Project P38 EAS With Shenanigans

[Cooper1]

That has gotta be the most unimaginative title in the known universe, but it's all i got!  

 

This thread is to document the adventures, and lets be honest misadventures of me and my vehicles, the main focus of this thread is to document my Range rover P38 i bought at the not so idiotic age of 17 from a chap in Worcestershire.

Pics are few and far between.

Originally I passed my test and my Dad wanted me to buy something small and economical,  i left the house telling everyone I was going out to view a citroen Saxo VTS, 

And rocked up with this a few hours later!

 

 

 

My Parent IE my Dad was speachless and the rest of 'em. 

 

Well either laughed with pity or walked away!! 

It went haywire when I told them it was a 4.6 Vogue with LPG ?

 

Spec wise. 

Vogue specification 

Wood/leather steering wheel 

16ish way seats with 2 person memory + heaters

Harman Karden sound system 

Satnag 

4spd Auto with sport mode "chortle" 

18" Comet alloys 

Monte Carlo Blue 

Air suspension

Climate pack - heaterd front and rear windows. 

 

And a few other odds and ends .

 

The standard practice after buying such a car is to start driving it hard and long distance Daily.. 

Of course it got covered in shit from all the country lane jaunts, 

 

 

 

My Main love of cars comes from fixing them and cleanin' 'em myself, as such the old girl had to look her best, 

 

As odd and knobby as it sounds I do get rather nerdy when it comes to cleanin' 

Washmitts and speshul buckets anorl!!

 

And thats it for an into! 

 

More later when i can find and correctly post regarding pics

 

 

H

 

 

 

[cpjitservices]

1 hour ago, Cooper1 said:

That has gotta be the most unimaginative title in the known universe, but it's all i got!  

 

This thread is to document the adventures, and lets be honest misadventures of me and my vehicles, the main focus of this thread is to document my Range rover P38 i bought at the not so idiotic age of 17 from a chap in Worcestershire.

Pics are few and far between.

Originally I passed my test and my Dad wanted me to buy something small and economical,  i left the house telling everyone I was going out to view a citroen Saxo VTS, 

And rocked up with this a few hours later!

 

 

 

My Parent IE my Dad was speachless and the rest of 'em. 

 

Well either laughed with pity or walked away!! 

It went haywire when I told them it was a 4.6 Vogue with LPG ?

 

Spec wise. 

Vogue specification 

Wood/leather steering wheel 

16ish way seats with 2 person memory + heaters

Harman Karden sound system 

Satnag 

4spd Auto with sport mode "chortle" 

18" Comet alloys 

Monte Carlo Blue 

Air suspension

Climate pack - heaterd front and rear windows. 

 

And a few other odds and ends .

 

The standard practice after buying such a car is to start driving it hard and long distance Daily.. 

Of course it got covered in shit from all the country lane jaunts, 

 

 

 

My Main love of cars comes from fixing them and cleanin' 'em myself, as such the old girl had to look her best, 

 

As odd and knobby as it sounds I do get rather nerdy when it comes to cleanin' 

Washmitts and speshul buckets anorl!!

 

And thats it for an into! 

 

More later when i can find and correctly post regarding pics

 

 

H

 

 

 

Bloody Marvellous!

[lesapandre]

How long have you had it? How old are you now? Where did you get the money at 17?

LOL - but why not. Looks super.

[sutty2006]

Misadventures 

idiotic

P38 

 

all in the same paragraph...... sounds about right! I skipped the P38 era and it probably saved my life. Good luck in you’re future breakdowns. 

[Cooper1]

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

How long have you had it? How old are you now? Where did you get the money at 17?

LOL - but why not. Looks super.

I pull cars apart and work for good hours to buy it! ? 

 

I've had her 3 years this year. 

[Cooper1]

12 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

Misadventures 

idiotic

P38 

 

all in the same paragraph...... sounds about right! I skipped the P38 era and it probably saved my life. Good luck in you’re future breakdowns. 

Yep i agree there. 

 

She fell apart in 2018 and has only just been put back together ?

[Broadsword]

Leaves house with fresh driver's license to buy cheap city car... comes back with a V8 Range Rover P38. I think you will fit in here well.

