Engine is all back together and running beautifully.

Fitted a helicoil where the threads in the block was damaged, which actually went quite smoothly. I bought a kit to do it with which included the correct drill bit and a helicoil fitting tool which made it easy. Was a bit nervous torqueing that head down for the 2nd time, but it all went smoothly! Happy :)

I ended up spacing the rockers by 20thou to get the tappet preload within spec. I used stainless steel shim stock, because it is what a mate of mine had on hand in the right thickness. It was a bastard to punch, but went together beautifully. Happy with that too!

I'm not sure if it is the new cam, magnecor leads, tappet pre-load setting or the new Bosch coils, but the fuel consumption seems to have decreased by around 1.5l/100km.
Mind you I've only done around 150km so far, but there is definitely an improvement, and mid range torque also seems up. Super happy with that!

All in all a good outcome. Now I just hope the headgaskets hold!

Turns out you were right Gilbert! Started torqueing down the head this evening, and the suspect bolt (nr. 10 in the sequence) wouldn't reach it's torque, damn threads pulled out. Meh.

This is definitely the spot where the headgasket was leaking though, evidence of combustion escaping into the water channel could be seen on the block so at least there is conclusive proof of that.

So while I was waiting for the ARP studs to arrive from the US I also decided to replace the camshaft and lifters, so everything to get at them has also been stripped off. The nose of the vehicle is sitting quite a bit higher what with all the weight that has been stripped off and away around the engine :D

The AC condensor was actually damn dirty and clogged with years of muck which also took a while to clean. This has turned into quite a big job!

Yes, the porous/cracked block issue is definitely something I am concerned about!
The previous owner of the car had the bottom end rebuilt while he owned it, and had the rebuilders fit top-hat liners, so slipped liners won't be a problem. Obviously this won't solve anything if the block was cracked behind the liner, so it is still a concern.

After I redid the headgaskets the engine ran beautifully and wasn't using any coolant, or pressurising the coolant system at all, until last weekend when the problem appeared and started getting worse quite rapidly (within probably 80km of driving). If the problem is a crack behind the liner then surely it would have used coolant from the start, or at least over pressurised the coolant system from the get go?

The "stretch bolt going elastic", as you put it, is the design intent with stretch head bolts.
Quite a nice explanation here: https://www.enerpac.com/en-gb/boltingtheory
My concern is that the quality of the bolts supplied isn't consistent, so applying the same torque to the bolts might make a weaker bolt stretch more than the others and possibly go into the plastic deformation stretch range instead of remaining in the elastic range as it should. This would cause the gasket to not be clamped sufficiently in the area around the bolt causing symptoms consistent with mine (I hope!).

Should I be looking at checking and setting the tappet pre-load (http://www.v8engines.com/engine-4.htm#preload) while I wait for the head studs to arrive? Am I correct in saying I'd need to remove and bleed down the lifters before doing this?
Would a 10thou skim from standard be enough to push the tapped pre-load out of spec, or is this something worth doing anyway?

Thanks for the info Gilbert, especially the idea with using the headgaskets as a guide for drilling and tapping the holes if the threads are damaged.
The engineering shop that skimmed my heads were busy with a 4.6 rebuild and the owner of that engine insisted that they replace all the threads with helicoils as a precaution. Hopefully the shop has some extra helicoils on hand if I need them. I'll find out when I strip the engine.

I did chase the threads with the correct thread chaser when I did the headgaskets before and they felt good thereafter, but you never know until they fail.

Hi all,

I'd like some opinions on my V8 situation. 2001 4.6 Thor.

1600km ago I replaced the headgaskets as they had started blowing combustion out of the side of the engine. Not unexpected as the previous owner had decided fancy headbolts were unnecessary and some threaded rod would do just fine. At the same time the heads were skimmed 10thou, valves lapped and and valvestem seals replaced.
I used Elring headgaskets and Allmakes stretch bolts. One of the bolts (rhs head, inner bolt, furthest forward) seemed to go into elastic deformation slightly earlier than the others during the 20Nm, 90deg, 90deg torque procedure. At the time it did bother me a little, but I decided to just soldier on and get the engine together.

