Hi Y'all,
Just picked up a 2001 Discovery yesterday and hoping to become a regular around here. The truck is pretty good overall, but suffers from the usual issues it seems. I am afraid that the head gaskets are both toast since they seem to be seeping coolant and there is an intermittent shudder when driving at slow speeds. I plan to have the drive shaft checked and replaced with an aftermarket one, if needed. Luckily, the Three Amigos issue was resolved prior to my purchasing it.
I will post some pics, as soon as I figure out how to re-size them.
If there are any forum members in the Houston area I would like to meet, if anyone is interested. Also, I plan to join the Houston land rover club as well.
I know pics will be needed for anyone to give me much advice on the truck, but I wanted to at least introduce myself.
Best regards,
Dan

 

Here are a few pics.

 

A couple more.

 

That's a good looking disco. Hope you can do the head gasket job yourself or its going to cost a good chunk of change. Good luck and happy trouble shooting.

 

Nice to have you on here Dan, how much did you pay for the ol beast, she looks pretty good.Are you leaking a lot of coolant or just seems to wet around the head gaskets. You may wanna try some b.g. or another brand of head gaskets sealant to see if does any good before replacing them. Some may disagree but its worth a shot $65 for sealant $500 do it your self $1500 at an Indy shop. None the less the truck looks good.

 

Thanks for the reply. I am fortunate enough to have a friend that works as a mechanic and he has quoted me $500 labor to do the job. I think I may have dodged a bullet though. I was looking under the hood this evening and i see coolant on top of the valve cover. It seems the coolant I thought was seeping from the heads may in fact be coming from somewhere else. I'm hoping it's just a hose. I'll investigate Sunday. Following is a pic I took of the area I am concerned about on teh driver's side of the engine.

 

Thank you for the comments. The truck belonged to a friend of mine who hadn't driven it in about 4 months. Somewhat in jest, I offered him $2,000. He said " I can't take that. I just spent $800 on Michellin tires less than 1,000 miles ago". So I told him give me a number, but I knew he really wanted around $3,500. About 3 days later he called me and ask me to stop by to work out "our deal". I figured I would have bought the truck with worn out tires for $2,000 and then would have had to pay $500- $800 for new tires, depending on the brand, so I offered $2,500. He countered at $2,600 and the deal was done.
I knew I may have to do head gaskets and a drive shaft, based on what I had read here on the forum and what I had been told by members of a Mercedes forum I frequent so I was prepared for the worst.
The truck was really dirty when I picked it up yesterday, but these pics are after a $145 trip to the car wash. I think it cleaned up pretty well. I'm not sure what a current market value would be on this truck, but I am satisfied with the price, even if I have to spend a couple of thousand on repairs. What do Y'all think? Did I do okay?

 

Look at the hoses that supply coolant to the throttle body heater. It is item 5 on the picture. Any small line under the hood and nipple it connect to will be brittle.

 

$2600 is a good price. I would pay it for an 01, and you might luck out with the nipple on top of the transfer case to lock the diff. $500 mod and your truck will crawl up a brick wall. Check it out, just reach up on the top of the front output of the t.c. and feel for a bolt sicking up on the right side. If its there you will know if not then the t.c. will be smooth. From my understanding in 01 you have a 50/50 shot of having it.

 

Thanks for your help. I will check it out tomorrow. Can you tell me what #16 is? That is the "bottle" that had the disconnected hose when I picked up the truck. The very end of the plastic tube was broken off inside the hose, but after I removed it I was able to get the hose back on and it seems to be holding fine.