My many thanks to those who have helped me today.

I found a warm welcome message from the administrator (Disco Mike) I would like to share. It includes both an insult and a threat:

So you haven't been around much and have little mechanical background so it would be wise to pay more attention when someone is telling you you have a bigger problem then you are wanting to see.
As for your comment, yes, I am the administrator here, this is my site and if you plan on sticking around you had better watch what and who you take shots at.

Quite dissapointing on many fronts. Remember, sir, that your site depends on numbers. I may be just one fish in the sea, but I am certain that if your cavalier attitude continues, you will begin losing many of your viewers.

To that end, I will no longer be posting on this site. I hope you are not representative of what to expect in the Land Rover community as I look for another forum to join.

Happy holidays.

 

You are in denial of what you really need to do for your engine. We are all just trying to help your Rover. However, when people like you get these types of rovers, and don't want to do the necessary work to get them back to running condition, we get pissed. Your a noob to rovers and your acting like your the godfather of the engineer design team that created the engine... And listen, DO NO TAKE CHRIST OUT OF CHRISTMAS. Unless we can call your birthday your "holiday"--- inseam of birthday---because that offends me.

 

Many people don't like the truth when presented, and routinely attack the messenger. If you come to an intenet based free board, you can expect a variety of opinions, and from responders who may be pressed for time (juggling sixteen replies), working on their own truck, or have been caught by SWMBO spending more time on other people's trucks than your own. When you think that the time to read a post, ponder it, and compose a reply takes a minute, sometimes more, if the responder looks up something, opens their own hood and checks something, finds an old post that demostrates the point, or takes a photo or measurement for you - it can be several minutes. So some responders have spent hundreds of hours volunteering their suggestions to those who asked.

And as far as a complaints - combat pilots figure if you are taking flak, you must be over the target.... Mike is usually so spot on it is scary. Can you imagine being a shiftless mechanic in his shop?

 

^^Mike knows his stuff. He is usually 100% correct. I think if he actually could physically come to each of our garages to look at our rovers he would be 100% correct all the time.^^
Great JOB MIKE!

 

Sometimes its not the truth that bothers people, its the delivery, people tend to take everything personal on these forums for some reason. While I agree that some of Mike's responses could be worded different or toned down, he's usually on the right track to helping the OP solve his/her problem. Some guys don't mean anything by their responses, its just how they talk. An internet forum is full of different personalities and opinions so you have take them all. We may not always agree but respect should go both ways no matter what. Sometimes the guy giving you crap is doing it for your best interest. It is possible for two people to have different views and both still be right though, a lot of us (myself included) need to remember that just because we have special occupations and think we know everything, doesnt mean we do.

As far as your pushrod problem goes, you do need to look into it further. If your motor coughs up a pushrod, it doesnt just need a new one, something caused it. While you're certainly welcome to just drop in a new one, keep in mind it will more then likely do the same thing very soon putting you back at square one. Valvetrain failure isnt something to take lightly and just putting a band aid on it will usually cost you more in the long run.

Nice to see the interaction between everyone though, lets try and keep it friendly as we all share the same interests which is what brings us together. Poo on Happy Holidays though, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

I have worked my butte of for more then 5 years trying to keep site on track, informative and and growing and for the most part it is a lot smoother running and has some great people who enjoy helping others, my self included.
That being said, when anyone asks a question and then doesn't listen, my feelings are you try and help a couple of time then you get their attention any way you can.
You now little or nothing about your truck and when answered still didn't want to follow some guidance, these are the type of people that add nothing to this or any other site.
Yes, at some point a cut to the chase with people out of frustration so they will listen. In your case, you took a shot at me and I replied back with a warning.
As for your statement, these sites are made up of people and if not treated right will go away, well we have grown to over 34,000 members, a lot more then 5 years ago and we will continue to grow loosing a few as we go.
Based on your parting statement I will remove you from the site, but remember there are a number of good sites for Rovers, and none with few exceptions, will work any harder then we do to get some body back on the road.

