Roundhead

Roundhead

Member
Hi all. I'm still searching for a suitable low mileage disco 2 and have come to the conclusion that 99% of low mileage ones are petrol. Can anyone offer any advice to avoid the 4.0 or are they a lot of peoples choice? Ive previously had a 4.0 RR which has been my favourite car by far?
Lastly ive got my eye on a 2004 v8, 60k but had a new engine at 50k. Owner said it had holes in the head and its apparently a common problem with these. Can anyone shed some light on it being a common fault please? Its now on LPG, is this ok??? Thanks in advance all.
 
Roundhead said:
Hi all. I'm still searching for a suitable low mileage disco 2 and have come to the conclusion that 99% of low mileage ones are petrol. Can anyone offer any advice to avoid the 4.0 or are they a lot of peoples choice? Ive previously had a 4.0 RR which has been my favourite car by far?
Lastly ive got my eye on a 2004 v8, 60k but had a new engine at 50k. Owner said it had holes in the head and its apparently a common problem with these. Can anyone shed some light on it being a common fault please? Its now on LPG, is this ok??? Thanks in advance all.
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Dropped liners or HGF are not uncommon, but if you can afford the fuel why not? LPG some say is OK, others say that it contributes to failures. I wouldn't have a V8 so don't know.
Diesel for me any time.
 
Thanks datatek. I wish I could afford to run it on petrol 24/7. I also wish the TD5's were a bit more powerful off the mark as my mrs uses the car around a city for her work as a social worker.
 
Roundhead said:
Thanks datatek. I wish I could afford to run it on petrol 24/7. I also wish the TD5's were a bit more powerful off the mark as my mrs uses the car around a city for her work as a social worker.
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Power can be upped on the diesel but IMO have enough power as standard.
Much more economical in a diesel.
 
I have read that chipped diesels can have manifold problems as a result? In fact a friend of mine had to repair his last weeked due to this issue.
 
The price of the V8's makes them much more economical in the short term and the discos are old and won't be a long term investment.
 
A stage 1 remap on a td5 wont effect the manifold but still gives around 170bhp. In my opinion the standard td5 doesn't have enough power but compare the figures (torque and acceleration) for the v8 and the remapped td5 and see if you think the difference is worth twice the cost of fuel. I love petrol engines but wouldn't buy a v8 and I know the pleasure would be ruined for me as I watched the needle drop on the fuel gauge.
 
V8 for me every time but then I don't do the mileage. Avoid any that have been converted to LPG, mileage is not that important as long as it's got a history of regular oil changes (pref. 3000m) & coolant changes every two years minimum.
 
Norseman why avoid one that's been converted already? Im planning on viewing one on Fri thats been done.
Owner said its got 62k on the clock but also had a new engine 2 yrs ago at 50k. Do they get too hot on lpg?
 
Not as powerful on LPG either, my current Defender Td5 is remapped by Dynachip who set the performance levels by manifold temp, so not to warp the manifold. Having mostly had V8 Defenders and Range Rover classic V8's in the past I actually prefer the Td5, the lack of a screaming V8 soundtrack being the thing I miss though., but a straight pipe Td5 sounds good just in a different way. Td5 does have issues if not looked after, but then the elderly V8 engines have theirs too.
 
Does lpg cause more problems? My thought at the moment is this: lpg is half the price of diesel, V8's do half the mpg so it should cost the same per gallon to run?
 
Roundhead said:
Norseman why avoid one that's been converted already? Im planning on viewing one on Fri thats been done.
Owner said its got 62k on the clock but also had a new engine 2 yrs ago at 50k. Do they get too hot on lpg?
Click to expand...

At the risk of stating the obvious, if it's already converted it's been running on gas. There is some evidence that the higher combustion chamber temps. running on LPG can accentuate the likelihood of cracking the block surrounding the liner. I've had it happen to me (on a 3.9) many years ago & know of one other as well. With a new engine that's only done 12k on gas you could take a chance, but if it were me I'd disable the LPG as soon as I got the car.
 
Roundhead said:
Does lpg cause more problems? My thought at the moment is this: lpg is half the price of diesel, V8's do half the mpg so it should cost the same per gallon to run?
Click to expand...
The Rover V8 seems to be OK on LPG as long as the cooling system is in good order. Some say that HGF or dropped liners are more likely with LPG.
Overall, with LPG servicing, plugs, coils etc, I don't think a V8 on LPG will ever match a diesel for economy or reliability, in reality you will get less than half the MPG on LPG and you will also use petrol until the engine warms up, most do not factor that in. Many will disagree with me on this.
 
My p38 4.6 is lpg,top hat block,never had any problems ,I converted it myself with omvl dream multipoint system,if it's set up good you don't even know it's changing over,on a run mostly motorways I was getting just over 50 miles for £10 of gas around 60 mph average,my opinion on the td5 is they seem to be higher revs all the time before they change on the auto anyway 2500 k ,they don't seem to have any go about them till 2k when the turbo boosts up,my v8 happily changes up 1200 -1500 on light throttle,I have a 4.0 disco 2 aswell non lpg probably getting 25 miles for £10 ,but this is a far better ,more relaxed drive than a td5 in,I would choose a lpg v8 anytime ,servicing is cheap diy £5 for a filter,you can buy the software of Internet for cheap to adjust the mapping yourself simple to do aswell as long as you know how the engine should sound rich or lean and feel simply adjust the fueling on computer
 
Datatek said:
The Rover V8 seems to be OK on LPG as long as the cooling system is in good order. Some say that HGF or dropped liners are more likely with LPG.
Overall, with LPG servicing, plugs, coils etc, I don't think a V8 on LPG will ever match a diesel for economy or reliability, in reality you will get less than half the MPG on LPG and you will also use petrol until the engine warms up, most do not factor that in. Many will disagree with me on this.
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Certainly not me :( No doubt LPG installations have advanced since the 'nineties when I suffered my problems, but the cost of a block replacement plus all the labour involved was many times the fuel savings I had made over the year that I ran LPG. Once was enough for me & I would never trust the stuff again.
 
Roundhead said:
Does lpg cause more problems? My thought at the moment is this: lpg is half the price of diesel, V8's do half the mpg so it should cost the same per gallon to run?
Click to expand...

The V8 should do better than double the fuel. With an auto box, 16mpg average is perfectly doable. Obviously less if you are heavy footed. On a run 20-21mpg is quite possible.

Manuals should be slightly better.

Auto Td5's are mid 20's, depending on actual use. And manuals high 20's, low 30's on a run.

A V8 on LPG won't be as economical as it is on petrol. But pence per mile I suspect an LPG V8 might work out slightly cheaper than diesel. But there won't be a huge amount in it.
 
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