Hi all,
Firstly, great site with plenty of information.

I'm looking into "upgrading" my old (16yr) P38 Vogue 4.6 LPG) for a RRSport, 2005 -6 4.2sc or a 4.4. It will be LPG. converted.

I had a chat with my local Land Rover garage and in his with, the petrol engines versions are "s81t and cr8p" engine failures damage to gearboxes and drive trains, in fact he said he would refuse to work on one!

So, my question is, are these statements founded, or has this dealer bias against Petrol engines?

He did try to tempt me with a 2007 3.6 TDV8, out of my price range)

our input will be greatly appreciated.

Simms

I've not read anything that says the petrol engines are bad, one of my mates was a LR master tech and his view is that the 4.4 is the least trouble of all the RRS1 and L322 engines (at least up to 5 years ago when he moved on) and has said a few times the 4.4 would be where his money would go.

I bought my first RRS about a month back and seriously considered a SC petrol,I couldn't handle 15mpg and lpg is a pain because the range is limited by tank size and you end up having to plan your journeys around lpg stations. Plus if you want a proper size tank, you loose the ability to put your seats down. Look at the lpg tank capacity of the model you are thinking of buying, multiply by 0.8 to get the max amount of gas the tank can hold (you can only fill to 80% capacity), divide by 4.5 to get it in gallons, then multiply by your expected mpg to work out the range on a tankful.

For example, this company uses a 95l tank: http://www.v8dualfuel.com/lpg_kits/range_rover_sport.html

Which would give a capacity of (95 x 0./4.5 = 16.9uk gallons
At 15mpg that's a 251mile range on a full tank.

This SC sport is tempting: http://www.rrsport.co.uk/forum/topic46088.html

diesels are the ones which give the trouble.


Note 4.4's are rare.

I think your local Land Rover garage may have been trying to palm a motor off on you, the petrol engines in these are pretty much bomb proof.
I wouldn't own a diesel RRS, I'd be waking up in cold sweats worrying about failing turbo's.

turbo's are the least of your worries

Hi Gentlemen,

Thank you for your reply.

d-9: at the moment i run a P38 4.6 LPG, the 90ltr? tank gives me about 200 miles range, so i'm used to the range. I've clocked up 120000 miles on LPG and have never had any problems with it, or to be honest, the RR

Socast: yer, i got that feeling too and i've never been much of a Diesel fan anyway.

Andy K: yep 4.4 are rare, had my eye on one that had been on Auto trader for 71 days, arranged a test drive last Sunday, only to be informed, it was sold on Saturday.

So i'm off to look at a RRS sc 4.2 tomorrow, dark blue black leather 87000 miles on the clock.

I'll keep you updated

Simms

was the sold 4.4 red ?

Andy K: Yes, in Luton (Autohouse Bedfordshire)

IIRC the P38's had a BMW V8 or the old Buick one, RRS has a Jaguar motor and it isn't that happy to run on LPG, some here have done it but it is a rare conversion for RRS's. As said by others the 4.4NA V8 is very very rare in the UK, unfortunately they had almost the fuel consumption of the S/C but not the go......... But those that bought them hung onto them for a long time and huge mileages so they cannot be too bad! It was the L322 4.4 Petrol (FFRR) that suffered all the transmission / diff problems and that was mostly cured when the RRS was launched 2 years later. Good luck with your search, it is getting more difficult to find 2005 (launch year) and 2006 cars in decent fettle, they are out there but are getting rarer as owners baulk at the servicing costs and high price of replacement parts and it's almost impossible to get a warranty for cars over 100,000 miles
I don't want to put you off RRS but you will find a lot more L322 FFRR S/C and 4.4 V8's around and they are mostly in pretty high spec too, IIRC the S/C was only available in the top Vogue trim. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Hi Tim,

Thank you for the insight. I'm waiting for a few email about LPG conversions. One reply mentioned a "Valve saver" oil injection that injects with the LPG.

I'm still trying to find out more about it.

As for a FFRR i've never been keep on the shape, sorry, its just that.

Sims

I've got a 4.2SC with LPG

Stratstones mayfair fitted the kit to their demo car and it has flash lube injection

No problems at all with 60k miles

Spare wheel tank so with the HST bumper you can't see it and it still has a boot

250miles on roughly 70litres of gas

Not had it long but it runs on gas fine up to 130mph, then I ran out of private road

Hi Ezituper

Thanks for the info.

It dose seem that the garage was/is a bit bias towards petrol.

Simms

You might want to have a look around the disco3 forum, there seem to be a few more people using lpg and the 4.4v8 on there.

As long as you know the realities of running lpg then I say go for it, I ran it for two years and like it, but think it has draw backs. The valve seat regression issue mostly seems to be an issue for people who have never had a vehicle on gas, I don't think I've seen a single post saying 'I ran gas for 100k and now I need new heads'.

Maybe tempted to sell ours, 2006, 4.4 petrol, 39000 miles

Would be top dollar tho

Well,

Finally got a RR sport 4.2 Sc. 55 plate 87000 miles in Buckingham Blue.
Rear Audio/DVD, fridge and all the other toys

There's a couple of niggles, but nothing that i class as major. I'll get advice on the Tech forum.

She's off to RPI engineering (V8 Dual Fuel) for the conversion week after next.

I'll let you know how it goes.

http://www.rrsport.co.uk/gallery/albums/us...281%29.jpg

Simms