Just wanted to showcase some of the progress I've made on my 200 dollar disco so far. As I stated in my new guy thread I picked this 2002 disco up from a buddy for 200 bucks. It sat for 2 years because he gave up on a coolant leak it had. He was not familiar with Discoveries so he didn't really know where to start or how to fix it. This is my first Land Rover so I really didn't know anything about them but I have been wrenching on vehicles for quite a few years so mechanicals are mechanicals to me at this point. Just have to do some research on the specifics of any given make or model.


I started by giving it a good once over and cranked it up to see if I could pinpoint the leak. As it warmed up I notice the leak was behind the main coolant galley on the driver head. So that quickly told me that the head gasket on that side was blown (big surprise). This gave me the starting point to run with.


This was the day I picked it up.

 

I started by tearing down the motor to prep for the head gasket repair. I ordered the AB head gasket kit and went with the ARP studs because they are pretty and add horseponies! Also I took the heads to the machine shop for a church up.


While I was in there I decided to replace the oil pan gasket/pickup o-ring and check and reseal the timing cover as well as a new from main seal. I changed all fluids and gave the tranny a few flushes to get that old fluid out.


Also I wanted to freshen up my coolant system so I added a 180 t-stat and new coolant lines as well as a water pump. The radiator was pretty new because the prior owner replaced it. My temps are always in the 180 range so im happy about that.

 

Nice! What a cool way to start. 2 bills is practically free.

 

After the motor was back together and running nice I decided to replace some other stuff like the ball joints since they were not looking so hot. As I was removing the ball joints I ended up bending the top ball joint mount the the axle (long story but stuff happens sometimes). So off to the junkyard I went to grab bare axle. After some sweat and 50 bucks a had my new/old axle.


A few days prior to this I had installed a 2 inch Terrafirma lift and picked up some 16s off of Ebay because I don't like 18's and tires are more expensive. I purchased some tires from 4wheelparts but found a barely used set of general grabbers on craigslist so I picked those up for 250 bucks and returned the new set to 4wheelparts for a refund. 250 vs 850 wins in my book any day.


I got the new axle swapped in the the minty fresh ball joints and took it to get the alignment check done. Toe was good so i was happy about that.

 

Last thing ive had to mess with was fixing an exhaust leak at the collector on the manifold. Of course of the the studs was seized and required me to remove the manifold and install a heli-coil so i could put a new stud in there. The leak is fixed so that good.


So far ive put about 1200 miles on it with no issues and all in all im about 2500 into it after I factor in purchase price machine work and all the fix it parts as well as lift, tires wheels and whatnot. I feel that's a pretty good price for a good running rust free 100k mile disco.


I'm about to take it on a road trip and have nothing planned for the immediate future but ill keep everyone posted if i do anything.

 

Agreed, when he told me he wanted 200 bucks i said "let me know when i can come get it"

 

Funny note also, I had to the replace the electric fan motor because that bad boy fried real quick when I got it running. I found a replacement motor at Autozone and swapped that bad boy out real quick (note for anyone having to do this, make sure you check polarity on any electric fan before you button it up) I did a quick check when I first put it in and had it backwards so it was flowing air the wrong way. That's bad so I quickly fixed that.

 

Looking good, you're doing a great job. Keeping costs in check, too.

Keep up the good work. I like following along on builds that cost minimal.

Brian.

 

it might be less than that. i need to add it up just for fun. A lot of it i didn't "have" to do for just a head gasket repair.

 

Nicely done. These trucks don't need to be really expensive to keep on the road if you can do a bunch of work yourself.