Hey guys.

I bought a LR3 5 months ago. 100k miles. I’m in heaven. Best decision I ever made. Seriously. Slowly doing work on her. Previous owner did tons of body work and basic upkeep. I’m starting to do the heavy lifting under the hood stuff. Just did the transmission conversion kit. New transmission oil, transfer box oil, motor oil, coolant. New water pump seals and gaskets, spark plugs, coils etc. Brakes and new power steering rack are on deck.

My mechanic says my top valve gaskets are starting to go. I’m ordering the parts from Atlantic British now, (love those guys). What else should I be replacing while we’re in there? Gaskets, Seals? Timing chain kit? (expensive as crap but I cant be certain timing chain is original part or not). Other parts that could be redone while mechanic is in there?

 

I would not recommend changing any timing parts as preventive maintenance. After having done this recently for a cold-start knock, I believe the timing system on these motors is extremely durable and should last the life of the motor unless there is a problem.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/lr...cement-111381/

 

@P-Bod what about fixing the cold start knock itself? You may recall that I have that same issue on my 2006 with 228,000 miles....should I bother?

 

The cold start knock would drive me nuts, and I certainly would want to fix it. Yes, I remember you have the knock. The service doc says to change the offending VVT gear only. I still agree with that but…

If you’re in that deep and at 228k miles, yes I would look for worn parts and replace anything that is suspect. I don’t know that I would replace a whole timing kit just because. If you look at your primary tensioners, you should be able to get an indication of chain wear. If the tensioner are fairly extended, I would want new chains. If the guides have grooves in the plastic, I would change them. If those parts look good, I would leave them alone.

Your secondary tensioners are probably grooved pretty bad at 228k. Those should
probably be changed.

The other benefit to tackling the knock would be that you get fresh seals on your front cover, valve covers, etc.

As discussed in the timing set thread, I don’t
think the knock is actually harmful, but man it sounds bad!

I have a used VVT gear that I would be glad
to give you. It’s out of tolerance by 3 thousandths. The knocking VVT was out by 18 or so thousandths. I did them both, but I probably did not need to.

If it was mine, I would cringe at every cold
start and would have to do something about it. It’s a horrible sound!

 

Don't forget VVT seals. And I recommend conditioning the VVT solenoids so they have nice clean sides to seal against those seals. I put new seals in, but the VVT solenoids were a little rusty and I gain have leakage of oil. Sad about that...