Discovery 1 Iceland

In here will be the trials and tribulations of my 1998 Discovery 300TDi which lives it's life in the mythical land of Iceland.

I bought the car end of 2016. It was already heavily modded in ways good and bad but thankfully more the former. So far

Living in Iceland allows this Discovery the wonderful chance to be put to use properly and regularly. It belongs in places like this

What was done to it before I bought it:

• 4'' Body and suspension lift
• 38'' tires and rims to match
• Converted to Manual
• Different gearing
• Larger fender flares
• possible motor swap/rebuild done. Unsure but the motor has obviously been taken out before

What I have done to it so far:
New brake pads, brake disks x4 , Wheel bearings and seals(all), new exhaust, replacement back seats and jump seats, new tires, u join replacement x4

Still to do in nearest future: replace suspension bushings, rebuild steering box, inspect head and replace seals, replace downpipe, inspect turbo (replace or rebuild), steering damper.





As seen from the u-join cups, one of them was completely toast. Couldn't move it any by hand or with a few good hammer hits. Who knows how long its been straining the drive-train.

The dirty rotor shows how badly the rotor and wheel bearing replacement was needed. It was on the RR side. Dry bearing since it was cooked all over the rotor.

This is a slow build as part hunting/shipping is the biggest time consumer. Buying parts here in Iceland is stupid expensive. In Iceland buying a wheel bearing kit for ONE wheel is just over £100. Not joking. I ordered a full set for all wheels on Ebay for less than that including shipping. Timken brand too. Almost every part I replace is purchased online and only if theres good shipping options. Thats just the trouble with living here.

I could live with the annoying bits easy to have terrain like that on my doorstep!

I'm in love

Not with you silly, that would be gay , with that gorgeous green machine

Ok so updates:

Had the misfortune of the transmission/clutch failing on me while proudly crawling through deep snow. While stopped I switched to Lo but nothing happened when in gear and clutch pedal released. Odd but that meant something is wrong with clutch disk, transfer case, trans input shaft failure. The latter two would really suck to deal with due to work needed and costs. I was dreading doing it since I don't have a lift or engine hoist. I do have a tractor with a front loader on it though so my options were lift the whole engine and tranny assembly out or drop the gear box and tranny from the bottom. The latter is possible due to it's height and extra room in the trans tunnel from the body lift. I lucked out and went with option C. My buddy down the street from me(like 200 meters away) let me use his lift again and we made quick work of dropping the whole transmission assembly.

Turns out the friction disk disintegrated. I'm sure it was failing for a while since I had issues with it losing power going up hills at highway speed but no other hints of this were ever present. Going through the snow when things finally failed was the final nail in the clutch coffin. The stock clutch from the previous owner was no match.

Carnage pics:

Here is me holding the friction material that decided to end itself


Here is the flywheel and it can be seen there is some surface damage of some kind. See those spider web like wrinkles? I'm hoping I can still use this fly wheel. Opinions?


Thankfully the input shaft is perfectly fine and as seen here the shifter fork is quite stock and therefor it will need to be reinforced to prevent future failure that can be common.


I'm also going to replace the parking brake shoes. They are worn down a great bit and the material thats left feels of worn out quality. Arrows mark where the material ends.


The exhaust down pipe was in worse condition than I thought but I already committed to replacing it completely. The weave of the flex pipe was 2/3 disconnected


Now I gotta get to ordering new parts. I'm gonna make sure to order correctly as this is an important time of ensuring I verify that the transmission and transfer case are compatible with everything that is for Discovery 1. Since it was an auto originally, I gotta be careful here.

Looks like that flywheel could do with going off and being refaced, WSM tells you how much you could skim off it, depending on how deep those cracks are you might have to get it inserted (might be cheaper to get a new flywheel in this day and age TBH.

That isn't a Land Rover clutch I recognise, not sure what make that is?

dieseldog69 said:

Looks like that flywheel could do with going off and being refaced, WSM tells you how much you could skim off it, depending on how deep those cracks are you might have to get it inserted (might be cheaper to get a new flywheel in this day and age TBH.

