Too ambitious or a learning curve?

Crikey, where do I start explaining this one?

Firstly, Hi everyone! I came across your site this evening after a desperate Google search.

I have a 96 Disco and to put it bluntly she has packed a sad.
Started about 4 weeks ago with the tappets rattling now and then ...took to the garage and they said they couldn't do anything as they were hydraulic and it was probably only a bit of grit that would clear itself. Then they got louder and the oil light stayed on until out on the open road and then came on again when idle in traffic. Now I am being told a bearing has probably dropped (from somewhere???) and it's either a replacement engine or reconditioning of this one. Well Land Rover parts must be like rocking horse s*** over here (living in NZ) because they are talking mega bucks! Mega bucks I just don't have at the moment.

This motor has basically caused us nothing but grief from day one and I consider myself a rational person, BUT I cant bring myself around to the thought of flicking her on to break for spares. Some motors have personality and this is one of them, the suspension is raised, she has a snorkel and front and rear bash plates underneath, someone has attacked the wheel arches with an angle grinder and removed a muffler so that when running she sounds like a 60 year old who smokes 40 a day. In short I LOVE this car!

My question is how easy is it to get the engine out of a Disco? How easy are they to fix? 20 years ago my first car was a Land Rover series 3 and it was forever going wrong and needing fixing ...which I mostly did myself with help of Dad, the neighbours, boyfriends and the trusty manual etc.
Obviously "reconditioning" sounds very precision and needing to be done by an expert, but what about the rest ...is it too ambitious?
Space and time are not a problem so it could be treated like a project.

All thoughts appreciated even if they are only to tell me to get a grip and stop being so whimsical!

Cheers

btw, what actually happens when an engine is reconditioned?

Then they got louder and the oil light stayed on until out on the open road and then came on again when idle in traffic.

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Before a recon engine/replacement;

Oil pressure..?? May sound patronising, but is the oil level ok..?? Oil pump ok, blockage somewhere..?? or an oil leak..??

Anyone else some suggestions..??

sounds like it could be oil pump failiure or a blocked pick up pipe to me. as for removing the engine, its pretty easy and judging by what you have wrote you have a basic mechanical knowleage. as for recon, normally just shells bearings and rings on the main but depends how much damage has been caused by the rattle.it could need a rebore or honing, which is expensive as you will need new pistons etc. hope this is of help

You could take the engine out and pop in another one, some Isuzu engines will go in with little modifications.

Depends how much time you have really. Although, I would tinker with the engine itself and see if you can find the problem. Start with yella's idea.

Thanks very much for the advice, I'm certainly leaning move towards the "give it a go" option now. In my mind I've got it at only spare value so if I do go and do something really stupid and bugger it up then I'm not loosing anything ...might even learn something!
Sounds like the next step is to gets myself a decent manual, are Haynes the only people that make them? and if not which do you suggest?
Also on recommendation from the garage we have added a litre of heavy duty oil stabilizer, is this likey to cause any other problems?
Cheers

get the rave cd someone on here had a free download address, the haynes is ****e

Hi Becs
There was a discusion recently about "Rave cd's" for the Discovery , I have found a place to down load from . You need to install "Utorrent" ( use Google to find) and then change the search from "Minova" to "My bittorrent" by clicking next to the search box on the magnifying glass and then do a search for TIS one of the resultant list will be "Rangerover" download this one it covers defender All Range Rovers Disco Tdi's and V8's ,Shelander !. It takes about 48 hrs to down load but the program is self continuing if you turn off your computer and if you are on broadband there is no cost , the file is just over a gigabite in size.
There is one down side you have to download to the computer that you want to use the program in , if you try to copy it to disc the software corrupts to stop you .
Regards Harddrive

that was a close one, i'd just put a haynes on my watchlist on trademe (nz equiv. of ebay)
great info about the rave cd ...just wish we were able to get broadband here. we live about 30 mins from the nearest shop ...of anykind, and if my modem is working at 19Kbps it's a good day, couple with that the fact that a rogue electric fence somewhere in the vicinity (50km radius) is shorting on the line causing intermittent disconections and believe me it would take weeks not days to download. (and you guys thought you had problems with hose pipe bans and gob****es chucking bricks at your motors!)
much better for the blood pressure to buy the cd in my case!
cheers

im sure some nice chap on here will copy you one and post it to you.
if i had a copy here, id be copying it right now for you.

ormus said:

im sure some nice chap on here will copy you one and post it to you.
if i had a copy here, id be copying it right now for you.

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CD copied, Becs pm'd - just waiting for the address

Is that a hint that you need one too ormus?

I ain't all bad ya know

well done that man.

if it covers the 200tdi, i sure could use a copy. pretty please!

200tdi? - No probs - I'll check this evening and get back to you

cheers mate.
everyone ive seen so far, dont cover the 200tdi.

im just in the process of downloading the 3 part rave cd from sheddys link.
about 90 minutes per DL!

i downloaded that but couldn't get it to work

cheers mate!
4.5 hrs wasted then?

lol, see how yer go

aye. off to find me blank cds now. bought a 100 of em last month, every man and his dog has had em except me. about 6 left.

Median said:

CD copied, Becs pm'd - just waiting for the address

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Awesome!! thank you very much (you do realize I live in New Zealand, right?)

ormus said:

im sure some nice chap on here will copy you one and post it to you.
if i had a copy here, id be copying it right now for you.

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Hey, it's the thought that counts! cheers


At the risk of sounding like my teenagers ...this site rocks!

becs said:

Awesome!! thank you very much (you do realize I live in New Zealand, right?)

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Yeah, but I figured even NZ has to have at least ONE postman