mad-as wrote:

i didn't know Martin was a brit, learn something new every day.

If you are referring the Marty, he was born in NZ but moved to the UK with his parents as a child so has dual nationality and has moved back and forth over the years. He's very recently (in the last 3 weeks or so) relocated to NZ as there is more work for his day job there than in the UK (less people capable of doing what he does).

Couldn't you modify the OE pump and make it shorter? It has the pump low down but on 'stilts' so could probably be shortened. The GEMS had a conventional filter attached to the RH chassis rail and you could fit an external pump there but you'd need to fabricate a petrol tank with the take off at the bottom as most aren't self priming. I've run a 3.9 Classic using the pump from an XJ6 so any pump intended for a reasonable sized injected car would work.

leolito wrote:

A friend is trying to rebuild his 4.6 trying to find components from other engines to make some Frankenstein with at least 4.8/4.9 liters, and hoping for more power. So far he's been at it for months, with no tangible result to be seen.

Why bother when he could just buy one off the shelf? See http://www.v8developments.co.uk/50long.htm, good for 350-400bhp depending on cam.

Just because the engine is offset isn't a problem. There's a Brit living in the US that has fitted an LS1 with 4L60e into a P38 and all it needed was an adapter to mate the GM gearbox to the existing transfer case. He's got everything, BeCM, EAS, ABS and all instruments working exactly as they should too. Overfinch used to fit an American V8 (a Ford I think) into the P38 using the original 4HP24.

While the BMW engine from the L322 may not be the best and a lot of people complain about the Vanos system, but if doing a conversion you wouldn't put a knackered old engine in, you'd at least rebuild it first. That way it will last just as long as it would have done when new. It was used in numerous different BMW models and other than a few that have suffered problems, most are still running fine. Probably down to maintenance just like any other engine, look after it and it will look after you, neglect it and you are asking for trouble.

I wouldn't agree that the M57 is a good engine as it can explode to the point where BMW have now refused to sell any more M57 engined cars to UK police forces (and almost al of them had a fleet including 330d, 530d and X5) after a number of problems, including one where the engine exploded, burst into flames and the officer inside died. My local force now run Volvo, Skoda VRS and the odd Audi instead.

The problem is the keyless entry and ignition. Having worked in RF all my working life and being shown how it works, the first time I saw it my reaction was how insecure it is. A £25 from eBay SDR and a laptop is all that is needed to fool the car into thinking the key is there. I know it isn't the only car that uses it but it is one of the most popular ones to steal to order or to steal to strip for spares. I presume the key doesn't have to be put in a hole on the dash somewhere, it just has to be in the car, otherwise it would be reasonably simple to disable the keyless part.

I've got a dead 4HP22 that I took out of mine last year. With no warning it suddenly lost all drive. Driving along it felt like I had a misfire, switched from LPG to petrol and just the same so not a fuel problem. Stopped at a set of traffic lights at a roundabout and the idle was perfectly smooth (which seemed odd), lights changed, foot down and it very slowly crawled away with the engine spinning at about 3,000 rpm and just managed to get round the roundabout and off the road. After that, I could leave it for a minute or so, start the engine, put it in drive and if I was lucky it would manage about 100 yards before losing drive again. So took it out and put a 4HP24 in instead. Flex plate wasn't cracked, torque converter was fully home in the gearbox and I haven't gone any further than that. I keep meaning to see if Ashcrofts would give me enough for it to cover the fuel to get it there but haven't, so if you can make use of it, it's yours.

The difference between the 4HP22 and 4HP24 is the length of the gearbox itself, the 22 being 15mm shorter but with a longer tail extension so the overall length is the same.

Philip wrote:

the best online quote for a four-year-old L405 was £9k - they really don’t want the business!

They know that within a matter of months it will be in a container heading for Africa or Russia......

Aragorn wrote:

Some reports that 4.0 Thor cars have sufficiently low NOx figures to be allowed in anyway.

There are multiple errors in the TfL database. A 2000 or later 4.0 litre Thor is shown as being compliant, despite being Euro 2, while a 4.6 Thor, which has near identical emissions figures and is also Euro 2 isn't. I've recently been working on a 2005 Rover 75 with an oil burner under the bonnet (thankfully, it doesn't need any engine work) which is Euro 3, so not compliant but it is on a personal plate. Putting that plate in correctly identifies the car as a 2005 diesel but says it is complaint whereas an identical one with the 55 plate, isn't.

The only exemption for LPG is for taxis that have been converted, at horrendous cost, by a specific company. It isn't taken into account for private cars unlike France where it is considered as clean as a hybrid.

+1 on avoiding the cheap universal sensors. As my LPG system isn't too keen on the 5-0V sensors, I've got a 0-1V Zirconia in one downpipe purely to drive the LPG system. The cheap eBay jobs last about 6 months, so only use decent NTK ones these days. The one in there has been there for at least 3 years now.

Yes, 0-1V on the Thor with 0V being lean, 5-0V on GEMS with 5V being lean (so failure has different symptoms).

A duff O2 sensor will give 0V, which on a Thor, is seen by the ECU as a lean mixture. That will cause it to richen the mixture which can cause a misfire, or rough idle at the very least.

From what I understand, Thor doesn't like anything other than Bosch sensors.

I agree entirely, the BeCM scares most people to death but in reality all it is doing is replacing hundreds of relays with some pretty basic programming and using MOSFETs to do the switching. It isn't actually that complicated at all. Although that is from someone who recently retired after 40 years in electronics and communications.....

