I am looking at buying a 1995 disco 2, has 190k on it, v-8, automatic. 4 door.

I am sorta a mechanic but don't know beans about a land rover.

so What I am told about this ole girl is;

Was running good, then it died, would restart and die.

She was towed home. got it to start with backfire, died, then just back fire, would not run.

That is what I know. The guy says I might be able to get it for $500 to $600. He has no clue about Disco's either. We are both 62 years old.

Looks clean but she does not run.

Any suggestions on what to look for when I go look under the hood.

Or should I run from this one. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

 

a 95 is a disco 1, althe backfiring may be poor spark >>>>the distributor cap / rotor/ plug wires / plugs may be worth a look

 

Something was said about a advance spark sensor could be bad or is that on another engine?

 

well, not sure what they may be referring to, the ignition system there is fairly simple on that vehicle.....the battery powers the distributor and coil, there is an amplifier module on the side of the dist that can fail, and a pick up coil inside the dist, also there is a vaccum advance unit on the distributor that may have failed but wont cause a no start ......the computer has no effect or control of the ignition on the distributor equiped models. The computer only controls the fuel injection.

 

So how good of a rig is this land rover? pretty dependable on a whole.

 

generally pretty good, a lot depends on the previous owner(s) lol

 

check the timing

 

There is a very good chance the timing chain has jumped time, hence the back firing. Fortunately this is not a '0' tolerance engine. Camshaft gear has nylon teeth and can wear or break, especially at that mileage. A compression test can help diagnos that. If readings vary greatly most likely jumped time.

 

Just to clarify, when you say backfire, you mean it's backfiring out of the tailpipe correct? This would indicate a rich fuel mixture caused by such things mentioned above.

Conversely, a 'frontfire' is heard in the intake (usually a muffled popping sound) and indicates an inadequate supply of fuel, such as a weak fuel pump.

I don't mean to insult your intelligence, just wanted to clarify because the two terms are commonly referred to incorrectly and there is a difference.