Personally I would believe the guy with 6500 posts on here who has owned 20 of these and wrenched on many many more over youtube video on intenet sources.

This is the go to read on Rover V8's:

https://books.google.com/books?id=gm...20rover&f=true

Start reading at page 24.

 

It's the same way on every forum on the Internet for every type of car. The Porsche people are still trying to get reliable 500 WHP from their 944/968 engines but while they were failing to do that and telling everyone on the forum that it's impossible a guy took the same car and made it the world's fastest lap car with 800 over 1000 WHP. Internet forums aren't real. What is proven in real life is real. Meanwhile the Porsche guys are still knocking down anyone on the forum that tries something different or disagrees. Someone with 6500 posts just means he types a lot. But I did take into account what he said, but that doesn't mean I accept it as gospel. Many many other people say the 4.6 Rover V8's run lean in some of the RPM bandwidth.

 

TBH Plate coolant is passed up thru the lower intake manifold up to the TBH Plate, and then the return line connects to the coolant expansion/reservoir tank. It's a very well known spot for coolant to seep/leak and it can easily go undetected and sometimes if not caught quickly enough the engine will overheat, and if the driver doesn't stop = blown HG, slipped liner, and $$$$ over a stupid 5.00-30.00 fix.

By the end of the famous Rover V8 engine era the tooling to make a quality block = was almost completely gone. The ones that rolled off the line in 03-04 were the last of their kind so no real improvements were ever made or planned. Were they all 100% crap off the line in 03-04? No and they ran just fine for he most part, but absolutely nothing was done to them to make them bullet proof as it was being phased out for the 4.2/4.4L Jag engines for the LR3/RRS. They just concentrated on slightly better emissions, less cost (aka no standard oil coolers for example), and sent them on down the line until the last one rolled off the line.

 

I type a lot huh? What's proven = real life? LRF isn't real?

I don't have to be an Admin on here. I'm not paid to be here, and all my 6,500 post = helping fellow LR owners with their vehicles and keeping them on the road for many years to come. I've owned 20+ LR's starting in the early 2000's. I've been around LR's since I was 15 years old and I met my two best friends during that time. Both of which are Certified Land Rover Master Technicians with over 25+ years each. I happen to pretty much know any 1987-2004 LR like the back of my hand as I learned from the best. Land Rover's are a passion to me and I don't make up stuff like the news media or social media does these days. I just tell it like it is, and you can take my advice/knowledge and use it or sit there and bash it doesn't bother me

 

@discoveringlandrover I believe the car you're talking about is loosely based on a Porsche 968, but with a solid billet aluminum engine block.

correct me if I am wrong, but it’s a World Time Attack car the RP968 and while the engine block is a similar design to the 968/944 2.5L/ 3.0 4 cylinder, it’s fundamentally different.

here the car I’m referencing:

Ive been in the transaxles porsche world myself. I would recommend reading what you can find from guys like @Best4x4 and @Extinct and many others here.

The reason I reference that in my response is not to be nit picky or be a jerk, but to say that if you took the Rover V8 design and built your own tooling, and essentially redesigned everything you wanted to improve, yes you could make it substantially better. Like these guys did with the 3.0L 4 cylinder porsche design.

Many folks on this forum have a lot of experience with Discos and I wouldn’t take what most folks say on this forum to be idle chit chat, but based on what they’ve learned from wrenching on these trucks.

Everyone here is willing to help one another, which is the point of online forums. You won’t find anyone here bragging about horse power output, we are all here to help one another keep their Disco healthy and on the road/trail.

 

@discoveringlandrover and of course you should not take what someone says as gospel, do you own research and try to objectively prove your theory.

But also respect the fact that you’re asking for advice on a platform that’s new to you and their are people here with lifetime’s worth of experience who are willing to help if you can listen.

 

I'm not bashing anyone I'm saying I'm going to do my own research. I'm sure you are right, I know nothing about rovers.

 

I get what you are talking about now with the TBH plate, I had to go look at my V8 to get it... I'm not a mechanic, but I do my own work. I would say that if that the coolant is leaking into the manifold then the engine is either very old or has already overheated many times... So that's more of a symptom than the cause.

 

I've talked shop personally with the man who built that world-record RP 968 engine. It's an essentially 100% stock other than being a billet block. I've also had 1 on 1 with Bob Norwood about how to make big HP... He makes/made 1000+HP with little 4 cylinder Honda engines. I'm reading all kinds of stuff, and I think I've only seen the tooling mention here. Do you have any references for the tooling going bad? It doesn't make sense to me. What I'm seeing is the coolant system gets clogged up... a car with liners can't crack the cylinders through the liners without cracking the liners... these cracks are coming from overheating and/or corrosion... not from the tooling, that's where I am not, I reserve the right to change my mind.

I hope you all don't get mad at me. But these forums are like an echo-chamber... the Porsche guys are saying the same exact thing they were saying 15 years ago and getting the same results. Bob Norwood also got big lsx level HP from the same engine as the RP968 that they struggle with because they live in an echo-chamber. Please don't take it personally.

 

I am listening, but that doesn't mean I blindly accept everything someone says. It's not an attack on anyone personally to not accept what they say.