What exactly does tophat mean? I know people make money with the old defenders... Revel Machines is selling Discovery's for $19k this one was on Craigslist for $19k https://www.instagram.com/p/CKAlEXds61v/... Car Wizard said that Hoovies Garage used to flip discoveries with blown head gaskets all day and night for a profit... I just don't know about in 2021... Hoovies was doing it back when they were still newer cars...

Would a nice LS swap Disco sell for a descent amount? What about one with a Cummins diesel swap? I hate the idea of engine swaps, but just wondering what the market is for these discoveries... I kind of like them more than the defenders... I also like the range rovers, but I prefer solid axle trucks exclusively.

 

You definitely won't make any money swapping a motor in one of these. Trailhead4x4 does an LS swap and look what that costs. Not any room for margin after that. Even then I am not a fan of how they do the swap. Reusing the rover ecu is a huge waste imo as you can't tune them (well one place in england can...).

 

I think this page describes the main problem... I also think that it cracks due to detonation which causes more stress and vibrations. The detonation, from what I've read is caused by them trying to squeak out emissions with a lean tune.

Chris Cowdery Global Presence

 

This also describes the problem but then says it could be due to fuel and timing and radiators too. Seems hopeless.

 

@discoveringlandrover the information you are reading about the Rover V8, both that it’s a great engine, and one of the more problematic ones of all time in the LRD2, are both reasonably true statements.

The design is not fundamentally bad, particularly since it was designed in the late 1950’s. The engine was manufactured well for quite some time. And there are several things about the koror that made it very impressive at the time. It’s used in a variety of applications, and was even the basis of the motor that won the formula 1 world championship in 1966 (Repco V8, Jack Brabham was the driver.

Until the LR equipment got older and wasn’t updated these motors were made fairly well.

In my opinion, the reason the failure rate of the the later 4.0/4.6 motors is so high is due to the combination of worn factory tooling (cylinders bored to close to water passages in thee block) increased running temps (to meet updated emissions standards), and the stupidly complicated factory thermostat (recirculates coolant/ common failure point).

I am sure the 03-04 runs lean at some point in the rev range, but I’ve never read into that as one of the common causes of failure.

I think had LR been able to sell the later 4.6 to the US with a standard style/ inline 180 thermostat and if the temp gauge went into the red at 220 degrees instead of 240 plus, these trucks would have a different reputation today. Even with the poor manufacturing, I bet most of these motors would still be alive.

This article taught me a lot about the Rover V8:

https://silodrome.com/rover-v8-engine-history/

 

My question to the hive mind on tuning is:

Has anyone sent their ECU to Tornado/ whoever it is in the UK that tunes the V8 ECU’s?

There’s an awful lot of these trucks running around with 200k + miles @discoveringlandrover that are running the stock tune. But curious to know more about this.

@Extinct and I have talked about this, albeit very briefly.

 

The 3.9/4.0 from the D1 is fairly different than the 4.0/4.6 in the D2. Mainly the fuel system. D2 V8’s are known as “Thor” which distinguishing them from the previous 3.9/4.0 engine that had different electronics/ intake plenum/ fueling etc. I think the Thor engines have 4 bolt main bearings as well and the older motors are 2 bolt mains. Check me on that.

D2’s had 4.0’s from 99-02, then the 4.6 in 03-04.

 

Thanks for the info... it's an interesting mystery. I believe I remember that some Porsche consumer racing engines have been decked (filled the water jacked with sand and cement and/or welded in a deck plate) and run without coolant next to the cylinder bores. My opinion is that the cracks are caused by detonation caused by improper tune and forcing the emissions or this could be an option... I can't see why an engine used for racing would need to be massaged so tightly in a low power consumer truck car (no matter the year)... There are 4 cylinder engines that provide more HP, for example... Those cylinder walls are very thin from looking at the video, but I don't think they are under stress at all until there is detonation and due to the liners I don't think that even detonation would crack them since the sleaves/liners are in there taking the stress of any lateral detonation... I don't think any pressure inside the cylinder could crack it and it may be just from the water getting too hot inside the water jacket.... so option 2 is that the coolant antifreeze corroded the metal from inside the water jacket and caused the cracking from the outside-in... (I did read about the anti-freeze not being compatible with the type of aluminum used.)

I see that they cut these engines open to examine the cracks, but I haven't seen any micro-cuts examining the cuts closely to see which side cracked first... In fact, the cracks that I see in the pictures look more like a corrosion caused crack. I think this is where the porous block comes from. (I'm sort of thinking while I'm typing.)

I think that with a scanning electron microscope and a materials chemist someone could find out what really caused the cracks in these engines.


So at this point I'm considering some kind of corrosion and an outside-in cracking or failing of the cylinder walls. But obviously I don't know anything about what I'm talking about at this point, but I like a good mystery.

 

Well then maybe just going back to the D1 engine is the way to reliability?

 

3rd option, it was German sabotage.