The discovering Discos aren’t junk resto DD buildo threado dealio
Well, with how busy life has been lately, I’ve neglected working out for the last few weeks. I’ve been doing the “farm fit” thing with the horses and moving stuff and such, but apparently that is not sufficient as I get older.
My Mother’s Day gift to the boss was to put up kick panels on the horse side of the barn (essentially 2x12s to be stacked 4 high on the walls from 8 to 16 foot lengths). We picked up the wood on Friday evening and I got set up to start work yesterday morning. I’ve already moved the 1600 lbs (literally) worth of stall mats to create a “floor” for the stalls (we had the dirt work done at completion of the barn on that side in preparation), so next was to do the kick panels.
On the very first board and one of the last deck screws, I popped a pectoral muscle. It’s same side where I almost ruptured a biceps tendon a few months back. I was obviously pushing pretty hard as the pine is a pretty soft wood, so I didn’t see the need for pilot holes, and apparently that was too much.
I’m infuriated as this is a direct result of not working out. For reference, the biceps deal was after I’d also had a few weeks off. I ruptured my other pectoral tendon quite a few years ago (after I sold the blue D2) in the same circumstances of having time off (not to mention a host of other injuries like this). What makes it infuriating is that I’m not exactly a small guy. I was a bouncer during my undergrad and have lifted weights essentially since high school. I used to be quite powerful doing 110lb dumbbells on incline press, and doing multiple sets with 3 plates on squats among a lot of other movements with decent amount of weight. These weights aren’t massive by any stretch, but at 6’7” it is a bit harder to move a lot of weight. Well, I’ve accepted that I’m getting a bit older and can’t do things like that any longer, but still a reasonably strong for my age, but the problem is taking time off puts me on opposite ends of the spectrum: I’m either strong as an ox and relatively indestructible, or very fragile when I stop for a bit. There is no middle ground. I’ve been like that for many years and it drives me nuts. It’s a result I’m sure of the very adventurous life I’ve been blessed to live and the abuse that came with it, but it’s hard to accept stuff like this when I’ve tried very hard to take care of myself despite the injuries.
Ah well, at least it didn’t turn black this morning like the other side when I did the pectoral tendon, so this is just a healthy strain or muscle tear (yep, felt a pretty good POP). So now I’m kinda down for anything requiring strength for a week or 2 at least. Yay.
On the funny news front, while I was working in the barn the other day trying to do some mild organization of all the parts, of course a brand new in the box water pump was there…. As the boss said, before I buy anything in the future, I need to sift through all the parts to see if in fact I need to order anything.
Assuming the muscle is somewhat glued back together by next weekend I might still get to do the cooling system, but we’ll see…
My Mother’s Day gift to the boss was to put up kick panels on the horse side of the barn (essentially 2x12s to be stacked 4 high on the walls from 8 to 16 foot lengths). We picked up the wood on Friday evening and I got set up to start work yesterday morning. I’ve already moved the 1600 lbs (literally) worth of stall mats to create a “floor” for the stalls (we had the dirt work done at completion of the barn on that side in preparation), so next was to do the kick panels.
On the very first board and one of the last deck screws, I popped a pectoral muscle. It’s same side where I almost ruptured a biceps tendon a few months back. I was obviously pushing pretty hard as the pine is a pretty soft wood, so I didn’t see the need for pilot holes, and apparently that was too much.
I’m infuriated as this is a direct result of not working out. For reference, the biceps deal was after I’d also had a few weeks off. I ruptured my other pectoral tendon quite a few years ago (after I sold the blue D2) in the same circumstances of having time off (not to mention a host of other injuries like this). What makes it infuriating is that I’m not exactly a small guy. I was a bouncer during my undergrad and have lifted weights essentially since high school. I used to be quite powerful doing 110lb dumbbells on incline press, and doing multiple sets with 3 plates on squats among a lot of other movements with decent amount of weight. These weights aren’t massive by any stretch, but at 6’7” it is a bit harder to move a lot of weight. Well, I’ve accepted that I’m getting a bit older and can’t do things like that any longer, but still a reasonably strong for my age, but the problem is taking time off puts me on opposite ends of the spectrum: I’m either strong as an ox and relatively indestructible, or very fragile when I stop for a bit. There is no middle ground. I’ve been like that for many years and it drives me nuts. It’s a result I’m sure of the very adventurous life I’ve been blessed to live and the abuse that came with it, but it’s hard to accept stuff like this when I’ve tried very hard to take care of myself despite the injuries.
