This may be one of the longest new member posts, but I'm feeling talkative.

I work as a service manager for a local independent repair shop. About 2.5 years ago, I had to drive a customer's Disco I to an upholstery shop. While driving it there, my thoughts: Why would anyone drive one of these? You sit 3 feet in the air, it's slow, and all of the controls, switches, and handles are in the wrong place. Two days later, I drove it back to our shop. My thoughts on that drive: You sit 3 feet in the air, BUT the view is incredible. It's slow, BUT it's all wheel drive and can go anywhere you want to go. All of the controls, switches, and handles are in the wrong place, BUT it's from England, and so quirky and eccentric. I want one!

Wife gave me a budget, so after much searching, I found a 2000 Disco II for cheap at an Army base 120 miles from me. It was extremely clean, only had 88k miles, but knocked while cranking, and wouldn't start. I bought it and had it trailered back to my house.

That weekend, my neighbor and I began working on it. After a few more crankings of the engine, and trying to determine the source of the knocking, we heard a "thunk", and the engine seized. We dropped the oil pan as far as we could, reached inside the pan, and pulled out: 2 twisted rod bearings, 2 bent pushrods, 2 mangled lifters, and a piece of camshaft with 2 lobes. The next day, we got the engine pulled and found the #7 rod had come loose from the piston and punched through the middle of the block, splitting the camshaft into 3 pieces, dropping the middle piece into the oil pan, along with lifters and pushrods, and ejecting the rearmost piece out the back of the block, wedging itself between the engine block and flexplate.

I bought a used engine from an engine supplier we use at work that had about 80k miles, and neighbor and I had it installed and running by the following weekend.

Note: It is not advisable to remove one of these engines for the first time while drinking, waiting a week, then trying to remember how and where everything goes, while drinking again! (surprisingly it started right up and I have been driving it for the past 2 years!)

Since the engine replacement, I have:

Flushed coolant system (went back with extended life coolant, and will flush it every two years)
Replaced front and rear pads and rotors (Akebono ceramic pads= no dust)
Replaced all brake fluid
Removed OEM running boards (which are still on the roof of my RX-7 project car of 15 years and current storage shelf)
Installed an OEM front brush guard (found cheap, sandblasted, and re-powder coated)
Installed OEM Safari driving lights on above brush guard with the OEM wiring kit
Seafoam treatment
Installed a CDL shifter from a Disco I (I'm still not sure if I am going to cut the wire to the SLABS ECU to prevent the three amigos on startup if I leave the CDL engaged when I shut it down)
Replaced all U-joints and the centering yoke in the front driveshaft with Precision grease-able joints
Recently replaced the power steering pump because the pulley had walked forward on the shaft, causing a year of frustrating belt chirp, and in the process, replaced both idlers, tensioner, and belt

Things I plan to do:

Replace the front crankshaft seal (the one seal I didn't change on the used engine because it didn't look like it had been leaking, and now is)
Pull the rear diff and check the backlash (I get this slightly noticeable "clunk" if I let off the gas, then reapply the gas before the engine RPMs lower and transmission downshifts on occasion)


Well, that's it for my new member post. I've been checking out this forum since before I bought my Disco, but it's time to become a real member instead of a lurker.

 

Addition to things done in last 2 years that I had previously forgotten:

AT filter and fluid change
Drain and refill front and rear differentials with BG synthetic fluid and additive
Drain and refill transfer case with BG Synchroshift
Remove to clean, break, and replace oil separator on right valve cover
Trace water leak on driver's floor to wiper motor mounting gasket (beoken glass between mounting plate on firewall (broken whindshield previously my only guess))
Disable "transit mode" after a year of driving and realising I shouldn't be able to remove ignition key before putting it in park. (shouldn't it have been taking out of transit mode LONG before I bought it?)
Replace spark plugs with Denso double platinums (plugs were OEM Champions and found #6 electorde bent and gapped at 1/2 specs...were these the original plugs and had been driving like that for 80k miles?)

 

Welcome to the forums and if you every in monett mo let me know it