Looking at the parts list, it does appear that the bellhousing is bolted onto the main gearbox body on the 5HP series, the same as on the 4HP. Torque converter looks totally different though with the fixings to the flex plate right at the outside edge rather than closer to the centre. Larger flex plate would be needed or, as long as the input on the 5HP is the same so the 4HP torque converter would slot in, then retain the 4HP one.

However, as yours is a GEMS, there's far more incompatibility with no Canbus to start with. Thor V8 to M57 has been done by Sloth, see https://rangerovers.pub/topic/1490-bmw-m57-swap-into-a-bosch-thor-v8-hse-pics

Without going any further than just theorising, the way I looked at it was that it should be possible to use the original Thor engine ECU with maybe a bit of reprogramming that would interface with everything else on the car. Admittedly the L322 uses a later 5HP gearbox but the 4HP24 is pretty strong anyway so would it be possible to use the torque converter and bellhousing from the L322 with the original P38 gearbox (or a mix and match of the two)?

KSeal will do nothing other than fill the coolant reservoir with copper flakes. Water glass does work though and lasts quite a while. As you say, top hat liners at just over a grand are the way to go or you could go the whole hog and go for a performance version of what you have (see http://www.v8developments.co.uk/engine.htm). Had it been a later Thor with the Bosch Motronic, you could do a swap that I've contemplated and thought shouldn't be too difficult, and fit the BMW 4.4 litre from the pre-2005 L322.

The Classic didn't have a suitable spare wheel well but plenty of space underneath although it wasn't particularly usable. Most ended up with a pair of 'torpedo' tanks between the sills and chassis rail or a vertical toroidal on one side of the boot (my 93 Classic LSE had that on the LH side and with the spare wheel on the RH side. With a carpet spare wheel cover over both it looked like I had 2 spare wheels). A number of companies made small petrol tanks, such as this one for the Discovery https://lpgautosupplies.co.uk/shop/lpg-kits/land-rover/36-ltr-pet-tank-drawing-disco-2-3459/ so an LPG tank can be fitted into the space freed up by that. The other alternative with a P38, is a cylinder tank in the boot behind the rear seats but you do lose boot space then. You can always make it removable so is only there when you need it.

I've wondered about putting a tank, with quick connect pipe connections, in a small trailer and towing that behind me when doing really long journeys. A range of over 1,000 miles should be sufficient at avoiding the countries where LPG is expensive so I only fill up in the cheaper places.

Put an old brake disc on back to front and hit it with a sledgehammer.

Sounds that way although I can't see why it would get worse after a gasket change (unless you've put another leak in). Bit of a bugger about filling it with long life OAT though but I'd be inclined to drain it out, flush it through with a hosepipe and then fill it with plain water and water glass, run it for a while then, once you know it has done the job, drain 5 litres out and chuck in 5 litres of concentrate Ethylene Glycol (£20 from Euro Car Parts).

Rather than spend £30 a on 450ml bottle of Steel Seal, spend £16 on a litre of Steel Seal without the dye in it from https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224517468608.

The most likely problem if there is a leak will be around the outside of the liner, the block to liner joint which is within the fire ring of the gasket. That is a prime candidate for waterglass which will stop it for many years. You can either buy waterglass with a dye in it called Steel Seal, or for about a fifth of the price, plain waterglass without the dye https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224517468608. You'd want to put about a litre in, and follow the instructions for Steel Seal https://steelseal.co.uk/how-to-use/

It'll pressurise when hot but the pressure should disappear once it has cooled right down. Unless you have an air lock in there when it won't. If, when cold and with the cap off, you can squeeze the top hose and hear gurgling, there is still air in there.

Looking good but I do have one question. Did your AC work? Although the fatter hose is the low pressure side, so when the AC is on it will be down to around 2.6 bar (38psi), when not running it will be at a static pressure of around 6 bar (90psi) and I wouldn't expect a Jubilee clip to be able to hold that.

A couple of years ago I tried to replace the original Boge shocks on my car only to find that fronts were unavailable. I bought a pair of Boge for the rear but, working on the principle they were cheap and not difficult to change, took a gamble on a pair of Britpart on the front. Up until recently they have been OK but must have done around 60k miles (if not more) by now and I noticed a slight 'shimmy' through the steering when crossing joins in the tarmac. Initially thought it was the lower rubbers which looked pretty soggy so replaced those. That improved things but it still wasn't right. Checked the LH front shock and found no damping at all for the first half millimetre or so of movement. New front shocks required. Googled the part number (STC3672) and found Rimmers could supply genuine (which I'm assuming would be Boge) at over £200 each, Island 4x4 and LRDirect could supply multiple different makes but not Boge but a company I had never used before called British Parts UK in Stevenage (www.britishparts.co.uk) showed Boge OE as being in stock. Not only did they claim to have them but they were listed at £28 each, so I ordered a pair.

That was Wednesday evening and DPD delivered a parcel on Friday afternoon. However, when I opened it, I found it contained a pair of Chinese made, Pro branded, front shocks. So I emailed them saying I ordered Boge OE but had been sent the Pro units. Timed at 07.11 on Saturday I received an email apologising, saying that it must have been a mistake in the warehouse and it would be dealt with on Monday. Around 10am on Monday I get a phone call saying they would arrange for DPD to collect the Pro units later that day and they would send me what I had ordered. DPD man duly turns up and collects the pro units on Monday afternoon and today (Tuesday) DPD delivered a box containing a pair of genuine Boge front shocks.

With service like that I have a feeling I may be using British Parts UK again (and it would take me about the same time to drive to them as it does to Rimmers so may well go there if I need something in a hurry too).

Edited to add that their website no longer lists the Boge units, just 'quality aftermarket' which I suspect will be the Pro units......