virgin V8's

[jcb 260]

just a matter of interest, is there any V8 engines that have lasted more than 50,000 mls without a rebuild

[kmaier]

There's probably plenty of them about, but most owners don't put many miles on their Esprit cars. I've driven mine over 63K miles and it's still running strong... really strong. I did have compromised liner sealant due to one very brief overheat caused by a pressure cap that just decided to fail and not hold proper pressure. Temp soared up past 100C (one the gauge)... caught it before it went much past 100C but it's already too late based on where the temp sending unit is located and the fact that the base of the cylinder liners can be much hotter and this compromises the Hylomar sealant which fails at 150C. Shortly after that it started pumping coolant into the crankcase... bummer! I opted to try some Bahr's Leak (original ground ginger root stuff... smells funky, looks brown and murky) and it solved it... about 8 months and over 10K miles so far... it still drinks a bit of coolant but it's not going in the crankcase. Engine will be yanked soon and rebuilt based on scheduled upgrades, but no worries.

But to be certain, had the pressure cap not failed I'm certain the engine will go well over 100K miles with routine maintenance. It is critical to maintain the cooling system... with engine temps routinely at 100C during the summer, it doesn't take much to over tax the cooling system and blow the liner seals... beyond this the V8 engine is rock solid. You do need to maintain the exhaust system as well due to turbo, cat and O2 sensor life... and yes, mine are all original sans the rattle box muffler, currently has a Tubi installed.

Regards, KM
2000 V8