Welcome! As a fellow P38 owner/victim (mine is a diesel though and on springs) I'll follow your experiences of the 4.6 V8 with interest. So at what point exactly did the head gaskets fail on yours?

[Cooper1]

October 2017 - March 2018 

 

This was the Golden Year for the old Lumber Bus, the best thing about it was she was unstoppable in mud and snow which was a godsend in the winter of late 17 and early 18. 

 

I bought her for this purpose to have some fun, and between buying her in July 2017 I didn't do anything with her until around december, when the tappets started clattering real bad and the oil leaks were getting out of control ? 

 

First off was the rocker cover gaskets, 

Rover in their infinite wisdom fit what seem to be anti theft bolts to the rocker covers which are a complete ballache, as you need anorexic sockets to get them off. 

The new gaskets were much better, as expected than the ones previous, the old ones had turned into Bakelite, i chipped off the old gasket!!  

 

 

A film of lithium grease on the rubber stops it slipping around. 

 

She isn't the cleanest old thing inside, but it is better than most.. 

 

Once back together the snow hit!! 

 

 

not ideal!! 

 

More to come. 

 

 

[Cooper1]

I did mention above the tappets were clattering like mad.... 

this might of had something to do with it!

Topped off with an oil of some kind, i think it was 10w50.. 

That quietens her down a bit thats for sure! 

 

And then the Headgasket blew, it was cylinder to outside world, which is a rather odd noise, and she blew it in a MacDonalds drive through, frightened the delivery girl! 

Pop BANG pop pop LOL 

 

Stripping it down was easy as well pie. 

Intake off 

Manifold(s) off 

front accessory drive off. 

And the finished product. 

 

 

Great!! 

 

After a week of procrastination i threw her together with new Elring Gaskets

 

TBH i was tempted to pull the cam and lifters, but this engine doesn't really need it yet! 

And tbh the cam was in ok condition. 

She ran much smoother after the change, I think she has had a blow since i bought her, as the rough idle and what i thought was an exhhaust blow has gone!

 

H

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cooper1]

around a week after doing this job she started to have oil pressure issues, the light would flicker, and there was a knock emerging from the bottom end, at this point I was getting  a bit pissed off with this V8 ?

 

The Sump on one of these is relatively easy to remove, there is a video somewhere!  

Anyway mine was fulled off. 

 

There was a fair bit of white metal debris in the sump, which is never good, I had the option of pulling the crank or doing a bearing roll. 

I decided the latter as it was easier! 

The old bearings.

 

They were a bit destroyed,

The new ones were rolled in and the caps re-torqued. 

Sump glued back on and some Valvoline VR1 20w50 added as her first meal with new bearings.  

 

Much quieter and the oil pressure is much better, 45 pounds at idle IIRC. 

 

Cosmetic details.. -------------- 

 

After doing this I needed to do an easy job for a change, and giving the engine a spruce up was an obvious option.. 

 

Before

 

 

The plastics were treated with Autoglym vinyl and rubber care, 

The manifold was repainted and some conduit to freshen up the bay was added 

 

Makes it look a tad nicer under there. 

 

 

 

 

[Cooper1]

Next up was the snow, which was horrendous in 2018, i'm proud to admit my old Rangie was the only vehicle in the immediate family that could muster the traction to drive out and through the snow packed village ?

 

It was terrible, but she did me proud for the weeks and months of the snow.. ? 

 

Naturally she started to play up just after!!  

The idle was starting to become lumpy and fuel economy went from an average of 18.4 to 11,2 !!! 

 

so i scanned it

 

 

Hmm.. 

 

At that time a MAF was £200. 

 

So..... 

I bought this.

2002 Mini one. 

I exchanged it for a set of cylinder heads and a few £££ 

Insurance was cheap as chips and the fuel economy was TWICE as much more than the V8 could muster. 

 

However it was no fun when compared to the Range rover, but it did allow me to accumulate some MOOLAH!! ; ) 

 

H

 

 

 

 

 

 

[N Dentressangle]

Brilliant, and good persistence! I guess you need it with a P38, although to be fair the Classic ain't much better...

[Cooper1]

With the Mini I managed to save up a £10 and buy this!! 

A shameless stick on piece of fake walnut LOL

 

The Old HVAC is an eyesore in my opinion, the grey plastic sicks out a bit too much IMO..

