My wife purchased a 2001 DII about a year ago. Generally speaking the truck appeared to be in great shape. I wasn't a fan of Land Rover or Discoveries at all, the purchase of this vehicle meant a marriage of maintenance that I wasn't looking forward to. I did fall in love with this Discovery when I had the pleasure of driving it back from Long Island. It was a beautiful honeymoon...me driving the Discovery, enjoying the seats and the radio and the ride...ahhh yes.

I get home and take a look under the vehicle and see that it's leaking EVERY possible type of fluid. This is not normal, I thought. Not long after I stumbled upon this forum and I was introduced to the fact that the British have not yet mastered gasket technology. My fears were calmed and I was told how easy these trucks are to work on.

I did the scheduled maintenance tasks, had the driveshaft rebuilt, changed the tranny fluid, changed out all the gear oil, put on new brakes, etc. I didn't run into any major problems and I thought I was well on my way.

The truck didn't have any major leaks and the only one that really ticked me off was a coolant leak. I've blown up the heads in a car before because it was constantly overheating and I got really agitated one day and decided to run it into the ground. I didn't want this to happen to the lovely Discovery so I tried tracking the leak. A mechanic friend put UV/chaser dye into the system and we pressure tested it and it held pressure very well....I tried finding the leak about a year ago and I had no luck. It was a situation where the coolant needed topped off once every several weeks.

The honeymoon continues....

Until just a few days ago when my wife was on the way to meet the kids at the bus stop and the truck overheats. My immediate thought was "it was time for some coolant" but upon arriving to the site of the breakdown, I realize it needed ALOT of coolant. She's leaking like a sieve now! Time for some more UV dye...and finally after a year I'm able to locate the leak (I would have settled for having to add coolant every few weeks but it is what it is).

She appears to have a blow-hole near the water pump. "No big deal" I think to myself, I've replaced water pumps before...it's a V8, it doesn't look too hard. We just need to remove the radiator, the fan and the belt..unbolt the old pump, clean up the area, bolt on the new pump and put the rest of the motor back together. It's certainly not a Chevy small block...I could have that job done in under an hour...the Land Rover might take me 4. or so I thought.

Monday - Day 1
I pop open the hood and remove the upper fan shroud. Easy. I struggle with the stupid hose clamp system but I eventually get the upper and lower radiator hose off and drain the fluid...scratching my head over where the petcock is on the DII radiator...non-existant?
I look at the other lines to the radiator and there does not appear to be any more...so I unbolt the radiator from inside the engine compartment and figure that's all I'm going to get accomplished until I have the tools to get the fan out. I grab the radiator and give it a tug and realize it's still being held in. hmmm. Maybe I should consult with the workshop manual.

I review the manual and I see links to removing turn signal lights, trim, grill, unbolting radiator from condenser, air deflectors. None of it makes any kind of sense to me. So I consult with my wife, because she thinks differently than I do. hehehe.
Well, lucky I did because it seemed to make sense to her when it didn't to me. She guided me through removing the grill.

I'm not a big fan of accessing the "repeater finishers" through the wheel-well, but it may have been easier had I owned a longer phillips screwdriver...I got it done though. Everything appeared to be going fine until I went to remove the grill and the screws were rusted up nicely.

I got one of the screws out with PB Blaster, a phillips screwdriver and a hammer...a couple of nice taps on the head of the screw encouraged it to come out. I wasn't so lucky with the other screw. All of my best efforts only resulted in the screw rounding off more and more. It was getting dark and I had had enough for the day...

Tuesday - Day 2
I went to work and called RoverParts, ordered what I needed for the job. During lunch I picked up 2 screw extractors from Ace Hardware and anxiously waited for quitting time where I could go show that screw who the boss was!

5:30 P.M EST...extractor 1 doesn't work, extractor 2 isn't grabbing either. I look in the tool box and I notice I have a whole set of extractors...none of those want to work either or the drill bits are too dull to cut into this screw. So I take the brute force method of drilling out the head of the screw, removing the grill and prying out that B.S. plastic grommet that the screw seats into...I'll put a nut and a bolt on that in lieu of the screw when it all goes back together.

Eat dinner.
Reference the workshop manual. Yeah it's still not making any sense. Get the wife.
Remove the air deflectors by taking off 3 scrivets on each side. After having just dealt with the rusty screw from hell, I was happy to see plastic and I remarked "I sure do like these scrivets". I must have jinxed myself because after saying that, the scrivets didn't want to unthread anymore, I had to apply upward pressure with my fingernail at the same time as spinning the screwdriver counter clockwise to get those out.

Now...I'm supposed to unbolt the radiator and the condensor or something. Ok. I look at the picture and it sucks. I remove a few bolts and it looks to me like the radiator screws are sitting back behind the horn boxes that are packed with foam. They look nice and rusty too...so I hit them with some PB blaster, hammer on them a little and call it a night.

Wednesday - Day 3
I'm at work now obsessing over how the hell I'm going to get this radiator out and replace the water pump. My parts and tools should arrive today. I should have taken pictures of this whole ordeal so maybe it will help someone else who has this job in the future...

Of course, any insight that anyone can offer would be appreciated.

 

No LR does not have a petcock to drain the radiator, there are drain plugs on the block, one on each side, but they will be rusted and will never budge.
You dont need to remove the radiator to replace the water pump, just remove the fan, the 8 screws that hold the pump on and BAM!, in your hand.
And you are right, it is not a small block Chevy, it is a Buick 215 from 1959.