After the headgasket job the engine ran beautifully for about 1600km until this past weekend when I felt that the top radiator hose was just a little more pressurised than it should be. I couldn't find anything else wrong and the coolant level remained constant so I chalked it up to paranoia on my part. Drove it to work on Wednesday morning and as I got to the office it had started puking some coolant out of the overflow and the top radiator hose was again pressurised. Something wrong!

Did a compression test last night:
1-->127psi; 2-->110psi; 3-->122psi; 4-->125psi; 5-->124psi; 6-->122psi; 7-->120psi; 8-->120psi

Obviously something wrong on cylinder 2.

So, I'm ordering going for Elring headgaskets again. Is this fine or should I look at something else? (Elring is available here in SA, but I can import something else if it'll be better)
I've ordered a set of ARP head studs (157-4301) this time round. I've seen conflicting info on the torque procedure for these, what did you guys do?

Anything else I need to be concerned about? Anything else to check out?

This is the stuff that'll last:
https://za.rs-online.com/mobile/search.html?searchTerm=Dr-25-

Want:
As you start driving off, the vehicle automatically locks itself when moving above a certain speed.

Reason:
Girlfriends daughter is driving me crazy asking me to lock the doors after driving off. She isn't wrong, living in South-Africa it is probably a good idea to lock the doors. It'll also be a fun little project.

Initial thoughts:
Design a little module that intercepts the vehicle speed signal and outputs a command to lock the doors.
Vehicle speed can be intercepted before the EAS Controller (Yellow wire right? 12V square wave I assume?)
Commanding the doors to lock might be a bit more complicated. I'm guessing something along the lines of making the BECM think that the user has pushed down the sill switch. Looking at RAVE (not in detail yet) it seems to be the Green/Red wire between either the Left or Right Door Outstation and it's corresponding Door Actuator will be a good starting point.

Anyone else have any further input? This idea is in it's infancy, but I can't see it being too difficult to do. Actually, has it been done? I haven't searched to see if anyone has attempted it yet!

Any pitfalls I've missed in my eagerness?

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I think for now I'll just use a local supplier for the urgent bits and then maybe try Island 4x4 in future when the world has calmed down a bit.

Has anyone used Island 4x4 recently for international shipping?

I'm looking to purchase a bunch of spares for shipping to South-Africa, but I'm not getting any response from them (nothing in the last 2 weeks).

Cheers,
Justus

On the bench I was testing directly to the solenoid, not via the driver pack, so I was probably putting way too much power through them. but only for an instant so I'm sure they would have handle'd the abuse.

Anyway, all is back together now and the EAS is working as it should again. So the issue here was definitely the driver pack!

Another discrepancy between the old an new driver pack is that the old driver pack was putting about 100mA trough all the solenoid coils constantly, whether it was actuating them or not. The working driver pack doesn't do this.

When actuating the valves one at a time I do hear the solenoid clicking. I was struggling to differentiate between the inlet/exhaust valve clicking and the airbag valve being actuated, hence the use of the clamp meter to measure where the current is actually flowing. This pointed me conclusively to the LR valve not being actuated.

I've now got the valveblock on the bench and supplying power directly to the LR valve solenoid actuates it, and the current draw is the same as the other valves so I'm thinking the valve and it's solenoid are all good. The wiring also seems good, although I'll test that a bit more thoroughly before swapping over the driver pack.

More feedback soon :)

I've been troubleshooting an interesting issue with my EAS which is affecting the rear left corner of my P38 (now named Rachel).
It started yesterday when dropping to highway height caused a hard fault. I reset the fault, drove on and got to my destination. On the way home the same thing happened again after dropping to highway height. In both cases the fault was related to the left rear valve.

Fast forward to today. Did some troubleshooting and found the following. Actuating specific valves using the EAS Unlock software from Storey works on all valves except the rear left valve (consistent with the symptoms so far). I measured the current to the left rear valve's solenoid (little black wires into the solenoid body) and there is no current flow when actuating the valve. All the other valves read around 1,2A when being actuated.
Cool, makes sense so far. Checked all the wiring I can get to without removing the valveblock and it all seems fine, so my next step is to remove the valveblock and check the wiring that I can't get to with it installed.

First step is to depressurize the bags for valveblock removal. Here is the strange part: the rear left corner deflated down to the bumpstops! This means that the rear left valve must have been actuating correctly right? Or is there some different logic involved here that I am missing?

