I just wanted to share some of my experiences on doing work on these v8's for people to read if they want...

The head gaskets were new on this rig when I purchased it in 2013 (with 125k on the clock). I've been nursing/suckling a coolant leak on the rear water jacket next to #8 cylinder for about a year now. It finally let go on my last road trip (400miles) a few weeks ago, after I got home I noticed the under carriage having a coating of antifreeze, so it was time to pull it in the garage. The engine now has 183k. I collected parts and pieces for this job over the last year. This was my 2nd Rover V8 head job, (I had another Disco, but sold it). Both v8's I did the PCV mod on due to them being almost completely clogged, but this was only recent prior to me tearing them down. BOTH engines internally were terrible, full of crap. Both these engines had years of faithful 3k oil changes also, I have over 10 years of history on both rigs. I was surprised how dirty they were, oil passages plugged in the heads, rocker arm shafts had plugged oil passages etc etc... they were a mess. Timing chain covers ugly too.

Anyway...I found on my daily driver, the timing chain was sloppy, probably the original with 183k on the clock, the gears also had chain marks cut into them, so I ordered a complete set from Atlantic British and the gears and chain that came looked top-notch. I read some threads on here about new gears today (probably chinesium) not looking too great, so if your in the market for a timing chain and gears, buy from AB. My oil pump wasn't cracked on this motor, just some real light fine grooves on the cover, I replaced the oil pump gears. I had a lifter or two bleeding off after setting for a day or more, they always pumped back up shortly after start up, so I had a new set here for when I tore the engine down, my cam looked great, even the lifters had very little wear, like I said, bleeding off was the issue. I will say also, I have run Mobile 1 synthetic 10w30 for years in this engine, I tried Delo 15w40 years ago when all the new talk was to run ONLY Dino oil, but I swear my engine sounded unhappy with it, it made a glugging sound?? so I kept running the lighter synthetic, but I always thought (do to paranoia with everyone in the world running 15w40), that I was damaging my internals with synthetic possibly, but I found no abnormal wear on the hard parts, other than the tired timing chain. I used the Lucky 8 head gasket set (which doesn't have any markings on the head gaskets noting which side is UP! That's dumb) after researching on-line, the metal side goes UP, I could also faintly see on one head a faint line where head gasket metal goes around a head bolt location. I use stock head bolts, copper coat the head gaskets, the exhaust manifold gaskets, and the upper intake gasket. The cylinders still had nice cross hatching, I lapped the valves and replaced the dried up brittle valve stem seals. My heads and block deck were completely flat, so no milling required. I decided to run Delo 10w30 diesel oil, I think that will be my go to from now on.

I also did the In-Line thermostat mod finally, I purchased the kit about a year ago, and all new coolant hoses. The temps hover 179-184, pretty nice. I ran the gray TD5 180 thermostat successfully for many years, the gray 180 was good, except!! I could never win at a LONG idle, with AC full blast, on a 105 degree day, the engine temp would slowly build heat. The only other time I would see a slow build up of heat, would be on an extremely steep slow hill climb. AND I don't want that!! Soooo after reading nothing but good things about this mod, I had to do it.

That's all for now, I hope my English reads ok.

 

@Motorhead1 as to the filth once they get gummed up they kind of stay that way and may get worse. So bad maintenance and long duration oil change intervals by a previous owner and you get a mess, nothing really cleans it up very well, ok a tear down and full clean but that is a lot of work.

 

As for timing chains, this isn’t a LR only thing, they stretch and get sloppy. I remember reading that if you have the front end apart and the chain has more than 30,000 miles, you should replace it due to stretch. This doesn’t imply that you should replace them every 30k, just replace it if you’re there. The stretch on yours sounds normal, and it’s not just normal for a LR.