That isn't a Land Rover clutch I recognise, not sure what make that is?

Click to expand...

Since we are talking Iceland, resurfacing the clutch would be far from worth it. I don't have any close contacts here that are machinists with the equipment to do that. I'll look around for a new flywheel but I'm sure that will give me the most trouble and unusual cost. It's heavy as hell so shipping will be inversely much higher than what I will end up paying for the actual flywheel. Oh well.

It's a Valeo clutch. It only looks funny (at least to me) because all the friction material got stripped off so all the fan looking bits are what the inside between the friction material looks like.

Shipping will be steep but that probably makes machining more acceptable in the cost stakes?

Seems the 300Tdi ceramic clutch is no longer available, was my first suggestion but this is the latest clutch to be offered as the supremo heavy of heavy duty clutches.

CLUTCHFIX 200/300 Tdi Organic Clutch - Defender Upgrades

I did once do a redneck reface of a flywheel, ran the engine up on the hoist and used a 120 grit flap wheel on the angle grinder to take the glaze off the face, no noticeable increase in wear.

Alright so parts have been ordered and now the wait begins

Parts ordered:
Duraspec clutch by SyncoClutch (found via recommendation from dieseldog69 - thanks!)
Aluminum HD clutch fork
Old Man Emu HD steering dampner
down pipe with cat
E brake shoes
E brake cable
Hood release cable (tired of using pliers to pull on whats left currently)
various seals

That is all I can remember that I ordered and at this stage it is plenty. Once all the items arrive and are installed I will be approaching big plan territory next (engine, engine bay, suspension)

I've already cleaned the transmission and lot of gunk from in the trans tunnel. Removed some surface rust that was presented with transmission support member then zinc painted it which will then will be rubber sprayed once support member is put back in.

Once Her Majesties Royal Air Mail hands over the goods to my barbaric fellows, I can continue the Disco 1 dream! Not to mention more ideal update and progress material to share.

Top work, I hope the clutch works out, I am getting one for my stores ready for the gearbox swap in the future so you'll have to keep us posted on how it goes for you.

Clutch has worked out fantastic. I have had to adjust my driving habit slightly as the clutch petal is so soft and smooth while the clutch bites hard but it's a good thing.

I did the whole clutch kit and even replaced the fork with one that has the plated welded on it.
Transmission out was also a great time to clean it, replace the oil pan gasket, rear main seal, and the downpipe front end exhaust assembly as mine was nearly in two pieces and useless.

I couldn't replace the hand brake as the cable I got wasn't the right one. I might have picked wrong or something else. No biggie so I'll take care of it Monday by phone to be sure. Plus I have had great customer service by phone (Looking at you defenderupgrades) So for now no handbrake. Good thing I park on level ground and in gear.

My steering damper arrived yesterday so I will get that installed soon. I'll be glad to have it in to help get rid of the incredible amouint of steering play I have and it was very obvious today on a little off roading trip I took.

Here's the actions:

Here is the trans and case assembly all cleaned and draining


Little bit of water in transfer case which I wasn't surprised and metal gunk was minimal


Obviouisly the transmission oil hasn't been changed in quite a while. Although I do suspect it's needing care as it is LOUD at high rpms while driving



I love this shot. One for the beautiful clutch, the other being it gives a good view of how much extra room I have thanks to the body lift



This was what I got to enjoy today thanks to having the green machine back together



Now here I want to show how my suspension looks and discuss it becuase I need to eventually settle on replacing it.
With running 38'' tires and with some conditions I can expect in the extremes of Iceland I need clearance in the wheel wells at all times. The body is lifted 4'' off the frame so thats great but the suspension is a homemade lift by the previous owner. By the looks of it its 4'' spacers for the spring and same/close to welded extensions on the shocks.
Here is shots of the lift parts with how the car sits, the spaces, and the welded shocks.


