Hi all.
...at least for now, the plans to replace drivetrain and make it a RWD "tall station wagon" suspended.

The 2000 Discovery I bought with chronic overheating problem, resolved.
Seems the previous owner sold it as was very fed-up to the limit, overwhelmed with expenses and to my opinion, pseudomechanics. During the inspection to buy it, I drove it 4 blocks and it got to the red alarm temperature, with air conditioner off.

What I found is not a problem but a collection of them, which may be of some use to the community :

1.- Serpentine belt tensioner extended to the limit, someone installed a perhaps 1 inch longer belt, and may have been slipping in some conditions.

2.- There is no stiffener coil inside the water pump suction hose.
(installed a rigid pipe instead as cannot find yet a 'more professional' hose to do it MY way) If Land Rover does not implement such in their design is their problem, I do want it fitted in all my cars.

3.- This is laughable : Had half the coolant it needs to have; I replenished guessing the proper procedure which I could not find on the owner's manual, with bubbler open.

4.- The NEW thermostat it had was badly tampered with, probably a desperate action from someone going mad as the overheating problem did not go away after replacing it.
I removed the thermostat and the path to recirculate the block coolant outlet to pump inlet when cold. Now the radiator outlet goes direct to the water pump suction, with the spigots for the heater core return and coolant reservoir.

5.- The electric thermofan not working, stuck. Reason -a poorly glued magnet in the motor dislodged-

6.- Blown fuse for the electric thermofan, logical after the above.

Ran the engine idling with air conditioner on for half an hour and NO electric thermofan at 90 degrees F ambient, then several miles and the thermometer pointer did not move a hair from the center of the scale at all times, which seems to be 212 degrees F as I tested without coolant cap too, showing the same spot in the thermometer scale.

Probably some arguable things will rise, but I had never ever had, driven or repaired this brand of cars, am learning about LR.

 

You'll want to resolve the remote themostat issue. Here's flow path for coolant. A sample comes from the "T" to the top of the stat, thru holes, warms up the stat, which opens and allows main flow. When not on main flow a trickle keeps heater core warm. More pix in "cooling problems " link of articles below. There is now available an OEM thermostat with an 82 degree C rating, this will drop temps around 10 degrees and has become quite popular.

Re-design of plumbing route is not advised without very careful thought.

BTW - the gauge in D2s is designed to show "cold", center (normal- over a wide range), and hot (anywhere above center by some statements in the shop manual). So above center is suspect. Best tool is a scanguage or an ultra gauge, so you can see the digital info. Ultra Gauges are about $70, and plug in the OBDII port. Going by gauge not being off scale or at end of scale is not close enough for your head gaskets.