Ah well, at least it didn’t turn black this morning like the other side when I did the pectoral tendon, so this is just a healthy strain or muscle tear (yep, felt a pretty good POP). So now I’m kinda down for anything requiring strength for a week or 2 at least. Yay.
On the funny news front, while I was working in the barn the other day trying to do some mild organization of all the parts, of course a brand new in the box water pump was there…. As the boss said, before I buy anything in the future, I need to sift through all the parts to see if in fact I need to order anything.
Assuming the muscle is somewhat glued back together by next weekend I might still get to do the cooling system, but we’ll see…
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The boss is losing her mind because- as you very well know- she won’t stop, which just extends her healing time. This makes it to where I can’t afford to have diminished function and need to be careful. The absurd number of surgeries I’ve had is something I’m trying keep from happening as it just makes things harder on her when I’m injured because part of why she keeps me around is because she expects me to know how- and be physically capable- of pretty much anything. Considering my dad was still quite powerful into his late 70s and finally called it a day at 94 means there is no reason for me not to follow suit. It’s funny as last night she said, “well, you’re not giggling, so that’s a good thing”. I have oddball threshold for pain- remember in Baja when I binned it and rang my bell well enough we were scared we’d have to hit the button on the Sat Tracker- that if the injury is REALLY bad, I end up laughing because it hurts so bad. Yes, I’m deranged.
Meh, enough of my pity party. This was all the wood we picked up with the Alveston on tow pig duty.
Last edited by longtallsally; May 10, 2026 at 01:13 PM.
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Well, I had the chance on Friday evening to work on the silver one. I’m replacing the radiator, water pump, and thermostat and switching over to Prestone 50/50. I spent all weekend working on the barn making it to where we could have stalls on the other side as believe it or not, we are about to get snow the next couple days! So all the work I got done on the Disco was on Friday.
The radiator is completely ready to be pulled. All I need to do is disconnect the oil cooler and it will come right out. Everything went really smooth save me breaking that silly hard return line to the expansion tank when removing the MAF sensor, but not only in the parts bin is there a replacement, I’d rather just replace it with a flexible line like I did back when I had the blue one.
I’m going to drain the oil as I was going to do that anyway so I don’t make as much of a mess when I disconnect the cooler. I think I’ll get this coming weekend to play with it, so hopefully I can get it back together after the cooling system refresh and engine flush. THEN I’ll have a baseline on health of the engine and go from there.
To keep the good news going, despite the weather, the garage doors should be ready to go in the next week or so and then I can finally bring all the tools down to the barn and not have to walk all the way back up to the house to get stuff.
I suspect that is the original water pump. Flowkooler must have to make another batch, so I’m just going with the new one that came with everything and whenever they get it to me, I’ll have it on the shelf if needed.
The radiator is completely ready to be pulled. All I need to do is disconnect the oil cooler and it will come right out. Everything went really smooth save me breaking that silly hard return line to the expansion tank when removing the MAF sensor, but not only in the parts bin is there a replacement, I’d rather just replace it with a flexible line like I did back when I had the blue one.
I’m going to drain the oil as I was going to do that anyway so I don’t make as much of a mess when I disconnect the cooler. I think I’ll get this coming weekend to play with it, so hopefully I can get it back together after the cooling system refresh and engine flush. THEN I’ll have a baseline on health of the engine and go from there.
To keep the good news going, despite the weather, the garage doors should be ready to go in the next week or so and then I can finally bring all the tools down to the barn and not have to walk all the way back up to the house to get stuff.
I suspect that is the original water pump. Flowkooler must have to make another batch, so I’m just going with the new one that came with everything and whenever they get it to me, I’ll have it on the shelf if needed.
