Thread: Buying/building a reliable late P38. Possible?

4X4V8. Totally doable. You may find it is a little rough around the cosmetic appearance to keep the purchase cost down, but as long as the cooling system has been well maintained I doubt you will have troubles with slipped liners. For myself irregularly tow my 2 tonne boat, I can recommend the 4.6 without hesitation. Also good to be able to put whatever load in the back and know that the car is going to be level. So moving a back end full of pavers (seats folded down then stacked up to the height of the seats, start the car up and she's sitting level again . Then there's the fun you can have off road .

Gary

You can buy a race prepped 4.6 with top hat liners to your door for less than $7k, $8k seems steep for a rebuild!

Ill vouch for a reliable P38. No worries, doable for less than $10k with change.

I want to pick your brains on the XJ! Can you measure the length/diameter/mount hole of your front bump stops? It's the final part of my lift kit and XJ seems to be a very close match but NOBODY on the jeep forum even commented on my post after 3 months of asking!

Key points - HEVAC, EAS, cooling system. If you can tick all three boxes as being in excellent order or completely cactus then I'd buy it. Perfect working meaning $$ saved on repairs, cactus meaning $$ saved on purchase price.

Cheers
Keithy

In short, yes, it's possible but you need to be either lucky or careful, I was the former and my P38 is still going well.

I'd suggest careful checking in the engine bay to look for any signs of overheating such as traces of coolant on the sound insulation under the bonnet.
Also, pull the dipstick feel the oil in your fingers and check the smell, a service history showing oil and filter changes at least annually and ideally every 5,000km or so would be ideal.

At the end of the day though you may get a problem free engine or it may blow the next day, but that's probably the same story with any used 4WD, the slipped liner issue doesn't seem to be as common as some make out though.

The EAS system is awesome when working but you'll need to get comfortable with working on it, especially if you travel into the bush. The other electrical systems are very complicated and the connector quality is not great so they are very prone to corrosion and odd problems after 10+ years of use and abuse.

I recently upgraded mine to Arnott air bags and new foam cell shocks plus a full replacement Superpro bush kit, I'm also a big fan of Molybdenum Disulphide based oils in the engine and diffs so it's now as quiet and smooth to drive as the day it left the factory, a truly amazing vehicle, nothing else comes close.


Good luck with your search

If you want a truly presentable and reliable P38, and I'd question whether there is such a thing at their current age, then as a minimum I'd suggest working through the following issues during the first year or two - they're all known issues and will fail at some point:

Install Arnott gen 3's.
Buy Hawkeye diagnostic tool or similar.
Rebuild eas compressor and perhaps get a spare as well.
Rebuild eas valve block. Replace drier canister, exhaust filter and compressor inlet filter.
Buy spare air hose and fittings.
Install a manual inflation/bypass system.
Replace all filters.
Check sunroof drains are clear and attached.
Replace all fluids.
Shockers.
Handbrake gator.
Headlining.
Pillar moulding clean.
Blend motors.
Heater O rings.

It can be done for under 10k depending on purchase price and how much you're prepared to do yourself. Plus of course how extreme you want to make the vehicle. But if you will allow it, they can be bottomless pits. Yep, I have been bitten. My name is sean and I'm a P38 tragic. But I've done considerably more than is listed above. After all she is my mistress.

The more I hear from my friends in the motor trade about the currrent crop of CRD engined vehicles, the more I am convinced to maintain my P38.

Preventative maintenance is the key, which may mean replacing stuff that is still OK but near the end of its service life. Depreciation is the highest cost of owning any motor vehicle. If you crunch the numbers re. fuel costs, depreciation, service costs etc then a modern petrol engine still comes out ahead of the CRD.

My SIL still has his '94 Patrol with the std 4.2 diesel. He worked up the Cape for years and did the Cairns-Weipa run several times a season... 4 of his workmates have "upgraded": one to a BT50 and three to 3.0 Patrols... all of them have needed new engines at less than 80,000km!

4x4V8... the P38 is built like a Meccano set.. if you have the time and know how, you can lean on the accumulated knowledge here and you'll be in a confident position to enjoy the ownership.

Suggest you also peruse newrremedies to get a view of additional owner knowledge out there for free!

Your ideas sound realistic. If you weren't willing to work on the car yourself, then it probably wouldn't be viable.

I would say eas is the most unreliable thing on these cars, and I havn't taken a spanner to my eas in almost 4 years. In saying that though, I've done a lot of work- it's 17 years old with 250000km after all.

The vast majority of the time, cracked blocks/liner problems is from being overheated.

You'll love the comfort over the Jeep!

Sent from my GT-I9305T using AULRO mobile app

Hi

Just to give you an idea of what I have done to mine in the last 9 months

Service Programme

Steve

[QUOTE=SteveFarmer;2040750]Hi

Just to give you an idea of what I have done to mine in the last 9 months

Service Programme

Steve

Yep - most of that looks familiar. Sean (davidsonsm)