If nobody is interested, I’ll stop posting, but it is Range Rover related.

In 2014 I sold my last Supercharged L322 as I was planning to upgrade to a 5.0. In the end I gave up looking for the perfect 5.0 as I was being very picky on the colour and spec.

Nearly 3 years ago I bought a Jaguar XFR to cure my lust for a 5.0 and have been looking at 5.0 L322’s on and off ever since.

On Christmas Day when everyone else was asleep I was flicking through eBay as you do and found a 2007 Supercharged advertised as spares or repair due to a misfire. I was told that it hadn’t been properly diagnosed but the worst was feared due to the car having LPG. I spoke to the seller on the phone, he named his price and a deal was done.

I thought about going down with the trailer to fetch it myself but with COVID and the borders supposedly shut I thought it best to have it delivered. Quotes were under 300 quid door to door which from Halifax to Glasgow seemed more then reasonable so delivery was booked.

The car was delivered at 2pm today and considering I bought it and paid for it without even seeing it, I’m pleasantly surprised! I didn’t want to ask the delivery guy to drop it at the door as the road had some pretty nasty frozen bends on it and it didn’t seem fair to ask him to drag this lump on the trailer up there so it was dropped 1/2 mile away at the start of the lane to the house.

It’s filthy after sitting on the trailer behind the tow car that tugged it up the A1, A66, M74, M8 and needs a good sorting out. I’m going to de-chrome it and put the wheels back to silver too. I always have my cars detailed so it’ll get that treatment when my guy can fit it in.

The car has loads of service history, 2 excellent Pirelli Scopion Zero’s, 2 brand new Scorpion Verde’s, removable tow bar, etc. It really is a nicely spec’d and nicely sorted car. The interior needs a good clean and the leather conditioning but it’ll tidy up nicely. All the buttons do what they should and everything seems to work other then the reversing camera.

After I’d got it home I had a quick look at it, read the codes with the IID tool and had a look. It pointed to a misfire on cylinder 1. Whilst removing the cover from the rocker cover I could smell molten plastic, it was disgusting. When the cover was out of the way the fault became apparent.

I removed the plug from that cylinder and the adjacent one to make sure there was no obvious reason for it failing and they both looked identical.

Last week whilst playing guess the fault on eBay I ordered a spare coil as I thought it might be handy for troubleshooting. I swapped it with cylinder 1 and started the car and it was purring perfectly on 8 and it drove spot on.

I’ve already got a new set of plugs on the way and I’m going to order all the filters, all the oils, gearbox service kit and a supercharger rebuild kit for it to ensure that it’s in fighting form, and then change the towing electrics to 13 pin and see where we go from here.

I’m going to start doing some research into replacement for the reversing camera and start the process of de-pimping it. I was to remove the chrome tubes and replace them with deployable side steps, I want to replace the chrome grill and side vents with standard ones and the wheels will be put back to silver.

This and the XFR should make the perfect pair of Supercharged V8’s hopefully!

David.

There's a very feint noise when it's idling. My Dad can just hear it but I can hear it enough to know it's there and not be happy with it. Disconnecting the Supercharger belt has confirmed that it goes away when the drive to the Supercharger is removed however the idlers had a squeak and noise coming from them too so I’m going to replace them and the belts and have another listen.

When changing from 2nd to 3rd gear in automatic I noticed a slight tug between gear changes. In tiptronic mode it's as smooth as silk. Again, it's not bad but I'd rather nip it in the bud before it gets any worse. A service kit for the gearbox is £150 from Land Rover who funnily enough are one of the cheapest. I’ve ordered a set of solenoids to change them whilst I've got it drained down as at 130k they're likely to be a bit worn anyway. They were £227 + VAT but seeing as the oil is over £100 I might as well do it all whilst I’m in there.

Those are the only 2 things I've seen wrong with it. They're not even big issues but I'm a firm believer in prevention being better then cure and at least it gives me something to do during lockdown rather then listening to Mrs H whilst it's broken down when we start using it.

The LPG system on it looks to have been installed quite nicely. It’s got twin reducers, the electronic flashlube system, and everything appears to have had some thought go into mounting it. Once I’ve got it sorted, I’ll run it on LPG and see how it runs, if it runs well enough and doesn’t mess around of feel down on power I’ll probably leave it be.

However, if it’s going to be a nightmare I’m not going to spend any time on it so it’ll be getting removed as these engines aren’t the most reliable on LPG.

David.

4th January update...

Got a few bits looked at on the SC today. When it’s cold there is a very slight miss so I’ve ordered 8 coils for it. There’s also an oil leak from the unit the filter mounts to. There’s a rubber seal between it and the block so I’ve ordered that. I’ve not found anything untoward or out of the ordinary other then effectively a major service and a few odds and sods.

I noticed that there was a leak from the water pump so took the fan and both belts off to get into the water pump. It’s the gasket between both halves of the pump that’s leaking but it’s not worth messing around with so I’m going to replace the whole unit.

