You’re not boring anyone. I enjoy reading the troubleshooting process. It will be helpful the next time someone has a similar issue.

Nice! Old Rovers at weddings are a great idea. My oldest daughter had my patina 2A in her wedding and photos.

I think the engine needs to be running to connect to the ECM, and not running to connect to just about everything else? (I could be completely out to lunch on this).

I think your head might be right. I had a similar leak a few years ago. It was leaking from the back of the left head to intake manifold joint, and dribbling down the back of the engine, dripping off the bell housing.

Good to know. Thanks Richard

Oh wow, I didn’t think it was actually possible to lock your keys inside of a P38, though I’m pretty careful to leave a window open if I close the doors with the key inside. I did lock myself out of a Dakota I used to have (with it running at the ski hill 60 km from the nearest petrol station).

They’re fantastic winter vehicles. I live in Southwestern British Columbia where I frequently drive our snowy icy mountain highways. I use studded winter tires for about 5 months of the year (ski season). I love driving it.

Mine locks with the bonnet open, it just gives me a little beep to let me know. I don’t think I’d disconnect the switch, it seems to be a nice safety feature.

Oh really. I often park mine with the hood open (with a battery tender). With the hood open it seems to be less inviting for squirrels and rats to make themselves at home.

Not as cold here, hovering around freezing and mine hasn’t been sagging either.

Last summer I wasn’t driving the P38 and it wouldn’t start visibly lowering for 3 weeks.

What’s your temperature? Mine doesn’t leak down at all until the temperature gets near or below freezing. By -10C it starts to sag in a couple of hours. I’m fairly sure it’s the springs themselves as it started doing this after I got rid of my Arnott Gen 3’s and replaced them with new Dunlops (though I replaced them in November 2 or 3 years ago, but the previous winter it didn’t do this). If it was just parked overnight it comes up again fairly quickly, but if it’s sat for a couple of days it takes a few minutes.

Good work! Thanks for letting us all know the solution.

If quality control is poor as you’re suggesting (some too soft and some too hard), then the bolts aren’t a good idea. The idea of a stretch bolt is that it will hold the torque evenly, even if you don’t get the 90+90 exactly right, and hold it evenly through heat cycles and age. Properly made stretch bolts work really well.

When I’ve read the reviews of whether to use ARP studs or TTY bolts, they are mixed. Like Morat said, at 10x the price and mixed reviews, I went with new TTY bolts on both the P38 and Disco 2.
The studs would definitely be easier but I’m not convinced better otherwise.

By steam train I hope you mean noise, not a trail of steam behind you.

I think there are a couple more Canuck’s on this forum so I’m posting this for your interest. Maybe they’ve had this for a while, but it’s the first I’ve known of it. LR Direct now gives you the option to prepay Canadian import fees at checkout. It worked! No exorbitant “brokerage” fees by the Courier company on delivery, and probably a third of the price (my guess).

Ok to finally close out this thread (this issue hasn’t made it back to the top of my priority list until now). I robbed a CDL actuator motor (power door lock motor) from a rear door latch that I had from a parts vehicle and installed it in my original LHD RH front door latch and it all works properly now. So either the new RHD RH latch CDL motor was also U/S or it isn’t compatible with LHD.

I agree, the P38 is a joy to drive.

Thanks for the replies Richard