I have a recently purchased Disco I that I am loving, fixing up, etc., but it is quite high mileage: 173,000. There is a police auction here soon that offers a 2001 Disco II that I may bid on. Not too familiar with the Disco II, and will not bid much on it, but I am curious....what advantages or disadvanages are there to the Disco II over the Disco I?

 

If it is an early production D2, up to 1/01, it will have the t/case your D1 has, just need to do a linkage conversion.
I have a 99 D2 and swear by it, what do you plan on using either for?
The D2 got away from Lucas, which is good. The D2 has more options, a new Bosch operating system, rides better.
The only plus side, for some, is that the D1 has full floating axles.
Buy the D2.

 

Can you explain what that means? "Full Floating axles?" Aren't both D-I and D-II solid axles front and back?

 

If you were into very HD rock crawling, where you might shear/break an axle, axles on D1's are easier to change.
I do real serious trails with my D2 and I still am more then comfortable with the D2's axles. Yes, they are both solid axle, just designed differently. Rover hasn't used the full floating type axle in any of their vehicles since the 99 D1.

 

OK, thanks, and I see why you were asking what I intended to use the vehicle for. My main activity will be searching out and photographing antique and vintage steel truss bridges. It is frequently that these bridges are closed and on abandoned/closed roads. I guess one would call this "light off-roading". Right now we are systematically photographing the antique bridges of Oklahoma, county by county. Many are still in use, of course, but the most interesting ones (both railroad and vehicular road bridge) are often the ones most difficult to get to. Up until the acquisition of the Disco I, I have been using an old 1984 Isuzu Trooper II with the itsy-bitsy 4 cylinder motor. It was drafty, dusty and sloow, and although using regular gas, only got about 15 mpg, so the Disco I is a big step up in comfort and not much hit in gas mileage. Still, the old Isuzu would go just about any place I needed to go. On the highway about 65mph was tops for the Isuzu loaded up with our gear. So it was slower getting to our selected start points. Other activities are photographing ghost towns and other very rural remains of civilization.

My Disco I is the 5-speed manual shift. I am sure the 2001 D2 is automatic. Should I expect any change in gas consumption with the auto transmission? ...if both are in good states of "tune"?

 

What are you currently getting for mileage, are you burning high test?
My 99 D2 just averaged 18 going from Denver to Moab Utah and back.

 

I haven't taken the Disco I out on any trip yet. I did the electrical tune-up: Rover OEM cap and rotor, Magnacor 8mm wires, Accel performance coil, new Champion plugs, cleaned intake plenum, new air filter, all new fluids (differentials,T-case, transmission, engine, swivel pins, greased U-joints and slip-joints), Seafoam in the gas, but not yet an induction cleaning, I have replaced some vacuum hoses, and installed new (better) clamps on others. Engine runs quiet and smooth. I use Shell 93 octane fuel. I am getting just shy of 13mpg in-town short trips. (which is all I have done so far). This was before new plug-wires and performance coil...just put those on. I am guessing I should probably replace the o2 sensors? Have no idea if they are original or have been replaced at some time.

 

I like the way you do a tune up, more people should follow your lead.

 

The Disco I's as you have found is DIY friendly.
They are not as refinded as Disco II's.

I will confess I just looked at a 04 Disco and found it very nice, to nice for what I need, it was only $15,000 with 43k miles, the 4.6L motor is what I wanted.
With what the Disco's are selling for you can just get them with out worrying about payments.