Henry_b's Range Rover P38 Vogue Project'ish
Discussion
Time for an update on the old bus..
A service and clean up this time!
6 months ago I put a fully syn 10w60 in it + an oil additive around 1000mi ago, the old V8 didn't seem to like the combo and it had a definite tap develop when hot
So the only solution is to drop the oil stuff out
Covered in Oil a definite trait of the old V8 I believe it is coming from a mixture of Rocker cover gaskets and the sump gasket lol
old filter spun off
New filter primed up with some new 10w40.
And then spun on..
And before I forget put the sump plug in!!
The old stuff was rather grim!
The new Sause of choice!!
The old engine sounds much better after the service, so happy with that...
And just to finish off the day a good clean up..
Autoglym Shampoo
Snowfoam
Super resin Polish
EGP sealant
A good day!
she also passed 130k
Only thing is she has now developed a water leak!!
Grr!!!
A service and clean up this time!
6 months ago I put a fully syn 10w60 in it + an oil additive around 1000mi ago, the old V8 didn't seem to like the combo and it had a definite tap develop when hot
So the only solution is to drop the oil stuff out
Covered in Oil a definite trait of the old V8 I believe it is coming from a mixture of Rocker cover gaskets and the sump gasket lol
old filter spun off
New filter primed up with some new 10w40.
And then spun on..
And before I forget put the sump plug in!!
The old stuff was rather grim!
The new Sause of choice!!
The old engine sounds much better after the service, so happy with that...
And just to finish off the day a good clean up..
Autoglym Shampoo
Snowfoam
Super resin Polish
EGP sealant
A good day!
she also passed 130k
Only thing is she has now developed a water leak!!
Grr!!!
Edited by Henry_b on Monday 11th January 18:33
Edited by Henry_b on Monday 11th January 18:37
D4MJT said:
Henry she’s looking incredible, really really smart, lovely job.
Any idea on the water leak?
Thanks Matt.. Any idea on the water leak?
I think it is related to the sunroof drains, as it soaks the headliner above the sunvisors!
The windscreen is still all bonded good and proper so that's eliminated "hopefully"!
I've got a car cover on her at the moment to stop too much ingress!!
H
PugwasHDJ80 said:
Henry have you thought about adding a flashlube system to stop the heat from the lpg burning out the valve seats?
Also have you changed the temperature of the spark plugs too?
Hiya. Also have you changed the temperature of the spark plugs too?
The old girl has had LPG on her in one form or another since 2003 and has covered the best part of 100k on the stuff, fortunately the Valve seats on these Rover V8's are very hard so the extra heat from the LPG doesn't effect them.
Flashlube is recommended for the AJV8 which has very soft valve seats, with them Seat recession is quite common, especially with an LPG system that isn't calibrated correctly petrol burns at 1530 degrees C and LPG at 1550 C so hardly any difference at all, not enough difference to worry about.
As for spark plugs she has NGK LPG plugs in her which I fitted just to see if there was any difference, and to be fair there is no appreciable difference between the standard plugs and the LPG specific ones!
H
Henry, very nice P38 you have there! Really nice to see how you keep it in shape and enjoy it as intended.
For the past year i've been busy getting my own P38 4.6 V8 back in it's former glory. It wasn't an easy road but i'm almost there. However.... it's behaving really weird when the engine get's up to temperature. When it's stone cold all is good. But as soon as the engine warms up the revs go crazy up and down. It's not possible to drive the car like that. My first thought was the gearbox, but when I park the car in P and I rev up the engine, it's behaving the same. Revs go up and down big time (4k to 500 to 4.5k).
After a lot of searching I discovered that it might be the gearbox ECU. Do you have any idea what's happening to my P38?
Last week when it was -1 here in Holland i was able to drive the car for 20 minutes without big problems. So it's a heat problem...
For the past year i've been busy getting my own P38 4.6 V8 back in it's former glory. It wasn't an easy road but i'm almost there. However.... it's behaving really weird when the engine get's up to temperature. When it's stone cold all is good. But as soon as the engine warms up the revs go crazy up and down. It's not possible to drive the car like that. My first thought was the gearbox, but when I park the car in P and I rev up the engine, it's behaving the same. Revs go up and down big time (4k to 500 to 4.5k).
After a lot of searching I discovered that it might be the gearbox ECU. Do you have any idea what's happening to my P38?
Last week when it was -1 here in Holland i was able to drive the car for 20 minutes without big problems. So it's a heat problem...
A few days ago I removed the upper windscreen trim to check the bond between the screen and the car, unfortunately I lost what little patience I had at the time and might of broke all but 1 of the original clips..