 

My couple of thoughts (for the OP or anyone else who comes across this thread):
- careful when fishing around in the valley for that pushrod. You may find the lifter for that broken pushrod and pull it out of its bore. Unless you have a fancy magnet where you can release the item that is being attracted by the magnet, this could be a bad idea.
- if you want to simply pop in a new pushrod, take the time to do some measuring to see if that particular lobe is wiped before you fire it back up (measure several of the lobes to see differences, or pull the cam specs (assuming cam is stock and the lift is published in the RAVE) and compare to that particular lobe). Turn the engine over several times to see if there's a rocker issue, valve issue, etc. If something doesn't seem right, then have a professional check it out. Pushrods typically don't fail on their own - there's usually a contributing problem.

 

Actually the your already 3/4 of the way there once the intake is off. The heads come off real easy. Just pulled one myself. In my situation a major over heat occured causing a melted piston scored cylinder wall and broken exhaust valve. Time for a new engine. Darn kids. Dont ever drive these trucks when the temp gauge even goes above normal. Aluminum does not fair well against etreme heat. But heads are really easy to remove. Just unbolt the exaust manifold from the downpipe and remove head with exhaust manifold with the head.

 

Hmm...well, perhaps this new guy didn't listen up right away, or maybe it was a case of him not refreshing his browser in time to see a response that would have answered his question. Whatever the case, from my point of view it seems like this poor noob was beaten down and bullied away before he could actually learn a thing or two about how to deal with his problematic vehicle.

I think we all--those with enough experience and basic mechanical skills, and those with decades of valuable experience--need to take a step back and think about how this interchange makes this forum look; yep, just like other forums where folks bitch and argue with each other about their knowledge or lack thereof.

I doubt most of us would treat people this way in person; the Internet makes it REALLY easy to be blunt and un-empathetic to people we don't know personally.

Sure, there are lessons that need to be learned in order to get things right when asking questions on the forum so as not to waste people's time, but I truly feel a slightly gentler, less condescending approach would go a lot further than forcing people out because they weren't immediately knowledgeable about how to work on a vehicle or even if they simply asked what we might think is a stupid, obvious question.

And what if it was a really naive, bonehead question?

Are we better people if we embarrass someone by pointing out that we think they aren't listening without giving them any slack, or would it reflect better on all of us if we were more humble?

Perhaps helping guide the less knowledgeable to the point where they can become a contributing member of this site, thus furthering the cause of why we all claim to spend time here. Sometimes that might mean helping someone that requires the teacher to exercise a little extra patience. Sometimes it means biting your tongue instead of lashing out or ganging up on someone who obviously needs some sage advice about what to expect and how to handle keeping a Discovery (or any car for that matter) on the road.

Learning has to start somewhere, and wouldn't it be better for the reputation of this site to be considered a place where people leave their biases, attitudes, prejudices, preconceived notions, etc. at the door?

Lastly, I respect anyone who feels offended by the abstraction of Christmas with "Happy Holidays" but please keep in mind that first, that really has nothing to do with what we are here to discuss, and second, not everyone in this country--including myself--is a Christian, and that's OK by me; some people are Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Athiests, Agnostics, etc; this is America, and we are free to believe what we want. Let's not take needless pot shots at people for saying something as benign as "Happy Holidays."

Best regards.

 

I'll give credit where its due, this site is a lot more tame than any other forum I am on. Every forum has the big man on campus who knows everything and sadly knowledge is not based on actual skill but instead moderator status and post count. The mods on my drag racing board are total morons with no respect for anyone but they are ALWAYS online so they get the authority. Funny enough they all own junk and can't hang with anyone when it comes to actual racing versus the bench racing that happens on the forum.

Mike you have my respect simply because this is your site and without your efforts half of us would be lost. Sometimes what you say does come across in a not so great manner. This is your site so your obviously free to call us all whatever you please. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. On other boards people are afraid to ask dumb questions for fear of the mods making fun of them and going on with the typical noob treatment. We don't really want that here do we?

We must all realize though that not everyone has the same skill level and some come here seeking knowledge and direction in the world of Rovers. Kid gloves are sometimes needed and so is patience. Remember everyone, we all weren't born knowing what we do now so expecting every 17 year old kid to know as much as a retired Rover tech or a master machinist is pretty extreme.

Personally I can just brush off what others may consider rude, its only the internet. On the other hand though a lot of people would just go elsewhere if their first impression of this site is a thread like this one.

It all comes down to respect, if you demand it you must also give it.