How to add an 2 inch lift to a p38?

Hey @Salisbury Nick , how did this get on?

Mark Piercy said:

Hey @Salisbury Nick , how did this get on?

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Hi Mark.

Well, now you ask. I have been driving for a year or two now. And almost everything everyone said is true. Even when they were mutually exclusive.

I did a 2” body lift. So it rides much higher, much less stable on the road. Extended lift sensor arms, and spacers under the shocks was all it took. I also added a valve kit. So I can answer the question about whether the pressure remains the same or increases to add height. It increases, normal pressure around 60psi but over 70 for extended ride height.
Replaced Dunlop air bags with the same but new.
New Toyo Open Country M/T 255/85R16 tyres. 33”!


Off road, amazing. Not been stuck once in the same places i used to. Goes over anything. Feels awesome to drive.
On Road. Terrible. Speedo is out by a couple of mph, no problem there. I just drive a bit slower than the speed limit and i do use a navigation app that shows my true speed too.
Overgearing led to terrible overheating problems. I‘ve fitted a new aluminium rad and an electric after market fan to fix this. That works well.
Overgearing is a real issue on hills - she does not have the power to maintain speed so drops down to crawling speed. That’s painful. Really painful.
Handling is poor - but given that I rarely drive more than 40mph around the roads near where I live, that’s ok.
Its on the longer drives to Devon or Wales that the speed issue arises.

It does gear it down noticeably but I had no trouble towing up hills with gigantic wheels until my lift pump stopped working, which is easy to test. I did have a manual gearbox though. Everything else sounds normal.

Salisbury Nick said:

Hi Mark.

Well, now you ask. I have been driving for a year or two now. And almost everything everyone said is true. Even when they were mutually exclusive.

I did a 2” body lift. So it rides much higher, much less stable on the road. Extended lift sensor arms, and spacers under the shocks was all it took. I also added a valve kit. So I can answer the question about whether the pressure remains the same or increases to add height. It increases, normal pressure around 60psi but over 70 for extended ride height.
Replaced Dunlop air bags with the same but new.
New Toyo Open Country M/T 255/85R16 tyres. 33”!


Off road, amazing. Not been stuck once in the same places i used to. Goes over anything. Feels awesome to drive.
On Road. Terrible. Speedo is out by a couple of mph, no problem there. I just drive a bit slower than the speed limit and i do use a navigation app that shows my true speed too.
Overgearing led to terrible overheating problems. I‘ve fitted a new aluminium rad and an electric after market fan to fix this. That works well.
Overgearing is a real issue on hills - she does not have the power to maintain speed so drops down to crawling speed. That’s painful. Really painful.
Handling is poor - but given that I rarely drive more than 40mph around the roads near where I live, that’s ok.
Its on the longer drives to Devon or Wales that the speed issue arises.

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Ashcroft do some 4.10:1 diffs that may help with the gearing issue. Although I'm surprised it is as bad as you say. I ran bigger tyres than those on a stock geared Disco 1 200Tdi. It was a manual, but less power than the diesel in the p38. But was still quite driveable on the road.

Salisbury Nick said:

Hi Mark.

Well, now you ask. I have been driving for a year or two now. And almost everything everyone said is true. Even when they were mutually exclusive.

I did a 2” body lift. So it rides much higher, much less stable on the road. Extended lift sensor arms, and spacers under the shocks was all it took. I also added a valve kit. So I can answer the question about whether the pressure remains the same or increases to add height. It increases, normal pressure around 60psi but over 70 for extended ride height.
Replaced Dunlop air bags with the same but new.
New Toyo Open Country M/T 255/85R16 tyres. 33”!


Off road, amazing. Not been stuck once in the same places i used to. Goes over anything. Feels awesome to drive.
On Road. Terrible. Speedo is out by a couple of mph, no problem there. I just drive a bit slower than the speed limit and i do use a navigation app that shows my true speed too.
Overgearing led to terrible overheating problems. I‘ve fitted a new aluminium rad and an electric after market fan to fix this. That works well.
Overgearing is a real issue on hills - she does not have the power to maintain speed so drops down to crawling speed. That’s painful. Really painful.
Handling is poor - but given that I rarely drive more than 40mph around the roads near where I live, that’s ok.
Its on the longer drives to Devon or Wales that the speed issue arises.

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Oddly enough @brianp38dse put a higher profile tyre on his (manual) diesel and said that he was lacking a bit of oomph when towing the tin-tent. I think the v8 has so much torque you can pretty much put what you like on it but the diesel is already near its limit unless you put a Tornado chip or similar in it.

Grrrrrr said:

Oddly enough @brianp38dse put a higher profile tyre on his (manual) diesel and said that he was lacking a bit of oomph when towing the tin-tent. I think the v8 has so much torque you can pretty much put what you like on it but the diesel is already near its limit unless you put a Tornado chip or similar in it.

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I have never had a problem towing with my P38 diesel auto even with another P38 on a trailer hitched up and that' in the hills of France. I find it hard to imagine that the bigger wheels should cause that much of a problem but if it's an auto, the change points will have altered, so down shifts may be late on an incline. I use the stick to force down shifts before momentum is lost.

Datatek said:

I have never had a problem towing with my P38 diesel auto even with another P38 on a trailer hitched up and that' in the hills of France. I find it hard to imagine that the bigger wheels should cause that much of a problem but if it's an auto, the change points will have altered, so down shifts may be late on an incline. I use the stick to force down shifts before momentum is lost.

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Brian's is a manual. Might be unrelated but he says he has to work it harder before the turbo picks up. He was going to check his wastegate when I last spoke to him.