I did managed to get it loosely back on but it looked horrible and flapped around like a flappy thing!
as you can see here it is quite loose!
New clips were either £9.99 for 10 or £3.99 each at an OE supplier, as you can imagine I went for the cheaper option which so happened to be a chap on ebay..
The trim just slides off.
New clips just slid on..
The old trim piece stuck back on, just resting the trim on the clips and pushing down was good enough to get a nice click and a perfect fit!
Its the little things
H
I did managed to get it loosely back on but it looked horrible and flapped around like a flappy thing!
as you can see here it is quite loose!
New clips were either £9.99 for 10 or £3.99 each at an OE supplier, as you can imagine I went for the cheaper option which so happened to be a chap on ebay..
The trim just slides off.
New clips just slid on..
The old trim piece stuck back on, just resting the trim on the clips and pushing down was good enough to get a nice click and a perfect fit!
Its the little things
H
I've had this old bus for 4yrs now!
Amazing how time flies!
Anyway!
She has rewarded me with a nice water leak of late, rain seems to find its way on to the headliner and soak the corners.
Which is not only annoying but I don't want water to wick down to the floor
Something similar happened a few months ago and it was the sunroof frame, so I started there...
Upon removal of the seal what I found didn't look too good.
Ex Rover 800 parts!
Not only is the frame terminal but the bonding between it and the glass had all but disappeared around the frame, and as such water was wicking under the seal and onto the inside of the glass which then found its way on to the headliner.
The fix for this in an ideal world would be a new frame but since It's a daily I can't remove the roof for any lengh of time so some silicone will have to do..
A nice bead and the seal banged home, will hopefully stop the water ingress.
I say HOPE!
Amazing how time flies!
Anyway!
She has rewarded me with a nice water leak of late, rain seems to find its way on to the headliner and soak the corners.
Which is not only annoying but I don't want water to wick down to the floor
Something similar happened a few months ago and it was the sunroof frame, so I started there...
Upon removal of the seal what I found didn't look too good.
Ex Rover 800 parts!
Not only is the frame terminal but the bonding between it and the glass had all but disappeared around the frame, and as such water was wicking under the seal and onto the inside of the glass which then found its way on to the headliner.
The fix for this in an ideal world would be a new frame but since It's a daily I can't remove the roof for any lengh of time so some silicone will have to do..
A nice bead and the seal banged home, will hopefully stop the water ingress.
I say HOPE!
Edited by Henry_b on Sunday 14th February 23:59
Hi Henry – just spent the last 20 minutes reading this thread from the start to finish. Hats off to you mate, One for the interesting choice of car and two for all the jobs that you’re doing.
I always fancied one of these years ago but could never stretch myself to one at the time, if I had it would have been this colour!
Great to see someone your age going for something different, assuming most of your pals are in Corsas and Ibiza’s etc??
Best wishes
I always fancied one of these years ago but could never stretch myself to one at the time, if I had it would have been this colour!
Great to see someone your age going for something different, assuming most of your pals are in Corsas and Ibiza’s etc??
Best wishes
jonamv8 said:
Hi Henry – just spent the last 20 minutes reading this thread from the start to finish. Hats off to you mate, One for the interesting choice of car and two for all the jobs that you’re doing.
I always fancied one of these years ago but could never stretch myself to one at the time, if I had it would have been this colour!
Great to see someone your age going for something different, assuming most of your pals are in Corsas and Ibiza’s etc??
Best wishes
I always fancied one of these years ago but could never stretch myself to one at the time, if I had it would have been this colour!
Great to see someone your age going for something different, assuming most of your pals are in Corsas and Ibiza’s etc??
Best wishes
Thank you Monte carlo blue is my favourite colour! ;
I passed my test at 17 and was adamant that I would own something different, the P38 was always on the top of my dream car list it even eclipsed the XJ12 which was my dream car up until I drove the P38 .
I used to get bought LR owners international magazines by my Dad and the pages illustrating the P38 at the time were cut out and glued to my wall, in hindsight probably not the best thing to do!!
One of my bedroom walls was dedicated to pictures of the P38 lol
At the time I also had LR mags from the late nineties to 2001 and I always day dreamed having my own, and spec'ing the best Vogue! even though the price was in bold £49.995!!
I never thought I'd have one, but I got one thanks to crippling depreciation it came in a good bit cheaper than I ever thought possible!
And it is a Top spec Vogue!!
