Long time "weekend mechanic" doing Honda/Toyota/ Audi/VW and other makes for years. 1st time doing engine work on a 2002 Disco (did window work).

Much involved in the water pump replacement ?

 

Not too bad at all.

Get your service manual here. The one with the large file warning.

 

Remove the fan.
Remove the belt.
Drain the system.
Remove the pulley.
Remove the hoses.
Remove the bolts.

 

Like the OP said, nothing is complicated about the job.

 

As mentioned it really is easy. My tips:
1. Only real pain for me was getting the fan off the first time.I got a large adjustable crescent wrench, and put duct tape over the thumb adjustment part to lock it in. It slipped right in with no room to spare, but worked great. It took me a solid hour to try and get it loose the first time though without the belt slipping. Finally, I used a 10mm (I think) long closed ended wrench and held one of the 3 fan clutch bolts to hold it steady (along with a couple rags stuffed in a few places by the belt), and whacked it once with a mallet.
2. Have a good gasket scraper for those harder to remove bits, and some steel wool or something similar to really clean up where the gasket will mount.
3. For a few extra bucks, just throw a new belt on while you are there.

 

Here's what you will see. Note bolt lengths vary, keep them in order. Mine was a leaker and a wobbler, so it was eating metal. Clearance is small within a water pump, so any wobble makes it eat aluminum. Note scale build up, PO use of any water available, and brown "stopz leekz" coating... D1 and D2 use same pump.


Pop wrench holdimg fan pulley nut firmly, sharply, and toward passenger side...

 

Does the Disco use a belt tensioner pulley to keep up the slack on the fan belt ? Or a stationary tension bolt (like a Honda engine) ? And my searches showed doing the T-stat is a good idea.

I have been using RockAuto for my recent car repairs and the procing / product appears good quality and a good match (tolerances / holes / assembly etc..)

 

Belt tensioner. See #1 attached fom RAVE shop manual (free download below). Belt route may vary with certain options, make a drawing of yours first. See cooling flow diagram. You will note that hot water leaving engine goes toward radiator (there is a bleed screw to let air bubbles out) and also toward the top of the stat. The stat has metering holes that mix hot coolant inside a chamber and make the stat open. These holes can be clogged by gunk. Do stat after you have done pump and test run, etc. IMHO, these holes are too small and too few, this allows the stat to delay opening or only open partially. A D1 with a conventional in-the-intake stat will run 180-183 F with a 180 stat. Similar motor with D2 remote stat runs much warmer, even though RAVE spec for D2 stat is starts to open at 180, fully open at 204. People are crusining around at 220 F. There is an inline conversion also which some have done. See https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...tat-you-46037/, you'll find a write up with photos of a cutaway of the thermostat.

Also consider an extreme flush, if you had dexcool in the system, please don't use it again, forms sludge.

 

Many thanks ! I also found the links on this site for the TSBs / Services / etc... which I have now been reading.

Once again many thanks to all !