1997 Disco won't run

[FORGE1]

Hey everyone.

My latest purchase of a 1997 disco 3.9 v8 just won't run.

It had been sitting for the past 6months without running and I found the cause... Fuel pump.

So picked up one from LR90NZ... Thanks heaps for this

Hey presto I now have fuel. I put some new fuel in and injector cleaner as the fuel was stale that was in there (less than 1/4 tank) now has 3/4 tank.

I managed to get it going and running on 7 cylinders as 1 injector is stuffed.

Took it for a drive down the road (wife driving after I said I would drive), said what ever u do don't button off as I don't want it to die down the rd. well she buttoned off and it died. Now wont start at all.

If u spray "start ya bastard" it will run (rough) on that but as soon as u stop spraying it will die.

I have replaced plugs and leads already.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Ray

[Mattman]

Have you checked fuel and spark again? Has to be one of those two. Could well be a fuel blockage if its been sitting for ages with crud in the tank.

Matt.

[meatc]

Did you just replace the pump, or the pump unit bracket and all?

Mates did the same thing out in the bush one day, turns out it was the small length of hose from the pump to the tank fitting (inside the tank) had a split in it on a slight bend. Pump was pumping but most of the fuel was returning to the tank.

[FORGE1]

Have you checked fuel and spark again? Has to be one of those two. Could well be a fuel blockage if its been sitting for ages with crud in the tank.

Matt.

Hey Matt, yeah u can see it sparking when your cranking and pull the leads off. I have ordered a new fuel filter so that could be the problem I will fit that tomorrow and see if that works. If not then I will go back to the start.

Did you just replace the pump, or the pump unit bracket and all?

Mates did the same thing out in the bush one day, turns out it was the small length of hose from the pump to the tank fitting (inside the tank) had a split in it on a slight bend. Pump was pumping but most of the fuel was returning to the tank.

Hey Mate,

I replaced the whole Pump as the old one had no go at all.

I can now hear it all working as it should.

I'm just wondering if potentially it could be electrical at some point.

Maybe the on/off switch or relay is faulty from sitting.

I will know more tomorrow once I fit the new fuel filter.

Thanks for the input guys. Keep me coming I'm all ears.

Ray

[FORGE1]

Yay it runs. After a little help from a spray start.

Ok now new problems.

Still on 7 cylinders... New one this time I think.

Heating up after about 15min of idle revving doesn't do anything to bring the temp down. I'm thinking blockage somewhere.

Oil blowing out of the dipstick when revving?

I turned it off when it got over 3/4 on the temp gauge as I don't want to do any more damage.

I have a vid of the noise its making...



http://youtu.be/U1gg9swTQYk

[nztimr33]

Check your breather pipe to the rocker cover make sure it isn't blocked with crap that would cause it to pressurise the crankcase/engine and blow oil out of the dipstick , other than that there is only one other reason it would do that and that's excessive blow by.

[nztimr33]

as for your noise kinda sounds like a lifter noise , maybe pull your rocker covers off and have a look

[Big]

as for your noise kinda sounds like a lifter noise , maybe pull your rocker covers off and have a look

That's what I thought.. the LR are prone to sticking lifters if they have been left a while.( hydraulic oil ones). go for a drive and it'll work loose or should work loose.. change the oil and thrash it..
Also could be the injector but the noise is quite loud.. I had an injector that knocked a bit like that but it was only for a min or so.

[churchill]

I had the lifter problem with a P76 engine I was working on. It cranked on 7, ran on 7 for the first few seconds but came right soon after.

Supposedly the cams can wear out in these as well, might be worth checking if the new oil and thrash doesn't work.

[noexitroad]

it could be a slipped liner. i have seen a similar vid on youtube which was the case. but i would look at other options first. do what the others say first and if still no go then it could be liner. it would account for overheating as well

[prado_boon]

Sounds like a noisey/stuck lifter, or it might be stuffed, possibly why it's running on 7 if it's not opening a inlet valve etc.

New oil and a thrash might revive it, but in most cases new lifters are the fix.

But.... it could also be a bottom end noise. I use an old stethoscope to check excatly where the noise it coming from (or a piece of pipe to the ear)

As for your cooling problem, I'd get them sorted before anything.

[FORGE1]

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for all the options I will look into getting the cooling sorted then the oil changed as I think maybe with 3 weeks of only cranking may have had some fuel mix with oil (another thing I have been told) as its way up the dip stick.

So the list will be:

1 Flush cooling system, replace thermostat & replace heater hose as in the vid its kinked pretty bad (Thanks LR90NZ for pointing that one out)
2 Change Oil and Filter
3 Clean breather filter out
4 Pump up flat tyre haha
5 Take for a thrash and hope for the best

Im hopefull its going to be something small as no water mixing with oil and no bubbling of water after/during running.

