I know Land Rovers Discos and Range Rovers are not known for their reliability mainly due to engine problems. How hard is it swap a Chevy Small block in?
I know Land Rovers Discos and Range Rovers are not known for their reliability mainly due to engine problems. How hard is it swap a Chevy Small block in?
My understanding is that it's rarely the engine that causes problems, rather the failure of electrical and ancillary components that basically amounts to death by paper cuts.
alex wrote: My understanding is that it's rarely the engine that causes problems, rather the failure of electrical and ancillary components that basically amounts to death by paper cuts.
This. Though i do seem to see a few of them with blown head gaskets. But the motor itself seems pretty robust.
93celicaGT2 wrote:alex wrote: My understanding is that it's rarely the engine that causes problems, rather the failure of electrical and ancillary components that basically amounts to death by paper cuts.This. Though i do seem to see a few of them with blown head gaskets. But the motor itself seems pretty robust.
Very true. The engine itself rarely lets you down-unless you let it leak empty. There are SBC adapters available in England, but not many go that route. A Chevy is a LOT heavier than a Rover V8. An LSx would be ideal, but the power levels would likely tax the stock drivetrain and start you down the path of building a Suburban dressed as a Land Rover. Not that thats a bad thing mind you, just a lot of work.
They'll always get you home... Your hands may be bruised from beating the steering wheel in a blind rage from driving in the dark or freezing cold with the windows stuck down, your memory power adjustable seats stuck in the wrong place, and the radio skipping stations every 2 second by itself at max volume. But you WILL arrive home.
My Disco II didn't get me home, however it did get me to another dealership who took it off my hands, burrying me upside down into a 4 door, automatic Civic LX.
Valvetrain went at 65,000 miles. Which was good, because my transmission didn't go at 50,000 like I was told it would.
This was after 2 crank position sensors went due to a leaky valve cover gasket. Why didn't I just replace the gasket you may ask. Before you pull the valve covers you need to pull the intake. Look into what entails pulling the intake on those cute little v8's. Also realize garages bill 8 hours just to disassemble said intake.
I'd get another one in a hearbeat if it had an American V8. Make mine a 302 to keep it in the family.
phaze1todd wrote: My Disco II didn't get me home, however it did get me to another dealership who took it off my hands, burrying me upside down into a 4 door, automatic Civic LX. Valvetrain went at 65,000 miles. Which was good, because my transmission didn't go at 50,000 like I was told it would. This was after 2 crank position sensors went due to a leaky valve cover gasket. Why didn't I just replace the gasket you may ask. Before you pull the valve covers you need to pull the intake. Look into what entails pulling the intake on those cute little v8's. Also realize garages bill 8 hours just to disassemble said intake. I'd get another one in a hearbeat if it had an American V8. Make mine a 302 to keep it in the family.
Sounds like the old Celica AllTrac clutch job scenario....
I hear so many Discovery horror stories, yet my Uncle swears by the things. He's driven a pretty-much-standard V8 all over Australia, and keeps a whole flock of leaky British 4WD's, (early series Landy's and Defenders.) On a partly related note, my parents also had a great run out of their TDi Disco, (4 cyl model.)
From what I read, the most reliable part of the drivetrain is the transfer case. It is also a right side drop for both the front and rear axles, so dumping an entire American drivetrain with a center exit rear driveshaft makes for weird driveshaft angles. Thats not a total deal breaker because you can buy several different high offset shafts for reasonable money. After custom driveshafts you need to replace the diffs front and rear or they will grenade rather quickly. Of course, several nice options exist their as well. My personal long term plan is a 5.3 LSx/4l80 combo in front of a "Marks" adapter to a Rover transfer case to upgraded front and rear diffs. This should get me over 100 extra ft. lbs of torque and 50 extra hp with increased mileage and reliability.
I'd give my eye-teeth for a Defender, but that's a horse of a different color. Also why they are so expensive. My Disco II on the other hand, which originally sold for over $40,000 in 1999, was purchased for $7,000 five years and 50,000 miles later.
I was to learn on my own there is a reason for this.
A coworker is about to swap the head gaskets on his Disco, the parts arrived yesterday 
When it's working, it combines low power with poor fuel economy. Come to think of it, that's just like the 2.25 petrol engine in my Series, only the attributes are exaggerated in the smaller engine. The difference is that the Series engine will run forever and any guy in Africa who can borrow a screwdriver can fix it.
A good fix for a Land Rover on this side of the pond is to buy a jeep. They still have their own problems but are way cheaper to repair.
But I like Land Rovers better then Jeeps.
96DXCivic wrote: But I like Land Rovers better then Jeeps.
Buy what you like.
I wouldn't bother swapping in a SBC, the Rover V8 is a good engine and you can get some more power from them. What type of Range Rover, the Classic or the P38A? I assume you're not talking about a new one since you mentioned the RR in the same breath as the Disco.
Classic or the original Disco. I mean I would prefer a Defender but prices are too high on those. I may try to import a Defender from England.
About the only thing that works on my Disco is the drivetrain. Definitely a fuel hog, worse then my 1500 Ram that had the 5.9. Wish it had the torque the Ram did. I'm afraid to go monkeying with it though, don't want to upset it.
96DXCivic wrote: Classic or the original Disco. I mean I would prefer a Defender but prices are too high on those. I may try to import a Defender from England.
As long as you find one that beats the 25-year rule, you shouldn't have a whole lot of problems. I used to read the Land Rover magazines very heavily and there are a lot of LHD models floating around Europe, including the UK. The British Army usually has tons of LHD models. You could always get a Series 1/2/3. The Lightweight British Army models are pretty awesome, and they're usually in LHD too.
In reply to JeepinMatt:
My uncle lives near a British Military surplus place that sells a lot of Defenders so that is where I was planning on trying to find one.
Keep in mind that the Military Defenders are usually n/a Diesels and while they're mostly solder-proof, they have all the get up and go of a sloth on a heavy dose of valium.
Let's say I wasn't able to find a LHD drive vehicle other then an ex-Military one. How hard would it be to convert to a TDi?
BoxheadTim wrote: Keep in mind that the Military Defenders are usually n/a Diesels and while they're mostly solder-proof, they have all the get up and go of a sloth on a heavy dose of valium.
Don't know much about the 2.5 gas and 2.5 diesel engines, but the 300Tdi is a good, reliable sloth. A lot of them came with the 300Tdi from '94 (I think?) up to '06. That doesn't help much if you want to get it registered for street and don't want to wait until 2019. Far as I know, the Brits and the Aussies picked the 300Tdi over the TD5, but some TD5 military models were ordered by some countries, like Germany. If you look enough you can find some 3.5L V8s. Don't forget to check under the name Land Rover Wolf, too.
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