Mates of mine run around in Saxos ST170s GTI's and so on
While they're "cool" I'd never have one, the appeal of big luxo barge is hard to beat in my opinion, and to be fair life is about living the dream lol
People comment on how expensive it is to run etc etc and yes to a certain extent it is costly to run but nowt worth having is ever cheap!
18mpg stings but I got used to it!
Insurance is £500 PA for a 20yr old which ain't bad.
And of course the V8!! Hmm!
I missed the RRC boat, and by the looks of P38 prices of late I think I found one just in time!
H
"May 2020"
Just realised there are massive chunks missing from this thread, due to the fact I've updated various threads on other websites but not this one!
So here we go!
"Water Ingress PT2"
The old P38 has a fair few places for water ingress the main one is water that wicks though the pollen filter housings and straight down on to either the drivers feet or the passengers!
As you can imagine this is rather annoying and can cause no end of electrical issues if not dealt with..
The issues.
Initially I didn't know the filter covers were a possible source I'm since all clued up.
Coloured water seemed an ingenious solution to track down the issues
This seemed odd, however cloudy water coloured with MER polish did its trick, the water tricking in turned clear to cloudy!
Further investigation under the pollen filter covers....
Not ideal..
Being that I wanted to clean the scuttle and associated drains a fair bit of plastic has to come off..
Trim just slides off.
Note the stuff hiding under the plastic!
Wiper arm off next, just 2 13mm nuts
Getting there
The plastic scuttle itself is held down with a row of self tapping screws it goes together like lego
A pile of plastic is left on my bench to be cleaned
Housings were wiped clean.
The scuttle itself was full O s
te which was blocking the drains, which causes an issue all of its own....!!!
Like a torrential downpour on to the carpet!
Pollen covers themselves
The various leaves and debris which was blocking the drains
The area was cleaned with APC and a shop vac!!
The covers have a known issue of warping in the middle due to the 2 securing points a good clean is needed..
Once the covers were cleaned they were sealed back up with a heavy duty silicone sealant and the plastic replaced, as proverbial haynes saying applies when putting it back together
Once this issue was resolved the task of drying out the carpet came next unfortunately the P38 uses a very dense foam to aid in sound deadening, however it sucks up and holds water like no bodies business!
So a drastic action was taken lol
My favourite stanley knife came in handy.
To aid removing the water another car and 2 pieces of wood were utilised..
Yep that did the trick!
Once dried the deadening was placed back in and the plastic panels replaced!
Quality control cat approves!
More to come!
Just realised there are massive chunks missing from this thread, due to the fact I've updated various threads on other websites but not this one!
So here we go!
"Water Ingress PT2"
The old P38 has a fair few places for water ingress the main one is water that wicks though the pollen filter housings and straight down on to either the drivers feet or the passengers!
As you can imagine this is rather annoying and can cause no end of electrical issues if not dealt with..
The issues.
Initially I didn't know the filter covers were a possible source I'm since all clued up.
Coloured water seemed an ingenious solution to track down the issues
This seemed odd, however cloudy water coloured with MER polish did its trick, the water tricking in turned clear to cloudy!
Further investigation under the pollen filter covers....
Not ideal..
Being that I wanted to clean the scuttle and associated drains a fair bit of plastic has to come off..
Trim just slides off.
Note the stuff hiding under the plastic!
Wiper arm off next, just 2 13mm nuts
Getting there
The plastic scuttle itself is held down with a row of self tapping screws it goes together like lego
A pile of plastic is left on my bench to be cleaned
Housings were wiped clean.
The scuttle itself was full O s
te which was blocking the drains, which causes an issue all of its own....!!!Like a torrential downpour on to the carpet!
Pollen covers themselves
The various leaves and debris which was blocking the drains
The area was cleaned with APC and a shop vac!!
The covers have a known issue of warping in the middle due to the 2 securing points a good clean is needed..
Once the covers were cleaned they were sealed back up with a heavy duty silicone sealant and the plastic replaced, as proverbial haynes saying applies when putting it back together
Once this issue was resolved the task of drying out the carpet came next unfortunately the P38 uses a very dense foam to aid in sound deadening, however it sucks up and holds water like no bodies business!
So a drastic action was taken lol
My favourite stanley knife came in handy.
To aid removing the water another car and 2 pieces of wood were utilised..
Yep that did the trick!
Once dried the deadening was placed back in and the plastic panels replaced!
Quality control cat approves!
More to come!
Probably time for an update..
This time in the shape of a suspension upgrade..
As ya'll know the P38 has the rather infamous EAS which has been known to throw quite a few problems towards otherwise unsuspecting owners..
