Jordan's Discos. TD5 and V8.

Alright guys,

Thought I'd start a thread for our two Discos and their progress. First is the TD5 that i picked up a couple of years ago as the family daily runner but also to get used for off road fun too

Here it is as we picked it up; standard Pre-facelift Disco 2 TD5 ES, in epsom green with ACE and SLS. 170K on the clock but in great nick.



The only rust was the common bits on the chassis either side of the fuel tank which I cut out and plated up straight away before it got any worse.





Within 10 minutes of being back after picking it up, my (then) 3 year old son dove into his toy box and bought this back!



Maybe it was meant to be!

First modification came when the tyres required changing. I found a set of 5 18" alloys with very near new road bias tyres for a good price.



Fitted and trying out the good articulation the ACE system allows. Had more to give but couldn't find anything else in the garage to drive up (safely).





Just because I fitted bigger alloys and road tyres didn't mean I was going to shy away from using the Disco as Land Rover intended. So with the only other modification being the removal of the side steps, we attended the local Pay&Play and got it muddy for what was probably the first time in it's life judging by the condition when we bought it.



I was very impressed with how far the disco could get even with no center diff lock and on it's road tyres.

After few more trips and some bumper trimming and we were going most places the more seriously modded trucks could with the only major problem being diff clearance on the deeper rutted tracks and the plow of a tow bar fitted to the back.

http://vid883.photobucket.com/albums/ac39/bridges0709/Land Rover/20131117_141211_zps8caf6432.mp4

The only time we've ever got stuck has been going through here. The wife was driving and stopped when it got deeper than she expected instead of keeping her momentum going.



Http://vid883.photobucket.com/albums/ac39/bridges0709/Land Rover/20131117_133922_zps204e04e6.mp4

So fast forward about 6 months and getting more into off-roading/Green laning, I decided to sort those few drawbacks one at a time.

A Discovery 1 diff lock was fitted to help out the standard traction control.

Before:



After:



The TC now only has to shift power left and right on each axel as the CDL locks it 50/50 front to back. It only kicks in about half as much now and when it does it's effect on forward motion is much quicker with less "working the system".

The diff clearance was rectified by fitting a set of General grabber AT2's in 265/75r16 size on the original alloys (I sold the 18's for the same as I bought them for 6 months prior which was nice )





These needed a slight lift in the form of Terrafirma medium duty +2" front springs and 2" rear bag spacers with +2" dampers all round





The result:





For the times when the diffs still take the occasional knock I've also fitted wrap around guards front and rear




Unfortunately with all that extra ground clearance the wife decided she wanted the side steps refitted as she's only short :doh: :lol:



And if that last pic looks too clean here's the "before" to prove that it still sees the brown stuff

Nice looking disco

It must be a Land Rover owner's thing. My 3 year old has acquired about 10 model Land Rovers now, loves when we go 'off roading' daddy and he has now taken up looking underneath my disco with me

Cheers. Have two kids now (nearly 5 and 2). Both love off roading and cars in general. Eldest is always out with me, here doing spark plugs on my BMW while I did the rest of the service.

Anyway, on with the story...... Next up was releasing some extra sound from the TD5.



Sounds much better (for a diesel ).

Then a friend of mine contacted me about his facelift D2, also in epsom green......




......that unfortunately suffered front prop failure that also took out the auto gearbox casing




So what should a good mate do in that situation? Take it off his hands cheap obviously! :lol:



Back home on the drive. Notice the nice neighbour parked on the grass so I could borrow their half of the drive for the weekend (RHS with the Audi S6 on it is my side)



Robbed of it's facelift goodies



To give ours a new look



Some more stripping





And off to the scrappy...



I know there was plenty more useful bits left on it when it went but I was strapped for time (and driveway space). Got all the important bits off to cover the most common D2 faults, and sold the CDL transfer box and non-ACE ARBs to get some more money back. Pretty much cost me nothing in the end.

So to bring us up to date on the TD5. Didn't do much more after the facelift, just enjoying TBH.

Moddified the single din head unit surround to fit a double din unit. Still needs finishing off.



And rear screens for the sprogs



Worked out how to make the factory folding mirrors work with the central locking.





Success

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLeI9-KjIP8

Went on a 5 day laning/camping trip with it (full write up HERE)











Then went to the US at Christmas and bought back an NAS style receiver tow hitch and big recovery hook in my suitcase









looking good

Sadly I can't see any picture

Nic

oops! Reorganised my Photobucket and it broke all the links :frusty:

All fixed now :)

So some eagle eyed viewers may have noticed there has been a lack of V8 content it this thread so far....

Well the TD5 been returned to standard ready to sell.



