Thread: Over heated engine - NOW WHAT - your advice please

I had the P38 for only 3 months , previous owner had it for a year and told me the vehicle had been 'worked' at by a RR mechanic... I sort of had the same idea as everything looked as if not too long ago worked at.
The old head bolts had no separate washers but are part of the bolts.

STUDS versus Bolts ... Makes a lot of sense , thx !!!

Originally Posted by JaapRoskam

I had the P38 for only 3 months , previous owner had it for a year and told me the vehicle had been 'worked' at by a RR mechanic... I sort of had the same idea as everything looked as if not too long ago worked at.
The old head bolts had no separate washers but are part of the bolts.

G`day ,

before you spend alot of money on it , Cam ETC ,

if your able i`d suggest you contact the previous owner and find out what was done and why , i think they`ll tell you the gaskets were replaced because of it loosing coolant but the problem persisted .

I`d suggest from the lack of glycol in the cooling system that it may have had an ongoing problem when you got it .
The lack of carbon on the piston tops is what tell me it`s not long been apart .

Without seeing pics of the heads and gaskets the ones you have show where 8 and the coolant jacket have meet , they also show how 6 and 8 were in the near future going to share gasses ETC .

You say you can catch you finger nail on the liner and block face this shouldn`t be the case but doesn`t have to mean doom , but may mean further investigation , ie pressure test the block .

So first i`d suggest contacting the prevous .

Originally Posted by peter51

It is a complete fallacy that engine liners move.

No its not.... Have seen three cases now... One with an early Rover V8, where the guy got it so hot it shifted 2 liners..., one with a rebuilt 2.286 diesel that developed a tap... This tap then went bang once as the liner dropped and the top ring of the piston stepped over it and then everything stopped fairly quickly...., and the third just this week in work. A MF 165 has come in with a knocking.. First thoughts were to strip the sump off and find out how bad the bearings/crank were.... We found the liner for no 3 in the sump in bits.. The knocking was the piston rattling up and down in a now very oversized bore!

Re the V8 in question.. Sounds like it got very hot... Feel your pain. Looking at those shiny piston crowns, either it was apart last week or there's more to the story. I'd be making a coffee table out of the block, binning the heads and looking for another engine to rebuild. Sadly the two I have in the shed are only 3.5's, and I intend on making one good one out of the two to sit with my LT95 on the shelf I case the Cummins conversion is a failure! Good luck.

The reason why he said that Sitec, was that on all engines with a serpentine belt (im pretty sure that's when they started it) Rover started putting a flange at the bottom of the sleeve for the liner to sit on, so theoretically it was held firm by this and the headgasket at the top. The trouble was (as they were heat shrink fitted) they would sometimes not be fitted to rest on the flange, and then the top of the liner was machined to the deck. So on some they will move a bit, but on others they won't.

The maximum lifter pre-load for a genuine delphi lifter is 4mm. My lifter pre-load is 2.5mm and I was concerned as all I could find was a minimum height. The guy from Rover parts plus in Ballarat found that out for me.
It just means that they will pump up more once your over 5700.....

Ill second the cam too, the facing is shot on a few lobes.

Well on my block I pulled one out by hand. If that wasn't the knock I don't know what would have been.

Hi Folks , it is a while since our last contact re. my blown head gaskets.
many different replies and advices the request for advice to my Blown 4.6 in my 1996 P38 followed .

This is what I did:
- Replaced the 4.6 heads for fully ported 3,5 heads , had to cut one m8 hole up to a m8 hole for the alternator bracket and enlarged all exhaust ports to accommodate the larger header ports.
- Fitted the heads with NEW OEM bolts.
- Fitted near new headers all new gaskets.
- Found out that Viscous Coupling Fan did not work anymore - This was most likely the start of all problems - So I made that into a permanently fixed fan with two High Tensile M6 bolts in threaded holes and LockTite.
- When all assembled : Started engine and it ran a smooth as !! Took it for a careful run ..... bummer blew out all coolant through expansion bowl cap.
- Back to workshop : what to do : I decided to go step by step : Increasing in cost:
1- replaced Expansion Bowl cap >> Resulted in a little longer test drive but still blew coolant
2- replaced thermostat ( what a wicked thermostat that P38 has , the designer should be hanged on its balls ) >> again resulted in minor improvement perhaps but still blew coolant.
3- replaced Radiator for brand new one although old one warmed up all over equally >> made a little more difference but still after revving the car uphill real hard lost coolant >>> DESPAIR !!! HELP !!!
Since every new replacement made a small difference I came to the conclusion that perhaps the leak in the engine might be small.

After a few sleepless nights made up my mind and added RISLONE Liquid Copper™ Block Seal Intake & Radiator Stop Leak to the coolant. First I had studied their web site extensively - rislone.com.au - also Known as BAR LEAKS, I contacted the supplier by phone as well , all 'feeled' very positive. The instructions said to add the liquid , run engine 5 minutes to warm up , then let cool down a day. Just to be sure I did so 5 x during a week.

Out again for a test run , drove the P38 over a mixed terrain, bitumen, dirt road , some moderate climbs, and after 30 mins. stopped to check : ALL OK !!!!
Another test drive of 2 hours now , steeper hills higher speed . ALL OK !!!
Then on that stinking hot day before Christmas 2013 had to go from Sydney to Coonabarabran , temperatures near 38 degrees. Windscreen to hot for comfort. But the temperature needle stayed smack bang steady in the middle , did not move a hair thickness!!


When I cam home told my wife how happy I was with RISLONE Liquid Copper™ Block Seal Intake & Radiator Stop Leak. Her dry reply : "you could have used it straight away and saved yourself a month of hanging in that damned car of yours " ......woman .....

Originally Posted by clubagreenie

Well on my block I pulled one out by hand. If that wasn't the knock I don't know what would have been.

Out of interest clubagreenie, what is your engine number. Does it start with 59D.

Thanks