Y'know, I like my D2 and all, but not THAT much...

 

I am definitely interested in the topic you brought up. As I college student every dollar counts and I'm lucky I can borrow the gfs civic for daily driving. Would a TD5 out of another D2 be worthwhile? I don't know the milage of them or reliability but I've heard people talk about them. Has anyone considered/done a transmission swap without the engine too? With basic logic, wouldn't more gears be the best option? Keeping the engine in the most efficient rpm while still going the speed of traffic. And for the manual lovers, could you do a manual swap?

 

94 octane in this economy? I put 89 in mine, essentially migrade it gets the same gas mileage as 91. I think we should all agree that we didn't buy a Disco for fuel economy.

 

Here are my recommendations
- Rip everything out of the interior expect drivers seat.
- Remove spare wheel.
- Weld up the center dif and loose the rear drive shaft.
- regear your front dif
- or alternatively, just delete the t case and convert to a rear wheel drive.
- Install an electric ps pump from a volvo.
- install an electric water pump from a bmw
- I'm also pretty sure there are some pretty serious loses at the torque converter, so maybe a swap to manual trans could help.
- use narrower tires
- install some sort of rear spoiler to reduce the low pressure zone behind the brick.
And there is also the problem of with the fact that no matter what you do a V8 will always suck on gas

Just kidding of course, but as everyone is saying it's a lost battle.

 

Doing a manual swap might be the best way, and yes, You can do it.

I have a TD5 manual and a 4.6 V8 auto and I'm not liking the auto because it being such a rubber band.

 

Again, how many miles are you going to have to do to offset the cost of any significant mods??

 

The bigger question is whether your $3000 disco is worth the investment.

 

In my case I just got this car 2 months ago and the PO did MAJOR work on it. Roughly 40k worth of off-road mods and a new engine. Its a 2002 with a 4.6 with 144k on it, 4" worth of lifts, 32" KM3s, and a large roof rack. I usually drive at 50mph on the highway at 2,200rpm and 60 at 2,800rpm. I'm looking into any possibilities to improve power, gas mileage, and speed overall. I should say looking for more theories to improve specs vs deciding and implementing something. Even if the cost is too high it's still IMO to just know about options and general car related knowledge.

 

Rolling on A/Ts is def not helping the fuel economy. Lifting the car - also not helping. Roof rack - def not a an aero item...

 

My experience with off-road capable vehicles in general, which includes my 2011 Suburban, my 2016 RAM 3500, my children's two fifth gen Bronco's and my son-in-law's 2020/1 Ram Powerwagon: The tires, lift and rack are probably good for 3-4 mpg right there. You aren't likely to get a bigger boost from anything else short of a diesel swap.