So, I'll start this out by saying Hi in case you missed my intro post. I'm a new LR owner and new to the forum and this will be my first official post aside from that introduction.

I bought my 2000 Disco II with 153k miles and a perfect maintenance record from our local LR dealership. It has the 4.0 v8. The car initially belonged to the wife of an accountant here in Colorado and is in seemingly excellent shape.

ok. Flash forward 6 days and 480 miles. When the car is cold, it has a good deal of chatter at 2000 rpms or so. This sounds like regular valvetrain stuff and I'm not intimidated by the thought of swapping the lifters/cam/timing chain etc in the future. The chatter is gone after 3 or so minutes of driving or idle time.

Aside from this, there is another lower tap that is louder (but still quite faint) at startup and becomes extremely faint when driving. Half the time I can't tell if it's actually there or if I'm imagining it. This might sound strange but To make that worse, it's not audible from the outside of the car or doesn't seem to be. Standing in front of the engine with the hood open and manually throttling up, or having someone else throttle up while I'm under the truck yields no perceivable low tapping noise. It's literally only audible when I'm inside the car and seems to be coming from the front rightish side of the cabin. That might be a bit vague, but it's what I've got until tomorrow morning when I go at it with a stethoscope.

I've been reading the forums for the last two days or so about valve train stuff and more importantly about liners. So I'm looking for an opinion and maybe some questions answered.

Is it really even possible to diagnose a liner issue without tearing down the engine?

Does this sound like the beginning stages of that sort of issue?

Comments? questions?

thanks

 

If you had a slipped liner, you would know it. I'm confident that's not your issue because of how quiet the sound is. Kinda sounds like an exhaust leak. That's where I'd check first.

 

Welcome to the forum. I also think a slipped liner is a major leap to jump to. Disco II was 99-2004, so what year exactly is yours? Also, have you considered switching to the Rotella oil? Typically it's Rotella T 15W-40 unless you are in super cold temps and folks go 5W-40 in winter. It did a nice job of stopping my oil leaks and quieting down my 4.0.

If you have SAI, then that pump is behind the firewall on the passenger side. That usually is only a factor on warm-ups though.

Exhaust leak sounds plausible, also the front prop shaft is below the passenger seat. Need to check that out also because it spins when driving. Tires?

My training is mainly from Click and Clack the tappet brothers on Car Talk. :-)

Welcome aboard!
Jamie

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

My disco is a 2000. Should've made that a bit more clear, sorry about that. The front propshaft is in need of service. I've ordered a new one from lucky8 but I've ruled that out as said tap is still there at a stop or in park/neutral. Tires are new. I think it's running 5w-30 because it's last oil change was at the dealer but I could be wrong. It's not actually listed on the sticker -.-

I got under it this morning before I headed to work and I'm thinking it may very well be an exhaust leak. My gut says it's not just because of the pitch of the tap but I was reading about all the Jazz associated with slipped liners and got myself worked up.

 

You should definitely switch out that 5w30 for Rotella. These engines have an old school flat tappet cam shaft which requires more zinc which is now only in diesel oils. With conventional engine oil there isn't enough zinc and the cam will get worn down as well as the lifters and valve train. I bet if you switch it a lot of that clatter quitens down.

 

X2 on the 5w-30 causing your engine noise,

Change the oil out to the Rotella 15w-40 and let us know how that sounds.

 

Roger that. I'll make the swap and let you guys know how it goes.

 

Also a bad cat normally will rattle until it completely warms up, and exhaust leaks can make it sound like bad valves, or make it sound like an old muscle car. My 98 D1 had a rattle that made it sound like I had bad crank bearings, worn valves, and no oil in the engine.... Replaced the exhaust gaskets at the exhaust manifold, cat to manifold connections and it was so quiet afterwards I heard more noises that were completely muted by the exhaust leaks! That's when I learned I had a bad rattling cat and a squeaky u-joint.

On a good set of exhaust gaskets all you should really be hearing from the engine are the injectors firing and the normal V8 burble. If you stick your head down in a fender well and you hear TICK TICK TICK or CLANK CLANK CLANK my $$$$ is on bad leaking exhaust gaskets. Using a piece of hose to your ear makes it easier to narrow down the sounds. I also highly agree switching over to 15/40 Rotella. 5/30 is thin for these motors unless you're in an extremely cold area.

 

What grade gas?


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