I drove my '00 P38 to my cousin's house on Friday, which is only 50 miles away with no problems. When I got back in the vehicle to leave the check engine light came on and there was a significant power loss. I hooked up the scanner and it showed a random misfire (P0300) and a cyclinder 8 misfire (P0308).

I changed the Champion cooper's to Bosch Platinum single tip's and installed new cheap Duralast wires (that was the only thing that I could get my hands on in short notice - Magnecor's are in the mail as I type). After installing these items the P0300 went away but P0308 still remained.

Does anybody have any insight to this misfire? I have been thinking about fuel injectors to a new head job. Surely somebody out there has had this problem recently.

By the way I have a external head gasket leak of slight antifreeze and oil running down the motor. The vehicle does not leak oil in the driveway.

 

You could also have coolant entering #8. There is a dye you can add to coolant, run for a few days, pull #8 plug, and inspect plug as well as what a flashlight will show in cylinder. Flecks of green dye may show up.

If coolant is out the back of engine, certainly could be HG.


re: oil running down the motor - a sure sign that it is genuine Land Rover and not a knock off (lol) - since this oil is not reaching the ground, is it leaking from valve covers and burning off on exhaust mainfolds? Snug up valve covers with 8mm 12 point 1/4 inch drive socket.

 

The coolant is coming from the front, I would say #1. I'll run the dye but my mechanic told me that doing a HG maybe an issue bc if the bolts break then I would need a new engine. Plus if I machine the top and new gaskets, I might as well do the bottom. I hope that it's a coil pack or an injector.

 

The bolts for the heads are "stretch once to spec" style, and should never be re-used. Broken bolts can be extracted by a variety of means, it is not unheard of.

Possibility that a leak near a "corner" might come from the valley pan gasket.

Hope you are correct on an electrical issue for #8 (bad wire, boot, plug, coil pack, etc.). Murphy's Law applies to all parts on the vehicle; new, used, oem, aftermarket, and even those in a cardboard box in the back seat.

 

ok, walk away from this guy. He is a sheister. Those bolts don't break at all. The only thing that does is the heads strip if you don't have the correct tool to get them out. and even then with the correct tool you can still get them out. Seriously, unless you overheat the heads and warp them then you have to get them cut. The best procedure to find that out is to take it to a machine shop. But if it doesn't overheat it doesn't need to be cut. it just needs to be cleaned. This isn't too hard of a job on your vehicle. but the pain in the *** part might be the small bolts on the exhaust manifold covers. they don't like to come out very easy. if you have secondary air its not easy either.

This isn't a bad job for a DIYer. I can give you all the extra tools you will need to use depending on what it has.