My 2000 P38 has had 3 engines in my one year of ownership. The original when I bought it had a venthole in the block where connectingrod #5 had stepped out, the dipstick was turned around the camshaft. The replacement from a breaker was not the quality the guy promised it to be, it had a rattle I could not define and when I found another one for not too much money I bought it to make one good engine out of two.

The one that is in now is a 60D engine (Thor) and becomes too hot when outside temp is high with AC on, pressure of coolant is pretty high and loses some coolant.

The other engine in my garage (the one from the breaker) is a 46D block (also 4.6 for automatic) originally Gems but I had it converted to Thor (bracket for cranksensor rewelded) and swapped the other sensors, flywheel and camsprockets. The liners of cyl. 4 and 6 have lowered 1 or 2 tenth of a millimeter, so this is a matter of time that it will be trouble.

I found a shop close by that does tophatted liners, right now he is busy with a TVR block to convert and I think he does a good job.
If I give him the tophatted liners plus base gaskets he will mill my block, place them and skim the tops afterwards. Plus insert new camshaft bearings for around €400,-

The rest, main- and conrodbearings I can do myself including the obvious as new cam, tappets and so on. That gives me the feel of an engine I can trust.

But which engine will be converted? the 46D now lying around and gives me the time to do it in my own tempo, or the 60D that first has to be taken out and leaves me with no transport?
And where do I buy tops?

Any comment welcome, Tony.

I know island4x4 sell top hats, the price you've been quote for machine work is very cheap,I'm wondering what base gaskets he means,, I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that the block is milled, heated up, liners pushed in with adhesive when block is hot. I was quoted £750 just for machining.. As for which engine, personally I would use the 60D , but if your stuck without a car then that's a problem..

Be worth getting the main bearing housings/ crank checked for straightness/ ovality as well. <br>
By base gaskets I'm guessing they're talking about the O ring type liners as supplied by Turners http://www.turnerengineering.co.uk/ductile-iron-flanged-liner-c2x20634989 <br>
Pricier at £432 inc VAT for set than the Island types at £299 inc http://www.island-4x4.co.uk/cylinder-liner-da1185-p-27307.html <br>
I'd go for the Turner type. An extra seal can only be a good thing. As for the block, I'd use the spare just to keep the car on the road. That way you don't have time pressure to get yourself mobile again.

I wish I could give you some input but all I can say is I hope it works out whatever you choose.

I'd say use the 46D too but with the strength of the Euro against the pound it might be worth getting the whole lot done in one place. My engine was done here http://www.v8developments.co.uk/workshop/reliner/index.shtml. It's so far done 35,000 miles (in 20 months) and is running better than it ever has. It really looked pretty when I picked it up too. Marty has been talking about getting a couple of engines done too so it might be worth seeing about a bulk discount.

I emailed V8 Developments last week about engines - I'm going to be giving them a call later this week to put in an order for a short 4.6 engine to then finish building up to swap into mine, since it's got leaking core plugs ;(

I am also planning on having a chat with them about the other engines I have and am planning on getting work done on aswell - see if they will do me a deal if I keep sending them bits to do...

Though also just up the road from me in Coventry is Chesman Engineering, and they have quoted me £850 to reliner a block for me - and that includes the top hat liners.

Thank you all guys for your helpful replies (I'll print your picture Richard as a piece of Industrial art). Marty I am very curious about what you can achieve with your order, when it is within my reach I should be happy to join. That (financial) reach is the reason of doing things in my own time and tempo so I can spread it a bit, but PM me please if you have news.

Don't want to spoil Marty's rebuild thread so it's best to continue over here.

Having read your reply Richard about the block to be relinerd you are right, I bring the block as empty as I can although I'm not certain which block it will be... (confused!).
The 46D block I had it steamcleaned this afternoon, all stripped down to a bare block:

Did also some googling for partnumbers of the casting (HRC2411) and crankshaft (HRC2684) stamped in, indeed the crank supposed to be for the 46D Gems block until '99 but there is an addition in the discription "long nose crank" which I don't understand. Then again I can pull out the present block (60D) and have that one done, then there is no problem with future orders via the VIN number or a future new owner who understands enginenumbers.
The block I can put together with new parts needed and sell. Confused what to do!

