300tdi - what mods would you recomend?

finally found my ideal car and picked it up yesterday - a 300tdi ES auto with 100k on the clock.

it doesnt need any welding, im about to service it and change the cambelt so i know the engine will be 100% (or near as - its a discovery after all )
ordered the EGR blanking kit, and a de-cat pipe which should be on by the weekend so that should be a bit more power sorted.

the car will be a daily driver, a towing vehicle, and also a toy to use for green laning and hopefully (when i learn how) il be taking it to get REALLY dirty, so what other mods would you guys recomend? snorkel? bigger wheels/tyre choice? suspension lift? any underside protection?

im completely new to all this so any advice or recomendations, any 'must have' equipment and suggested suppliers will be greatly appreciated.

cheers guys, Mark

"snorkel? bigger wheels/tyre choice? suspension lift? any underside protection?"

You won't need any of this stuff for green lanes, but if you are going to try something more adventurous on pay & play sites then may be, also raising the disco will affect it's handling on normal roads.
So it's up 2U

Mark Disco said:

finally found my ideal car and picked it up yesterday - a 300tdi ES auto with 100k on the clock.

it doesnt need any welding, im about to service it and change the cambelt so i know the engine will be 100% (or near as - its a discovery after all )
ordered the EGR blanking kit, and a de-cat pipe which should be on by the weekend so that should be a bit more power sorted.

the car will be a daily driver, a towing vehicle, and also a toy to use for green laning and hopefully (when i learn how) il be taking it to get REALLY dirty, so what other mods would you guys recomend? snorkel? bigger wheels/tyre choice? suspension lift? any underside protection?

im completely new to all this so any advice or recomendations, any 'must have' equipment and suggested suppliers will be greatly appreciated.

cheers guys, Mark

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I took my wife's std Disco out last weekend and we did some "challenging" green lanes and it managed really really well. The only thing I felt I lacked was:

1. Underbody protection, so I'm going to get a couple of diff shields, about £20 apiece.

2. Better tyres - currently she has brand new (unfortunately!!) AT²'s of std 235/70/16 configuration. I will be going for a set of wheels & tyres, possibly Insa Turbo somethings, as a supplier is doing an offer of 4 wheel & tyres 235/85/16 for about £450.

I will try them on the std vehicle but I'm working on the basis that I will need to "lift and cut"

Have brilliant fun - I'm having a great time with a new club, outings every month - gives me time to save up for the next one !!!!

I used to lane my Discovery on road tyres and then started 'upgrading' from there.

A set of MT tyres will make a heck of a lot of difference tho.

If you do fit a snorkel then also remember raised breathers on the axle, gearbox and timing cover as well as the wading plug in the flywheel housing.

Suspension lifts are a heck of a kettle of fish (or summat like that ) and deserve their own discussion. Doing a search on this forum will turn up a lot of useful info.

discool said:

You won't need any of this stuff for green lanes, but if you are going to try something more adventurous on pay & play sites then may be, also raising the disco will affect it's handling on normal roads.
So it's up 2U

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i will hopefully be going to some pay & play sites in the near future, but 1 step at a time. this is my 1st experience of 'off roading' so im starting with some green lanes and building up. however i'd prefer to get the vehicle prepped now so its only my ability limiting how brave i get :hysterically_laughi

diff guards - check. i presume with them being the lowest part of the car they get a battering so il get 2 of them ordered. any other areas underneath that should be protected?
tyre choice i guess is gonna have to be a compromise as i guess there is no 'perfect road tyre that works the best in mud'? Insa Turbo's have been mentioned a few times and it all seems to be good so il look further into sizes and things and see what works best. the troubles with lifting a disco have been pretty well written on here so im hoping to leave that unless it becomes a 'need' instead of a want. by raising the breathers do you mean a 'wading kit' where the tubes go up to the top of the snorkel?

is there any real gain to be made by fitting a K&N style induction kit/performance air filter? ive always used them on my cars but that was purely a performance thing without any worry of them getting wet or anything? anybody any experience good or bad?

sorry for the long posts but im a weirdo that likes my equipment right (oooerrr) before anything breaks, as my ability usually destroys things :doh:

a wading kit may be required if you plan on going in the deep stuff along with a plug for the hole in the fly wheel housing but don't forget to open plug intermittently to drain any collected oil or better still only fit the plug when you are going out to play .
have you thought about uprating or protecting your steering bars .... you can go for heavy duty stuff or leave it standard and fit a steering guard , some people don't like em as they can act like a plough in the muddy stuff , but it's a personal choice i have one from guardian and i'm happy with it .
someone will be along shortly that knows a lot more than me so keep an open mind .....................