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So you are spot on with saying it. As it will most likely not be until this weekend I dive back in, I might try to see if I can finagle the radiator out without removing the lines.
The fan clutch was harder than it should have been and I drove around looking for a 35mm wrench (I don’t care what anyone says, it is NOT a 36mm) and ended up using an old pipe wrench with the handle from a floor jack as a breaker, and the “holder” tool with a 1/2” breaker to finally break it loose.
There were some other fasteners that didn’t want to come out easily, so I’ll be using a good bit of anti seize for a few things at reassembly.
After the radiator is out, I’ll have a lot of room for the water pump, but as you can see, the engine bay really isn’t bad, so I’m not foreseeing any issues of than the time to clean up the mating surfaces.
xrad confirmed the coolant in there was zerex, so I’ll probably need a couple jugs of distilled water to flush, and I should be good to go.
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I made some progress today, but sheesh, the little things end up being annoying. I knew I needed to get the hose for the coolant return line and that took 3 stores to find it. Then I went to use the Permatex spray on gasket stuff, and of course my can was wasted. Another 2 stores and no one had it, but it will get there in the morning.
Adding to the “oh well” thoughts are the fact that the water pump was basically perfect. But certainly positive was that the front cover and everything there was really in exceptional shape.
I got the old gasket off without a huge effort and everything looks really good.
I’d have a lot of reassembly done if not for the gasket stuff. Ah well, I should be able to get it most of the way. I think my only concern is that xrad said it was a new 18F t stat, and now seeing the water pump was really in good shape, I guess I can only hope it was the radiator at this point. The coolant that came out looks absolutely perfect, so I dunno. I suppose I’ll find out when I start to flush tomorrow. I got a number of gallons of distilled water and will run that through before moving to the Prestone.
Wish me luck!
Adding to the “oh well” thoughts are the fact that the water pump was basically perfect. But certainly positive was that the front cover and everything there was really in exceptional shape.
I got the old gasket off without a huge effort and everything looks really good.
I’d have a lot of reassembly done if not for the gasket stuff. Ah well, I should be able to get it most of the way. I think my only concern is that xrad said it was a new 18F t stat, and now seeing the water pump was really in good shape, I guess I can only hope it was the radiator at this point. The coolant that came out looks absolutely perfect, so I dunno. I suppose I’ll find out when I start to flush tomorrow. I got a number of gallons of distilled water and will run that through before moving to the Prestone.
Wish me luck!
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I got it all flushed and buttoned up. I still have some final bleeding to do (parked on an incline last night) and I think I’ll have it.
THEN I can start figuring out the tick- which doesn’t seem quite as bad now.
I’m really perplexed, though, as the gauge xrad put in was at times 60 degrees off. But I’m positive it was the reason for it getting hot as he really took exceptional care of this thing. The engine is clean, all clips and fasteners are as good as I’ve ever seen, and the machine was just really well taken care of. I feel very fortunate to get the opportunity to take this one over.
THEN I can start figuring out the tick- which doesn’t seem quite as bad now.
I’m really perplexed, though, as the gauge xrad put in was at times 60 degrees off. But I’m positive it was the reason for it getting hot as he really took exceptional care of this thing. The engine is clean, all clips and fasteners are as good as I’ve ever seen, and the machine was just really well taken care of. I feel very fortunate to get the opportunity to take this one over.
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I give up on the OEM thermostat. BRAND NEW soft spring (supposed nicer one) from Atlantic British wouldn’t open, or was doing so intermittently and caused enough pressure to start leaking.
I’ve always said the in line one isn’t necessary and I’ll stick with that, but the reality is, EVERY time I’ve done a cooling system (on 4 D2s now) it is a fight. I’m sick of it. @Extinct when I cool down (no pun intended) order in bound.
Grrrrr…. I just have to keep telling myself, I now have 3 of these things, I know what to expect.
It sat all night like this and after a couple cycles where I let it get to 200F, it then started leaking. I’m sick of crap parts…
I don’t blame anything other than the manufacturer of the t stat.
