Hi everyone, I'm looking to buy a 4.6 hse range rover and the one I've found has had a new engine from turner engineering but when I phoned to ask if it had got the top hat cylinder Liners they said that it was supplied as a brand new block.
My question is, as it was supplied in 2004 I remember reading somewhere that land rover redesigned their V8 because of all the slipped liners. Does this sound right or was I just dreaming it?

Yes.

In Discovery terms, the old Disco1 has the 3.9 GEMS V8 with Lucas acilliaries, and the Disco2 instroduced in 1999 has the 4.0 V8 (still really a 3.9) with Bosch ancilliaries.

Not sure when these were introduced on the RR, but there certainly was an engine change which conincided with the Disco model change.

This is the later Bosch engine... mainly noticeable by the 'banana' style inlet manifold...

Did the new engine have a habit of slipping liners or did the do a fairly good job of stopping it?

Don't allow the V8 engine to overheat it won't have a slipped liner there's no such thing as "habit of slipping liners" let any engine overheat and you are asking for trouble.

LR stopped manufacturing the 4.6 in 2002 and used the remaining stock in NAS spec DIIs and as far as I am aware they never altered the block from introduction in 1996, so I would say you have a bog std 4.6 block.

thats the thor engine

the 3.9 was lucus 14CUX
then there was the 4.0L GEMS (Disco 1 96-98)
then then the THOR engine which has Motronic (discovery 2)

Jon14 said:

Yes.

In Discovery terms, the old Disco1 has the 3.9 GEMS V8 with Lucas acilliaries, and the Disco2 instroduced in 1999 has the 4.0 V8 (still really a 3.9) with Bosch ancilliaries.

Not sure when these were introduced on the RR, but there certainly was an engine change which conincided with the Disco model change.

This is the later Bosch engine... mainly noticeable by the 'banana' style inlet manifold...

Click to expand...

POAH said:

thats the thor engine

the 3.9 was lucus 14CUX
then there was the 4.0L GEMS (Disco 1 96-98)
then then the THOR engine which has Motronic (discovery 2)

Click to expand...

UK Disco 1 didn't have GEMS... They where all 3.9 litre 14CUX engines, the US market ones had the 4ltr GEMS in 96-98.

But to answer the original question, no, LR did not change the design of the cast block. Until the end of production LR used plain liners cast into the cylinder block. It's only engine repair companies that bore out the old liners and fit replacement top hat style (more correctly termed "flanged") liners. Turner Engineering will either exchange an engine or supply a new one for an additional surcharge. With any luck if you can supply the engine number to Turner Engineering maybe they can confirm what it is, but from their web site, new engines are supplied as "New block fitted with ductile iron flanged liners, crankshaft, pistons, conrods, camshaft & timing equipment assembled". There may be a Turner Engineering sticker on the block too. If you can't obtain any info, the only other way to identify the liners is to remove the head and measure the top lip of the liners Mind you, when Turner's say new, I don't think they mean everything is brand new. Seems the block is reworked but all other components are new. I really can't see any company taking a brand new Rover V8 and removing the liners to replace them. I'm sure they will explain if you phone them.

As is common knowledge, the block fails with cracking in the cast aluminium water jacket around the liners. This in itself isn't an issue as the top and bottom of the liners still creates a seal. But over time, or if the engine overheats the liner can move downwards, only a few thousanths of an inch, but enough to allow combustion gas to presurise the coolant system by blowing the head gasket, or more commonly by escaping over the top of the liner and into the water jacket through the crack. Replacing the gasket won't cure it as the liner has moved, and most move again. Pressure testing a block when cold mostly doesn't show the problem as it's only when the engine is hot and the aluminium has expanded more the the cast iron liners does the issue present itself. This problem only seems evident on Land Rover models. TVR, Morgan etc don't seem to suffer this. It's thought that the fuel mapping on LR models is very weak in the mid range which makes the engines run hot, and over many thousands of miles and many hot/cold cycles contributes to the cracking/moving liners problem. There is a remapped chip available for the GEMS injection engines that'll richen the mid range, but expensive at £800. Aw crap, I've written an essay

it is not so much the weak map more of the closed loop emissions and the ecu trying to get the impossible 14-1 air fuel ratio at cruising speed which heats the combustion.
also poor engine earths/ not enough earth also attributes to the problem.
very recently did ad2 4.0 with the fabled red painted block still had a slipped linner!