Hello everyone!

This past weekend I bought a non-running, 2004 Discovery II, red, 165K miles, cats cut off, one window stuck down and dirty as heck. Owner said he had replaced the heads himself, it overheated and wouldn't start anymore and it just sat in his driveway for over a year. $1000 later and it was mine! (I'm pretty sure the joke is on me) This is for fun only and I won't have any commuter concerns.

So, yuck, I just had to wash it inside and out, removed a sizable rat's nest under the hood and now have the completely discharged battery charging on a battery tender. When cleaning I noticed an ignition wire wasn't all the way plugged in so maybe I'll get lucky. I'll be excited and scared at the same time when I turn the ignition. I am by no means a consistent mechanic. The most complex things I've done is a new clutch on a 2007 Altima, timing chain on a Prius and pulling the transmission on a 2000 740i to replace some seals. I actually hated doing all of those jobs so I hope nothing on this truck can be worse than that. LOL. Fingers crossed.

Cool thing is that I paid for my first ever Carfax and saw from the history that it was actually pretty well taken care of for 145K miles (new differential, water pump, gaskets, etc) and then who knows for the last 20K. I'll be honest, after getting the truck's engine solid I'll be on the forums just looking for the straightest path to the best all-purpose lift, tires and bumpers/tire carrier so that I can start using it for camping and exploring off-pavement points of interest. Wish me luck or pity me...looking forward to the journey.

 

Just an update. Reality has set in but I'm committed. So far:

• cps like I mentioned and got it running. Overheated right away. So, I swapped out radiator, water pump, hayden fan clutch (didn't realize the existing fan was a one piece unit so got the fan blades from autozone), reservoir cap.
• With all that it just took 10 minutes longer or so to overheat.
• So, bought a test kit to check for exhaust gasses but never got a good read because the reservoir overflowed quickly (I probably did all that wrong)
• Next I got discouraged a little and thought for a few days "way to go genius buying this turd" and felt sorry for myself while contemplating a backyard head gasket job and pretending like the click I heard probably was not a slipped liner...
• I then got in my Mazda, drove over to a guy I had heard about in Burbank, CA who does good work and chatted with them for a bit. Good people...Discoverys everywhere. I drove back home, called a tow truck and sent it to the shop. They confirmed head gaskets and slipped liner.
• Now, it's getting a P38 4.6 block with 70k on it, new machined heads and gaskets, fuel vapor leak pump (expensive!), evap valve, O2 sensors, coils, wires and plugs and returned with a smog certificate.
• 2020 adventure budget blown and the lift, tires and "cool" stuff will have to wait.

gonna roll with it like this for a bit. I feel a little like I wussed out because I told myself I would do all the work myself but maybe mixed impatience with doubt. I will say that learning from a Rover pro combined with this forum has me now prepared to take on whatever comes next.