Missing Cylinder head bolts

[Garth]

I have just bought a May 1991 3.9 Vouge SE and was getting it measured up for a LPG kit when the mechanic gave me some VERY BAD news :(   On the RH bank there are 4 YES FOUR cylinder head bolts missing.  The ones at the bottom under the manifold.  The engine has recently (within the last year) had a top end rebuild which can be seen through the filler hole as the cams are a nice light brown and the head is quite clean.  Now the thing is there is no oil in the water and vise versa the engine sounds as sweet as can be.  I have been in touch with a friend who knows a lot more about the V8's than me and he says not to worry (too much) as around this time LR changed the amount of head bolts from 12 to 8 and the tourque on these 4 bolts is lower than the rest.  My question is should I put in 4 bolts and hope for the best or should I take off head and rebuild. :?:

[MUSKIE]

the question is why were they left out ? doesnt sound like a quality build, or on the other hand was a the wrong kit bought in error and less amount of head bolts supplied, or were they snapped off or striped in the block.
i personally would want to know, no matter what anyone else says, i would never be convinced until all the bolts were in, after all the engine was designed with that many holes so it needs that many bolts. that is just my opinion. anyone can tell you it will be fine, it isnt them that will have pay to have the heads skimmed and rebuilt, now is the time to think about it not when the gaskets gone.

sorry to be blunt but i see problems like this all the time, and the most common saying is " i knew i should have done it last month but couldnt aford it" and now it will cost twice the amount.

[kevbutty]

Thats ok Garth. Thats a Land Rover recomenmded mod to leave out the outer row of head bolts & fit a new modified head gasket. Because the bolts don't actually do anything.  If you look down the holes you'll see you can't actaully get any bolts in the holes because the new modified gasket is blanking the holes.
The heads on a 4.0 & 4.6 engines don't even have holes.

 I'd be more worried why both heads haven't had this mod done  8-[

[winchman]

Afetr 22 years as a engineer let me give you some advise.
If it works dont mess with it.
I often think this after I have broke it

[pritch]

If it works dont mess with it.

Surely this should be 'if it works, take it apart and find out why?'

I think I've just realised why my parents would never let me have a pet when I was younger.

[Range Rover Blues]

The outer row of bolts have been shown to bend the head, prising the head and block apart around the combustion chamber, they actually do as much harm as good.
As stated, Land Rover supply a modified gasket without the holes for these bolts.  It is quite possible that one bank has had some rectifiction work so only one head came off.  For example has it had any new valves?

I tend to agree with 'if it's not bust, don't fix it'.  If it runs sweet and does a good compression test then it meets the major criterior for a healthy engine.  Oh, and if it looks clean inside it may be that it's been looked after, ours looks the same after about 60,000 miles!  Check to see if both heads are skimmed the same, on the front of the drivers side (I call it the RHS) head is a small square block with a hole in it, if the head is skimmed the hole is nearer the bottom than the side, this is a witness!  It's on the back of the LHS because they are the same head.

I've seen the early heads fitted to later engines and vice-versa.  It really shouldn't be a problem.

DON'T, what ever you do just add the 4 bolts at this stage, you risk disturbing the gasket and making things worse! [-X

[Garth]

:D  Thats one job crossed off the list.  I will check the witness marks and do a compression test on both banks when I put my new plugs in. :lol: