Well, on my maiden voyage this weekend, I was extremely impressed with my truck, given it's completely stock. Granted, none of the trails I took it on were anything especially technical, but I was pretty impressed anyway.

The newly working CDL most definitely came in handy.

What didn't come in handy was the location of the ignition coil when it came to nose diving into a muddy flooded pit. Thank God one of my wheelmates had a can of wire dryer, because I'd probably still be out there trying to get my truck started.

What can be done to waterproof my ignition coil, or otherwise locate it to a different part of the engine bay? You know, a part that isn't as likely to get swamped when I go through deep water?

 

GOOD subject,

However I cant think of a better place for the ignition coil to be [behind the manifold.]

Oh, you have a 1995, so its around the drivers front corner?

I also hear distilled water is a good cleaner for this plus it can be used for drinking and radiator fluid, so its kinda a 3 in one. But as for water proofing. Use a poop ton of petroleum jelly?

Please dont take my advice.

 

dielectric grease is best... fill the coil wire cap with all you can and plug it in. So long as you can keep the water from shorting that connection you'll be good. carb spray / WD / brake cleaner... anything should be able to clean/dry that connection out if it does get wet.

I'd also recomment the same dielectric grease seal around the base of the dizzy cap to help keep dust and water from invading.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is the manner in which you enter the water and the depth of the water. If it is really deep, no matter what you do, it's going to get wet. After all, they are impresessive but they are not submersibles unless you do a lot of mods.

Two, Spike has a video clip showing the proper entry as really slow, building up a wake in front of you and gently accelerating and riding the area just behind that bow wake. Of course, most people hit it hard, make a big splash and then hope for the best.

That works sometimes, as long as you are willing to risk really getting in over your head and getting stuck really bad or ingesting a bunch of water and screwing your Disco up. If that is your method, make sure you got somebody with you that is capable of extracting your vehicle from wherever you attempt to take it. After all it is your Disco and you are entitled to screw it up as bad as you want to.

They are pretty incredible, but all that does is allow you to get stuck worse than you ever did with any other vehicle, in places that most vehicles are not capable of going.

One thing to keep in mind before jumping in blindly is that besides getting you to some awesome places, you still want to be able to drive it back home when all is said and done. You would be surprised how many get really screwed up doing really stupid things. Look at some of the video clips on YouTube to see what I mean.

Anyway, Have fun, and just don't flip your Rover Over.

 

Thank you Spencer and Cosmic. I'll definitely get a hold of some di-electric grease. Supposedly, that wire dryer is non conductive, so it's ok to squirt just about anywhere (even inside the coil post as I found out).

 

You can mount yor coil any where as long as you have a long enough lead for it. When i used to mud race i had my coil mounted in side the cab. Also Ford used to have a rubber "boot" that covered the whole distributor (its was factory on the 2.3 4cyl with 8 plugs rangers an escorts used them)

 

Here is what LR used to say to do...take a tarp and fold it to fit your grill.
Using bungee cords or rope strap the tarp to your grill.
Slowly enter the water, speed up slowly until you have a small bow wave.
The tarp will keep all water out of the engine bay. (unless you stop)
Keep a steady pace until you exit the water.
Once out of the water remove the tarp and drive with your foot on the brake to heat them up and dry them out.
Inspect all fluids for water ingress as soon as it can be safely done.

You can also use plastic bags and zip ties to fasten the bags over the dizzy and coil.
Put the bag over the top and tie at the bottom.
Remove bags once out of the water.

LR used to have off road driving tips and vehicle specs on their web site, but once the DII came out they took it all down.

 

Thank Spike. This was one of those deals where it was "Put some mustard on it, and go like stink, or flood the whole truck."

More than anything, this was a shakedown run. I now know what kinds of things to take with me on the trail, what spares are good to have, etc.

 

Perfect, I almost misread, thinking to fill the coil, but then realized you said fill the wire cap.

The dielectic shouldn't be on the metal contacts, as it's an insulater.

Best way, IMO.

(good wires & caps, and clean connections, of course)


luck,greg

 

Yeah, that is just a poorly worded description by me. I should have said to grease the rubber cap which covers the HT lead connection on top of the coil.

I can see how you may have thought I was suggesting to Fill the distributor cap with grease... Now that would be pretty funny in a sick sort of way.

Maybe I was tired...