wall behind the liner that cracked from excessive heat (or maybe poorly desined headbolt threads), letting coolant to leak in from the coolant jacket - why Rover didn't make them wet liners is anyones guess.

The liner issues is somewhat seperate, as it can happen without loosing coolant. Whereby when the motors hot it'll slip up and down knocking the crap out of the head. I had this happen on a 3.9 before.

Thanks for the tips! I love P38A's but they scare the **** out of me with potential disaster. So far I have owned a 91 Vogue, 94/95 Soft Dash and now have a immaculate 1983 2 door but I want comfort etc etc. It will get used maybe once a week if lucky and do the odd offroad trip or camping trip so nit much driving....still nervous!

You get pot luck with P38's... I have owned 2 and never had a problem with overheating or suspension solenoids etc... My first one was a 2000 hse which sadly drowned, great bit of motorcar. This one is a 99 hse Thor and same again, no issues! I popped a bag in Maytown (80km of low range first away from a tarred road), only due to a perished bag which caught a rogue tree branch.

Buy a good one and you'll be fine! Mine gets used pretty much solely to tow or head out bush, hardly any Tarmac! It's never let me down!

It gets used every other week due to my working roster.

I've had mine for 5 years plus and use it at weekends to go fishing or go bush as well as some blacktop driving.
I bought it at 163k and it now has 271k and hasn't done anything drastic in that time.
It's had 2 new sets of airbags, the second set are gen3's and an "O"ring kit in the valve block and new piston, cylinder and seal in the compressor.
The cooling system has been replaced, including water pump, thermostat, radiator, sensor, viscous coupling and fan.
Small electrical fixes have been done ,plus a front hub and rear axle seal. Fuel pump was replaced and a couple of filters.
Oil and filter gets changed every 5k and have replaced the disc pads twice.
Tyres have been a bigger cost but I have 3 sets of good ones at the moment.
For the type of usage it gets I think this isn't too bad and I think if they are properly maintained, they last pretty well.
Just make sure that if you buy one, it's not run down with maintainance that has been neglected.
Trips to the dealer are not the only indicator of a well loved vehicle.
Mine only goes to JC when it's something beyond my expertise, but it's really well serviced and runs like a sewing machine.