User name says it all.

We bought the 2001 Disco SE7 for the then girlfriend (now wife) back in 2004. A bit of a bargain as it had a couple of dents in it and didn't look as shiney as the others on the dealer's lot.

The user name?

Engine number 1 developed a small water leak. Told her I could fix it if she parked it up for half a day. Would have taken a 50 cent jubilee clip. Explained I couldn't fix it hanging off the bullbars as she raced round the Sam Houston tollway. Didn't do any good. She kept driving it, topping off the water when it boiled DRY, until she blew the head gaskets. That was engine number 1.

By this time I was working in the UK again. Her dad told her to take it to "bubba" who "knew all about V-8s". Idiot didn't know the head gaskets had a "top" and a "bottom", flipped them and torqued down the heads. Head gaskets blew again, but she kept running it, topping off the water as it cooked, until it got so hot the cylinder liners dropped in the block. That was engine number 2.

Engine number 3 was doing fine, but in all this no-one ever replaced the serpentine belt or its tensioner (top tip - replace BOTH) and sure as Sherlock half-way between Houston and San Antonio, out in the boonies, the belt slipped off the pulleys. Pistons and valves got intimate, big bang, cloud of black smoke, etc. That was engine number 3.

This time we went for a complete replacement engine, which took an age to find, because it's the "with secondary air" type that my old University mate Alan, now one of the Chief Engineers at Aston Martin Lagonda no less, and one-time Jaguar-Land Rover engineer, tells me were only used on the Disco II models for a couple of years as a stop-gap until a new all 50 state engine was introduced.

It took over a year to find one. Well, it took a year arguing with the wife about whether or not to buy one on line or not, and ten minutes once she finally agreed, and we got the car back last weekend.

There's quite a few things needing doing to it to get it back up to snuff for me to use as a daily driver, so expect lots of questions over the next few weeks. First on the list are fixing the air conditioning and getting it through a new inspection....

LUCKILY (ahem) I just lost my job, so I've got plenty of time (not money) to play on it....

 

Holy crap, man! That's a story and a half! Welcome to the dysfunctional LRF family, lots of smart people here...lots of crazy uncles, too.

You subscribe to the other forums as well? Cast a broad net so you can throw the bad fish back.

 

How's the marriage?

 

www.indeed.com - let the Rover sit, applying for new jobs is job 1.