Fatboy Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 Afternoon fellow sufferers... Its a Defender, rebuilt 4.6 V8 with new bearings, top hat liners, rockers, cam & tappets etc. Had it out for a run at the weekend and after getting a warm (but not boiling), I heard an engine related "ting ting" sound (sounded like fence wire wrapping round the prop, but it wasn't as I was stationary and it got quicker when I blipped the throttle). Had a peek under the lid and all seemed normal, the noise went away so I moved off slowly.. Came to a junction and the oil light flickered on at low rpm. FABULOUS! thought I... Pulled over, checked the oil level (fine) and colour (normal, no water). Turned it back on, sounded normal, light went out with a blip, tappets didn't get noisy, could see oil on the rockers.. Concluded it may just be the oil pressure switch failing so I drove home. Couple of night ago, I changed the oil pressure switch, the oil and the filter... Started it up, light took a few seconds but went out and stayed out, I assumed it was filling the filter etc. Drive it to work this morning and after a few miles the light flickered back on at low rpm (<1000rpm). Stupidly, although I had a good look over the front cover when I rebuilt the engine, I didn't replace it or the oil pump, nor the PRV so I'm now guessing one of them is going U/S. I've ordered a replacement Front Cover Assembly from LR Direct (slightly painful!) but while I'm waiting for that to arrive, can anybody thing of anything else I can check in the meantime? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 Big ends and crank bearings.... If you aren't driving it, then it's not a hard job to drop the sump and pull big end and bearing caps to check them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 Be interested in hearing the failure mode, had a P38 front cover apart recently to work out the oilways with respect to coolers / blanking ports off etc., could it be a simple O-ring replacement jobby? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatboy Posted August 12, 2016 Author Share Posted August 12, 2016 I'll keep you posted.. I might try and get it stripped this weekend to see if there is anything obvious. I'll need to wait until summer for it to stop raining though! ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatboy Posted August 22, 2016 Author Share Posted August 22, 2016 Bit of an update.. Pulled the sump and front cover off this weekend. I was hoping to find a "smoking gun" like a broken spring, significant scoring on the oil pump gears, damaged o ring on the pickup pipe or something along those lines.... Cover as it came off. Nothing to really see there. The pick up pipe "o" ring seemed okay at first look. Oil pump gears. I didn't check any clearances, spring lengths or dimensions when I was pulling it all apart, I'll do that tonight. Nothing too obvious that I can see with the gears. I removed the circlips for the two valves, struggled to try and figure out how to pull the little end covers out, then figured that as I was replacing the cover anyway, I wasn't going to faff about so drilled them and pulled them with an easy out. Curiously, the valve closest to the oil filter (left in picture) had a loose piece of tube inside the spring.. It was machined at both ends so hadn't been attached to either the cover of the plunger. My only guess was that it is there to keep the spring from deflecting when it is compressed. This is the bore of the relief valve.. and the only issue I have found so far. There are some nicks out of the end of the bore which the valve sits in, but it does not look like there is any damage to the actual bore so I'm not convinced that this would have had any impact on operation. There were no scores on the plunger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.