For completeness this valveblock and driver unit all came from a wreck that had been put on coils before being scrapped. I rebuilt it (o-rings, diaphragm etc) a week or two ago and it has been working properly until I had this issue yesterday.
I'm going to continue stripping the valveblock out and perhaps swap out the driver unit from the valveblock that I got in the car originally.

Thanks for the detail, makes sense now.
I've got a passenger along for a drive later today and I'll get some data for a graph to determine if I only need to adjust the offset, or of the slope needs some tweaking too.

Gilbert, would you mind sharing the info on the pot adjustment to tweak the speedo reading? Which one does what and how do they influence each other?
Does the adjustment influence the trip computer reading too?

With the larger tyres fitted mine is under reading by about 3-5km/h at the moment. With the standard tires it was over reading by about 5km/h.

So Gilbert you were right!
The tyres are fitted and the fronts only rub on the inside of the mudflap at access height and only lightly at that. Rears seem to clear everything.
In terms of clearance I think these fit without needing any modifications.

I do think my rims are a little wide for the tyres though, the sidewalls are too stretched for my liking. Will look around for a 7J set from a D2 instead of the 8J's currently fitted.

Pic:

I'll go find a rock to drive up this weekend and give the suspension a bit of a workout to see of there is any rubbing while articulating.

Yep, I'll have a fiddle with those dimensions and the tape measure sometime this weekend. Thanks!

My big concern initially is an EAS fault dropping the vehicle to the bumpstops, where I expect the larger tyres to deform the wheelarch, which is why I'm thinking of extending the bumpstops.
I'm expecting loads of interference at access height, but I don't really drive around at access height so this shouldn't be a big issue.

Extended bumpstops should sort clearance in the rear under full articulation, but clearance on the front with the steering at full lock might be an issue. I'm hoping that the narrower tyre might mitigate this somewhat.

Tyres leak, so I'm guessing this is the correct category?

I've just got a really good deal on a set of 235/85r16 AT tyres, same size on the Defenders, so I took them.
The idea is to try fit them to the P38, and if they simply don't play ball then they can be passed on to a Defender.

Any advice on getting them fitted? Mudguards off etc? Spacers on the bumpstops?
I am also planning to recalibrate the EAS heights in the near future (I already have the delrin, just neet to cut it), so I guess I could tweak the suspension heights to give a bit more clearance if required.

Collecting the tyres on Wednesday, so I'll have to start thinking of what to do with the spare in the meantime aswell.
I'm leaning towards a swingarm above the rear bumper. I can design and manufacture this myself.

Thanks for the ebay links and links to the RAVE and catalogue. They'll come in useful!

Found a leak this evening. Used the EAS Unlock software to compare the actual suspension heights with the programmed heights after leaving the vehicle standing with the timer relay unplugged for a few hours. The right rear height sensor was lower than it was supposed to be. This was confirmed by the lean towards the right rear, so I guess the software diagnostic wasn't really required ;)

Got her back up to standard height and started spraying all the connections with soapy water. The connection to the top of the right rear airbag was leaking. Cleaned up the connection a little, trimmed the pipe shorter (it was scored) and refitted it. Leak seems sorted now.
I've put the timer relay back in and will see if she self levels herself back to the bumpstops again, hopefully not!

I might also have an issue with the EAS compressor though. It comes on for few seconds every minute or two and then cuts out again. I'll dig a little deeper and see what is causing it to come on and turn off again.

Thanks for the pub invite, I'll even have a real beer. Alcohol sales were un-banned yesterday so I've got a few cold ones in the fridge.

Thanks for the welcome and the information so far!
(Yes, I did mean the pressing the brake pedal. Haha, I should have proof read better. Edited the post and fixed it).

I'm planning to use and get to know the vehicle for a while and then I'll start ordering some parts in. I don't want to place a order or a few odds and sods now and then find out next week that I actually need a bunch more stuff!
A local supplier has stock of the accumulator so I'll get that sorted before I wear out the ABS pump (which is probably near the end of it's life anyway).

Any suggestions for a good quality overhaul kit for the EAS valveblock (including the diagram)?

mad-as wrote:

Hi Justus welcome to the pub ,one thing you didn't mention was do you have a working fob and good door locks?

Sorry yes, I have two working FOBs and the accompanying EKA code. All the door locks are functional and seem to be working as they should.
If I come across a drivers door lock at a breakers then I'll probably grab that as a spare.