I did the whole screw driver onto a part of the motor to hear if I can find where its coming from and the loudest place was on top of the intake but it was only a quick check as I had to shoot off.

I started it again this morning felt like it was running better definately still has the tick but its not as loud but its there. I turned it off after about 2min as I was just curious to see if I had actually fixed the starting issue haha.

If this doesnt fix the issue then I will put the top off and have a closer look.

[nizute]

I would drain the oil first as there may already be water in the sump and the oil floats so could be reading high because of that.

[noexitroad]

a compression check would be an idea before you spend too much money

[FORGE1]

Ok soooo feel like I'm back at square 1.

I have been starting it daily to make sure its till starts...

Did a oil change on Sunday and took it for a thrash.

Got down the road sweet and thought I better not push my luck. Drove home and got up the driveway to go back up the ramps and it slowly died now it won't start again was still running on 7 cylinders after the thrash.

I then decided to change the thermostat and replace the kinked pipe to the heater and haven't had a chance to try and start again as I ran out of light.

On a better note it doesn't spill oil out the dipstick anymore and the oil that came out stunk of petrol and was way over filled.

Hmmm I think this one might get the better of me as I don't have much more funds to throw at it.

Once the starting issue is sorted I will look at the compression etc.

I have done the search on google etc but there seems to be heaps of things it could be and I have done most of those on there... Haha I wonder if its worth chucking the motors out and starting with another one but the. It could still be something simple.

Any more ideas just throw them at me.

Cheers
Ray

[Pedro]

isolate the cylinder that is missing or not running, go thru the leads as the motor is running and see which one has little or no effect on the motor running, check the plug see if it is fouled, one you have figured out which one is sick, pull rocker cover off and run, see if you are getting any valve lift on that cylinder,
wont be a liner, dont think the 3.9 have liners,
if it getting hot could be head gasket.

Pedro

[ice4x4]

How many KM's are there on the engine?

As with all aluminium block Rover V8's the 3.9 does have steel pressed liners so you may have a slipped liner. I dont think it is though, does the noise change when the engine gets up to temperature? The noise sounds like it is at 1/2 engine speed which would suggest a valve train issue.... This could be a number of things, stuck lifter, bent pushrod, pushrod button dropped off, worn camshaft lobe etc anything that will cause exessive valve clearence..

Have you changed any components in the ignition system? Engine cutting out and not starting when up to temperature is normally the ignition amplifier module on the distributor.

[fish]

i think a compression test would be a good move as well. if there is pressure in the crank case and oil coming out the dipstick then you probably have poked rings. in which case... yea not flash.

i had a diesel that was hard to start and had bad blow by, oil coming out the dipstick ect. it got worse then popped its clogs. if i were you i would check that before spending any more cash.

of course i could be entirely wrong.

[noexitroad]

petrol in oil is a new kettle of fish.
try going to the landyzone.co.uk website and search there.
could be injectors or earth or ? or ?
good luck and keep us informed

[peteb2]

...as others have already said and my 10cents....

Pull the plugs and check for a fouled one which should reveal the cylinder not burning right. Take off the rocker cover (it's not a biggie... might end up having to use a new gasket or some undo-able sealer to stop the oil leaks later ) on the side associated with the worst burn plug and with the HT from the coil disconnected so it can't fire turn the engine over and watch the rocket action. The pairs should all be shifting the same range using the eye-ommeter. You'll need to do this a few times to let the oil pressure get up because the cam-followers are 'auto adjusting'. Of course we're asking a bit of the battery and the starter here but it should eliminate an issue on valve train problem... and it might be good to do it with all the plugs out...

It's sound'n like a stuck cam-followers slapping a shortened push rob which could be bent or has dropped the ball-end... as others have already said.

The other trick of course is to a compression check with a good charged battery if you have a compression tester you that will let you get in there with.

On my Project the old 3.9 is really easy to access....

[oldyella]

One reason it is stopping after being driven for a short while could be a stuffed coil. When its cold they have less resistance and still make a good spark. Then they overheat, the resistance goes up, and you loose spark.

I had a "stopping" problem with my LR V8 project which was a crap fuel filter. I found it by trial and error with lots of swearing. However, there is a point to connect a fuel pressure gauge on the fuel rail. This can be used to see if fuel pressure is dropping off.

Fuel in the petrol will just be from cranking over for ages with no/poor spark. Sounds like you have flooded it to the point your spark plugs won't spark anymore. Press the accelerator all the way down for 30 seconds or so while cranking over if you haven't managed to get it started after the first 15seconds or so. This should remove the excess fuel and give it a chance at starting 2nd time around. Then go have a cup of tea or a beer before you try again.

