By Alf on Wednesday, July 11, 2001 - 02:34 am: Edit

Hi,

anyone here with a Disco I (Very first with 3.5 EFI V8 Engine?

I have some newbie qs :
- what are the main diff between the 3.5 and 3.9 engine (I know the 400 cc ;)but, what else?
- are the 3.5 easier to work on?
- which engines are getting more mpg's with auto trans
- what to look at the engine when buying used (80'000-100'000 miles)

thx 4 reply,
Alf

greets from Switzerland

By Steve (Oz93discov8) on Wednesday, July 11, 2001 - 02:48 am: Edit

My 1993 had a 3.5 but now it has a 3.9.

That's because the 3.5 wore out it's camshaft badly and because it had 160,000 km on it I figured that rather that "patch up" the 3.5 I'd get a good low km 3.9 with all the stuff to go with it i.e. computor, MAF, new radiator etc. The 3.9 just needed some minor alterations to make the original front end stuff - V-belts pulley driven stuff etc fit. Seems to have been a good move regarding more torque, power, driveability, performance etc BUT it uses more petrol. About 1 - 2 litres per 100km more in fact.

Apparently the camshaft thing is not uncommon if the oil changes aren't regular - we think the original owner (one only before me) was a bit slack and may have missed a couple in it's early days - not good!! Other than that I had a good run with the 3.5 over the 85,000km that I had it. Apart from the fuel the 3.9 is noticeably better though.

My mechanic reckons the 3.9 is a better engine than the 3.5 - I'm not sure of all the technicalities but he seems very good with Rover V8s so I'll just take his word for it!

By cat on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 02:38 pm: Edit

the output of the 3.5 is similar to the 3.9 because the 3.5 didnt have to use the cat convertor i believe

By Ron on Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - 03:19 am: Edit

3.5 got about 165hp in euro spec. 3.9 got 182 or so. Less torque from teh 3.5. Main thing to watch out for on the 3.5 is cam wear. They really last forever but they just get so slow you can't take it anymore. Look for lost power and also noise on the top end. Some is ok at startup but a lot or noise that continues is bad. usual cause is infrequent oil changes. lR specified 6000 or even 12000 miles which is way too long. Also look for signs the heads have been off. They have notoriously bad head gaskets up to ???? so having the heads off means the new ones are on.