Good day,

Finally got my dreaded miss fire situation resolved... It would now appear that I have a slipped sleeve sound! Great news right!

Lucky for me I have a 2000 4.0L (100,000 miles)engine that I picked from my parts truck a few years back that sounded good when I pulled it and hadn't overheated so I will be replacing my 4.6 with it. I guess the purpose of this thread is to compile a parts list that I should need to swap this engine in.

So far I am thinking:

-waterpump
-oil pump
-timing chain and gears
-front and rear main seal
-head gasket kit (composite?)
-oil pickup o ring
-sump gasket
-oil and water temp sensor
-tapets?
-front cover gasket

What else should I do? Do I need to get the heads plained?

Thanks

 

None of what you list above will solve your noise issue. I'm not sure what you mean by "swap an engine in" if you are thinking of pulling your current motor and replacing with another used motor or if you are saying that you want to rebuild your current motor.

However, if I heard a thumping coming from my motor, I'd go onto eBay and pay the $30 for new standard sized rod bearings and then follow this fantastic pictorial thread for rolling in new rod bearings from underneath my Discovery: https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...rite-up-48197/

OK, to do the above you will also need to buy a new oil sump gasket.

Your Discovery has 3 sets of bearings in the motor. Rod bearings, main bearings, and cam bearings.

Worn rod bearings are common on Discovery motors. You can unbolt your oil sump and see them from underneath your vehicle by simply looking up after the oil has finished dripping off.

You've got 8 rods, one for each cylinder in your V8. Each rod has a cap with two bolts on it. With the oil sump drain pan off, you unbolt one rod cap from the crankshaft to reveal the lower rod bearing. Its upper half of the bearing is just sitting on top of the crank where you can gently push it off.

Spray the area with brake cleaner. Dry. Gently rub an emory cloth around the exposed crank area and cap. Respray with brake cleaner. Dry. Rub fresh 15W40 on your upper and lower rod bearing halves. Gently roll the top half up onto the exposed crank area. Set the lower half into your rod cap and gently screw back in the cap onto your crank, then torque appropriately (maybe 15 ft lbs??).

Repeat 7 more times for your other cylinders (rods). Now you've got new rod bearings in your V8.

Frankly, that's probably as much as I would personally do because the above is just a guess at your problem/solution. If you were motivated, you *could* also do the same procedure (without oiling the new mains) for your main bearings. Heck, if you were oustandingly motivated you could press in new camshaft bearings. But I wouldn't do those 2 things at your stage (really, to do the main bearings you would need to pull off your front timing chain oil pump cover, too).

I'd just put a nice bead of RTV around your new oil sump gasket, align it onto your oil sump drain pan, and bolt that bad boy back up onto your motor after just doing the rod bearings (the most likely parts to be worn out on a Discovery's V8).

Refill your V8 with 6.9 quarts of 15W40 and start her up.

So by doing the above for the price of new rod bearings and a new oil drain pan gasket you've got a shot at fixing your problem.

Oh, if you really do have a slipped cylinder sleeve then the above is a pure waste, sorry!

But...if your noise is really a rod knock then your new rod bearings have a strong chance of fixing your problem.

The above is a poor man's engine rebuild, and it is fast and easy. Your V8 stays in your Discovery. You don't disconnect a lot of things. You just drain and drop your oil pan, then roll in new rod bearings.

Rest assured that your old rod bearings *do* need replacing no matter what. Even so, they can only fix a rod knock (and that's not even 100% this way).

I'd guess that spending $100 total for oil, gasket, and rod bearings per the above will give you about a 60% chance of fixing your motor for maybe another 70,000 miles.

Anyway, that's a lot easier and cheaper than swapping in a new or used motor (which might knock as soon as you start *it* up, anyway!).

 

engine swap = engine change
......

 

there's a lot of diagnostic work you can do before you jump to the slipped liner conclusion

 

Yup. That would make a good thread, too.

 

Great advice! Truly appreciate the time you took to think and write this out for me.


This said the truck presently has the 4.6 in it and am almost certain its a slipped sleeve. We were driving along started getting a misfire light... and the engine sounded terribly bad a with a horrible knock. Replaced the spark plugs, wires and coil pack. Miss fire is gone but still have horrible knock. Sounds like its coming from the top end of the engine and the bottom end. Hard to believe it all went to this all at the same time as the miss fire. I am kind of tired to tearing into this engine as its been improperly rebuilt by the previous owner and have had to practically redo everything so far with the exception of internals over the last few years.


This said I do have a 2000 4.0 from my parts truck that I pulled a few years back waiting for my 4.6 to grenade. I guess my previous post was mostly to get advice on what part replacements might be worth while doing while I have the 4.0 in a stand prior to putting it into the truck. I don't really feel like doing a full rebuild on this 4.0 as it has no known issue when I pulled it but I am not appose to doing the obvious to save me some headaches down the road.

 

I agree, I am just getting tired of messing around with this engine and dumping money endlessly into it and still having a mediocre engine at best. You have to understand the previous owner did a full rebuild of it just prior to me buying it back in 2014 and I've only driven it maybe 16,000miles. So far everything the previous owner touched was a hack job and I've either had to replace whatever he touched or completely disable and re-assemble. I would be surprised if he even owned a torque wrench.

 

That's fair. That being the case, here's my two cents.

The 4.0 is a dog, you will hate it in its stock configuration. The 4.6 is as well but it's barely adequate, the 4.0 isn't lol, IMO.

Rather than rebuilding the 4.0, I would spend what will likely be around the same amount of money for a professionally built short block and never worry about the bottom end of the rover motor again. Slap whichever of your heads is cleaner on the new short block (after making sure they are flat) and throw it back in. Use arp studs, quality timing set, new oil pump, quality gaskets throughout.

Spend a little extra for the upgraded cam, maybe get a set of headers down the road. Will be a new beast and will last a loooong time.

sell the extra parts

 

Hate to be disagreeable but the 4.0 is really not so bad. I have a P38 running a 4.6 cam (ERR 5250) in my '03 and it goes pretty good, not that I would win a race with a 5.0 Mustang, but it's cool. Disclaimer - my P38 is a NOS short block, so it is factory fresh.

My .02 is put a 4.6 camshaft in your 4.0 since you'll have the front cover off anyway and drop it in. Here is a list of more items to replace that may be helpful with your swap.

Spark Plugs
Wires
Oil Pan Gasket (cheap, plus you can clean your pickup screen)
Serpentine Belt
Tensioner & Idlers
Motor Mounts
180 Degree Thermostat

I've heard (and believe) most P38 engines were manufactured to a higher standard than the 4.6 engines, so if you have a good 4.0 you can probably breathe a good bit of additional life into your Disco with an engine swap.

Good luck!

 

I highly doubt that one plant changed their manufacturing specs for two different vehicles that would otherwise receive identical engines. that would be the first instance of this phenomena ive ever heard of from any manufacturer.

Blocks from different plants and slightly varied design are a different story. like windsor and detroit Ford Modular engines.


again, why not spend very similar money on more displacement, a superior cam grind, professionally machining and assembly from top to bottom, and a warranty.

you will only save money with the 4.0 AND end up with a solid engine if you ONLY pay for machine work and do all of the measuring and assembly yourself.

And i dont just mean having liners installed. I mean full machine workup including checking for cracks, checking bore round, line honing the mains, checking and machining/polishing the crank, same with the rods...the list goes on.