Mark Disco said:

i will hopefully be going to some pay & play sites in the near future, but 1 step at a time. this is my 1st experience of 'off roading' so im starting with some green lanes and building up. however i'd prefer to get the vehicle prepped now so its only my ability limiting how brave i get :hysterically_laughi

diff guards - check. i presume with them being the lowest part of the car they get a battering so il get 2 of them ordered. any other areas underneath that should be protected?
tyre choice i guess is gonna have to be a compromise as i guess there is no 'perfect road tyre that works the best in mud'? Insa Turbo's have been mentioned a few times and it all seems to be good so il look further into sizes and things and see what works best. the troubles with lifting a disco have been pretty well written on here so im hoping to leave that unless it becomes a 'need' instead of a want. by raising the breathers do you mean a 'wading kit' where the tubes go up to the top of the snorkel?

is there any real gain to be made by fitting a K&N style induction kit/performance air filter? ive always used them on my cars but that was purely a performance thing without any worry of them getting wet or anything? anybody any experience good or bad?

sorry for the long posts but im a weirdo that likes my equipment right (oooerrr) before anything breaks, as my ability usually destroys things :doh:

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From the perspective of off-road a K&N filter is just a waste of money imho. You can buy paper filters for about £3 apiece, so always have one in the back on play days, so you can put a good one in for the return home trip.

Re tyres, if you can manage it, have a full spare set of wheels and tyres so that you put really good mud tyres on the vehicle just for play days, then you don't need to worry about their on-road durability/noise/grip issues.

You can get a set of wheels very cheaply off Ebay and then buy a set of pure mud tyres. Insa turbos always work well as do Khumo MT's, about £65 apiece.

Cheers
Dave

Tyres is one of the biggest things that will decide if you get stuck or not. I went for BFG simply because where I go in wales i see a lot of punctures in side walls from slate etc. Although my side walls have nicks in them they havent punctured the 3 layer tyre wall and are quite safe. BFG AT tyres are great on and off road and will last around 50k miles if rotated and kept at right air pressures. Also a decent tyre will be self cleaning of mud.

For diff guards QT ones are great bits of kit (google them) they cost more but allow your diffs to slide over rocks instead of just clouting rocks.

If you have a standard front bumper you can trim off the lower valance part to give you more clearance. Steering guard (£80) is not necessary but can be reassuring.

Now just buy a bridal rope, recovery strop and decent shackles and go have fun.

stu2985 said:

Now just buy a bridal rope, recovery strop and decent shackles and go have fun.

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of all the things ive looked at, all the adverts ive been scanning through and all the ideas ive had, these are things ive COMPLETELY overlooked!!! cheers Stu, these should be the 1st things i get and il be getting them today!! no point fitting all the bells and whistles if you've got nothing to help you when you do get stuck (which i will no doubt :doh.

a complete spare set of wheels/tyres probably wont be a realistic option for me, the only place i could store them would be the back garden and ive shot enough pikeys this year trying to steal mountain bikes without giving them more temptation. kids today!!

thanks for the help and advice people, ive got a good idea now of whats 'needed' and whats mainly just for looks. bring on the mud!!

Mark Disco said:

of all the things ive looked at, all the adverts ive been scanning through and all the ideas ive had, these are things ive COMPLETELY overlooked!!! cheers Stu, these should be the 1st things i get and il be getting them today!! no point fitting all the bells and whistles if you've got nothing to help you when you do get stuck (which i will no doubt :doh.

thanks for the help and advice people, ive got a good idea now of whats 'needed' and whats mainly just for looks. bring on the mud!!

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Good on yer, Mark. Get your recovery gear and go and have some muddy fun !!!!!

Cheers
Dave

I've had 2 Disco's. My first (V8) I spent a fortune on getting all the gear etc and I enjoyed entering RTV events etc and laning. I now have a 300TDI ES and I do everything I did before. Sump guard BFG AT's, snorkel and wading kit and I love it. Leave the Tow bar on and accept that it's going to ground on steep slopes on entry, but my view is it's better that than the plastic tank! Enjoy!