ThreePointFive

I think that's the shadow of the cylinder wall, the light source is up and right but I will take a look. I've done a ton on cleaning and have lapped the valves, just need the replacement seals, springs rocker shafts and the one replaced rocker, and then the heads are done. I have been trying to decide if I am going to take the crank end apart to see what is going on. There are so few times I want to have the engine apart, that I might as well. I still don't want to get into piston rings so what I want to do is just take the big ends off and take a look but leave the pistons in the cylinders. The manual (which I have been reading thoroughly so as not to ask too many stupid questions) says the big ends need to be replaced if the caps are taken off, so those will get replaced no matter what. I lack the proper tools for checking ovality of the cylinder walls which bothers me, but perhaps not doing the piston rings is the job I should not avoid. But then, do those and the con rod bearings probably should get done.... where do you realistically stop?

Skid plates, so they can slide over difficult obstacles like rocks, tree stumps and inconvenient promises to promote British manufacturing.... No, in all seriousness it is a very nice looking Peugeot. I could open a French vineyard with these sour grapes.

I hit a badger in an XF I'd had for one week and did £4k of damage despite the vehicle outwardly looking fine except for the bonnet (the pedestrian protection system writes it off) so this is a more expensive vehicle with far worse damage. New bumper New bonnet New wing Entire new wheel station, possibly inc. suspension New alloy wheel New tyre New light cluster? Unknown damage underneath, damage to mounts and stuff Potential damage to crash structure Labour £1k just for blending in the whole front of the car (assuming it wouldn't be a total respray but depends on a lot of factors like who's doing it). I have no idea of parts cost for panels but £1k for the bonnet alone wouldn't be out of line with other JLR products. Sounds OTT but modern cars usually are more damaged than you expect for even slow speed accidents due to crash safety. I would have thought £6-7k absolute minimum.

I am not ok with this.

Yep...………………………………………………...

I thought it would be due diligence to take a look at them, given the problem I'm having with No.3? If it gives me reliability, I'm happy to strip the whole thing down as I am tired of having to revisit this engine.

This move benefits Ineos, there is no indication that benefit will be passed to the customer. So it could be just as expensive and built outside Britain.

That is of course the real point, the number of "made in [not Britain]" Stickers on LR Genuine parts proves that these were multinational products for decades. I have to look up BMW part numbers for connectors on my TD5 harnesses... I suppose it is that final bolting together in the UK that I was grasping onto, and for that to go... Well, I'm just disappointed it won't be thought of as the British engineering success I really wanted it to be.

If the Grenadier is made abroad it will undermine all of the vehicle's intent as a spiritual successor to the Land Rover. Given that a major reason why the Defender was ceased was it's high production cost/low profit margin, Ineos's main USP was (to me at least) showing a British utility vehicle could be a commercially viable product and widely exportable. The whole point is two fingers up at LR to show what they could have done. When we bemoan that "Britain don't make nothing no more", it is decisions like this that cause it. They are making a conscious decision to walk away from British manufacturing. I predict this will be an unpopular opinion as it seems Ineos can do no wrong, but we wouldn't/havent forgiven JLR for the same behavior with Slovakian production lines.

I'll be investing in those then. I need a valve spring compressor, I've googled but it's not clear which ones work with an RV8 and the forum posts about ones that do seem to talk a lot about design flaws and weaknesses with them. Are there any other specialist tools I need?

The one vehicle We Buy Any Car will not buy.