I myself have had my fair share of EAS faults and now that she is dialled in that regard IE most of the parts are new I can turn my attention to the ride comfort, which was the Air suspensions party piece.
Unfortunately when I replaced the knackered OE shocks with Terrafirma the ride went from bad to Spine through skull on even the slightest of potholes.
Also it would hit a pothole or undulation due to the stiffness of the shocks and bounce which was quite disconcerting and it would force me to slow down which was an irritation it felt like the wheels left the ground..
Also if it hit a succession of potholes it was truly horrific
After a few months of living with this I decided recently that enough is enough and I went on the line and ordered some Britpart Shocks/
The choices vary greatly there are BOGE which are OE Monroe - Terrafirma - Bilstein and Koni plus a few others most of which promise a firmer ride, which is something i'm very much against hence the reason I went for Oil not gas Britparts.
and at £75 a set it wasn't too bad price wise.
Removal of the old ones is simple just 2 bolts, here are the old units, still firm and removal is a right ballache as trying to compress them under the car is very difficult
The new units.
After fitting them I was expecting to still have a harsh ride, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it completely transformed!
Its gone from juddery speedboat to luxury cruise ship.
On my way to work there is a stretch of road which used to play havoc with the suspension it would bounce and crash like you wouldn't believe, it would also be very skittish..
On the same piece of road with the new shocks every little bump is soaked up, and it jellies through the bumps instead of crashing, handling is superb now the shocks are back to how they should be the steering is transformed, the road is a national limit and before I'd struggle to average 40mph now she sits happily at 60+ without giving the faintest complaint..
Very happy..
Yesterday was also her MOT and i'm pleased to report she flew through with only one advisory, that being an "oil leak" standard fit on a P38
Only 5k between MOTs bloody covid,..
This time in the shape of a suspension upgrade..
As ya'll know the P38 has the rather infamous EAS which has been known to throw quite a few problems towards otherwise unsuspecting owners..
I myself have had my fair share of EAS faults and now that she is dialled in that regard IE most of the parts are new I can turn my attention to the ride comfort, which was the Air suspensions party piece.
Unfortunately when I replaced the knackered OE shocks with Terrafirma the ride went from bad to Spine through skull on even the slightest of potholes.
Also it would hit a pothole or undulation due to the stiffness of the shocks and bounce which was quite disconcerting and it would force me to slow down which was an irritation it felt like the wheels left the ground..
Also if it hit a succession of potholes it was truly horrific
After a few months of living with this I decided recently that enough is enough and I went on the line and ordered some Britpart Shocks/
The choices vary greatly there are BOGE which are OE Monroe - Terrafirma - Bilstein and Koni plus a few others most of which promise a firmer ride, which is something i'm very much against hence the reason I went for Oil not gas Britparts.
and at £75 a set it wasn't too bad price wise.
Removal of the old ones is simple just 2 bolts, here are the old units, still firm and removal is a right ballache as trying to compress them under the car is very difficult
The new units.
After fitting them I was expecting to still have a harsh ride, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it completely transformed!
Its gone from juddery speedboat to luxury cruise ship.
On my way to work there is a stretch of road which used to play havoc with the suspension it would bounce and crash like you wouldn't believe, it would also be very skittish..
On the same piece of road with the new shocks every little bump is soaked up, and it jellies through the bumps instead of crashing, handling is superb now the shocks are back to how they should be the steering is transformed, the road is a national limit and before I'd struggle to average 40mph now she sits happily at 60+ without giving the faintest complaint..
Very happy..
Yesterday was also her MOT and i'm pleased to report she flew through with only one advisory, that being an "oil leak" standard fit on a P38
Only 5k between MOTs bloody covid,..
Another MOT been and done, she passed albeit with an advisory for the rear brake flexis which are coming to the end of their life..
21yrs old and having lived by the sea for the majority of her life, no rust of any kind very happy.
Love the old bus, never really let me down..
P38 gets too much bad press, I think it's time they were recognised for what they are, and that is a fantastic luxury classic 4x4.
21yrs old and having lived by the sea for the majority of her life, no rust of any kind very happy.
Love the old bus, never really let me down..
P38 gets too much bad press, I think it's time they were recognised for what they are, and that is a fantastic luxury classic 4x4.
Edited by Henry_b on Saturday 12th March 19:19
Its been a while lol, recently I've gone self employed which has necessitated any/all unnecessary expenses be parked up for the time being that being this old P38, no i'm not selling it but the hulk has got to wait her turn in the future.
Anyway I stopped driving her a few months ago so all these updates coming along are a fair few months old..
