ive only had it a week, have to get a few things worked out for inspection, have a small hole in the passenger floor and one in the driver side rear door sill. the exhaust leak needs fixed and i think thats it for inspection. its been sitting in a garage since 2006 so i need inspection before i can go too many places. as for off road i cant wait for that.

 

oh and i have a vacuum line that is dry rotted that runs from the cruise control up to the front under the drivers side headlight.

 

ok so i still cannot feel a leak so i uploaded a video to youtube and hope to provide a working link. 1996 land rover discovery noise - YouTube there it is hope it works. camera on my phone doesn't quite pick up the sound right. it almost sounds like a hammering on the video which i really hope its not.

 

That vacumn is limited to the cruise control system only. There is a small vacumn pump up by the driver's side headlamp. It is completely independent of the engine vacumn.

Do not take it off-road until it is in good running shape or you may not get it back home under it's own power. Get it right and ready first.

 

well you really cant go wrong with what you paid.

so to start i would address those missfires and that exhuast leak. For the leak i would start from the top and work your way back at every flang and check. also check at the mufflers joints going into the muffle. they do rot out right there. just check for black exhuast streaks ( sorta looks like brake dust ). if you do find those you can weld them up for a temp fix or just go and spend the money for new exhuast.

as for the missfires. Go and get NGK Copper Cores, run ya about 20 bucks for a set of 8. you will not go wrong with them. Do NOT get anything other can oem replacement ae. auto lights. they will cause missfires after 1k miles easily. is it the 3.9 or 4.0. you want to check you cap and rotor and see if they need replacement. if it has coil packs like mine easiest way to check them is to turn on the truck. pull out one wire at a time and hold them close to the coil and it should arc out of the hole to your plug wire. if it doesn't then the insolation inside is go away and is arcing internally. there is no physical way to really check coil packs. fyi they are a pain in the butt to get them off so good luck.

 

96 is a 4.0 with no distributor. Coil packs instead.

I prefer the Champion Coppers. I tried the NGK and new NGK wires, the plug diameter was larger than the wire and damaged one new plug wire. If you get to where you can see the coil packs, they are a simple bolt in. I set up a walkboard beside my fender for better access.

If you are having issue with it, you may need new O2's so read their output before you get to far. and clean the MAF and IACV. And the ports they plug into on the plenum.

 

soooo get this as for my exhaust leak. i did the seafoam treatment to see if i could just see the exhaust leak. nothing... tried a couple more ideas and nothing. then i changed plugs and wires. it got quieter, and i was clueless. it sounds just like an exhaust leak. im not the only one to think it was an exhaust leak. so ithen pulled injector plugs. get to #4 and behold exhaust leak is gone. this definitely means no exhaust leak but maybe a valve or rocker arm. now ive wasted more time looking for this "ehaust leak" than it would have taken to fix a rocker or valve.

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Discovery.

 

haha no doubt. well i guess its all in fun right? the disco is inspectable now though. i just dont think i will be making any long trips with it till i get the gaskets ordered in, however long that will take. along with whatever i find under that valve cover and head

 

Good luck. Let us know what you find. Also show some pictures if anything interesting