The idlers and tensioners for both belts didn’t feel particularly nice either so I decided I’d replace them. I don’t like aftermarket parts as I’ve had bad experiences with them not lasting in the past. Genuine idlers are expensive for what they are too. Thankfully, all of the pulleys on this are metal so I pressed the bearings out today.

The bearings in both idlers and both tensioner pulleys are the same. They’re 6203-2RSH bearings. The numbers were visible on the original bearings along with NTN Canada manufacturer markings. A quick trip to the Bearing King website and I was able to order 4 SKF bearings, including delivery for less then 20 quid. They came out very easily using a socket and a vice so the new ones should go back in nicely enough.

The old bearings were pretty gritty and horrible so I’m glad they’re getting changed. There was a chirp when the car was cold for a couple of minutes too so it’ll be nice to have them all replaced.

The mounting for the viscous fan is also very gritty and horrible and I want to change the bearings in that too. Unfortunately, I cannot press the shaft out of the middle to get to the bearings. Even with the press at maximum load and giving it some persuading with a hammer it’s still not budging.

Step 1 of de-chroming the car was completed today... the chrome mirror caps weren’t factory fitted thankfully so have come off and left the mirrors underneath intact! They just need a clean and some panel wipe to get rid of the sticky tape residue. Door handles and side tubes next!

I removed the chrome door handles today and found the reason they were stuck on in the first place...

Someone has had an attempt at colour coding the door handles in the past and it hasn’t gone well. The paint was the wrong colour and the finish was awful. Thankfully, they don’t appear to have done an awful lot of prep work either as scraping them with a plastic scraper and screwdriver seems to have removed most of it.

The door handles on the earlier 322’s don’t react to paint well as there is a high wax content. However, PowerfulUK have designed stick on covers that you can’t easily tell are fitted so I’ve ordered a set of those for it.

The chrome side tubes have gone and I’ve sourced a set of non chrome side vents for it too. Unfortunately the seller wouldn’t post but they were just around the corner from a friend of mine so he collected them for me and is keeping them with the other bits he’s got for me until after lockdown.

My coils and belts arrived today via DPD which is odd with it being a Sunday, hopefully the bearings will also arrive quickly.

David.

The supercharger oil and engine oil have arrived from Smith & Allen, the coils and belts have arrived from Brit-Car, the bearings have arrived from Bearing King, gearbox solenoids have arrived from Sussex Autos, and the huge box of parts from Duckworths Land Rover has arrived too!

There’s been couriers arriving on and off for the last few days. However, that’s me got all of the bits for the Range Rover now. Mad to think there’s a grand in boxes on the bench for what is essentially, just a major, no holds barred service.

Idler pulleys and tensioners on the L322’s are expensive compared to P38 ones. Thankfully, they’re all metal pulleys on the 322 so I was able to press the old bearings out, measure them, and order 4 replacements. They were 6203 bearings and 4 SKF ones delivered were £18.50 so that was a result. I’ve pressed them in tonight and have started to refit them. I ran out of light doing the water pump as I forgot to charge the torch so that’s tomorrow’s job now.

More to come later!

David.

You do love a challenge,, 🤣😂🤣

Looks like a proper project David..

I quite fancy one of these supercharged L322s,

I call it a project, it’s a good car that’s only had the essentials done to it as it’s been maintained by a garage. I’ve really not found anything untoward on it at all.

All I’m really doing it a proper, major service. Access is a bit of a pain compared to the P38. It’s taller and wider so it’s further to reach in. Changing the plugs on the P38 is a doddle compared to this one too.

David.

Don't see why anyone would object. Virtually all of us own a P38 (or more than one) but we've at least 2 Discovery owners and a few more with another LR as well as the P38. You've confirmed what I've been told though, L322 parts are a lot more expensive than P38 and with the complexity there's more of them. Avenger 4x4 are not far from me and they started off breaking Classics (before they started rocketing in value), then moved on to P38s and are now buying cheap L322s to break. Alan, the owner, reckons you can pick up what appears to be a tidy L322 for under 3 grand but it'll cost you twice that to get it back up to scratch unless you are really lucky.

You just aren't going to get a lot of help on here if you've got a problem though......

I know a bit about the L322..

Rebuilt a few M62's.

And done some sill rot repairs on them!

I went into the workshop this evening expecting to make some progress on the L322. Unfortunately I had my arm twisted into fitting and balancing a set of Pirelli Scorpion Verde’s to my sisters Evoque.

I did manage to get the door handle covers from Powerful UK fitted though.

Before:

After:

They took seconds to fit and look great. You can tell they’re covers when you open the doors as you can just feel the lip on the back but seeing as you can’t paint these handles due to the high wax content of the plastic, they’re a quick, cost effective fix that really brightens up the look of the car.

Looks much better and probably much easier than taking them off, doing the prep and painting them.. I had a thought about the transport situation as I've been asked about collecting 40 stacking chairs from somewhere just north of Glasgow. I can, as a transport driver, go there, pick them up and bring them back. But I couldn't if they were for me as that wouldn't be an essential journey. Bit bonkers really......

