I am currently engaged in this process. Oil pressure was low so I decided to perform a "budget rebuild" by leaving the engine in place and servicing what I can reach. Oil pump gears were worn but not broken, so I rebuilt the front cover. Crank bearings were worn but not completely gone. Connecting rods were worse - completely gone. Replaced all. Put in a new camshaft also but running the old bearings since I can't get in there to change them without removing the pistons. New timing gears and chain installed.

It was a PITA working from the underside but easier than removing the entire engine. Dropped oily #5 bearing cap on my forehead - still have a headache. New cruciform seals installed. Installing the #3 crank bearing that sits in the block from underneath is a bitch.

Used air hose fitting in spark plug holes to pressurize cylinders, removed springs and replaced all of the valve stem seals. The #8 springs are fun with the heater core pipes in the way but I managed.

Rebuilt entire valve train with the exception of the springs and spacer washers. Now installing the remaining accessories along with a bunch of new o-rings, water pump, hoses, rebuilt steering pump etc, etc.

Should be starting it next weekend, maybe the one after that. I will know shortly whether this was a wise choice or not, but considering how relatively smoothly things have gone I expect good results, and maybe another 100K miles out of this lump.

 

Fast951 -- after you rebuilt your front cover and replaced the crank bearings, did you fire up the engine and test the oil pressure? Or was your engine too disassembled to do so?

I think that I am going to check the crank bearings next. If they look bad, then I will replace them and re-test the oil pressure. Hopefully that will fix it. If not, then I am going to have to tear into the top-side of the engine. Maybe that will be a good time to do the head gaskets too (preemptively)...

 

As a follow-up, I have now replaced the main crank and rod bearings with standard-sized replacements. The main bearings looked fine, but the rod bearings looked worn with the surface-plating worn through -- much like the photos in MasterRoverTech's writeup found here:
https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...rite-up-48197/

Unfortunately, this has only improved my hot idle pressure by a pound or two. So it looks like the next step will be to pull the intake and look for a walked cam bearing. Can anyone comment on this and let me know how time consuming it is?

Any other ideas??

 

You can have the intake off in an hour

 

OP: Did you ever resolve this problem?

 

The 1st thing that he should have done was remove the front cover & looked it over or had it checked by a machinist. If the oil pump gears are cracked or broken, in most cases the inside face of the cover where those gears set against will be scored/galled/etc which will continue to negatively affect oil pressure. Since that was originally overlooked, it makes no sense to move on to the bearings and such.

 

This^^^^

As I was reading along..."abran"...nailed it early on in the discussion. The OP obviously didn't do his homework prior to jumping in. Rarely, if ever, will a front cover be good if the outer ring has broken, especially in an aluminum cover.

Brian.

 

are you getting these follow-ups to your inquiry? what's going on with your truck?


the OP of this thread wasn't getting great feedback and therefore, misdirected in his approach. there are much better threads in regard to oil pressure issues associated with broken pump components or otherwise but some things needed to be addressed here as it is bumped to the top.

 

if it was me and i would of changed the pump and cover as a set. Thats what it did. My 03 has 155k and the previous owner was not good at maintenance and my cam and crank bearings seem ok knock on wood.

 

Yes, I fixed the problem. It wasn't a scored front cover, but a walked cam bearing.

I did a write-up on it here: https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...g-fixed-78889/