I am now at the point I should have been on Friday night, and the heads are off. Quick Product review: These bolt extractor sockets are great, I could have got al the bolts out without drilling anything, now I have a lot of clearing of swarf to do. They bite the bolt and the harder you pull, the more they grip. This 3/8" breaker bar that I bought to use with those sockets, however, lasted 20 minutes from the time of delivery to looking like this: That is the one downside to the extractors, 3/8" is a weird size and I don't have anything else that's not 1/2", and as they are designed for stuck bolts you are clearly going to be exerting high torque through them, but 3/8" bars are too weedy. I ran out and got the last one from Halfords as I didn't want to write another day off, and that lasted. I have been kicking myself over allowing the bolts to round out on me. To have more than half go, I was sure it was something I was doing. Using those extractors (and breaking the breaker bar) I can now appreciate the ridiculous tightness they were under. It's hard to exaggerate, the engine was lifting/sliding all over the place on the stand just trying to get the force through the bar. In the end I used an old steering column tube I have lying around, and even then it was still pretty tough and that added about 1m of leverage... I can't believe the thread weren't stripped out on the heads. The must have been held in with some compound, as there was a pretty disgusting stench each time I got a bolt out, like whatever it was had decomposed. Even with the extractors it wasn't easy as the end bolts sit in their holes that are just big enough to take the socket but they perfectly lock it in place on its flats against the sides of the valve housing, intake runner and the end of the head so you can't turn it. Some modification with an angle grinder later... So having felt like a clown all weekend for failing at something that should have been easy, I now don't feel too bad about it. So, on to the damage assessment. I won't give any comments here so you can make up your own minds. Driver's side: Water is from the head as I removed it (and the rust was dragged in to the cylinder at the same time). Passenger side: Only comments I will add - the damage to the gasket on the driver's side may have been caused when the head slid off as the last bolt was removed (I needed 3 hands). I am not sure. The passenger side is much 'cleaner' than the driver's. The carbon in the cylinders is denser and more ingrained, a far amount of the passenger side has wiped off. While I'm at it, I did drop the sump but not much to report yet. A few bits of sludge were in the bottom (not really photoed), unsure what the yardstick is for acceptable/bad but it was difficult to photograph properly. I will say, a very strong magnet got very little result, if it is metallic, it's not steel at least. Doesn't show much, but the colour of the underside: Is there any easy way to assess bottom end things without massive deconstruction, or is it just a case of getting it apart?

I had a set of those when I was initially stripping the car in 2010 and could never get them to work, I probably had a cheap set though. I've tried drilling all morning and I'm getting nowhere, again I might have carp drill bits but they just don't bite. I'm going to try an extractor socket set (arriving tomorrow) but if that doesn't work I'm going to take it to the place that did my exhaust stud when that sheared off as I have completely run out of patience with it. This engine is a constant ball ache.

I should have mentioned, it was 4 bolts on one head. I have since tried the other head and now have 4 more. It must be too late to try an impact gun now, and drilling 8 bolts reliably without hitting the block and ruining threads is highly unlikely.

Thanks, I'll give it a go. Really disheartening when I had a weekend planned out, but I guess that's Land Rovers.

Believe it or not, that's exactly what I did! Even down to ruining my 6-point socket. I've spent the rest of the evening sulking taking apart and assessing the rockers. I think it's two new shafts due to some fairly significant groves along each one, but I can't tell with the rockers themselves. They have scored the underside of the shaft, which you can see in the rockers themselves, but it is fairly minor. Most of the grime came off with a good dose of brake cleaner on a rag (the above is the result) and there were few big particles of anything, what was there was definitely carbon. Then I just cleaned it up with degreaser and a scotch pad. So new springs, two new shafts and a rocker to replace the one with the gored out hole?

I am really not looking forward to trying to drill them out, being large bolts and very hard. I feel for so many to go wrong, it must be something I'm doing wrong with technique but it's undoing a bolt, how can I get that wrong?! Still, by the fourth I'll probably be really good at it.

Yep, and I thought mine would be different for some reason. Had a whole weekend planned and now I'm going to have to try every technique for removing bolts that doesn't involve heat (unless a heat gun counts....) or welding. You know, the ones that never work.

Four head bolts rounded off, one 17mm socket cracked. Job is f**ked before it even began, I have no way to get these bolts out.

One other thing, is there a source for the ARP head bolts/studs? Can't seem to find any that are 100% fit for the RV8.

Doesn't look like that one is available on their website. Piper have two listed for the 4.0/4.6 - a fast road and rally one. The fast road is what I'd go for and seems similar to the H180.

Cheers all. I don't have any specialist tools so don't want to get into piston rings/big end bearings if I can help it, I'll drop the sump later and see if it is full strip/new engine time. A cam replacement and lifters will be perfect if I can keep it to that. Because my build is basically a clone of Keely's, I'll be going for an H180 cam if I'm pulling it out, no point in leaving 20 BHP on the table even if it is £200 more than the standard cam. At least then I can stop feeling bad that I never fitted a 4.6. Is it worth getting all new valve springs while I'm at it? I have read the H180 is at the top end of their limits. I should add that I ran a magnet over the 'grit' and had no reaction, I think it is just loose carbon.