I’ve always said the in line one isn’t necessary and I’ll stick with that, but the reality is, EVERY time I’ve done a cooling system (on 4 D2s now) it is a fight. I’m sick of it. @Extinct when I cool down (no pun intended) order in bound.
Grrrrr…. I just have to keep telling myself, I now have 3 of these things, I know what to expect.
It sat all night like this and after a couple cycles where I let it get to 200F, it then started leaking. I’m sick of crap parts…
I don’t blame anything other than the manufacturer of the t stat.
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How many times have I been philosophical in this thread? How many times have I gotten upset, whined, relaxed and come back to fix things?
Disco is life.
The flavor of the minute is of course the bane of the Discovery 2, the cooling system. I am a strong believer in the OEM system working perfectly well no matter the conditions. And as per the title and overall feeling of this thread, part of that discovery…. Is finding solutions that work to OEM designs that are, say, questionable.
Enter the in-line thermostat solution. Part of my fervor for the D2 beyond how cool they are, is just how cheap and easy they are to work on. It takes some effort to learn their personalities (I’m convinced each one is different) and to address design misses and shore up gaps in how robust they can actually be. Once you “get it”- again per the purpose behind the thread- they are amazing machines fulfilling a good bit of what a good number of modern machines.
Philosophizing aside, the in line solution just plain goes to the next level in cheap and easy service/maintenance/repairs. I didn’t want to get away from OEM in the design, but reality is, I’ve had to fight every single time I’ve had to monkey with a cooling system in a D2. No more. It took me no longer than 30 minutes to pull out the OEM stuff and put the in line deal in.
I didn’t even bleed it. I just added coolant back in.
It now won’t go over 188F (with a 170F t stat) even working on keeping 75 MPH, going uphill, and elevation. OK fine, the heater isn’t really heating all that much. I’ll take the 10 minutes and swap in a higher temp t stat when the weather gets consistently cold. Keep in mind, this is all with the Silver one that is supposed to have a bad engine (BTW, there is ZERO indication of coolant and oil mixing).
I will still hold to the OEM setup works perfectly well and the in line solution solves no problems OTHER THAN ease of service and maintenance. And as my Discos are toys, and this makes my life easier, it is now the HANDS DOWN solution that should be used. I will no longer live in fear of the cooling system in any way.
The only remaining task is to clip a couple inches off the hose to get everything clipped back in and looking as close to OEM as possible.
Disco is life.
The flavor of the minute is of course the bane of the Discovery 2, the cooling system. I am a strong believer in the OEM system working perfectly well no matter the conditions. And as per the title and overall feeling of this thread, part of that discovery…. Is finding solutions that work to OEM designs that are, say, questionable.
Enter the in-line thermostat solution. Part of my fervor for the D2 beyond how cool they are, is just how cheap and easy they are to work on. It takes some effort to learn their personalities (I’m convinced each one is different) and to address design misses and shore up gaps in how robust they can actually be. Once you “get it”- again per the purpose behind the thread- they are amazing machines fulfilling a good bit of what a good number of modern machines.
Philosophizing aside, the in line solution just plain goes to the next level in cheap and easy service/maintenance/repairs. I didn’t want to get away from OEM in the design, but reality is, I’ve had to fight every single time I’ve had to monkey with a cooling system in a D2. No more. It took me no longer than 30 minutes to pull out the OEM stuff and put the in line deal in.
I didn’t even bleed it. I just added coolant back in.
It now won’t go over 188F (with a 170F t stat) even working on keeping 75 MPH, going uphill, and elevation. OK fine, the heater isn’t really heating all that much. I’ll take the 10 minutes and swap in a higher temp t stat when the weather gets consistently cold. Keep in mind, this is all with the Silver one that is supposed to have a bad engine (BTW, there is ZERO indication of coolant and oil mixing).
I will still hold to the OEM setup works perfectly well and the in line solution solves no problems OTHER THAN ease of service and maintenance. And as my Discos are toys, and this makes my life easier, it is now the HANDS DOWN solution that should be used. I will no longer live in fear of the cooling system in any way.
The only remaining task is to clip a couple inches off the hose to get everything clipped back in and looking as close to OEM as possible.
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