1998 4.0 p38a stalls out and engine wont turn over for a while
 

i got a 1998 range rover se 4.0 liter today at 205k miles.

its got an engine light on with twelve codes. the scan tool i have is not that good so i couldnt read all the codes but i did detect three misfire codes. when i go to work im going to use the good ol snap on scan tool to see what the other codes are.

also, the big hose after what i believe is the thermostat which is connected to the lower radiator hose had a huge hole in it. i am replacing that tomorrow

heater core hoses are clamped off and coolant tank has a bypass hose going to engine. that is also being undone tomorrow

currently, i can drive it for about 10 minutes before it stalls out and doesnt start back up right away. gotta give it time. engine doesnt overheat im guessing because the engine doesnt run long enough for it to

what are common problems with this car that may cause this problem? could the coolant issue be causing it ? i doubt that but sometimes some cars do strange things like that

previous owner says his mechanic said its because of the mass air flow sensor. please let me know what yall think ! thanks !

Well, you've allot of miles on the engine and no telling which sensor(s) are at fault. Usually it's the Idle Air Control that causes idling and hot start issues and it's port and pintle can be cleaned of carbon to help the motor idle well. Cooling temp sensors can also be bad causing rich fuel mixture (like running with the choke on) which would cause hard warm starts.

Obviously there is a heater core issue and it's common for the hose/pipe O rings to be the fault for leakage and not the core. You get to remove the dash to find/fix those. That you will find out if you undo the bypass.

A faulty MAF commonly make the motor run poorly all the time, rough idle and lousy fuel mileage. O2's are another common issues especially with the mileage the motor has. I don't doubt they're due for replacement.

You have a GEMS (General Engine Management System) controlled motor and they're also common with the Discovery model from 96 - 99 1/2. Not too much that we don't already know about there. Fairly easy system to diagnose what's what with.

If you do snag codes post them up, can give you a good idea what's happening.

i replaced the hose and hooked the heater core back up. filled the coolant reservoir, and had to jump start the rover.

i left it running for 10 minutes with the heat on full blast, everything seemed good so i put it in drive and soon as i started goin the passenger side windshield started fogging up and smoke started to come out the passenger side vents.

so after rebypassing the leaking heater core i drove it up the block and it starts overheating. i pulled over popped the hood and discovered the head gasket was leaking profusely.

after doing some research i found out that land rover motors have a common problem called a 'slipped sleeve' where basically the head is fudged. coolant leaks out by the brim of the cylinder bores so the only way to fix that is to get new heads. a ticking sound is a possible indication of a slipped sleeve.

it sucks, youtube it.

oh, and that stalling out and not starting back up for a while situation is a crank position sensor problem. another common land rover problem.

These would have been good question to ask before you bought it.
it was pretty obvous that it needed a heater core right off.
You leaking headgasket could be a slipped sleeve but doughtful in a 98 RR.
The fact that you can see coolant leaking out, is a good sign.
a ckps will ussaully Not let the truck restart when warm, not kill the engine when running.
You need to change your attitude or change trucks, this is a LR not chevy it any given it up on the first date.

In your case you cannot know whether a liner has slipped until you remove the head. Even then it's pretty tough to tell unless you slide a fingernail over the block/liner seam and if it catches on the block it's slipped. If not then all is well and proceed with shaving the heads flat, new gaskets, head bolts and valley gasket. Takes me a weekend if I get the heads to my machine shop by Friday, I get em back by Saturday afternoon. Most of what happens is cleaning up old oil and carbon especially with the rocker assemblies - which leads me to the tick, tick, tick. You have a high mileage motor and it sounds like it was neglected.

These motors develop allot of sludge, just the nature of the beast. Because of it the oil galleys get plugged or nearly plugged and the rocker assembly is the worse of all the areas because of either low oil pressure or high temperature or both. The rockers are oiled through the shaft and where the mount bolts hold the shaft pedestals/shaft there is usually a blockage of baked oil right there. Then there's the rockers themselves. You have to remove at least one to check what the oil ports look like, the shaft and the rocker tip. Then there's the pushrods, when worn they have a mushroom shape to the tips instead of a ball or are bent. I've seen several bent pushrods.....

When there is a crank sensor issue it will always point directly at the sensor with a DTC. The only time it doesn't is when the sensors wire insulation becomes brittle and disappears. Then you can have two exposed crank sensor wires touching or grounding to the block. If you can re-scan the codes I'd be really interested to see what shows up. I have all the goods on what the codes mean, they're not as generic as with domestic boxes.

With the heater core it can be either the core is shot or there are 2 O rings that don't seal (dry/cracked) at the heater box. They are the number one issue when it comes to heaters in P38's. I'd replace head gaskets all day rather than one P38 O ring job. The heater matrix sucks fuzz nuts getting to.

As far as YouTube check out "Rover liner pinning". Can be done..... you bet. I'm a hands on Rover type, not a video watcher......just ask the forum.

Im with you on choosing the HG over the heater core any day.