The problem with painting them is apparently there is a very high wax content in the plastic on these which makes painting them and getting a finish near impossible. There’s loads of into from people who have tried on the net.

This car had the door handles painted black before the stick on covers were applied and the finish was nasty. That’s probably why. These were a very quick solution that I’m quite pleased with.

The transport situation is nuts, isn’t it. The price it cost me to have this delivered was great. I couldn’t have done it for that myself tbh. 279 from Halifax to Glasgow isn’t bad. It would have cost me 200 quid in fuel.

David.

I am enjoying the thread, ..... I always thought I might move on to an L320 or 322 eventually, although the reality now is that I can't really afford to.
Just on the transport theme I wondered whether I could get one delivered about 3 months ago and save myself the fuel and ferry etc. only problem was my quote was somewhat more substantial, more than the vehicle concerned would have cost! And that boat has probably sailed now with Brexit anyway, hopefully things will settle down a bit in the future but in the meantime even ordering spares from the UK is now a much more expensive prospect.

Not necessarily, the rules mean you have to have an export document but because we are still in the single market, there's no duty to pay on cars moving between UK and EU. Or, to be more accurate, there is duty payable on a used car but it is rated at 0% hence the need for the export document. I work on around 60p per mile so my costs for a 2,000 mile round trip is £1200 but I normally arrange a return load to halve the costs.

The main problem we have at the moment is down to the Covid lockdown rules. Only what are considered essential journeys should be made so for an individual that means going shopping for food, medication, etc. But you are also allowed to travel for work (if you are unable to work from home) so a transport driver is making a journey for his work.

It's been a productive day today.

The new water pump is fitted with it's new gasket.

The new thermostat is fitted, unfortunately, someone has been in there before and as the old seal was flat they sealed it with instant gasket. I've scraped it all off, replaced the thermostat and have emailed the dealer who sponsor the FullFat Forum to order a new thermostat seal.

The new auxiliary belt and supercharger belt have been refitted with the pulleys after the new bearings were fitted.

All of the coils have been changed and I've done the Supercharger oil as well.

The old oil was pretty filthy coming out.

Old vs New.

New oil going in.

Looking at the above, I'd like to change the oil in the Supercharger on my XFR but the plug is at the back on the supercharger fitted to the 5.0 and can't be done with the unit in situ.

Once the thermostat seal has arrived I can get the cooling system filled back up and bled, then I can warm the engine up and change the engine oil and filter, and do the gearbox service as the oil needs warming up to do the level.

David.

Oooh that's a nice little bit of TLC that's getting :) Looks very satisfying.

The amount of plumbing makes mine look simple!

The LPG on this one appears to have been done nicely. All of the injector hoses are the same length, the pipes from the reducers to the injector rails are the same length, the flash lube has been plumbed in to a central point before it splits off for the injector rails and it's a pumped flash lube system rather then the vacuum system.

The downside of that is the amount of pipework under the bonnet! There's a ton of coolant hoses to deal with before the LPG went in on top!

Thankfully, so far, everything has been straight forward with no major curve balls thrown at me... Yet!

David.

The thermostat seal I’d been waiting on arrived yesterday so I got that fitted and got the car running again today.

Running perfectly on all 8 again now with the occasional stumble. When it stumbles I can hear air hissing so I’m assuming I’ve got a vacuum leak. Had a quick look for the leak unaided then went for a tin of brake cleaner but couldn’t find it with that either.

Whilst thinking about the vacuum leak and whilst the car was warm I dropped the oil out and did the engine oil and filter. Gearbox is on the agenda for tomorrow.

Had a look on Gumtree and found someone locally selling a disco fog machine with a gallon of fluid for £30 so tomorrow’s plan is now to run a hose from the fog machine to the air intake and see if I can spot where the smoke is escaping from which should identify the vacuum leak.

The 4 bearings I fitted have worked a treat as the anciliaries at the front are whisper quiet now. The supercharger bearings are noisy though so trying to decide how far in to go before putting any miles on it.

David.

It was gearbox service time today.

I drained the oil out and found it was very low on oil and the electrical sleeve was wet so it was due a good going over.

I started off with replacing the bridge adapter and the 4 rubber dowel like seals. The old ones were flat as a pancake and the new ones protrude nicely so that was a worthwhile change. The bridge adapter wasn’t as flat as I was expecting but it wasn’t as good as the new one.

I then turned my attention to the solenoids on the valve block. I’d put a plastic sheet down on the bench to keep the valve block clean but it served to catch the oil too which was helpful!

First step was to remove the electronics unit from the valve body.

The bar that holds the solenoids in place was then removed.

And then replacing the solenoids was a very straight forward job.

When I was removing the sump I thought it had been done before as it had the bigger T40 torx screws in it which I thought was a later thing but the date stamp on the sump was 2006 so it’s a long overdue service.

It took more oil then the 7 litres I had so I need to order another couple of litres from LR this week too.

David.

Wow, they have a lot of solenoids! The AW4 in my Jeep only has 4.