AHA! You are all correct - I attributed the big wheels to the real problems I had going up hill - now I have found the real problem!
discovered my air filter had collapsed in on itself - so when the engine was screaming for air - it wasn't;t getting it - which collapsed the air intake plastic pipe between the air filter and the actual manifold - further reducing the air flow. Fixed that and now she runs like a dream! Going green laning this weekend in Mid Wales - so I'll know for sure by next week! Will let you all know how I get on.

Last weekend I took her up Scapa Florida, she drove there beautifully. Now the air intake is fixed she positively flew up the hills. No issues at all with running with the bigger wheels. She behaved beautifully off road. She acquitted herself very well against a range of Defenders and Disco’s and a Land Cruiser. She made some quite tricky rocky terrain look like child’s play.
I was over the moon until the end of the day sheltering in a lay-by while an almighty thunderstorm went over before heading to the campsite. Wading, traversing rocks, deep puddles etc all no problem. Get a bit wet from a thunderstorm and that’s it. A sensor had a wobbly and the EAS dropped!
That’ll teach me not to expect this kind of good behaviour with any reliability!

Salisbury Nick said:

Last weekend I took her up Scapa Florida, she drove there beautifully. Now the air intake is fixed she positively flew up the hills. No issues at all with running with the bigger wheels. She behaved beautifully off road. She acquitted herself very well against a range of Defenders and Disco’s and a Land Cruiser. She made some quite tricky rocky terrain look like child’s play.
I was over the moon until the end of the day sheltering in a lay-by while an almighty thunderstorm went over before heading to the campsite. Wading, traversing rocks, deep puddles etc all no problem. Get a bit wet from a thunderstorm and that’s it. A sensor had a wobbly and the EAS dropped!
That’ll teach me not to expect this kind of good behaviour with any reliability!

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If it was a height sensor that threw a wobbly, it may not have been the thunderstorm but water getting in whilst wading that took a while to have an effect. I have had the O ring on the sensor shaft fail which would let water in.

I've got a intermittent rear left sensor issue that arises from time to time but the system goes dormant at normal height.. It used to go to the stops but not now and I've no idea what has changed. These cars are pretty good off road and with very little effort

Mark Piercy said:

I've got a intermittent rear left sensor issue that arises from time to time but the system goes dormant at normal height.. It used to go to the stops but not now and I've no idea what has changed. These cars are pretty good off road and with very little effort

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Mine has differing behaviours - some faults it goes into extended ride height. And on the way back from Wales it was telling me it was at extended ride height - but air had gradually left the system and I suddenly I found myself at 50mph on a dual carriage way with no hard shoulder with the wheels touching the wheel arches!

I pumped it up, (with traffic hurtling by at 70mph plus and having to go round me, the most terrifying 10 minutes of my life - since the last time that happened!) - and 20min later it was lower - so I inflated again and repeated until I got near the M4 Severn Bridge - then I unplugged the EAS control unit - pumped it up - and it has stayed up ever since. So - I'm concluding it was some kind of sensor fault?

Salisbury Nick said:

Mine has differing behaviours - some faults it goes into extended ride height. And on the way back from Wales it was telling me it was at extended ride height - but air had gradually left the system and I suddenly I found myself at 50mph on a dual carriage way with no hard shoulder with the wheels touching the wheel arches!

I pumped it up, (with traffic hurtling by at 70mph plus and having to go round me, the most terrifying 10 minutes of my life - since the last time that happened!) - and 20min later it was lower - so I inflated again and repeated until I got near the M4 Severn Bridge - then I unplugged the EAS control unit - pumped it up - and it has stayed up ever since. So - I'm concluding it was some kind of sensor fault?

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Your going to need the codes reading in the eas ecu. For it to hard fault like that it'll have a code stored

You should think about adapting the bump stops to suit the lift/size wheels. It shouldn’t be able to drop the body onto the wheels for obvious reasons

RangeRoller dt said:

You should think about adapting the bump stops to suit the lift/size wheels. It shouldn’t be able to drop the body onto the wheels for obvious reasons

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I thought the same thing as I was writing my post...I'm wondering how?

Salisbury Nick said:

I thought the same thing as I was writing my post...I'm wondering how?

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Some fat hamsters

You swap them out for bigger ones. Easy to do, have a look online you’ll see one’s cut out of same sorta stuff as poly bushes but in a block. They are literally just a big spacer. Drill and bolt them in. There are no kits I know of you’ll likely have to make your own.
Was it PaulP38? @Grrrrrr will remember. He adapted his height sensor arms too with a threaded elbow. was a pain to set those up but worked fine afterwards.

RangeRoller dt said:

You swap them out for bigger ones. Easy to do, have a look online you’ll see one’s cut out of same sorta stuff as poly bushes but in a block. They are literally just a big spacer. Drill and bolt them in. There are no kits I know of you’ll likely have to make your own.
Was it PaulP38? @Grrrrrr will remember. He adapted his height sensor arms too with a threaded elbow. was a pain to set those up but worked fine afterwards.

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Might have been @300bhp/ton?

Wasn’t me. But I’ve looked at longer bump stops and couldn’t find any. The type used on a Disco/RRC/Defender are completely different design and shape & fitment. The p38 bump stops have more flex in them, they are designed so that you can drive a short way on them. A solid stop would be worse. Although having the tyres jammed in the arches is also not a solution.

Think the blocks were on atleast a 4” lift which is why they extended the height sensors. There’s nothing wrong with the originals apart from position, A plate maybe to add few inches to them? Depends how big his wheels are