The V8 Owners Forum -

Hi just joined the site am wondering if you could give me some advice please.
I bought a Discovery 4L V8 took it to a LR specialist regarding the heater gurgling & a tappet sort of noise. They said the head gaskets had gone & they were replaced but the gurgling is still there & I think it's worse now but they have said some V8's do it The tappet noise they said was the cam lifters so they replaced them & a few cam followers well got it home the 23rd of Dec after they had had it for 2 weeks & when I restarted it up all was quiet for a min or so then this tappet noise was back again & i'm sure it's worse now than before. I have also noticed that since this work has been done if the engine is started up again after being upto running temp after a min of running it now misfires for about a min before it clears which it never used to do.
I just don't know whats up with it & money is very short due to having to fork out alot for the above work to be done which really hasn't fixed the prob plus the oil was never changed & today I found that the coolant bleed screw was loose as it hadn't been tightened up

Hi Sweety. If the oil has not been changed and you had a head gasket problem you may have coolant in the oil. Keep a close check on the coolant level. If you have to top it regularly you may have a slipped liner or two.

Slipped liners are often mis-dignosed as a head gasket problem.

Slipped liners are a well known problem with the 4.0ltr and to a lesser extent the 3.9 and 4.6 V8s.

You may also like to check the Land Rover fourms as it could just be a heater problem.

Lets hope this is not a liner problem as the fix involves another block.

Paul.

hmm, to be honest it sounds expensive.

Those engines are a bit prone to cracking the block behind the liner, and leaking water up into the bore causing all sorts of mischief. Also, the liners can come loose, and move up and down.

These problems are very widely known about, and your LR specialist should be looking out for symptoms, especially if they have taken the heads off.

If the block has cracked, you can tell by the fact that the offending cylinder is as clean as a whistle as the water steam cleans the piston.

Chris.

Hello and welcome
sorry to hear your woes, some comments
1/ The lifters/ tappets should not be changed without the cam aswell otherwise you get a very high wear rate on what is left of the cam loabs.
2/ If the engine is over about 60K miles the cam will be pretty shot, probably a lifter beyond it's limit due to loab wear causing the original tappety rattle very common on higher milage rover V8s.
3/ Gurgling noise was probably the air bleed all along, I've never heard of a failed head gasket causing a gurgling noise, steam, over heating, white smoke yes not a gurgling noise.
4/ I would find another garage with a little more respect for it's customers than the one you have, they seem to see disco and think of ways to seperate you from your cash
5/ Don't talk to, or buy anything from RPI.
6/ Check you have all the air out of the cooling system
7/ An exhaust gasket leak can sound like a rattly tappet, as the heads have been off are you posotive there is not an exhaust gasket leak.
8/ How many miles has the done?
9/ have a read around some of the stickys and previous threads on injection faults, (carbs induction section) it sounds like a common one. but I suspect Chris or Ramon or one of the other guys who know the RR injection system really well will be along soon to help you
Good luck, keep posting with how you are getting on.
Best regards
Mike

Ah there is Chris, he is more concise than me so posts while I'm burbeling on at ridiculas length.
I missed out cracked blocks as I was hoping to get the otherthings checked before I mentioned the bad stuff.

Mike

"The tappet noise they said was the cam lifters so they replaced them & a few cam followers "

Cam lifters and followers??

This sounds a bit odd!!

Are you sure its not just some blown exhaust manifold gaskets??

Wow thanks for all the quick replies The engine has covered 74K. the exhaust manifold gaskets have been replaced & when I put my hand next to the gaskets I couldn't feel any exhaust gas seeping out so I think they are ok. It was the tappets that were replaced but got told they are also called lifters which did confuse me so sorry if i've confused you. Yes got told cam followers were replaced but the only thing I can think of is the rockers The garage did say that if I kept loosing water then he thinks it'll be a cracked block but as you have said I would have thought he would have known this when the heads were off. Forgot to add it's the Thor engine

Maybe it would be a good idea to take off the rockers and check cam lobe hight with a dial gauge, cam change isn't the end of the world, if its a slipped liner it might be a different story. Though you would have thought the garage would have picked up on a slipped liner when they did the head gaskets..?! Rockers do wear the shafts down but not a major problem and the amount of wear is little compared to the camshaft wear on these lumps!

Forgot to add the tappet noise does go off once the engine has covered a few miles but not sure if it's stopping now but will know better tomorrow as i've got a 20 mile round trip to do

Hi.

What grade of oil are you running. might be worth changing the oil for a thicker grade and see if this helps and putting a engine oil flush through it at the same time. The followers do tend to bleed down if the engine has not run for a while or if the engine is running at tick over for a while.

The garage who did the head gaskets should of pressure tested the block at the same time. (Common practice)

It might be worth putting a oil pressure tester on the engine, as low oil pressure would give a noisy set of tappets.

I had a lazy tappet on my new lump and after a few oil changes it has sorted its self out.

As already mentioned by top cat rocker shaft wear is not uncommon. being a 4l disco lump it would have aluminium rockers. there is a steel foot on each rocker that runs on the top of the valve. These can also brake up, so might be worth a check.

I wouldn't go back to this garage other asking for my money back! They do not know what they are doing. Lifters should not be replaced without the cam. The only way is to replace all the lifters and the cam as they have to bed in together otherwise accelerated wear will occur. There is also a 20minute run in procedure and I bet that was not done either which again will lead to accelerated wear.

Your gurgling noise is an airlock that has probably travelled to the heater matrix.

Oil should be 10w40 semi-synthetic as your engine uses the later crank driven oil pump.

dp

this is probably a slipped liner making the noise, its easy to mistake for a camshaft related problem.

however i totally agree camshaft should have been changed aswell, they should know that, but i dont want to play the blame game.