Thread: Potential new P38a owner

Hi Mate

Dive into the madness with the rest of us it's a great ride

Others here will have opinions on which engine is best, it is said that the later model Bosch controlled models are more reliable, but plenty of people drive the earlier models with n problems.

You will get plenty of help from this forum and rangerovers.net so working on it yourself is a viable option.

The only other advice I can offer is to look for one already on LPG and wait until the right one comes along !

Best of luck
Steve

Ditto all of the above.

I have trusted mine with a reputable Landy mech, (as I'm not a spring chicken anymore) have done for 2 years now with no real issue and I'm more confident of its reliability also its not that expensive in the long run.

One other thing the guys I go to both drive P38's so they are right across all their known issues and can diagnose quickly any fault and repair at reasonable cost, quicker than I can with my Hawkeye anyway!

Rob

Talking of LPG, I used to own an xy ute that I put gas on.After xx miles I had to get the valves done on it because they weren't the hardened ones.
Will that be the case if I get one already fitted with gas or are the valves strong enough.

Thanks

cheers

Originally Posted by disco gazza

Talking of LPG, I used to own an xy ute that I put gas on.After xx miles I had to get the valves done on it because they weren't the hardened ones.
Will that be the case if I get one already fitted with gas or are the valves strong enough.

Thanks

cheers

Valves OK, I had gas injection installed on mine after I bought it and have had no probs after 20 months. Its smooth running and a smooth change over from petrol to gas

If you go for one just make sure it is gas injected and not the the old vaporiser type.

Rob

If you like them ......GET IT.
There is a really nice looking 4.0 on Victoria rd just before Iron Cove bridge.
I prefer all the extra fruit that comes with the 4.6.
You are dead right on the maintenance, they are not cheap to run, but is any 4wd, if you are up for spanner work its not too costly so long as you have parts ready to go before something fails.
As far as Im concerned these engines are great so long as the major issue doesnt rear its head (liners).

If you've got the choice definately go a 4.6 over a 4.0. In 93 Rover started grading the blocks by cylinder wall thickness. The blocks with walls 2.6-3mm (3mm being perfect) were designated as 4.6 blocks, whilst the 4.0 got the more un-even walled ones (2.2 -2.6mm if I recall correctly). So, if an engine happens to overheat, it won't take as long for a 4.0 to start having problems.

The Bosch engines seem to suffer less problems - maybe they had fixed the problem by then, and maybe the slight design changes in the Bosch cooling system helped too.

The valve seats and stems are made from a stelite metal (vanderlite? or is that the rings?) so they don't suffer valve seat recession or guide wear - if any or at all. The v8s are very good here. The GEMS vehicles (the ones that are pre-O2 sensors anyhow) will run quite happily on single point LPG - that's what mine is, and i'ts wonderfully simple to fix.

Your spot on with maintanance, that's where most of the problems arrise from - especially cooling and eas. Servicing is pretty much the same as the Disco, and the air suspension.

Don't be put off by the suspension and electrics - there's no black magic to them. People only diss these vehicles because they don't understand them. But they have proven to be, and are, very reliable if they are looked after.

Don't let eas problems put you off buying one; but if I was to buy one with a leaking heater core again, I'd take a second think.

I'm with benji!

Spend the money on a well maintained 4.6, spend a bit more bringing it up to top notch and you'll be laughing.

Ditto benji!

The only point i would make about running on gas is that injection is more economical and able to tune better than single point. Other than that ditto-----