My 1998 Discovery 1 V8i 3.9L has intermittent starting problem. It was running fine for 2-3 years after changing the fuel pump but now it is happening again. - another fuel pump has been replaced. - fuel pressure is fine. - the alarm system (spider?) has been bypassed. - Distributor never been changed. - Amplifier replaced about 5 years ago. I have noticed if I restart the engine immediately once the engine has been started then the engine will always 100% start again. It can be repeated many times with success. If I leave the car over a few hours (regardless warm or cold weather) then the engine sometime will have problem to start. One time the car would not start after multiple attempts. I pulled out the lead on the high voltage distributor coil and I did not see any spark. The car eventually started after left it overnight.
*update: it is a 1998 instead of 1997.

 

1997-1998 should be the GEMS 4.0L V8.
If you have the 3.9L, that is a 1994-1995 year model.

 

My 94 has a distributor, my 96 does not, no mechanical distributors after 95. The engines are simple, No Start = no fuel or no spark. Sounds like you had no spark, so dig in and trouble shoot from there, or start swapping parts. You could check for voltage pulses at the low voltage side of the coil with a meter. That will show if the ECU is sending the correct signal. Distributor amplifier or Crank Position Sensor (CPS) seem like the usual suspects from other threads on the forum, cap and rotor too. How did you check for spark? Did you plug in a spark plug and connect the ground? If you have a loose wire somewhere, that can be really difficult to trouble shoot. How old are your spark plug wires? Have you tuned up the ignition system lately, or driven through water?

My emergency spares kit includes a distributor amplifier, coil, cap, rotor, HV coil lead wire. Basic stuff, easy to pack. The amplifier was less than $30, and I installed the new one and kept the old proven unit as the spare. The new one came with heat sink compound for good heat transfer, the old one was barely in contact with almost no compound, but ran well. I installed the new coil too. As far as I know the CPS is original with nearly 150k miles now. I've only had it for about 5k miles and drive it every other day or so. A new coil is not very expensive either. Amplifier, cap, rotor, and coil are all easy to replace (with amplifier a bit more difficult). And it is really nice having my new NGK spark plug wire set and plugs. I'm getting 13 1/2 mpg now after the tune up, before I got 11. So it pays to tune up. I don't know if you noticed, but gas prices have gone up.

 

Check your grounds and fuses. My truck had no spark/fuel because of a combination of bad fuses and bad crankshaft sensor signal. Make sure your crankshaft sensor wires aren’t falling to bits.

 

I have checked and it is a 1998 instead of 1997.
It is definitely a 3.9 because the engine block has 3.9 written.

 

OK so maybe someone swapped a 3.9 into a 1998 Discovery? There was no 3.9 in the NAS 1998 Discovery. Is yours a left hand or right hand drive? Makes no difference really since it has 3.9 on the top.

They other posters have good advice. Check everything, make a list and process of elimination.

 

Sam, does the engine have a mechanical distributor in the front, with one coil, or does it have four coil packs in the back, without a mechanical distributor? Each type of engine has different ways to read the check engine codes and troubleshooting techniques.

If your upper plenum was replaced in the past, it could be a 4.0 engine with 3.9 on the cover.

 

I live in Taiwan and I am pretty sure it is a 3.9 since all of the documentations have 3900cc written on them and no one swapped my engine. There were two types of D1 in Taiwan which was 3.9 V8i and 2.0 TDI.
Here is a picture under the hood:

 

Thank you for your help. After some research over the internet I don’t think my vehicle has a CPS?

I checked my the spark by putting the plug from the high voltage coil against the body of the car (since the engine block has some minor oil leak and I thought it wouldn’t be safe to have spark near it). I also checked by unplugging the plug and plugging it back loosely so I can see sparks (I have done this in the past and usually there were sparks when it was working properly).
Sounds like I need to replace everything step by step.

 

It’s directly above your oil drain plug. You might not see it because it has a grey cube-shaped shield over it. It’s tough to get too. Mine has yellow tape on the wires and the shield removed. Here’s a crappy pic of me pointing to it: