My long term project is to have the engine in my 2001 Vogue reconditioned/remanufactured. Given all the labour involved & the ease of access to components what other ancillaries should I consider replacing with new or reconditioned items? A few obvious candidates include starter motor, alternator, coils, spark plug leads etc What about oil pump, oil cooler? Anything to do with gearbox or differentials?

I have owned my P38A for eleven years & it's now done 172,500 miles. It had 80K miles when I bought it. It's basically sound if a bit scruffy but has been regularly serviced & is rust free. It cost me £5K & it looks like clean examples are worth at least that now so it's worth it to me to invest some money to keep it running for another twenty years.

Starter motor would be a good call, coils but only if you can get genuine, aftermarket are likely to fail long before the originals. My original alternator lasted around 300k miles but even then it was only the brushes that wore out, for around £20 you can get a replacement regulator including brushes. Spark plug leads are almost a service item anyway. If the engine is going to somewhere like V8Developments or Turner, they will replace the oil pump, cam chain and any other bits that need replacing when doing the rebuild (mine got both and one faulty knock sensor when it was done). Oil coolers don't usually need replacing unless the threaded ends are stripped off when trying to change the hoses (which do start to leak at the crimped ends), so new hoses and cooler (if required) are probably a good idea. I would also say water pump but know you replaced that not long ago so won't need changing again.

Gilbertd wrote:

Starter motor would be a good call, coils but only if you can get genuine, aftermarket are likely to fail long before the originals. My original alternator lasted around 300k miles but even then it was only the brushes that wore out, for around £20 you can get a replacement regulator including brushes. Spark plug leads are almost a service item anyway. If the engine is going to somewhere like V8Developments or Turner, they will replace the oil pump, cam chain and any other bits that need replacing when doing the rebuild (mine got both and one faulty knock sensor when it was done). Oil coolers don't usually need replacing unless the threaded ends are stripped off when trying to change the hoses (which do start to leak at the crimped ends), so new hoses and cooler (if required) are probably a good idea. I would also say water pump but know you replaced that not long ago so won't need changing again.

The water pump had been replaced by the garage that formerly serviced my P38 about 18 months previously after it was said to be leaking. I don't know what brand they used but it looked like the bearings failed & the impeller gouged into the body. I replaced the failed pump with a BritPart ProFlow as the genuine LR part was ludicrously expensive & the only other pump available to me in France was suspiciously cheap. I wish that I had sourced an Airtex brand pump as that seems to be the most highly recommended. It's a simple job to replace anyway even with the engine in the car.

At the end of the day it's all a question of whether it's worthwhile expending effort & money on preventative maintenance/replacement or just waiting until something fails before fixing/replacing it.

if you are looking to rebuild your motor at some stage you need to look at things like cam shaft bearings ,welsh plugs (round things on side and back of motor) ,oil pump, an upgraded flex plate. internal components that you can not replace when reassembled , not starter motors or alternators as these are replaceable at any stage . do not discard a genuine starter motor for some generic piece of rubbish thats going to last 12months so to speak. buy a quality gasket kit instead or some cheaper gasket kit, if they are available of cause. a different head bolt kit is something mentioned alot. do not discard genuine parts because that one is better looking