On mine front cover and dowels...this lead me to replace entire motor after hg repair and sleeve ticking....I lost all confidence in the orig motor.

 

So, how does one determine if his engine has misaligned dowels? Is there a way to visually inspect or measure the dowel location for misalignment?

I looked very closely at the dowels on both of my 03 engines and could not see where any holes look like they had been filled and re-drilled or moved and both engines do have the dowels so have not been removed.

How far out of alignment were the dowels on the bad lot?

I have an 03D2 with right at 150K that is after the bad VIN range and when I was doing my head gaskets I pulled the front cover and the oil pump outer gear was broken which I replaced.

I have another 03D2 that has 120K that is inside the bad VIN range and when I removed the front cover on it the oil pump gear is not broken. I still have to try to look into whether this engine was replaced under warranty.

I have an 00 RR 4.0 engine that the oil pump gear is not broken.

I guess aside from the misalignment problems, some of the oil pump gears were just defective and prone to cracking. Not sure why some crack and some don't.

Luckily the one I had that did crack, didn't explode my front cover. The outer ring was in two pieces, one large piece and one small piece about two inches long. I have no idea how long I ran it like that.

 

I finally purchased the vehicle last night. The vehicle is in decent shape. It has some cosmetic issues (Head liner, some paint deterioration, some interior plastic bits broken).All the electrics are working, no warning lights.

As for known issues, I need to replace the tie-rod ends, upper/lower ball joints, valve cover gaskets, spark plugs, flush and replace fluids. Probably a few other things.

The truck has 70236 miles. I am going to replace the front drive shaft, though there is no chirping or other weird noises.

As for the oil pump, what can I do now to prevent it from being an issue? do I need to redrill the dowel holes?

 

For the oil pump, put a pressure gauge on it and go from there. If it is good, no worries.

If not good, you'll have to remove the front cover, inspect to see if there is a broken ring, if so inspect further to see if it was caused by the front cover not being in the correct location. Should be obvious scoring of the inside of the front cover where it pressed against the outer oil pump ring if it is the dowel issue.

 

add and oil pressure gauge, preferably near your temperature gauge that way you can watch them both at once.

 

Just add an oil pressure gauge in the cabin, and watch it like a hawk. When your oil pump rotor breaks, you'll see it in the oil pressure. You should be seeing at least 50psi by 2k rpm, and nothing less than 18psi at idle. Anything less than that, if you are using correct oil and filters, and I'd pull it apart to do the oil pump. Don't worry about the misaligned dowel issue... if your engine had it, it most likely would have self destructed already

 

I don't know where to start!!

I just bought a 2003 disco II this past June 2014 with 132,000 miles and exactly ten days later i had it inspected and got an inspection sticker... guess what happen that same day! What? The oil light came on... engine knocking....it's an off-road vehicle all right (park off the road!)...I need oil pump / engine!! I'm officially a roll over owner!!

Do i really have to get a different engine ?

 

Like I said earlier this morning: Take it to Carlos and have him give it to you straight. You will either need one or the other.

 

Why do you think you need to replace all that steering gear? at 70K it's still a 'babe' and highly unlikely the tie rod ends are blown and even more so the upper and lower ball/swivel joints. Unless the previous owner has been running around for years with front wheels seriously out of balance it's highly unlikely these steering parts are defective, particularly the upper and lower ball joints. Check them out very carefully and save yourself some hard earned dosh. My truck has 123K on it and one track rod end was slightly defective and the U + L ***** joints are fine still. There's a post on here with guidance for checking out steering gear.

 

Wow this is so typical with used D2s...unfortunately I think it is a 50/50 gamble. It was for me. Call Steve at CannibalV8 or GPR for a better than rebuilt. Sorry man been there done that