Omg WTF wow..

 

Such as?

And no. I like the shape, ride, etc of the truck. I just think the engines are crap. In that, I'm not alone. The engine is thought to be this truck weakest point by a LOT of people.

But lets break down the points that you feel I'm wrong.

I say the 4.0 has issues with the design of the headgaskets. well any gasket really...
I say the 4.0 has issues with the design of the valves causing them to carbon up and stick.
I say the 4.0 is hindered by it reliance on a proprietary engine management system.
I say the 4.0 is hindered on it's reliance on outrageously expensive replacement parts. (compared to other engines)
I say that with the stock ecu your limited to what you can do. bolting on performance options etc would be negated by the ecu working to get the trucks reading back to it factory preset stage. The fix being an expensive ECU rechipping.
I say the 4.0 gets horrible fuel milage and that the truck would benefit from a swap to a better system.
I say that due to the limitations of the ECU, and the expense of the said repair parts, it would be cheaper and better to pull the original 180k engine that has an obvious neglected history in favor of an engine that will out perform, get better milage, be cheaper to mod, be cheaper to fix, will be easier to work on and has a know reliability.

I say the Mercedes build a better, easier to work on engine that last longer and is easier to work on and would be an ideal swap into the truck.



We'll see if I'm wrong this week when the report comes back on the issue.

 

You are comparing apples to oranges. Take a MB and try to mess with the computer. You cant. Comparing an 80's model MB to a late 90's Rover isn't fair.

I have one fill up and I am at 200K. Runs great. No fault with the valves. The truck runs rich if there is a problem, causing excessive carbon buildup. Not the trucks fault, someone didn't do the scheduled maintenance.

I too am waiting in the wings to hear the report. Bent valves will not make it overfuel..

 

Of course you can't mess with the computer on the MB engine... there isn't one! It's all mechanical.

 

More info as of this morning...

Talked to the guy working on the truck. There are a lot of little issues adding up to the bigger issue of the massive over-fueling that's going on. He does not have the final solution as of yet but said he may by this afternoon.

Here is what he has found so far.

The engine has good compression but a very low vacuum @ around 5 pounds. He's going to do a leak down test now to see what's going on with that and see if I'm loosing vacuum past the valves etc. There is no sign of a external vacuum leak. He's also going to do the fluid check to make sure nothing is getting anywhere it shouldn't.

The knock sensor on the drivers side (missing) could be retarding the ecu and causing the over-fueling. He's going to but one on from a parts truck for testing. As I was under the impression that you could remove this sensor when installing the headers without issue (other than not having knock protection) I never gave it a second thought. IF it's the issue I'll replace it with a D2 sensor that has the 90deg. and fits behind the header.

There are some other issues, but I will not know anymore until I talk to him later this afternoon.

I have not seen the full report from the testbook yet.

 

How can you have good compression then wonder if something is leaking past the valves. Not being critical, just thought leaking valves equals bad compression. And I've been wondering what the correct or acceptable vac pressure should be at idle.

 

A leak down test is to find where the compression leak is. If you have good compression, and low vacuum, I would look at timing. Something is probably throwing your timing way off, like a bad sensor. Or it could be a simple vacuum leak. Instead of paying for a worthless leak down test(worthless for finding a vac leak), have your mechanic do a smoke test. Fill the intake with smoke and see where it could be leaking. And test your sensors.

 

The Mechanic working one it now was the head mechanic for land rover here in Chattanooga and worked with Joey (also a former head LR tech) and "Outback Off Road" LR Mechanic. They have forgotten more about LR than I know, so I'll leave it in there hands.

 

Update.

Looks like the vacuum leak was the IACV. Which was frozen in the closed position. The head gaskets are shot, Leaking oil. I may attempt to just go ahead and do that job myself since it's looking like the valves are going to be fine. Of course he also changed the oil since it was seriously over-fueled.

The 02 sensors may be worn out. I'll know today when we swap in a pair of new bosch. The trucks still running a little rich at this point but I've been told it's running at 85-90% fine.

So, it looks like I'll be holding off on a swap for the time being and just living with the 4.0. The compression was great all the way around.

So the super rich fouling was a combo problem of the IACV, the drivers knock sensor and the worn o2 sensors (maybe). The mechanic thinks the the Ford #19 I put in might be over fueling it a little as well, but I'll live with them for now. I may look into getting the ecu re chipped to take advantage of the headers etc. While I have the heads off, I'm thinking of having them ported which should help some, not a lot I wouldn't think since it will still be the original cam etc.

He's still playing with the truck and working out some of the other issues and I should know more later.


So, to the person that originally called out the IACV It looks to be the major culprit here.

 

Update

Well, I had to go pick up the truck before he was able to finish it due to messing up my 300D... He got it to the point of running but it's still super rich. He was not able to get to the 02 sensors, so I don't know if they could be causing this issue right now.

So, new IACV and new Coolant temp sensor got it to a point where it will continue to run and drive without fouling the plugs but getting about 85 miles to a tank of fuel. Or about 5 miles to the gallon.
More issues I have found... When filling the gas yesterday fuel started to pour out once it was full. There is a hose that needs to be replaced back there. It's too shot to try and patch and the leaks coming from the top of the tank where I can't see it.

The truck takes quite a bit of time to register coolant temperature. You can start the truck and drive it a good 10 miles before the needle even starts to raise. When it finally does it holds rock steady a bit under the halfway mark on the gauge. The heat doesn't come on till then, but when it does finally get hot the heats gets hot... my other 2 rovers heated up much faster, where I could see the temp gauge starting to raise within the first 2 miles of a cold start. I used the same thermostats in all of them 192's. I even pulled the thermostat out again to make sure I had not put in in backwards or something silly. (The pointed end faces the radiator and the "spring" end to the engine right?) It is actually kind of hard to tell from the RAVE picture. I also made sure the pin hole was at 12 noon.

The truck wants to idle itself down. (still) There is a little vacuum hose that goes from the plenum to the valve cover on the passenger side of the engine. It's collapsing on itself and effectively not working. If I pull off the hose you can hear the vacuum sucking hard and loud and the engine immediately idles back up to where it should be.

Anyone know exactly what that vacuum hose would be called? (So I can order one) It looks to be a special item as one end is quite a bit larger than the other. Also, what's it's function? Is there any work around while I wait for the part (maybe run vacuum to something else temporally)

Thanks again for all the help I've been getting on this, Im kind of getting between a rock and a hard place with both my cars being basically down and forcing me to drive this rover.