johndregg

johndregg

Active Member
I'm currently running and old Army 110 V8, it has around 140,000 kilometers on it and appears to be running fine, however i was thinking of buying a second V8 motor as a reserve in case something goes wrong with the valve seats. (its a fear i have after being told that these can wear out on LPG)
I've been offered a 3.9 motor with 180.000 kilometers (114.000 miles-ish) for 400 euros. The engine has been run on carbs on a 90 and i'm told it is running ok.

What could the pitfalls be? Is this a good price?

Is there a good supplier of recon motors that i've missed? What does one cost?

Sorry if these are stupid questions but i'm new, and i want to keep the Landy on the road no matter what. :)
 
Lpg normally causes HGF and liner slip/block issues on the RV8 not valve seat problems.

The 3.9 and bigger rv8 are far more prone to this than the 3.5 so I would only get another 3.5 especially if you are going to run it on gas.

I am guessing a re-built motor would cost well over a grand (maybe nearer two) from one of the big builders like RPI so as its only a spare a known good used engine from a car you have test driven on a long run with no coolant over pressurising might be a more suitable bet unless you are loaded.
 
The thing the can cause head gasket to fail HGF or a slipped liner on a V8 is an overheated engine the type of fuel it runs on can't, therefore if your standard cooling system is 100% there shouldn't be any problems.
 
more than that though mate, there isnt enough metal round the liner on the 94mm bore engines to stop it cracking/the liners slipping as it only takes a tiny bit as you know. also a lot of peeps think the lambdas make it even worse on the bigger bore engines fitted with it.

They arnt worth the trouble

Also we must consider the ladrover ****e workmanship, materials and design in to the equation :D
 
But at 400euros is it worth a punt as a standby spare engine? I certainly can't afford a professional rebuild. My cooling system seems pretty good, on the open road at least. Needle stays constant in the safe zone.
 
Last edited:
despite what discool says, and dont get me wrong he knows his stuff, its not always something you can budget for with a good well maintained cooling suystem that looks ok on the gauge, particularly on lpg which burns hotter than it was designed for. for example hotspots where either scale from previous owners or poor design and finishing will always cause uneven heating and some distortion over the years as will the fact that LR design had a bias to cool one bank more effectively than the other. As I said before I think you will be better off with a known good 3.5 as there is more metal round the bore to keep it intact if you want reliblitly but the choice is yours.
 
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