I've read that increased flow for our engines does nothing except cost you an extra muffler. But I don't believe it

 

Yeah; It's like saying that increasing our body's ability to remove carbon dioxide would do nothing in the way of decreasing our fatigue levels. Common sense.

 

So did you drop the pipe? Any improvement?

I shouldn't lie; I drove the Titan without a y pipe up the block and back and laughed the entire way at the pure bombast of an unchoked v8 in a neighborhood full of poodles, even one from Japan (or Tennessee, or Mexico... not sure). Woke the neighbors, probably. They already hate me because my kids drive, even though I was President of the home owners *** when no one else would do it. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend driving with an open exhaust. You can burn the valves, according to the gurus.

 

I dropped the pipe and their was improvement but the check engine light is on still and the the thing still flashes. It flashes when the engine is warming up and flashes every so often when I accelerate after a stop.

 

Well that's no good. Checking your other posts...

 

Okay. I've had a lot of problems with my ro and leaned heavily on DiscoMike for solutions. Really all that is left is MAF, coils, trash in fuel injectors, and head gaskets. If you know anyone with a Disco II, swap MAF's with them for thirty minutes. That fixed me once. I wasn't sure I had a HG leak until I opened the engine, and I did. I'd have to reference the coil chart to see if that's even possible given your symptoms. I doubt the fuel injectors because I'd be surprised if more than one went bad at once.

Something abrupt changed... points to MAF or HG, to me.

 

I can rule out the ignition coils, the spark plugs, and the cables because they are all new.

 

Wow. Well that's sort of bad news. Swap MAF. If that doesn't work it is always good to have a spare. II got the cheapie off amazon and it has worked for three years.

I know everyone here always jumps to head gaskets. And I might be guilty of that myself sometimes. A HG problem would cause misfires and all sorts of problems, including fouling the cats. It can also happen all of the sudden or cause what seem to be sudden problems. Have you lost any coolant? Have you had any high heat events? Can you test your antifreeze? Also, have you looked at the end of your dipstick? It can show a white milky substance if you have coolant mixing with oil. Finally, if you can remove your plugs and rotate the crank you might be able to see the tops of the cylinder heads. If the problem cylinder heads are clean and the others aren't, they are getting steam cleaned.

On the positive side, replacing the head gaskets isn't all that difficult.

I actually replaced my head gaskets once when they didn't need to be replaced. Wow. I am reliving it. As soon as I was done, the problem returned. That was a low moment. It negated my superhero DIY status instantly. Then I finally followed the advice to swap the MAF, which I had thought silly, and it fixed me. At least I had new head gaskets.

 

The disco died on me last week and a new CPS fixed that. I will let you know that the previous owners did nothing other than change the engine oil. Terrible maintenance. I'm the type of personality that I either blow it up or rebuild it from the ground up, eat the cost, that way I will have a solid and consistent maintenance record from the get go. It kills me how folks are now days. LOL...when I bought this rover, I did so before the dealership could do anything to it; it was a trade in. I bought the day after. You know how dealerships are-nothing but patch work. So, I bought it before they made matters worse. It was from a Chevrolet dealership too.
The three out of four tires were three different sizes and were low profile street tires.
I guess that they were having continuity issues in the conductor connections of the drivers side rear brake light because each termination had a Bobby stuck in them.
Original exhaust system-as you know.
Instead of buying new tubing and t-coupler for the windshield jets, they tried 'fixing' it with black electrical tape.
Original fluids were in the transmission.
Original fluids were in the differentials.
All of the rubber grease boots are blown open and no sign of them ever being greased.
Original hoses on everything.
The spark plugs were standard Champion plugs and also looked like the originals, not for sure.
Pressure tested the radiator and surprisingly, it passed.
This DISCO has a running maintenance record on Carfax dating all the way back to the time of original purchase in 2003. But, lol...BUT.
All of the shields of the proximity sensors are busted off and are FUBAR.
The Disco is running far better than what it did when I purchased it, but I really need to open the engine, the transmission, etc. to see first hand. I may try changing out all of the remaining sensors on the thing. It's approaching 100k miles and as poor maintenance that it has received through the years, it probably would be better if I really did rebuild it from the ground up. I could sell it as is, but I could not do that to someone, knowing what I know now. Besides, that's the easy way out and I don't like that.

 

We were typing at the same time. Check my post above.

I've had my Disco since new so I have no one to blame other than my ex wife for its problems. I like the way you think! I'm the same. I'll never sell mine. Ever.

Sounds like you know what you are doing, probably more so than me. In the last two months I've replaced steering bar, drag link, abs sensors, did the mod to the shuttle valve, in line thermostat mod, electric fan (removed that), ball joints, and had a new engine completely redone that is the wrong size (your size.. 4.6, with matching transmission) that I will be putting in this weekend. On top of that I dismantled a parts Rover (which is where the engine and transmission came from) while doing my regular job. I think of cars like tractors. Something breaks, your fix or replace it. You do not replace the car.

Oh I forgot... Cold air intake and new hubs on all four corners.

Anyway, I think you may have an easy problem (MAF) or a harder one (head gasket). . Something tells me you'd be just as happy if it was the latter so you could really get the thing running right.