Just picked up a 2000 Disco II with only 75,000 miles on it. With the soaring fuel prices I'm a little aprehensive to use premium petrol. Most research I've done recomends the premium grade. Any thoughts? I'm assuming I should also only use synthetic oil right? The body is in great shape, (no rust), the roofs actualy work and don't leak, and the roof liner isn't sagging. I paid $5,500 with only 75k on it. Did I do alright? I've seen many disco in that price range with well over 100k on them so I think I did o.k.?

 

are the headgaskets done?

yes you need to use premium.

you can use synthetic or dyno just change it at the scheduled interval, i prefer rotella t6

get your front drive shaft rebuilt if it has not been done so already.

 

You did fine on price, kind of depends where you live though.

As far as premium goes, YES. It is worth the extra cost. You will get better MPG, and it will help you avoid the issues that come with using lower grade gas in a rover engine.

 

Premium gasoline is a must on these vehicles but not synthetic oil. You can use regular oil but I would change it more often than if it was synthetic.

 

By all means you do not have to use premium fuel; you can use a lower grade.
Your truck will just run like crap and get poor gas mileage that's all.
The lower the octane the more you have to push on the gas pedal to get it going, it's all kind of relative.

You certain can run synthetic oil but that is not the way it left the factory,
the engine oil is about the only fluid that was not synthetic when it shipped out. (if I remember correctly)

As far as price it all depend where you live in some markets $5500 is low, in other markets it is high.
All that really matters is what it is worth to you?

Do you have documentation on any past repairs?
If not you should start with Disco Mike’s major service followed up with a front drive shaft rebuild.

Good Luck,

 

So, now it is time for you to do my major service posted as a sticky at the top of this section, along with rebuilding the front drive shaft, replacing your upper radiator hose if the bleed screw is not located in the black plastic screw, and flush out the dexcool switching to peak or any other top of the line coolant.

 

X2, If you run low grade, the money you waste getting crap gas mileage in addition to harming your engine will FAR outweigh the money you spend filling up with premium. Use the highest grade possible.

$5500 for 75K is a STEAL in my area (Seattle). Nice find!....just be ready to have the HG go soon if they haven't been done already...

 

You need the higher octane fuel because of the compression ratio of the engine. Octane does not increase the power of the fuel, it retards the combustion. Low octane fuel, under high compression, will explode and prematurely combust at a point that will not be optimal for your engine. So you will lose power and as a result get worse fuel economy and not save a dime in the end. Pre-ignition would be hard on the engine in the long run but the EFI will adjust somewhat for the condition so it's not like you will ruin things by running a tank full of regular in a pinch if premium were not available.

Using synthetic oil allows you to go longer between changes, in the end the costs are about equal. The only reason I wouldn't use it is if you are leaking or burning oil (because of the expense) but you should be okay and probably won't need to add any between changes so I'd go with synthetic unless you just really enjoy doing oil changes.

 

Yep, first tank I ran in mine I used low octane, because I was stupid and hadn't read up on it. Got a new tank yesterday, used premium, I could tell a major difference in the first half a mile. My LR HATES low octane.

 

Man things can come up with these trucks at any minute. I'd just stick to premium and not risk anything.