With it running on 7, you probably know someone with a compression tester, otherwise supercheap has them for $50 or something. Then you can tell if it is an injector or a mechanical fault.

Good Luck!

[FORGE1]

Hey everyone sorry for the long delay i have been flat out with working and the mrs car getting stolen meant i was caught up sorting that out and pulling a motor out of my Legacy. I have taken everyone's ideas into consideration and did a compression test first. I also have access to a inline spark tester and spark strength tester... Still to try those ones out.

As it wouldn't start it was on a cold motor.

I pulled the plugs out and they are all wet and most of them black with white crystal like bits on them in my mind the words F*CKED sprung to mind.

So started the test and good news I'd say is that all cylinders returned a psi between 120-140. All in the green. Yayah.

One thing I noticed while cranking the coil had a staggered pulse haha if I was to type it it would be like...

Tick..tick..tick.tickticktick......tick..tickticktick........tickticktick..tick....tick...

I would have thought it would have been more like this...

Tick...tick...tick...tick...tick...tick...tick...tick...

So in my mind its now spark and potentially fuel related.

I have replaced the fuel pump, filter and when cranking it has 35psi on the fuel rail.

What your thoughts now guys?

I was thinking the same thing about the fuel in the oil and how I was flooding it etc so been keeping the cranking to a low amount.

I really want to get this puppy going as I don't want to have it end up sitting around for ages like what the previous owners did to it.

Thanks heaps

Ray

[FORGE1]

Just a quick update. I rang a mechanic who has a Discovery with the exact issue and the owner has done the same replacement parts as me and ended up towing it into the shop to get fixed. They replaced a few more bits so it gives me a idea on the next things to replace.

So I mentioned mine is doing this and once he sorts the issue out on that one if he could let me know haha. He believes its the ignition module and they are fitting a new one this arvo and if I ring back tomorrow they will give me an update so fingers crossed it fixes it and is the same problem as mine.

[Disco Gofer]

Ok, the guys have been given stacks of great ideas and here's mine.....I used to work Landy years ago so know my way around them a bit. I had a manual V8 Disco 1 2 years ago and it started to misfire and idle rough and noticed the oil level was way high and smelt of fuel. After a few checks I found that the fuel pressure reg diaphragm perishes when it gets old and the inlet manifold sucks the fuel in thought the valves and past the rings and floods the sump. The excess fuel also floods random chambers and cause bloody misfires. I did much of what you did before checking this and replaced it with another second one and it never failed again.
Worth a go! Good luck.

[FORGE1]

Let there be life

After many dead ends I think I have finally solved the problem.

I had a mate come over and we did some more testing on the old girl turns out it wasn't sparking properly.

Coil - check
Module - check
Leads - check
Plugs - check
Distributor - no go

It would spark all 8 first time round then drop 2 even 3 cylinders.

So made a call to a few friendly folks and managed to score a 2nd hand distributor. Fitted it up yesterday..

Gave it a few cranks and she stuttered into life still not 100% (need to double check timing and that loud ticking) but way more responsive and heaps more grunt.

First time I have ever started it without a can of "start ya bastard"

I haven't had a chance to take it for a decent run but will do that tomorrow.

So I would like to take the opo to thank everyone for their input and guidance it wasn't easy but I think I have finally got there.

Cheers

Ray

[Cheesy_Dave]

Let there be life

After many dead ends I think I have finally solved the problem.

I had a mate come over and we did some more testing on the old girl turns out it wasn't sparking properly.

Coil - check
Module - check
Leads - check
Plugs - check
Distributor - no go

It would spark all 8 first time round then drop 2 even 3 cylinders.

So made a call to a few friendly folks and managed to score a 2nd hand distributor. Fitted it up yesterday..

Gave it a few cranks and she stuttered into life still not 100% (need to double check timing and that loud ticking) but way more responsive and heaps more grunt.

First time I have ever started it without a can of "start ya bastard"

I haven't had a chance to take it for a decent run but will do that tomorrow.

So I would like to take the opo to thank everyone for their input and guidance it wasn't easy but I think I have finally got there.

Cheers

Ray

What was wrong with the distributor?

[rano99]

What was wrong with the distributor?

its made by Lucas

[Smurf]

What was wrong with the distributor?

its made by Lucas

And all the smoke has been let out.

[FORGE1]

Sorry just saw there was this question. I'm not sure what was wrong with the distributor, all I know is when trying to start it would not spark on all 8 and since its been replaced its all good on the spark side I just need to figure out the last of the ticking issue the it will be done.