Sad day, driving home last night the rover seemed to be doing ok, possibly a littler warmer than usual. Got up to 210, noticed the temp, slowed down and blasted the heater. Temp dropped back down. About five minutes later the check engine light flashed and the idle got rough. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and popped the hood after seeing some steam/or smoke.

small bit of smoke was from oil dripping on exhuast. That did not look good… car is leaky but the leak was obviously new and greater volume. Checked codes: misfire cylinder 5. I Started it up and limped it the last mile home (hopefully that was t a terrible decision but it seemed like the right move at the time).

pulled the plug and it was oily right on the electrode. Not saturated, but filmy. Oil level isnt drastically low. It is dripping about 10x the volume than normal. Not a crazy drip but more than this car usually has by alot.

anything immediately come to mind? I know only the basics but I am decent with diy work. Planning to have it towed to the local rover shop. Im doubtful its not seriously damaged.

thanks

 

Which thermostat installed? If factory, that is likely the temperature issue. Oil spark plug? What is the compression like on that cylinder? External oil? I would suspect vavle cover gasket. All three separate issues.

 

hey Extinct, I have your inline stat installed. I think the heat is a possibly a water pump thing. All of that aside: compression was low ~30psi in the cylinder in question.

The shop I took it to (a landrover specific shop) wanted a crazy amount just to take the head off and inspect the cylinder. So thats not an option to have them tear it down and rebuild given the issue could be catastrophic. I dont want to throw money at an old motor (170k miles) if its unfixable. Ive never taken a motor apart myself. Im sure I can do it. Time is the only thing in question for me.

I'm thinking its probably worth it to start looking for a new crate motor, or doing an LS swap. I dont want to ditch the car. Id rather build it back up with a new motor.

any suggestions on where to get a crate 4.6L?
any thoughts on LS swap? Both would be either in a shop or DIY. I have slightly less fear of putting a new motor in myself than I do rebuilding a motor.

thanks!

 

@PeteDub There are few reasons for low compression head gaskets and valves being the most common. Putting a new long block in is actually more work than pulling the heads, that is the nice thing about push rod V8's.

210 is fine that is well within normal, my suspicion is you have a failed valve seal or spring, That would explain the very low compression on only 1 cylinder and misfire. An internal leak generally causes both cylinders to show poor compression.

You can just remove the upper intake and valve covers and turn the engine over by hand (battery disconnected), and watch the valve stem movement on #5 and listen. With the low a compression, you may hear the noise. It only takes basic tools to get that far.

You can try this but it is iffy with modern emission systems, the cats often get it 1st, get someone else to start your truck while you watch the tail pipe it will be just be a little puff of blue

 

Shop work has gotten very expensive, but at least you were at a LR specific shop. Where are you located? I would guess at 30psi compression you had a valve train failure of some sort preventing the valves from sealing, that might explain the oily spark plug as well. You could use a leakdown tester and determine whether that is true but you would need to be able to get that cylinder up on the compression stroke which is easiest with the valve cover off. I would start by pulling the upper intake and the valve cover on that side.

170k is not terribly high, my DD has 261 and runs like a top only ever having HG done.

In terms of long blocks, my first choice would be a relatively low mile one from a breaker like Doc Heydary or Will Tillerey, there are several others on FB. You might even consider a whole truck with a rusty frame just for the engine as the cost would likely approach LB cost. AB engines have been getting a rep of being hit or miss but with good customer support, J. E. Robison and The Wedge Shop are two others to consider. I also think there was a good shop in the UK shipping LB's to the US for a decent price. LS - add $5k to the price tag of your LB.

 

Great, lots of great info here guys. Thank you very much.

yeah with the price the shop quoted me to move forward in testing, I cant hurt it too much digging a little deeper myself.

I think I was led to overreaction in my conversation with the mechanic on the phone who basically said its likely something major. Hearing your guys’ takes sounds very logical and less hyperbolic. This shop (in North Bay Area CA)does alot of resto’s and mostly on clean Defenders. I think their past experience with well loved Discoveries may have left them gunshy. Regardless, I was prices out of their help anyways.

I will pull the intake and valve cover myself to do a little investigation. Unfortunately cant get to it until sometime next week but I will keep this thread updated!

thanks again