If the pump was not broken then the gears are not your low pressure problem, do you know what weight oil was in it? If it was not a light weight oil, then you have a worn bearing problem and might want to start looking for a different Rover. Heavy weight oil will usually help (5 to 10 psi max) unless you originally had something like 0w20 in it.

 

The pump was broken and the housing was scored...gonna buy a new housing and cross my fingers

 

I crossed my fingers and got new pump gears and a better used cover 80k ago, so best of luck!

 

One more question...I did check my vin and it is NOT in the known range so I will assume that the dowel problem was resolved by the time my engine was manufactured. My question is can I use an earlier front cover off say a 2001 or 2002 4.0 or 4.6 as long as it came off a Bosch engine? I know that I may have to plug the oil cooler ports as my 2003 did not use an oil cooler.

 

Yes as long as it's the 4.6 front cover your fine.

 

Are the 4.0 covers different than the 4.6?

 

Not entirely sure I know the bosch engine covers are good for the bosch engine and gems for gems. Not sure if there is a difference on the 4.0 vs 4.6

 

iirc RR oil cooler line are different than Disco

 

Ok...so I replaced the oil pump gears and a used but not scored like my original front cover. The oil pressure is now

Cold idle. 50psi
Cold 2000 rpm 50psi

Warm 187 degrees idle 8 psi
2000 rpm 45 psi
pressure did come up with the new pump warm from 20 to 45 at 2000 rpm but only a few psi at idle. And still getting ticking starting at 170 degrees. Definitely sounds more like rockers as the sound is coming from both valve covers. What is next? Should I pull the valve covers off and check the rocker shafts and rockers or main and rod bearings. The car idles perfectly with no bearing noise what so ever until temp reaches 170 degrees.

 

I have a 2003 disco 2 and had similar problems. It took a lot of reading and found Rotella T 15w40 and a K&N hp3001 filter was the best combo. Checked my vin and wasn't in the range either. Took front cover off and everything had been replaced by previous owner when head gaskets were changed. Put aftermarket oil pressure and water temp gauges on it. Oil pressure was good up until the 190 degree mark. Then I heard the very unmistakable noise of a slipped sleeve at the 180 degree mark. Tried to convince myself to pin the liners and couldn't bring myself to do it. Not throwing thousands at top hat liners. The next obvious solution was to run cooler than 180. Did that and lots of problems went away like low oil pressure and the slipped liner. Had to fool my ecu to make it happy and I can let you know exactly what I did if you want. Just a lot to type! Now when it is to temp (160 degress) and idling, I have 20 psi of oil pressure