E C U does not control compression - engine full of oil?

 

It would be nice if it did start and then die, but it's not starting at all.

The starter sounds like it's running slow, not faster. It seems like it would start if the starter was moving faster.

 

Yeah, I know the ECU doesn't control compression, but the compression doesn't seem too low for it to even start.

The engine has oil and coolant in it. I left the oil on the low side of normal (just above the lower arrow). I want to make sure there's no leakage from the coolant into the oil (which I have seen happen when something isn't put back together properly after a head job).

 

Starter cables and bonding strap and frame ground- try jumper cable battery negative to engine

 

I had a slow starter on my Discovery I.
There was a cable to the frame - near the passenger's side where the radiator is near the frame.

Took that off and cleaned it up.

I remember removing a few cables and just cleaning them up.

Starter has turned fine for two years hence.
I was about to install a new starter.

Discovery II may or may not have such a wire.
I do know that the Discovery II has a large braided wire from the driver's side (USA models) cylinder head to the firewall.

Take off the battery cables and clean them with that circular wire brush used for just that purpose.

Check date on battery.

Check alternator output.

You may want to simply pull another car or truck up next to it and try to run it with very heavy jumper cables from another running vehicle to see if this helps the Rover stay running to debug the problem.

 

That sounds like an idea. I'll give that a try and see what happens.

 

There is the flat bradded cable that goes from the driver side cylinder head to the firewall. I made sure that was tight and had a good connection when I put everything back together. There is also cable that attaches to the front of the alternator bracket. I thought I might have forgotten that one, but it is connected. I'm going to try the jumper cable suggestion and attach a jumper cable from the negative terminal to the engine and see what happens.

The battery is brand new. I don't even have to check the date because I was the one that replaced it like two months ago.

It's not starting at all, so I don't think the alternator is an issue at all.

I did have a running car jump the truck and I get the same result.

 

Okay. Just tried the jumper cable trick, still the same thing. Then I used the volt meter to check. I checked the voltage on the batterie terminals and got 12.16v (I haven't fully charged it yet). Then I left the positive terminal attached and tested both sides of the engine block with the negative probe. I got zero loss of voltage. So I know the grounds are good to the engine block.

That was a good idea though. It helped me realize that I should check the voltage between the battery and the engine rather than keep wondering if I have a good ground or not.

 

I just did the same thing on my daughters 00 DII. She had a head gasket break on the outside and it was not overheating but sounded like a steam engine. It also had 2 water leaks and the headliner was dropping. Well, since she is only 22 and living at home, she works part time with school, realized she cant afford the gas much less pay to fix her truck. So I did the head gasket and pulled the headliner to fix the leaks. Found 2 leaks in the drains fixed them but still leaked. When I pulled the top of the engine it was a nightmare.. The rockers where so slugged i cleaned up everything...That was my first mistake... As with the head gasket broken, it ran super smooth.... Go figure. I did ARP studs and the engine looked better than new. Went to start and would not start. When I finally got it to start in ran so bad I thought it was going to implode. I towed it to my rover guy and 1 month later as I was not in a hurry, $2,200.00 and it's not leaking and running like a new truck... Yep, Typical rover..

Oh , yea....I own the truck now...

 

If you want to read the voltage drop to the block, a better way to do that is under load. As an example, you could read + wire on + battery, and - wire on engine block, and read good volts. Because there is so little voltage drop at the tiny current level by a modern electronic meter.

But, if you place meter probes on (-) battery terminal, and engine block; then crank, if you get a reading that is the voltage drop being produced across whatever bad connection you have on the frame grounds. Can repeat for + wires. Point is that voltage drop from bad connections shows up very quickly under load. Obviously it a'int easy without some long gator clips to measure at the starter and crank engine at the same time. Unless you short the solenoid lead over. Just be sure it is chocked so it can't jump in gear and run over you...