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For the life of me I just cannot grasp why people insist on spending 6-8 k on rebuilding motors or getting a Turner. I don't care if you have a fur-lined glove box on that truck, it's value on resale just does not justify it. Find a good used motor and slap it in. Bingo you are done for 500 bucks plus a days work.
What am I missing here?
my cost on this is estimated to be about 2k. If you just go get a used engine, you will be dealing with the same ticking time bomb on the sleeves. So in short, I got to fix the sleeves or I will be back here again soon.
If the bare block hasn't been pressure tested, then pressure test it. If it passes, then:
Chem dip it to clean internal oil and coolant passages
Deck the block (especially verify internal flatness)
Install new cam bearings
Install new cam (this is your one shot for internal power gains)
Pin OEM cylinder liners (free) or install new top hat liners ($)
Hone each cylinder...
Good stuff thank you for the detail. I have seen the procedures for pinning. I am inclined to think top-hatting is a more generally accepted best practice based on my reading. Any additional thoughts on pinning versus top-hats?
Good stuff thank you for the detail. I have seen the procedures for pinning. I am inclined to think top-hatting is a more generally accepted best practice based on my reading. Any additional thoughts on pinning versus top-hats?
Top hats have a better design to reduce the chances of the block erosion that you see in the pics at the beginning of this thread. It's just what you want to pay for. Pinned sleeves will prevent sleeve slippage and that's cheap to do.
Bare Block. Block is Heated to 180 Degrees then Pressure Tested to Check the Cylinder Sleeves for Leakage. The Cylinders are Honed and the Block is Decked.
That saves a lot of steps and makes that bare block price really good.
For the life of me I just cannot grasp why people insist on spending 6-8 k on rebuilding motors or getting a Turner. I don't care if you have a fur-lined glove box on that truck, it's value on resale just does not justify it. Find a good used motor and slap it in. Bingo you are done for 500 bucks plus a days work.
What am I missing here?
It doesn't cost $6k to build yourself a motor from a bare block. The $6k to $8k prices are for paying someone else to do it for you, and to be fair, those shops are stuck with inventory so they can't bring their prices down much and remain in biz.
If you pull your bad motor (1) and go to a junk yard for a random used motor, then you've got to pull that used motor (2) to get it for $500 instead of buying a used motor from LQK or eBay online for $1,400... and then you've got to install that used motor (3).
or...
If you pull your old motor (1) and build up a mail order bare block motor, then you can just install it (2).
So 2 motor pulls/pushes instead of 3.
Buying a bare block motor that's been decked and pressure tested should be < $700 for the Disco 2's 4.6L V8. Building that motor up yourself will add $3k to that. Maybe less. Sometimes you can skimp on the cam and front oil pump/timing chain cover. Sometimes you can skimp on lifters and pushrods. So, some engine builds done by yourself might be $2k in costs (you just can't write that price in stone... varies wildly per motor).
Paying someone to build it for you (lots of labor) will come in between $6k and $8k including new performance cam and porting your exhaust (and freight shipping).
Anyway, you can have a new motor with your own labor for $3k to $5k and only do 2 pulls/pushes. Or with someone else's labor for closer to $8k.
Or you can do 3 motor pulls/pushes and have a random used motor in your Disco for $500 to $1,500 based on how much labor you provide yourself. If it runs great for 10,000 miles then you probably did alright. If it blows in 500 miles then your gamble didn't pay off.
For the life of me I just cannot grasp why people insist on spending 6-8 k on rebuilding motors or getting a Turner. I don't care if you have a fur-lined glove box on that truck, it's value on resale just does not justify it. Find a good used motor and slap it in. Bingo you are done for 500 bucks plus a days work.
What am I missing here?
This. Do this. If you want to keep it a 4.6, swap the crank, rods, and pistons. Slap new rings and bearings in it. If you are ok with 4.0, just find an early D2 low mile engine and use that.
Finally got the engine pulled. The 1 ton harbor freight cherry picker will do the the job if you remove the excess chain and let the air out of the tires :-) . In any case, we are disassembling the engine and will clean up the pistons, crankshaft and heads to get them ready to send off to a local machine shop. Below is the list of replacement parts I am getting as well as machining services and their costs. It's around $2000.
I am thinking of ordering parts from Turner Engineering - they seem a lot cheaper than some of the others but I am also getting pricing from Lucky 8 and Atlantic British. Bare block will come from roverlandparts.com. Let me know your thoughts or comments on approach and other considerations!
Engine is Out!