Why? Well I recently had to sell one of my other cars (a 4.2L Audi S6) which left a V8 size hole on the drive that needed filling. :frown:

But what to replace it with? The Disco is great for us as a family car; looks good, good driving position, tons of room for the kids + dogs plus 7 seats when we need them, and immensely capable off road. Looking round there's not much this side of 12K range rover that ticks all those boxes, but then we couldn't take it "proper" off road for fear of getting it scratched!

But then we found the answer....... Another disco, but fitted with the 4ltr petrol V8!

Found this one:





It's a VERY early one on a 98 plate. Tatty on the outside but solid underneath, with full service history and an LPG kit already fitted

Old with new

Didn't take long to start playing with the new disco....

My brothers Jeep is now looking good on 33" mud tyres:



Obviously I had to keep up with the "Off road arms race" :lol:.
To that end the 31" Grabber A/T tyres have been swapped for a set of 33" Pro-comp xterrain muds.



Vs the standard size tyres on the TD5 (29")



Fitted to the V8 along with original 2" suspension lift from the TD5.











Looking much more like it. :smokin:

Looks like it is going to mount that Bima! Looks nice!

Stunning thread!!!

Cheers guys, here's another update on the V8's recent progress

Being a very early model, it came with a slightly different interior, the dash and doorcards etc are the same but the leather was brown instead of cream leather.







Decided to swap the two interiors. Mainly because the light leather looks better, and also because it already has the rear screens mounted.

Out with the old, which was also an opportunity for a good clean out.





Here you can see the difference in colour.



Before fitting the new seats the CD changer was removed from under the drivers seat as the new head unit makes it redundant.



Which left a nice spot free for the screen controller. Bolted down to the original changer mounts.



New seats in along with a good clean+condition using Gliptone, brilliant stuff.











New Disco came with a genuine Land Rover rubber boot floor protector, this was refitted along with an extension I made for when the centre row is folded.

Another update here.

So the new Discovery already had an LPG system fitted and working, great stuff. What you probably won't find surprising is that the fittment wasn't nearly upto the standard I'd want.









* long pipes after the injectors
* poor placement of LPG nozzles
* injectors not secure
* looms not tidy
* ECU wedged in the corner of the bay


The system works but really needed some extra time and attention to detail spent on the installation. Unfortunately when the "professionals" do the work, time is money and somthing like what I have is often the result.

First job was to sort the injectors, pipes and nozzle placement. Took the upper manifold off.



Fuel rails and lower manifold off.



With the two manifolds together and on the bench you can see the issue properly.







Now it's widely regarded that the LPG injectors should be as close to the petrol ones as possible, 300mm is generally the max you should have. Having the nozzles in the upper manifold, while much quicker and easier to fit, is nowhere near ideal and the long hoses make it even worse. Changes needed to be made.

If I had small individual injectors, I could possibly fit them in the space under the upper manifold arches. Unfortunately mine are larger and in pairs so I had to get thinking.

First I sourced a new manifold without nozzle holes.



And used the dremel to remove the webs in the gaps between the runners.



This meant I could pass the LPG hoses through to the lower manifold.



Next job was fitting new nozzles to the lower manifold.



Right next to the petrol injectors as they should be



And back together to check the pipe work routing.





Much better

So from a day that went well, to a day that didn't go quite so well.......

Decided while I'm doing engine work I'd sort the weaping rocker cover seals and also to look into a light top end ticking under load.

Covers off, engine has led a hard life by the looks of it.



Rocker shafts and push rods out for a clean up.





More deposits



Before stripping them down for cleaning, I gave them a quick inspection. This is what I found....





One of the rocker thrust pads has cracked and lost a chunk. More worryingly, another is missing completely and the valve has worn about 1.5mm into the rocker itself. I checked the corresponding valve stem and it's chewed up as well. That'll be the ticking noise then.

So as well as new rockers, the next job will be to take the heads off to sort the valve (at least I can clean them at the same time). I'll also have to take the sump off to see if I can find the missing fragments.

This is quickly snowballing into a full rebuild. I'm having thoughts of biting the bullet and going for a 4.6ltr conversion with top hat liners and high torque cam shaft while it's apart.

Good job you found that before it went any further. It's amazing what levels of wear engines will put up with before they give up the ghost completely.

Update time.....

Some may already know from Facebook but since finding the recent engine issues I did some thinking. After a long chat with the wife which I'm sure included the word "investment" I've decided to bite the bullet and go for a full rebuild including upping the power a bit.

Spec will include:

Refurbished "top hat" linered block.
Stroked from 4ltr to 4.6ltr
Compression raised slightly from 9.35:1 to 9.75:1
Kent H180 "high torque" camshaft
Refurbished standard spec heads
Mapping by Mark Adams at tornado systems (well known in Rover V8 circles)

So the first job was to remove the old lump and that required some now toys



Whipped the heads off to make things easier



And out





Quick clean up



Sump off and stripped down.







