P38 buying - oil worrying?

Hi guys new to the world of range rovers, and hope someone may be able to help.

Been looking at p38 v8 4.4s and found a tidy example, it did have a couple of small oil leaks, looked like the tappet gasket covers, also around the central diff box. Are either of these bits worrying or a potential nightmare?

Thanks for any help you everyone. No doubt will be speaking to you more

if thats all thats wrong buy it now but keep 3 grand back to keep it on the road for the next 12 months

Thanks for the reply, you mean to save the cash for other general issues or those related to the oil?

Are they that bad if you do all but the bigger issues yourself? Seem quite accessible to work on?

By the looks of that leak at the back of the engine it's from the crankshaft oil seal which is a bit of a pain to fix. The rocker cover gaskets are cheap and easy to fix yourself. Take a look at RAVE if you haven't already.

Just keep it topped up it will be fine.

There is lots of space to work on and pretty much everything can be done yourself, don't even need to jack the car up to work on most things underneath!

More worrying if it's using water, HGF and slipped liners come to mind.

'Says' water has been ok, but sounds like that's not necessarily always the case with slipped liners.

Is this looking too bag o' worms?

LandyOlaf said:

'Says' water has been ok, but sounds like that's not necessarily always the case with slipped liners.

Is this looking too bag o' worms?

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First rule of P38 buying, never buy one with faults unless you have the skill and the cash to fix them.
Have a search, the V8's are fairly notorious for slipped liners, think £3K to fix.

The rocker cover is simple takes about half hour each if the old seal is cork make sure you.clean it off as it will break up
The gear box can be lived with providing its not too bad just keep it toped up (but remember it will get worse)
Dont take his.word.about the water check it yourself also look in the expantion tank and the cap for signs of copper fileing if it has any run like hell
And you dont want to know why

I don't think oil leaks are even considered to be faults on older Land Rover products - I think they are part of the "ownership experience" - my P38 doesn't leak oil but it's the only one I've ever seen that doesn't! No oil leaks usually means there's no oil left to leak.

Mine dont leak oil
But it ****es diesel out:doh:
Every time i patch a leak within days it starts leaking somwere else.

Just to be pedantic, that is a rocker cover. The tappets are the cam followers.