It done gone pop!

As I knew it would eventually, my Disco is now dead. This morning heading to the hardware store, it suddenly started to throw more than average steam out the exhaust and the heat went cold before it's engine temps started to climb at an amazing rate.

10 gallons of water to get the last 5 miles home.. I could go about a mile before I had to pull over and add more.

I knew it was inevitable, and I will resurrect this truck, as I do love the beastie (except for it's thirst for premium) but I was hoping she would have made it till spring to do this, not the first snowfall of the year.

And while Murphy may have had is way with me that way.. at least it was a day off and did not happen on my way to work

Head gasket?

I don't know the Rover crowd very well, would it be considered sacrilege to stuff a LSx in it?

Kenny_McCormic wrote: I don't know the Rover crowd very well, would it be considered sacrilege to stuff a LSx in it?

That sounds like a butt load of hurt to do a swap like that. I'm sure the stock engine can be replaced/repaired/rebuilt for a fraction of the $$$"s and time an LSx swap would take.

I never understood why they ran on premium. Unless it's a high performance engine, I don't see why they can't run on 87.

How bad are those engines about warping stuff?

I would love to stuff an LSx into it.. the problem lies in all the electronics and emissions. Everything is so integrated today, getting it to not throw a CEL would be near impossible.

I would love the 5.4, being all aluminum, it would not weigh the nose down like the smaller iron truck engines.

As for engines, the 4.6 like my disco has is well known for dropping liners. For some reason Rover did not "tophat" them, just pressed them into place. All it takes is one overheat and it becomes a time bomb

I did head gaskets on mine and it lasted until I sold it several years later, with lots of towing.

The swap I always wanted to do was a BMW M62 V8. It should bolt to the ZF transmission in the truck already with the correct bell housing, and the Bosch fuel injection in the Disco already (put there in BMWs ownership), should be able to control the motor with the right ECU. That puts you up 70hp and some TQ and a more reliable motor, as long as you do the timing chains before installation. They are cheap too.

that is a very good thought, Sonic. It's also the engine I never understood why BMW did not drop into the disco in the first place

Are you sure it's not just the stupid thermostat that fails shut?

The big issue with dropping an LSJuan in there is that it's a good way to shred the transfer case. Basically the rest of the drive train isn't up to the torque. The UK company that dropped Chevy SBs into Range Rovers in the 90s (sorry, name escapes me right now) did have to beef up parts of the drive train because of it.

IIRC there is something about this engine that requires fairly high compression and premium fuel in order to squeeze any sort of power out of it. The age of the design really shows by now, both regarding power and fuel consumption.

nope.. T-stat is new as of last year.. and she is swallowing coolant at a phenomenal rate.. like 2 gallons a mile. Engine is toast

Crud . Sorry to hear that. That said, I vaguely remember the reman ones not being quite as expensive as I expected.

wanted to add... it's coming out the tailpipe. I was leaving huge clouds of steam out of exhaust just at idle.. when on the move it was like I was spraying for bugs

How many miles are on it?

Overfinch is the old LR tuner. Twisted seems to be the current big guy.

The real LR nuts would want to see a Rover 300TDi in there.

Cotton wrote: How many miles are on it?

just under 90,000.

less than 100k and needs two full engine tear downs? Wow, thats bad.

Holy hell, I assumed we were talking about a much older car.

2 full engine tear downs? Truck is on it's original engine. Supposedly the previous owner had done some "upper end" work to it.. obviously it was probably a headgasket when one of the liners was busy slipping.

If I had owned it from new, it would have never overheated, but I do not know what kind of maintenance schedule it had before I got it.

No worries though, it will come back to life better than ever. I am prepared to spend way too many thousands to get a proper engine with all the typical rover problems fixed out

singleslammer wrote: less than 100k and needs two full engine tear downs? Wow, thats bad.

Yay Range Rover.

At least it didn't burst into flames first.

Keith Tanner wrote: Overfinch is the old LR tuner. Twisted seems to be the current big guy. The real LR nuts would want to see a Rover 300TDi in there.

I just don't get the Diesel obsession in this country. They make almost zero sense for something like a Land Rover or Range rover. You end up with something so slow it can be out run by a glacier in spring time and even at $4+ a gallon the savings will never pay off. Hell even when petrol was the equiv. of $5 us/gal in the UK 20 years ago we ran V8 Land Rovers rather than Diesels in our family. The supposed torque advantage even when pulling boats and horse trailers just wasn't worth it to us. I grew up with Land Rover vans in my family and we never bothered with a diesel. Now the later TDi's a re a whole different thing, but I just don't see the point in this country where they almost give gas away for free (and yes I'm talking $4/gal not the current prices)

Sorry to hear about the motor.

Drop in an Olds Jetfire V8 and really piss off some people:

I do wonder if Rover retained the same bellhousing bolt pattern.

Sonic wrote: I did head gaskets on mine and it lasted until I sold it several years later, with lots of towing. The swap I always wanted to do was a BMW M62 V8. It should bolt to the ZF transmission in the truck already with the correct bell housing, and the Bosch fuel injection in the Disco already (put there in BMWs ownership), should be able to control the motor with the right ECU. That puts you up 70hp and some TQ and a more reliable motor, as long as you do the timing chains before installation. They are cheap too.

I think we're on to something here..

slefain wrote: Drop in an Olds Jetfire V8 and really piss off some people: I do wonder if Rover retained the same bellhousing bolt pattern.

yes they did. When my boss stuffed his MGB-GT with V8 power, he used an 89 camaro trans with a lower bellhousing wedge from some late sixties Olds.

Gamby: I've been an LR tech for the last seven years, in my observation the average Disco 2 gets about 50,000 miles on a set of head gaskets before they find a way to fail. It's just part of ownership.

Honestly, I'd just do the heads again, address everything on the way through, and keep driving. The cylinder liner issue is pretty limited to the '03 and '04 MY, due to end of run production and poor tolerances. '02 and earlier are still susceptible to poor head bolt torquing causing cracks in the block deck face, so clean the block well and inspect closely between the bolt holes and cylinders. Usually, I just wind up cleaning everything really well and putting it back together carefully with copper coat on the gaskets. My theory is, the head gaskets are going to die again, but if I do a REALLY good job, maybe they can last a little longer. Oh, get the heads skimmed by a machine shop, they're usually warped. And use a factory thermostat, I've had the aftermarket ones fail closed on me NEW