One bare block ready to go to Turner Engineering in Surrey....



And swapped for a nice shiny one with much better "top hat" liners





And a nice box of rebuild goodies



MUCH more to come :biggrin1:

P.S Sorry for the terrible quality phone pics :doh:

So unfortunately there was a bit of a setback this week.

I picked up the new block on Monday, and as I said the plan is to stroke it to 4.6ltrs using a p38 crank and rods. To that end I bought a donor engine which turned up by pallet Wednesday........



Lifted it off of the pallet and took the torque converter off so it could go on my engine stand.



Quick note for anyone needing longer gearbox bolts to fit an RV8 to a stand - rocker shaft bolts are perfect



Onto the engine stand so it could be stripped down.....



Decided to have a quick look inside at the general condition of everything and took the sump off......



And then I spotted it.......



It was a bloody 4ltr and absolutely no use to me!

Luckily it wasn't too much "labor time" wasted as I only lifted it onto the stand before I checked. Could have been a lot worse if I'd stripped everything else down before I noticed! Was still annoyed I wasted two days waiting for it to be delivered though. :frusty:

Spoke to the breaker yesterday and they were fine about it TBH. He confirmed the Range Rover was definitely a 4.6 HSE but when we checked the engine number againced the log book, it was totally different. It must have had a new bottom end at some point.

Good news is it was an honest mistake and they're sorting a courier to take it back no problem. Bad news is that the hunt is now back on for a cheap donor engine.

Alright guys, had a good days progress today

Started off by getting the block on my stand and removing all the casting flash. Basically the raged edges left from the casting process.

Before:





After:





Highly unlikely to have caused any issues (hence why it's not removed at the factory) but I couldn't put up with knowing it's there. :lol:

Next up was a lick of paint. Starting with masking off all mating faces.







Then a few coats of high temp paint.



And masking removed







Very happy with how it came out so onto the next job which was to prep the heads for refurb.

Stripped down.



And cleaned



Marks on the underside suggest it was still on it's original head gaskets.



Backed up by the head dimensions showing they've never been skimmed :nod:







So all done and ready



Heads are now with Scholar Racing Engines for a light skim, new valve guides and re-cut valve seats. :thumb:

Have a 4.6 crank and rods on the way which should arrive tomorrow, then I can do some more building

Another update for you guys, big one this time

So yesterday morning I was still waiting for my new crank to arrive. To that end I decided to get on with de-ringing and cleaning up the old pistons so they could be reused with the 4.6 rods.





Then it came, definatly the right one this time



Also with it was a set of 4.6 rods and pistons. The rods I needed, but the pistons I didn't. Due to the longer stroke of the 4.6, the pistons have a much larger dish on top to keep the compression ratio the same at 9.35:1. Here's a couple of pictures.





I could have used them no problem but a common route is to keep the 4.0 pistons, this lifts it up to about 9.75:1 compression. The gudgeon pins are pressed into the rod, and I'm not paying for the Land Rover tool, so I needed to make something to get them out again.



The larger one supports the piston on these two flat parts, the same place the genuine tool does.



I don't have my own press so off I went to the engineering bay at work, armed with my box of pistons and a packet of chocolate Hobnobs for the guys that work there





All apart



Here's the difference in the rods. Visually identified by the number of dimples on the side, the 4.6 are slightly shorter to match the longer stroke crankshaft.





So after leaving the gudgeon pins in the freezer over night to make installation easier, I went back into work this morning to carry on.

Before starting I took the opportunity to check my torque wrench was calibrated for the build later. All good



Then I spent some time weighing and matching the pistons and rods. All 8 sets are within 3 grams of each other now.



With all that done I could come home and crack on with the build. First job was to take the main caps out of the block.



New shells in



Crank in.



Out with the Plastiguage to check the main bearing clearances.



Acceptable clearance is between 0.0004" and 0.002". Plastiguage showed a little over 1 thou so all good.



Crank back out to add some assembly lube.



Back in and Hylomar blue added to the rear main cap as per the Land Rover rebuild procedure.



Cap on along with the rear crank seal.



All torqued up.



Including cross bolts, remembering to fit the sealing washers



And here's one bit people forget. Checking for, and removing any sealant that has squashed out from the rear cap. You don't want it falling off, finding it's way into the oil system and blocking something.



Next job was fitting the pistons. First the new rings needed checking for gap which were all within limits.



I also checked the ring clearance in the piston grove, and the skirt to cylinder clearance, but didn't get any pictures. With them all fine the pistons could go in.



All done.





Big end bearing clearance checked. A touch bigger than the mains but no issues, still well within tolerance.



And all torqued up with new stretch bolts.



Finished up today with fitting my ARP head studs, ready for picking up the heads from Scholar tomorrow.



Thanks for reading.