So my dilemma here is deciding on a suspension setup. I'd honestly like to settle on a suspension kit and call it a call but that has to be the correctly chosen call as there are quite a few brands, lift heights, and ratings to select from. I need to maintain clearance primarily in the wheel wells. Making the car taller overall isn't needed as I need to keep tilt into a factor.

Been too long since updating. Did some work a few weeks ago. Winter hasn't really set in which is ****ed up this time of year. Hasn't snowed in weeks. What we had has been melting away. It's like spring here.

Finally got the motor pulled out and found the source of the exhaust leak. Turns out the the exhaust header didn't have all the bolts holding it on along with a deteriorated gasket. I'm sure this is a source of my power loss also. I also noticed the wastegate wouldn't move for **** until I beat and pried the hell out of it. Could it literally have stayed stuck in closed position this whole time?

With the motor out I am taking my time with cleaning off the motor and replacing several fuel lines and various rotted rubber lines. New gaskets are in the mail. I'll replace the studs for the header with straight up bolts probably.

Turbo is actually in much better shape than I thought. Cold side internals are dirty as hell. I feel like it's because it's been inhaling lots of ****ty air from the engine bay from the leak in the header. I'm also sure the intake line had many leaks along its whole length. That I will also replace with something better than the pvc drain pipe that it came with.

Lucky I got my buddy down the street from me with a lift. Wheels off obviously so I wouldn't need a damn ladder



That leak dirtied **** up and burned away a decent amount of sound deadening. yay



I don't have my own engine lift but I do have a tractor which I used the lift the motor out and take back home to my garage



Here we see the obvious lack of a tight fit of the header to block and where the exhaust has been shooting out from for so long



Wrecked gasket



Not a fan of the header being part of the turbo. Oh well. Plan is to block the EGR. It's rusted on so ill be doing some cutting on it if I cant break the bolts off



There is no play in any way with the turbine so nothing to do with it. I can see though that the fins have been a little beat up by junk getting sucked into it. Notice the soot on the fins. lol



Good, bad? I dunno. Looks alright.



The radiator is ****ed. The fins are rotted. Few sections missing. Rest flake off with little effort. This probably has a role in the over heating I get when struggling up long distance inclines.



Intercooler is going the same rout as the radiator in rotting away. Only slightly better. Fins are all there but holding on just.



How it sits patiently while I take my time on the motor then eventually the engine bay clean up too.



I still got lots of things to deal with work wise and to-do wise so real work on the car is slow going until winter makes it's actual appearance.

Great thread, love the colour, good luck.

Beast!

Still more delays on making progress. However I do see things currently as more good than bad.

I had noticed a split in the headgasket in the front and rear of the motor. Very strange but no leaks of any kind were occurring and after taking the head off the block everything looked fine. Head gasket was made of some composite whatever, no metal at all except for rings of pistons. New gasket is all metal

I saw evidence of something having been done in the head case. Mismatched nuts holding down the rocker rod plus over tightened nuts told the story. I became of a victim of previous owners over tightening: going through the loosening sequence for the rocker rod mounts, one of the rocker pedestals cracked. I was quite annoyed by this but not surprised. Upon further inspection I saw the rocker arms were toast. 2 of the 4 rocker springs were also worn out. Other note of things being messed with was the valve springs and end caps seemed brand new so they are staying in. Push rods were fine too.

I've technically been lucky in coming across these issues as who knows when they'd have ended up causing serious failure in the future.

I ordered a whole new rocker assembly which wasn't much at all. Probably because it's so basic







So nothing else to do except wait some more.

This motor will feel like new when I finally get it back together.

Be warned on the MLS (multi laminated steel) head gasket, they will give you a lot of oil leaks from the head, ideally you need a new Elring composite head gasket that will seal the oil galleries properly.

Shame about the rocker assembly

dieseldog69 said:

Be warned on the MLS (multi laminated steel) head gasket, they will give you a lot of oil leaks from the head, ideally you need a new Elring composite head gasket that will seal the oil galleries properly.

Shame about the rocker assembly

Click to expand...

