After a couple years of looking, delaying, procrastinating etc, I finally picked up a Land Rover Discovery II. It's a 2003 SE with 134k on the clock. It was posted online and I was driving home with it within a couple of hours. I paid $2k for it.

Now to venture down the rabbit hole...

Aside from routine maintenance, I'm looking to add the following (recommendations for parts welcome!):
2"+ lift (Won't be doing anything too crazy, or adding much weight, any suggestions?)
Wheels and tires (it seems like no one offers a good aftermarket wheel outside of Terrafirma?)
Roof rack + ladder (looking for a low profile rack)
Lights (any good plug and play options out there for HID/LED headlights or fogs?)

Also, does anyone know what front bumper is on this?

Anyway, just wanted to say hi. I'll likely have some n00b questions coming down the line

Cheers!

 

god bless your wallet lol welscome nice looking disco, i would recommend doing the maintenance items on the sticky and pcv, inline stat mod to start prop shaft etc this will insure you enjoy the lift and roof rack a bit longer

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm diving into all of it next week when I have some more time and will do some research into the mods/maintenance you mentioned.

Luckily for me, my wallet is used to depreciating assets. This is my other 'project'

 

Your first 2 things to do are:
1. Replace the thermostat. Get the Land Rover 180 degree version. Read up on the posts for reasons why. Everyone will say this needs to be done. Extinct will say go with the in-line version. Either way, get the factory thermostat out of there.
2. Check the front drive shaft. If it is not serviceable with new grease then replace it now.

After these first to things and changing all the fluids you are good to start moving on to other things.

Install a engine temp gauge. Lots of ways to do this from a real gauge, UltraGuage or a ODBII diagnostic device that pairs with a phone

As for the wheels. Most go for earlier versions of D2's with that are 16" vs. finding other makes.

As for roof racks. Your choices are basically Baja Rack or Voyager.

The front bumper you have looks like the one Britpart makes. Atlantic British sells them.

 

@chelskisw6 Hi and Welcome,

Add a temperature monitor, you have a sleeved aluminum engine heat is your enemy. The dash gauge is not a gauge it is an idiot light.

You can go :

• Ultragauge
• ELM ODB adaptor (Bluetooth) and Torque on Android
• Iphone's are little tougher but there are solutions out there for them

If you thermostat is yellowish/greenish you will likely want to replace it, I would suggest the Inline Mod from @Extinct it gives you a standard thermostat you can get anywhere. You want a 180 you might get away with a 170 but it is iffy on the 03/04's it can cause codes.

 

If you're doing a lift, I would hold off on the driveshaft as you'll need one that works with the 2" lift. Hopefully your current driveshaft won't grenade in the meantime.

 

Check my post on these pages:https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...e-92717/page3/

https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...t-seats-96444/>

 

Congrats, on the new project.

 

Hey Team, Thanks for the welcome and all the tips.

I was planning on replacing the thermostat as I read that was a common issue during my buying research and the one on the truck is an older one.

If I am going to go through the effort to do that, should I just replace the whole cooling system while I am at it?

What are the benefits of going inline? Is the general consensus to go this route, or it's open to people's opinions?

Cheers!

 

from Personal experience I would not run anything else ever again.
I bought a new thermostat from bearmach in the 180 78 Celsius put it in ran fine for a month. Went for a long drive came home went out to get a coffee and my ultraguage starts beeping at me. Temps were rising fast. Lucky me I caught it. Thermostat failed would not open

got the inline thermostat from extinct and will never look back easy install easier to change in future on the fly minimal coolant lost

now I sold my disco and one day soon I will buy another one and the inline thermostat will be one of the first things I do