Great to hear.

 

Be glad you didn't have a Tacoma from the 90's with the V-6 that ate heads. Toyota has had some real winners (looking at you R-line of 4 bangers) but it has had some big losers too.

 

That does not sound like either of my Discos did when liners slipped, but I can't say for sure without standing next to it. Mine had a bit more of a "bass" thunk, but that could be just the camera not picking it up. One quick, down-and-dirty test you can do is to rev the motor past about 1500 RPM to maybe 2k. If the sound goes away at higher RPM but comes back as RPM comes down, it could be a liner. What happens is the piston gets going too fast inside the liner for it to have time to make the liner hit the head before the piston reverses directions. That little test can help you decide on what diagnostic path to take.

I L33 swapped my Disco. The previous owner did a terrible job of "pinning" the liners and two fell out resulting in a cacophony of noises and a massive oil leak. Drilling eight holes and putting the "pins" in so far that they fouled the piston skirts ruined the engine so it wasn't a candidate for a rebuild. I have about $7k in my swap and it took me about a year to do. The company that made my swap kit has been backordered / not making them / only selling to shops now for a while. I haven't heard a definitive word on what happened and why they aren't answering emails, only online rumors. I think there is one other company making a kit, and another developing one. Basically I'm saying that I wouldn't get too excited about LS swapping it anytime soon.

 

you serious ? These engines suck that’s why we’re swapping them to a ls. How many stories have you heard about cracked blocks that never overheated ? A bunch on here. They suck and the components controlling them suck too

 

Everything is relative. Relative to 20th century domestic US engines or LS or Toyota or Honda, they are not as reliable. Relative to some of the ones mentioned they are more reliable. I personally have had three over 215k, literally dozens over 100k. They are super lightweight, very torquey, and relatively easy to maintain. They are not as resistant to abuse or lack of maintenance as domestic cast iron V8's. They also happen to the default engine in one of the best chassis/body combos ever made. I personally believe several of the engineers, production managers, quality managers, and manufacturing engineers need to be permanently banned from working in the automotive industry again, but it doesn't change the good and bad of the engine.

 

Redwhitecat, most of the engines were great. The last few years of production had some serious quality issues. I’m also on a forum for my P38, with the same basic engine. No one talks about slipped liners or cracked blocks there. It doesn’t seem to happen to them. It really only seems to be an issue on the last few years of the D2 when LR seemed to not want to spend any money to maintain the equipment to machine these blocks.

 

I am not, nor do I have plans to swap. If I slipped a liner I might consider it.

However, the driving consideration would not be engine core strength or quality. It would be the cost of a core, the availability of components to build as I wanted, and the future availability of parts if needed.

Don't get me wrong, there are some flaws in the power-plant implementation in the Disco 2. Chief among them is the cooling system design. But the gremlins of a Rover 4.0/4.6 are known quantities with well tested fixes.

 

This is a big part of why I went with an LS swap. Disco IIs are becoming VERY rare in my area. I used to see them several times a week and now I'm lucky to see one a month. If I do see one, it's never a 4.6L. There's just no used parts available to me around here. The price of a new 4.6L long block (which I needed) was so high that it was cost prohibitive. If I could find a used 4.6, have it top hatted, replace the rotating assembly, oil pump, etc., it would cost thousands of dollars and I'd still end up with a 215hp engine. My L33 is 325hp and really woke up my Disco. It drives like I always wished it would. Parts for the 5.3L are everywhere, they're cheap and complete used 5.3L engine are very common. If I blow this one up I can R&R it in a weekend for about a thousand bucks. If I ever want to "build" it I can swap in a 6L80 (which will let me regear for bigger tires but still run down the highway at reasonable RPM), upgrade the axles and diffs and make 500+ HP. To each their own, but for me an LS swap was the best long-term solution.

 

I’m in the same boat. I’m in the southeastern US. Used to see these occasionally, now mine is the only one I see. The ones in the junkyard are never 4.6L, a new block is 7k plus $400 refundable core. I can do 4 LS swaps for that and drive to autozone and get any part I need immediately.

id love to do one but I can’t find a kit ATM to plug n play