Welcome to the group.

 

Let the adventure begin!

 

Did you get a service history? Look it over closely, especially the cooling system. HG replacement is the most typical expensive repair, usually caused by an overheat condition caused by something else in the cooling system failing. If you have some money for preventative maintenance, I would replace the radiator, all hoses, coolant bottle, and water pump. Recommend the inline thermostat mod, you can do a search on it. PCV mod is also a must do.

 

Welcome to the group. This is an expensive hobby and there are few “good deals” out there once you pull back the layers of the onion and figure out what you have. I originally paid 3000 for mine thinking all I would need to do is change the thermostat and change the head gasket. Unfortunately my disco was not well care for and I needed to replace the engine. I am now closing in on $20k and that is with doing a lot of the work myself.

So
1) $3000 for original purchase
2) $1500 for tools
3) $6000 for tires, upgrades and mods
4) $9000 for engine and associated components

It’s certainly more than I wanted to spend but it is now a reliable daily driver.

Make sure you focus on getting the mechanical and reliability issues behind you before you start spending $$$ on a bunch mods that only make it look cool. Good luck!

 

Get yourself a OBD wireless dongle and an app for your phone (Torque for Android or OBD Fusion for Apple). The data it provides will save you hours of diagnosis. Then download all the workshop manuals (RAVE) from the google drive folder in my signature.

Ask lots of questions and remember that pictures and videos are worth 1,000 words.

 

I used Cityside in Holliston, MA for large jobs, like head gaskets. They were excellent and reasonably priced. J White gave me some pretty hefty estimates in comparison, though I imagine they do good work.

https://www.citysidegarage.com/

 

Hi Extinct,
Yes, need to go through the service records in detail to determine what will need to be done right away, will do TY

 

I might also suggest getting an oil analysis from a company like Blackstone Labs which can tell you a lot about the condition of your engine. You can also get a borescope and take a look at each of your cylinders to see if there are any obvious issues. Replace your thermostat with a low temp one and get your oil pressure tested to make sure your have good pressure/lubrication. On mine I found the oil pump rings were bad which is partly what led to my catastrophic engine failure.

 

Hi cvhyatt,
Similarly I purchased mine for $3000 as well and am hoping that my disco was taken care of a bit more. Getting it mechanically sound will be first priority before I think of any mods. The only item I will be focusing on outside of the mechanical/reliability is the chassis and getting Waxoyl applied.
Regarding cost I am prepared for them if they come up. This is going to become my dd as well.
My rationale is comparing it to the current lease I have along with excise tax, maintenance, insurance and gas costs even if I need to spend $20K over the next 2+ years I'll still be coming out ahead and be driving a vehicle I will truly enjoy
If possible I would appreciate a list of the tools you purchased.
TY

 

Here’s my build list. http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...it?usp=sharing

Nothing really special with the tools. Got a set of metric and SAE sockets and wrenches. Also got a cherry picker, 4 jack stands, a hydraulic jack, borescope, Bluetooth OBD reader with OBD Fusion app, battery powered impact driver and sockets and a bunch of long extensions for the socket wrenches. Then just bought a few odds and ends from there. No mechanical experience when I started so I made a lot of costly mistakes along the way but it was a fun project and now I have a unique and reliable vehicle.