The gasket I got for replacement is the layered metal one. I will try my luck with it plus toss on a thin bit of sealer with in the hopes of guaranteeing a good seal. If things go south then I will just take the head off and redo it. It will go a lot easier the second time

It is a shame on the rocker but given its condition overall, a replacement was needed for a long time

Well after much waiting and various hangups along the way I have gotten the green beast back together and driving. It runs sooooo nice now. Doesn't sound loud like a tractor anymore after I fixed the last of the exhaust leaks which happened to be a huge one. No more clattering noises from the head and the power has noticeably increased. Doesn't feel like the same vehicle which is awesome haha.

Majority of the head is brand new. Only things not replaced were the valves and springs. New valve caps though as there were none to begin with. I had a stupid head scratching struggle getting the valves set and adjusted. I knew the rule of 9 but I had starting issues. It was dumb but I got through it.

other stuff replaced: coolants lines, intercooler lines/hoses, water pump, timing belt, alt belt, filters, head gasket, various seals, and even an assortment of new bolts. There is something great feeling about putting in brand new head studs and nuts. No more of those rusted/stuck together studs that come out.

Also replaced the clutch. I put a brand new HD clutch last year so I was annoyed by the failure of it like this. Luckily I had another one in my possession (I bought 2 different HD clutches last year) so this one going on comes from Valeo. I still need to call the Syncro Clutch guys about a replacement disk for the one that failed. Hopefully get a new free one.

Failed clutch disk


New clutch on (with new pressure plate) I kept the disks and plates paired as they originally are. Don't know if one pressure plate is better than the other.


Inside of the timing cover was nice and clean aside from fine belt shavings. Doing the timing was stupid easy too


I barely managed to get the motor in with most of the air out of the tires and the engine lift maxed


Due the height and overall size, I used a ladder for the constant up and down into the engine day. There are obvious good and bad to such height


Since it was a beautiful day when I got everything in and running, I did the final adjustments outside.


Finally accomplished a lot so I can take it out for some fun off roading before more replacements: Up next will be the steering

dieseldog69 said:

Top work, I hope the clutch works out, I am getting one for my stores ready for the gearbox swap in the future so you'll have to keep us posted on how it goes for you.

Click to expand...

Didn't go so well.

Whatisthatmetric said:

Didn't go so well.

Click to expand...

Why?

What happened?

Any postmortem pics?

dieseldog69 said:

Why?

What happened?

Any postmortem pics?

Click to expand...

Not sure when or how it happened. A chunk of the friction disk removed itself. I first noticed it when I had the motor out and saw there was disk material in the trans. When I got the clutch off to put the motor on the stand I saw the full damage. Never noticed anything was with the clutch before I started removing the engine.

Bottom left

Hadn't done anything in a while due to work and being cash poor. Got to finally order the wide angle rear drive shaft last week and installed it yesterday right when it arrived. My stock one exploded few months back so I couldn't do much with the car since it also needed to go through yearly inspection

One end of the torn apart drive shaft flange


The other


Of course with my luck installation wasn't as easy as it should be. One of the bolts and nuts holding the drive shaft flange on (the remains of the drive shaft) ended being fused together and wouldn't come off. So I had to cut the bolt. Thankfully the new drive shaft came with a set of new nuts and bolts for both ends. Unfortunately to replace them I had to pull out the transfer case input flange or whatever it's called in order to replace the bolts. Little messy but not bad.

New wide angle drive shaft vs old stock. At least what is left of the stock one. Happy with the difference.


Old bolts including cut one. In the trash they went


Yay for parts coming with full nuts and bolts!



Next up is replacing various bushings, panhard rod, and steering/suspension rods and end links. I got all the parts just have not been able to have a full day or two to remove most of the suspension to do it all plus redo the alignment.

Also just ordered a new wheel bearing kit. I replaced them all plus seals little over a year ago but one is leaking grease and I know why. It's the front passenger side and I remember I had a struggle with getting it together and ****ed up one of the seals. So Gotta do it again. Can't pass inspection without it since theres loads of grease in the inside of the brake disk. Plus the bearing is probably drying out so better to do a full replacement.