Well that wasn't the mockery I was expecting/hoping for. It does make me want to hear what it sounds like when it has a full compliment of 8 cylinders. Maybe one day. I promised engine gore, so, enjoy varying levels of horror: The push rods are well polished at both ends, but I don't know what the limits are for this. As you can see, the whole thing is very grimey but removing the rockers, it was also pretty gritty to the touch. You'll note the grey oil, this poured out of the mountings for the rocker and looks emulsified to me. Same story on the other side. Passenger side rockers... The ones for number 5 look gored out in some way, but the rods themselves look identical to the others. Need replacing? Bit of a weirder one, but the picture says it all. The passenger rocker assembly was bone dry compared to the driver's side. Neither feels particularly graunchy or suggesting anything awry except the grittiness in the oil for the pass. one. Both sides look like this on the valve sides. Looks ok? # With the rockers off, I've turned over the engine. It is now very smooth, it'll keep rotating after I stop applying force to it so quite happy there. Lifters appear to be going up and down, etc. In general the camshaft doesn't look too bad, except for our friend at 2nd from top - this is cylinder 3. The one with the problems. I am going to get ridiculed for this, but.... when turning it over, some cylinders sound like they're moving a lot more air than others. One in particular is very... "huffy"... whereas the others are nearly silent. What's that about? Cylinder 7, lifters actually appear to operate fine. However, what is this going on with the rusty end of the camshaft? I am annoyed that everything looks normal here as this was the tappet-ty area that caused me to take a look in the first place and I can't see anything. This doesn't give me the warm glow of knowing it's a problem identified and solved. The casting in the valley is abysmal but I guess that's not unique to mine... One fairly typical lifter. About four looked like this, or somewhere between this and the one above. This one has clearly had an interaction with something harder than a tappet... Remember those marks on the cam for number 3? Oh dear. Interestingly, there's also a reasonable film of oil evident on the intake runner for number 3, I'm guessing from where it's been blowing back upwards. Would the wear on the lifter really be enough to prevent the valve from opening? Knowing little to nothing about engines, I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest whatever is going on with the valve has caused the wear on the cam, not the other way around. It's hard to see how else the rest of them have stayed in reasonable shape and this one is so badly dished. Stupid question again, but looking at the engine from the front of the vehicle, which valve is intake and which is exhaust? The valves and springs appeared to move normally when turning it over, so I can't see the problem from the top end but undeniably there's something wrong. Is it new cam time? Shame, as I was expecting a lot worse but I suppose one dead lobe is a dead cam. The strip down continues tomorrow, engine stand assembled and ready for the convoluted process of craning it out of the car.

The stripdown begins. Taking off the exhaust wrap told a story in itself that I wasn't expecting. The manifolds have gone a pretty nice bronze colour except for rear passenger (cyl. 7) which looks like it's never fired. Spark plug told the same story. Checked for spark and it was getting it, so checked injector and found a pin had pushed out of the connector. It looks like it never had fuel the whole time it was running but not once did I hear a misfire. I know that sounds stupid but it was running fairly well. I'm not convinced this is the source of my tapping noise though, that was definitely in the valley area. Photos below, edited out some "persuasion" marks in trying to make it clear the chassis leg - not pretty but it did work...……. Compression test was done stone cold which I know is not optimal, but I wanted a comparison rather than to achieve top-end figures. I've got half on 125, another 2 on 130 and 2 at 135. Not very even and not very high but I have always considered +/- 10 to be about tolerable, is that the correct approach? While doing the compression test I started to get some interesting behaviour. The starter sounded like it freed up in some way and went from the normal whirr-whirr-whirr noise to a smooth whiiiiiiiirrrrr (scientific, I know). Turning the engine over by hand, it feels much smoother except one specific point where the resistance is very high and number 3 starts making a hissing noise. Even I can work out the resistance is air compressing and then releasing slowly rather than via the normal exit in the accepted manner. What I can't work out is why the rest of rotation now feels so much smoother, and what is going on with the valves for 3 - they appear to be operating normally. Hopefully the engine will be out in the next two days and I can start proper disassembly.

The sketchy way to identify vacuum leak on the intake system is to spray something flammable near joins and see if the revs rise. Easy Start or something like that would be best but I've heard of people using brake clean. The right way... no idea.