Sitting home sick with Covid (wait, I thought the social engineering exercise was over?) and just surfing around, I came across another video from the TFL guys.


I thought that zero option SD did darn well against the Land Cruiser- better in many regards. The cool part is the emphasis they put on how much cheaper the D2 is. Shoot, by the time you have $20k into a Disco, it will hold its own against my JKUR. If they got one with ACE, put a CDL in and swapped the SLABS, it would be WAY better. TFL had a nice Giverny some time back that they did a number of pieces on, and it proved to be a good machine, but it’s good to see them using another one.

And yes, I have been loosely shopping for a TD5 D2 here as they will be over 25 years old by the time we get back, but most are REALLY clapped out and folks are very proud of them. We’ll probably get a D110 if anything (and still hoping I can swing an air cooled 911).

 

I saw this video and had the same thoughts. 20K is a lot of bulletproofing for a Disco.

 

Yeah, and I don’t really agree with the LS swap fad. There was a good set of videos done by some YouTuber or whatever that went through the process and the gains and such and I can see the benefits, but I’d rather spend time driving the machine as is rather than spending a year getting the swap right- in addition to the year just to get the Disco right in the first place. In that series, they didn’t get huge- if any- economy gains, and the power increase wasn’t as night and day as I’d expected.

I’d get a set of GBR diffs, some good bumpers and sliders, some other various undercarriage armor and call it a day after getting all the other stuff sorted out. You put a CDL in- or start with an ‘04, and they are downright impressive. As the guys in the video mention, nothing touches real deal lockers, but for my purposes in a D2, a good set of tires and good brakes get you pretty close.

 

The biggest issue Disco owners are going to have is lack of parts, the power brake booster is getting hard to find for LHD D2's. And I suspect other stuff will start to vanish as well, but the powertrain engine and transfer case at least should have parts for some time as they are in defenders too

 

I got my disco really cheap, and have spent about 1K on general fixes so far. I would say I am up to the typical state most used disco's would come in. I will generously assume it takes most folks $3500 to get into a running disco 2 as a starting point.

My short list would be:

If over 100K miles: Pull the heads, head inspection, lifter valley inspection to get some idea how rough my specific casting was, and then assuming no obvious bigger issues, back together with new head gaskets and ARP studs. Assume worst case costs of $4K.

Extinct thermostat mod with a thermostat appropriate to my climate, plus a good flush of the cooling system. Start running the expansion tank cap 1/2 turn loose with a thermostat appropriate to my climate. Call it $150.

Change all fluids to a known status: Oil, transmission, transfer case, diffs (more on the diffs later). Install sight glass on the trans and t-case so I can monitor levels. Maybe $250 all in.

Service the ABS and ACE if present, kill the air-bags in the back with basic springs. Not sure on the price for this, but I bet it could be done for $1K.

Assuming I missed some odds and ends, lets again be generous and say that we now have $10K in the car which should be pretty much good to go from a reliability standpoint. Next I would blow some of the remaining $10K on offroad upgrades.

First up, CDL. Mine has it already, just need the shift linkage. If not, then $750 + install. Call it $1500. Add lockers front and rear: $4k-$5k depending.

That leaves $3500 to $4500 for a lift and tires.

I would put this hypothetical disco up against any Toyota Land Cruiser from the 90's. Maybe I am dreaming.

 

Of course my above post assumes your wiring is good:

 

Some of those TFL videos are cringy early on when wheeling their disco, some really terrible driving especially on their Red Cone video lol. My buddy has a very very clean and build 80 series and they are simply so much larger than any rover variant that it's not really comparable off-roading. Like it's massive wheelbase to even my LWB classic.

 

when you get back if I haven't swapped one of mine, you'll have to go on a trip with Jordan his swapped classic....it's just a different world and here in CO I'll take the headaches for easy power to not get passed by semis on 70 lol

 

Just a question on swapping slabs, what to ? And have to ask why lol

 

You would swap to a ‘03 or ‘04 SLABS, especially if you have CDL. It recognizes if your diff is locked.