 

With some alcohol wipes and some sticky I got this!!  

 

Not a bad colour match considering the stuff around it is real walnut!  

 

After this I went back on ebay and bought these!

You can never have too much fake walnut! 

 

Stuck these on the windows too

They came free with a LROI magazine!! SCORE!!

 

 

More later!! 

 

Breakage ensues ! 

 

 

 

[Cooper1]

6 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

Brilliant, and good persistence! I guess you need it with a P38, although to be fair the Classic ain't much better...

Aye persistance is key 

Atleast The P38 doesn't rust!

[Cooper1]

March 2018 - Present!

 

After a few months sitting, and water ingress the electrical system of the P38 started to play up/ 

First up the Drivers door latch failed, for those in the know the tailgate grounds through it so if it breaks you can't open the tailgate.  ?

 

Also it prevents the EKA code from being entered! so after a flat battery the Car was immobile. 

The door card has to come off/ 

 

Naturally there were broken bits, the adjuster for the door handle had snapped off.

The latch had also been wired in by an ape, not comforting the plug was also floating around in the bottom of the door

 

I bought a new door latch from listers and fitted it. 

 

Vapour barrier fitted and repaired.

 

Naturally this didn't fix it, and the BECM started to blow fuses and the car went haywire.

 

This caused a chain reaction of pain which lasted 2 years "almost" over this time I pulled the entire car apart looking for a short, in hindsight i was rather ham fisted when doing this and I did damage a good bit of the interior trim

 

Acres of wiring was also unearthed and I found the entire loom floating in a bath of coolant and water!!

 

This loom was dried out and re-rapped

Digging around behind trim also unearthed why the stereo was rather poor, the sunwoofer foam had disintegrated, 

 

Then the car and my enthusiasm went down the shitter and it looked like this for a while!

 

 

Poor thing!

 

 

 

[Broadsword]

Wow, you have really been through it with this P38. My problems have been nothing in comparison. Quick question on the engine. Does it have hydraulic tappets?

[N Dentressangle]

2 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

Wow, you have really been through it with this P38. My problems have been nothing in comparison. Quick question on the engine. Does it have hydraulic tappets?

All Rover V8's do, don't they?

[Cooper1]

After a period of her looking like a piece of shyte, I pullled my finger oot me arse and gathered my interior bits back together  

Headliner sagged

The seat was pulled out, because the bECM sits under there, and it was fubar'd and needed to be repaired. 

Drivers seat out! 

4x T50 torx bolts enabled it to tip up and out the way, it goes without saying disconnect the battery before pulling the plugs under the seat as there are airbags under there!

Computer oot!

 

Much more space

 

 

 

More chaos later!

 

 

 

[Cooper1]

3 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

Wow, you have really been through it with this P38. My problems have been nothing in comparison. Quick question on the engine. Does it have hydraulic tappets?

Yep a labour of love/hate!!

 

All RV8s had hydraulic tappets

 

H

[mrbenn]

Welcome!

Lovely car, good work and well documented. Looking forward to more  ?

[DVee8]

Bloody hell,well played for sticking with it.I may have ditched it by now..

[Cooper1]

In the old girls down time I did some work on the paintwork, sad as it may seem I like the outside of a car to look good, and in my current tenure I hadn't really touched it, the PO wasn't interested either. so she did look a tad rough.. 

 

?

 

A variety of compounds were used to pull the dirt out of the paint, a machine was also utilised. 

Meguires Ultimate compound was the order of the day, with around 20 minutes on every panel she came out like this.

 

Not too bad, considering the grime and age of the paint..  

 

Like myself a blue car. 

[Cooper1]

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM. 

 

The gremlins that plague this car were very hard to catch, the little fucker. 

After months of looking at wiring diagrams and ripping the car apart, the cause of the BECM manfunction was the Alpine Radio amplifier. ? 

After removing the trim in the boot, a little voice told me to pull the amplifier to check the plug as this is tied in with a problem with the Fuse 15 circuit i was having issue with, upon removing the plug this is what I found. 

 

Getting a bit trigger happy i pulled it apart.

Thankfully it was the culprit!   

 

Now thinking it was a £50 part i dived on ebay and looked for a replacement, unluckily for me the AMPS are made of that rare material we all know as unobtanium!  

