Man, I feel your anguish...
Has a compression test not been done earlier in the diagnosis? Even a pressure test on the Coolant circuit?
I understand that you are using what sounds to be a reasonable garage.
I'm a bit out of touch at the moment as its a long time since I did anything like that, it just seems steep to me.
I've had the report (and invoice) back from the current workshop.
"Sniffer test failed. Vehicle producing white smoke on start up. Suspect water is getting into cylinder.
Possibly head gaskets or warped heads causing the issue. Cooling system is over pressurising and
around four seperate leaks are present. Advise our repairs are not guaranteed and customer drives
the vehicle away at his own risk."
Far from having my wallet raped, considering the extra hours that've been spent trying to rectify the
faults as far as possible (for example the LPG vaporiser coolant feed has been bypassed -- system disabled by removing fuse) the bill for changing out the electrical 110º thermostat for the mechanical 88º one, and changing out two hoses (one a heater hose difficult to access) has come to £300 including the two new hoses, including the VAT.
No charge for the Murraymints
At some point one has to trust a specialist workshop -- the mechanics there do seem to be serious in their work, so given that the immobiliser / steering column lock problems that plague L322 have been sorted, battery discharge problems sorted, air compressor rebuilt, got an 11-month MOT, tyres with 4k only on them, and it's a fully loaded Vogue with sunroof, orginal 'phone, Bose speakers, leather, suspension and control arms all done, and otherwise clean body have asked them whether in their contacts they know of a replacement M62 engine (with or without gearbox) kicking about specialist breakers.
I will give a merit card to this workshop even though their stock in trade appears to be the high end of the marque.
Y'know them. They have silly names on their bonnet: Overfinch, or have a Ű ostentatiously showing. Matt kept me abrest of what was going on even though he didn't know of the thermostat kludge!
RCV (Roberts Country Vehicles (Nationwide) Ltd
Waterside Garage, Bainbridges Road
East Peckham, Kent TN12 5HH
01632 873 000
email: info@rcv.co.uk
www.rcv.co.uk
I don't know whether engine changeout will cause issues with ECU security not being matched to the car's IMMO system.
It'd have to be a lump that's still in a doner vehicle soas to run it up to check not buying another duff lump. Guess that changing for a P38 engine or sommat would be nigh on impossible coz of the configuration changes?
I'm not a Range Rover expert.
The alternative is heads off and skim -- for which a workshop in the midlands had quoted me a max figure (without checking yet the per cylinder compressions) of £3,500
Wot's it worth now? Nuffink
Wot's it worth all done? £6 to £7k
Wot's it stand me in now? About £3k inc. purchase
... Yewowwww!
The fixings might no be, but for sure the electronics will be different.
for this car. 
Don't think they have liners, I think it's a Nicasil coating and not renewable although I did read somewhere that the block could be bored to take liners. Maybe I have got the wrong engine.I'm not lost, just wandering around a bit....
Popping across to pay RCV's tab tomorrow, so will ask Matt (if he's in) what further services
regarding head off and skim or changing the M62 lump they can provide. They're not a cheap shop as I've described
-- they mainly deal with top end of the marque where main agents really do rip you off. And provide an
inferior service to the skilled indies IMO
As a laugh, I've had Green Flag's next year's quote in -- £906
But it is payable in interest free instalments
But as Wazzarjnr says, unless the lump is still in the doner car and will start, there's no way of knowing what you're buying in advance. Since these M62s seem to be delicate cooling wise due to Range Rover's decision to foist them on an unsuspecting (and 5th Gear reporters that should've known better) public bet there's many out there with exactly the same problem as wot I've got
@Saint.V8 -- are those liners changeable?
It's the early ajv8 that suffered with nikasil liner problems.
Interesting, have you had liners fitted and engine all good and running happily now ?
i did a lot of research regarding liners and pistons designed to run in alusil not liking iron liners etc, well the rings rather than the pistons. so shied away from it. as well as liners coming loose due to different material expansion rates and loads of other scare stories. I was looking to build a supercharged m62 which is a really stupid waste of time as you can buy one off the peg from 2005 onwards but i like mine..
The M62 block in the L322 is Alusil, which is basically a 20% ish content high silicon aluminium, the bores are diamond bored and then honed with a final stage felt and special paste process to expose the silicon which is what the pistons run in. Slightest issue and the bores are doomed.
i have a really shagged m62 block in my garage as a donor engine and a BMW 3.5 engine block that i was going to bore out to 4.4. i made the RR engine mounts and had them welded in place and that is as far as i got as i realised i probably have a mental condition that i should resolve first and then see if it is still a good idea.
Richard, if you are considering an engine swap you have nothing to lose by running a leak down test to locate the source of your issue if you can, i think if you have exhaust gas in your cooling system you will be losing some compression that a leak down test should locate, if it is a head gasket problem at all and not something to do with the LPG (which i know nothing about), and then whipping the head off to see what's going on. Do a compression check as well first to get get an idea of the rest of the engines condition.
The labour involved is the timing of the engine afterwards as a lot of the front still has to come off even if you only do one head i guess.
If you are thinking of selling it on as it is , it is basically a really heavy and quite small shed in value so you may as well get a set of spanners and start taking some bits off - i am sure between us we can tell you how to put it back together again
That’s good to know, what was the liner made out of ? Did you use standard piston and rings ? With such thin walls one of the concerns about pressing is distorting the adjacent bores. Did you do a compression test after ?The engine had let go and dropped a Valve, pretty much destroying the piston and bore, a hone was out of the question so the block was machined and liners pressed in..
I was initially weary like yourself, i had the shop use a loctite sleeve retainer which is a fluid used quite often in the Agri world for tractor engines. ]
Only issue with it is, in the absence of oxygen it'll set like concrete, and if you're pressing them in, then stop to adjust the jig or press it most often than not will have set, and you either destroy the liner or have to use a piece of steel and a hammer to smack it out..
The Engine runs well, it has done quite a bit of towing,
Plenty of power, once the Vanos was sorted out..
H
. They're not now the bargain (£3 to £4k and rising) they once were as their fame's spreading...