Starting off with an issue she's had since I bought her and that is/was a persistant coolant leak that seemed to be getting steadily worse.
So looking online and consulting some people in the know it seems I might of had a multitude of issues from headgasket issues to a core plug leaking..
A known fault with these is the valley gasket letting go and allowing water to trickle out so with that being the simplest to solve I started there.
All the parts which included the upgraded composite valley gasket.
And on to the job in hand firstly she needs to go in to "service mode"
lovely mess eh typical of all RV8s of this vintage
Power steering pump - A/C compressor - VC fan - Alternator all need to be removed, luckily with everything soaked in grease oil and coolant all the bolts slid out real nice.
Finally getting a glimpse of the gasket itself, not looking too clever is it.
LPG kit removed, i'm debating whether or not to keep it..
6 bolts and the upper intake plenumn is removed.
Next up being the rocker cover gaskets which leak like a sieve so ideal opportunity to renew them, being an avid RV8 obsessive I was slightly concerned to see what lurked beneath these, as many know it can either be good or very very bad..
In my case no sludge at all, 140k on this particular engine
Lastly the lower intake off which reveals the condition of the gasket... lol
more good news once removed, the V is also sludge free and the cam is in good condition which is a bonus.
Everything cleaned and a towel thrown over to keep dust out..
On to cleaning the components mainly the rocker cover gaskets which were hideous.
Much better with some Matt lacquer..
And we get back to the reassembly.
New gaskets etc etc
Upper intake and all the electrical gubbins plugged back in.
And she fired up a treat which is always nice..
First drive was to the watering hole, naturally.
£60 which got me just under 1/2 a tank and a few miles of normal driving with some overtaking thrown in for good measure, no more water leak...
Nice.
celebratory picture.
More of this...
eek..
That being the main reason she is semi retired the pump hadn't even clicked off usually its north of £160 to go 310mi.
And there we have it for this update before it becomes too long...
Thanks for reading.
Anyway I stopped driving her a few months ago so all these updates coming along are a fair few months old..
Starting off with an issue she's had since I bought her and that is/was a persistant coolant leak that seemed to be getting steadily worse.
So looking online and consulting some people in the know it seems I might of had a multitude of issues from headgasket issues to a core plug leaking..
A known fault with these is the valley gasket letting go and allowing water to trickle out so with that being the simplest to solve I started there.
All the parts which included the upgraded composite valley gasket.
And on to the job in hand firstly she needs to go in to "service mode"
lovely mess eh typical of all RV8s of this vintage
Power steering pump - A/C compressor - VC fan - Alternator all need to be removed, luckily with everything soaked in grease oil and coolant all the bolts slid out real nice.
Finally getting a glimpse of the gasket itself, not looking too clever is it.
LPG kit removed, i'm debating whether or not to keep it..
6 bolts and the upper intake plenumn is removed.
Next up being the rocker cover gaskets which leak like a sieve so ideal opportunity to renew them, being an avid RV8 obsessive I was slightly concerned to see what lurked beneath these, as many know it can either be good or very very bad..
In my case no sludge at all, 140k on this particular engine
Lastly the lower intake off which reveals the condition of the gasket... lol
more good news once removed, the V is also sludge free and the cam is in good condition which is a bonus.
Everything cleaned and a towel thrown over to keep dust out..
On to cleaning the components mainly the rocker cover gaskets which were hideous.
Much better with some Matt lacquer..
And we get back to the reassembly.
New gaskets etc etc
Upper intake and all the electrical gubbins plugged back in.
And she fired up a treat which is always nice..
First drive was to the watering hole, naturally.
£60 which got me just under 1/2 a tank and a few miles of normal driving with some overtaking thrown in for good measure, no more water leak...
Nice.
celebratory picture.
More of this...
eek..
That being the main reason she is semi retired the pump hadn't even clicked off usually its north of £160 to go 310mi.
And there we have it for this update before it becomes too long...
Thanks for reading.
Edited by Henry_b on Thursday 10th November 22:11
Edited by Henry_b on Thursday 10th November 22:12
Ouch!! You've done a cracking job though, ever thought about scooping a few P38's from Brightwells up in Leominster, stripping them down and flipping them for a kings ransom? I've always had a soft spot for the P38's too, despite my own tales of woe (bought some with a few mates at brightwells, and went on a road trip to Norway. Somewhere near Trondheim is a P38 with a dent in the door where I kicked it in frustration, probably a chicken coop now - sold them back at brightwells on our return)
Henry_b said:
That being the main reason she is semi retired the pump hadn't even clicked off usually its north of £160 to go 310mi.
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