So here is my short story of owning my first Disco II...

During the first week of November I decided that I was too flush with cash and needed to throw it at something dumb. A little online search took me to Copart.com and in 24 hours I had purchased what looked to be a solid 2000 Discovery II.





Upon it's delivery to me on a front-loader, my buddy and I inspected the vehicle to see what exactly I had gotten into. Turned over, OME suspension, new alternator, newer head, clean interior, trunk full of snow tires and extra trim pieces. Other than the Cats having been sawzalled off for scrap, what seemed to be a rear main seal gasket leak, and general exterior defects, it seemed like I had gambled with the right truck!



Respectible, right?


I didn't want that bar anyways...weight reduction!



Plenty of gunk built up around the seams but no drips!

Since then I had a few issues with starting her up which were due to a bad negative battery cable and a crap battery in general. Once I was able to get her to run, I was ever more excited that my luck had finally come through: Idle was fine, not rapping noises, no overheating or smoke. To clear all areas of doubt I decided to have it inspected by my local LR dealer to give it a good comb through.

That's when my luck gave out... Every single cylinder is wet with coolant. The overflow tank fills up but the coolant magically disappears. I read up on the common issues of head gasket issues due to poor bolt design, blocks cracking or sleeves dropping, all of which coolant blackholes seem to point to.


So here I am, not terribly underwater in my investment, but not sure what the best direction is. Do I cut my losses and part out/sell complete? Is there something else I can do to get more miles out of the engine? Or is the next step new/rebuild engine because I hear the supercharged Jag engine of the same year fits nicely into the hood...

 

Hope you get a nice piece of software in your stocking to adapt that old Bosch ECU to a supercharged Jag!! There are a few that can drop in a GM LS engine and a handful of diesels but that's the extent. Nobody has ever swapped in a Jag and wrote about it, that's for sure. It's common to have 1- side of the block tank but both sides? What's the oil look like? Any coolant in there or going out the exhaust? Probably pull the cyl heads and see what you have going on there. Any second hand engine swap is a toss-up (thread on LRO has a guy that went 2&out on used engines and both failed at the block almost immediately) and you should replace all the gaskets anyway since you plan on keeping it around. These days everybody is doing a full engine rebuild, doing away with the old cylinder sleeves and getting flanged liners machined in there and those will hold up for as long as you keep up the maintenance and have the coolant temps under 200. People overheat these engines all the time and ends it badly because the blocks and liners are such a bad design and the manufacturing was low quality. You won't even get half your money back because of the known engine problem so i think you can get a quality rebuild of it for $3-$4K. First you would have to pressure test the block and make sure it's not cracked...I still haven't seen where every cylinder floods with coolant on these things. Water jacket is only on the very ends.

 

I vote for the supercharged jag engine!

Every single stinkin cylinder was wet???? I didn't even know that was possible, at least for a head gasket (unless it is just gone). The oil is fine? If so, I guess it is a massive head gasket issue--maybe they forgot to tighten the head bolts.

If you're considering to part it out anyway I'd pull the heads off and see what you have. If the head gaskets are in tatters, I'd get the heads and valves checked and decked, slap some new head gaskets and head bolts on it for 200 bucks, and drive away happy. You aren't hearing any tapping but when you have the heads off you can look at the underside of the heads for signs of liner slap. Hopefully you won't find any.

With all of the coolant in the cylinders, at least they will be clean (the bright side).

 

Considering the way it was carried around are you sure you don't have a coolant leak? Radiator or those stupid hard plastic lines that run across the front to the expansion tank?

 

I know there are coparts in my neck of the woods. If you are close to bham, al I know a great engine/head shop that has been rebuilding the late 90's gems n 2000+ Thor engines for around $2500. There is some company around here that is restoring them like crazy. The guy that's doing my powder coating has been doing all of them that they have been rebuilding. 2-3 grand for a dang good rebuilt engine is cheaper than a "low mileage" used one. They redid my head and decked them for $95 a head and they look brand new!!