£600 for a working one!! 

fook that! 

 

There is a chap who specialises in re working P38's and plans are being drawn up for an entire sound system replacement.   

 

More chaos ahead!

 

 

[Cooper1]

Interior removal and rejuvenation ? 

'Tis no secret that when i owned and drove this old beast she was used offroad to get to work sites and my clothes would be covered in all sorts of hell 

Grease, cow shit yu name it. 

This had a detrimental effect on the interior condition.  

 

This interior is known as "lightstone" which is an Off white not cream!!! 

I gave it stiff scrub with a brush and Autoglym interior shampoo mixed with APC 

The after!

 

Rear seats were also scrubbed. 

 

I found after cleaning them, the shiny slippy greasy feel was gone

Which is nice, smells a good bit better too.  

The headliner was also tended too, this sagging tent look isn't very nice and at 6"6 my hair brushes the roof and it is annoying  

 

This industrial grade adhesive, was a good choice.  

 

 

Not the best look but much better than before, and to the casual observer it looks ok.   

 

 

[Cooper1]

Electronical shenanigans  

The Cumspewter was sent off and rebuilt, this was the hole left behind,,

 

The Burnt out track on the BECM's powerboard this was caused by an overload from the AMP shorting through the PCM

 

ANYWAY!!

The BECM was refitted and the seat reinstalled  

 

Door card back on and carpet back in the right place, this is coming together!  

 

and back together  

 

Looks a tad better and fresher than before.

 

 

More to come

 

Thanks for reading

[Cooper1]

More interior shenanigans

 

Anyone who owns a P38 will have come across the rear carpet, which likes to peel off the spare wheel cover, and in general it looks shit, my fix is to use a heavy grade adhesive and plenty of clamps.

The befores  

The product used  

And during the curing process, this looks odd but it worked  

 

The after only took 30mins to properly cure and the result is pretty good  

much betterer  

 

CARPET!!

This old girl is used, as i said and it was mank in the back smelt like hell warmed up  

A good carpet scrubbing and hoovering got the carpet alot fresher, very happy.

Smells infinitely better and looks nicer..  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cooper1]

Sticking her Arse back together, it amazes me that it took around 3 minutes to disassemble this thing, and on the reassembly it takes around 3 hours! 

LOL  

 

Can't really explain in detail how to put it back together, as all P38's i've worked on seem to react differently  

Anyway. 

"getting there" would be the appropriate term i;d use

Done

 

 

 

[Cooper1]

The Driving.. 

 

Up until this point she hadn't run, thanks to the fuc'd computer for around 1 and a bit years.  

Having the luck i do with this thing, the obvious choice would of been to be careful and take precautions.

so i went out and put 20litres of fuel in it. 

Put my foot to the floor and turned the key, she fired up instantly blew all kinds of shit out the exhaust and then settled down to the usual Rover V8 rumble after the tappets pumped up..  

Well happy

My Family has a fair few lanes around the property, so i took her out for a shakedown run, 

Initial impressions were good, the old ZF auto was stuck in 1st and wouldn't change up, probably due to being sat for a long time and having prehistoric fluid in it, a good foot to the matt and some manual selection soon got her shifting..  

 

So impressions are good, she shifts and stops.. 

 

Fuel economy is shocking 

 

Offroad prowess seems unscathed

Currrently i'm happy with how it is running, she still needs alot of work but mechanically it is feeling better, 

 

More havoc to come.. 

 

H

 

 

[Microwave]

Right, going to be the one to ask

How the everloving shite did you afford insurance in your first year of driving on a P38? I used to look when I was 17 at stuff like this for fun and it was unbelievably expensive. Hell, I'd probably be paying a minimum of 2 grand for it now.

[Cooper1]

3 minutes ago, Microwave said:

Right, going to be the one to ask

How the everloving shite did you afford insurance in your first year of driving on a P38? I used to look when I was 17 at stuff like this for fun and it was unbelievably expensive. Hell, I'd probably be paying a minimum of 2 grand for it now.

There was a reason i didn't buy the VTS in the beginning  

The P38 was/is £1800 a year on my own insurance. 

They wanted the same for the VTS 

And i asked myself why i would pay the same for a rot filled hatchback, when i could have a V8 Range Rover