I think, but am not 100% certain, that a long nose crank is one that is used in a car with the serpentine belt rather than an earlier one for a Classic or Discovery (or TVR and the like) with Vee belts and narrower pulleys.

There's a good section in Des Hammills "How to tune...." book that explains the different crank types in detail:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gmSavy1RPxEC&lpg=PA22&ots=nh6x9ydopZ&dq=rover%20v8%20long%20nose%20crank&pg=PA21#v=onepage&q=rover%20v8%20long%20nose%20crank&f=false
In a nutshell, as Gilbertd says, all of "our" 4.0 and 4.6 P38s had long nose cranks

There is also a couple of differences between the earlier GEMS and Thor blocks - one is the crankshaft sensor mounting is different, and also the mounting for the knock sensors is different.

It's the main reason I've got for a short engine, rather than relinering the spare GEMS block I have in the garage and using that for my Thor.

I think you can get the crank sensor mounting re welded for it to accept the Thor sensor on a GEMS block though..

I love how shiny that block is...

Well that's in fact what I did. The bracket for the cranksensor you can grind off a breakerblock, use a Dremel grinder, it grinds through the alumimium like a biscuit. I had this one rewelded, the dowel pin on top is in the same place.

As for the knocksensor, you need an adapterbolt that fits in the Gems thread (again a Thor breakerblock) to suit the Thor sensor.

That's all for the conversion into Thor, and of course the camshaft sprocket and sensor.

Engine out! Third time this year so I'm developing some skill in it. Decided to use this engine to be tophatted, the pressure building up and coolantloss is driving me nuts.

Pulling it apart shows waterdroplets on rear end mainbearing and cyl. 7/8 big end. Liner 7 has is slipped for about 4 tenth of a millimeter, headgasket has leaked in that area what might explain the waterloss. I think I will use the crank of the 46D engine, it has much smoother surfaces when it comes to bearings.

I already have the parts delivered from Island and LR Direct (within a week) and checked the new cam for fitment. The endfloat (axial play) is about 0.5 mm, measured with my vernier caliper but still enoug to order a new thrustplate, Rave says 0.35 mm max.

I also saw oil in the bellhousing, for sure it comes from behind the torque converter. Is there some seal in the ZF autobox I can replace at this point?

That's what I like to see, a lump of hose over the cable to the alternator so there's no need to disconnect the battery. Is it oil or ATF in the bellhousing? Oil would come from the rear seal on the engine rather than the gearbox.

You might be right on this, it does not seem to be red. I wiped it off a bit with a paper towel (no it is not the result of a bad functioning liver).

Which I don't understand. The seal has been replaced a few months ago, can't remember the brand but even 'blue-box' quality should last this span of time.

As for the 'hose over cable' trick, I learned that from someone on here, a rather frequent poster he is. I have no problem with a dead car while working on it but I need to go in the boot several times, it's where I store the removed bits.

I read that blue box seals don't seal from day 1 so if that is all that has leaked out in a few months you've done well. Definitely looks like oil rather than ATF.

If I put my P38 in the garage, it's so narrow that I can't actually open the doors to get out of it, so working on it has to be done on the driveway. Where I live is very quiet as the road doesn't go anywhere but that didn't stop an old battery and a Volvo gearbox that I'd left outside disappearing one day. I do the same as you, put the bits I've taken off in the boot and need to be able to at least lock it overnight. With the battery left connected that isn't a problem at all.

One block, one new cam, one piston and two heads on it's way to the machineshop (in the missus Baby Benz).

Should be back in time for Christmas, wrapped in ribbon! :)

They promised me a day or 10, without a ribbon I'm afraid but with a bill...

For the time being I'm doing things which are easy with the engine out, like fighting rust on the chassis in the enginebay, flushing the heatercore and radiator, which is out too.

Doing the radiator it flushed pretty well with the gardenhose, after that I filled it with hot water and noticed the centre of the radiator stayed cold, exactly the spot where the fan turns and about that size. So that might explain the running hot in citytraffic with AC on two months ago, the viscous coupler never got the heat from the clogged rad. New one ordered...