I have a chance to purchase a 2002 DII with 139000 miles and a bad transmission but a "good" engine. Befor my purchase I plan to hook up my scanner to check for any fault codes that might be present. It might give me some information about the health of the engine. I plan to do this befor starting the engine as it has been sitting for about 4 months. I'm still undecided as to whether I will start the engine or just let the scanner tell me yes or no about the purchase. Are there other things that I should be checking befor purchase? After I purchase it and get it home is there any no no's with power washing the engine? If I do power wash it are there areas to avoid. Yes I know this is a lot of questions but I want this to work out to a satisfactory conclusion.
This is the rest of the story. A dealer,not a LR dealer owns the vehicle and is open to an offer to get it off his lot. My daughter has an 01 DII with a bad engine,both head gaskets are gone and the brakes are in need of serious repair,like the three amigos are present. My plan is to pull her transmission and put it in the 02 providing I can come to an agreement with the dealer. I'll update as I go along and answer any questions that I can. Thanks to all.

 

I would have trouble cannibalizing a Disco with head gasket issues. Head Gaskets are routine maintenance on one of these, as well as the the braking system. As for this truck, bite the bullet and do the HG's and brakes or sell it cheap.

THEN, find out what is actually wrong with the one you are looking at. These transmissions are pretty robust. Most failures are lack of proper maintenance related and can be cleared up.

You don't see many Disco's with transmission troubles so bad you need a new one. It happens but rarely. Find out what is really going on and make an offer accordingly. But do not destroy a good truck with HG issues over it. Unless there is even more to the story.

 

Normally a D2 with a bad transmission = driveshaft exploded, but I have seen a few where certain gears were INOP, but I'm sure those were due to lack of maintenance or some serious abuse.

Also it isn't your truck yet so fire that bad boy up, listen for loud ticks, let it idle, and while it's warming up try all the windows, locks (with a window down), sunroofs, HVAC, radio, CD Changer, and all your lights. Then with an OBDII reader check the codes, and monitor engine temps.

My 99 sat for nearly 6 months and it fired up like it had been parked overnight. Then I drove it 4.5hr home!

I use my ScanGauge II for all my LR purchases and if an owner won't let me hook it up I simply walk away and say adios as they're usually hiding something if they won't let you hook up a scanner.

 

Thanks for the input. At my age doing head gaskets my self is out of the question. I don't think they make that many depends.At some point about five years ago the HG's started showing signs of leaking into the coolant so a local shop had a magic compound that they added to the coolant and it sealed up the leaks for about two years befor they got too bad to drive. so it has been sitting since that time. I wouldn't feel right if I didn't pull the engine and do a complete tear down including tophats with new internals. This is not a project for a 70 year old.
I do like the idea that it isn't my vehicle so start it up and see what happens. My scanner isn't smart enough to monitor engine temps,unless I'm missing something. I have a number in the back of my head for an offer if the engine checks out to be serviceable. I'll get back when I have more to post about either project.

 

Visited the car lot that has the DII today. Got it started heard a ticking that lasted about 30 seconds. Was told it had not been started in 6 months,might be the reason for the ticking. Warmed up good temp never got above 205*. what I saw lit up on the dash was the following.
Left hand side TC,Downhill decent and ABS. My scanned showed no codes and none pending.
Tried to move vehicle to determine transmission operation. It would not move but the left front tire would spin and throw gravel it is the only wheel that would turn,not sure what to make of everything I found out.
Interior is in decent shape with the required saggy headliner. Any information about what I found would be very helpful. Thanks

 

Make sure you check the I/M monitors. No codes can mean no problems, or it can mean that the computer hasn't run all it's checks yet.
I had a dealer try to burn me recently. He told me there were no warning lights on the dash. I plugged in my scan tool and there were four or five monitors that weren't ready. I told him he'd be better off just being honest and I'm not interested in the car.

 

Left front tire is the only one that will move??? Sounds like transfer case problems? I would put it in low range and see if it will move. Is this truck really really cheap? Like under $800. Are you going to do the trans swap or pay a shop?

 

I don't plan to do the transmission swap but will have my mechanic that has history with the current Rover. I think it can be had for $500 + doc.fees. D*

 

I visited the 02 DII to check out some things befor I make offer. I found out that the motor is a non SAI motor and the 01 DII that has blown head gaskets is an SAI motor. I'm sure that this will be a problem to switch the motors. I decided to go with a motor switch because the 01 DII is in much better overall cosmetic condition both inside,outside and frame wise. If I can't change the motors I guess I'm in for doing head gaskets on the 01. D*

 

That '02 sounds like an interesting situation. So the front wheel spins, but the car won't move? To me, it sounds like one or more of the wheels is locked up. Either the rear differential is destroyed in a way that has it locked up, or you've got a stuck brake (handbrake or one of the calipers). If a wheel is spinning, the transmission is transferring power, so that wouldn't be a concern. If the other wheels were not locked, the car would move. Especially in an '02, because of lack of CDL, if a wheel is dragging (or the car is somehow otherwise kept from moving), only 1 wheel will spin.(the one with least traction) Based on what you describe, I would 95% guarantee it's a brake issue keeping the thing from moving. Jack up each corner and find out which wheels don't spin by hand.