Red_Liner740
Well-known member
Hi guys, i'd like to formerly introduce myself. I've been lurking here for a few weeks acting as an information sponge just sucking everything up! LOL.
Some background.
I always wanted an SUV, something thats good on gas and reliable with real offroad capability. SUV, good on gas and off road capability spell one thing. Diesel.
Other than a Suburban not many diesel SUVs are rolling along North American shores as opposed to the rest of the world.
I got my idea from seeing TDI's being swapped into 4runners and Tacomas....
but thats too easy , i had to go and make it harder
Always wanted a Discovery or a Defender diesel, since the days of Camel Trophy. The problem is that diesel Defenders are an arm and a leg, and honestly for farm equipment comfort, $30K is WAY too much money, no matter how you try and justify it. Importing a Discovery 300tdi would be the easier solution but what scared me away was not being able to see what the body is like, buying a truck sight unseen from across the world is kind of daunting.
If someone would to search their local kijiji or craiglist they would come across a plethora of cheap Discoveries, and i mean CHEAP. For less than 2 grand you can get a good condition truck with a blown motor. Yup, they ALL have engine issues, whether the owner is being honest and telling you or the issues havent arose yet the engine is a ticking time bomb.
Its actually mind boggling how crappy the 4.0 and later 4.6 V8 engines are. Basically they are buick all aluminum 3.5L V8 engines from the mid 1960's that Buick abandoned in the 80's. Land Rover decided that they know better and continued to plod along with it.
This is how bad it is, Head gaskets are a regular maintenance interval of 80K miles! Every single block casting is defective and the blocks WILL crack between the cylinders. The coolant passages are not up to spec causing cyl 6 or 8 to overheat and crack. The steel sleeves that are installed for the cylinder walls are incorrectly installed causing them to not sit properly from factory, when the cyl cracks this causes the sleeves to be able to move with the piston causing massive coolant loss into the cylinder chamber. This is called the sleeve drop.
Overheating the block is what usually causes all these issues but an overheating problem is rare? Not on a Disco, due to the use of Dexcool, a known coolant that is much more corrosive, the entire engine is bound to leak. Valve covers, water pumps, timing covers, head gaskets, intake valley are all well known and documented to spring leaks. This coupled with the fact that the stock temp guage is an idiot light that only moves once the engine has already over heated is the perfect storm of disaster.
Should i continue?
Its a shame that such an iconic and great offroaded that offers great road comfort and legendary offroad capability was only offered in North America with that crap engine.
So to cut it short the plan is to mate the ALH with a Toyota 4runner transmission and slap that into the Disco.
Custom motor mounts, tranny mounts, exhaust, coolant lines, PS lines etc etc will have to be fabricated as well as custom drive shafts with Discovery flanges on the axles and toyota flanges on the tranny side. One other big hurdle involved will be the emergency brake system. Land Rover uses an idiotic system of a brake DRUM, yes a DRUM, like on the back of older cars that sits bolted to the back of the transfer case and the cable actuates the brake shoes inside. Since i cant keep that, nor do i want to, i need to figure out how to retain my e-brake. Two solutions that i can try. instead of drum use a disc brake and a e-brake capable caliper and mount that to the back of the transfer case or swap the stock rear calipers with similar calipers that have e-brake capability. Havent decided on it yet, will have to see.
I purchased a 2000 Discovery II with a blown engine for $800. Frame had a bit of surface rust, actually very little for a 13 year old car, nothing some elbow grease wont be able to fix. Body has very little rust and all in easily fixed places. Salvaging the transmission and engine netted me $120 in scrap metal, another 250 for the two catalytics so the actual truck has cost me less than $500.
ALH donor vehicle was a 2000 Jetta 5spd i parted out. After selling the wheel, transmission and bits and pieces the Jetta is paying me to take its engine.
If you'd like to see all the pictures of the progress check here.
http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/Red_Liner740/library/Discovery%20TDI%20swap
The pictures have descriptions
Some background.
I always wanted an SUV, something thats good on gas and reliable with real offroad capability. SUV, good on gas and off road capability spell one thing. Diesel.
Other than a Suburban not many diesel SUVs are rolling along North American shores as opposed to the rest of the world.
I got my idea from seeing TDI's being swapped into 4runners and Tacomas....
but thats too easy , i had to go and make it harder
Always wanted a Discovery or a Defender diesel, since the days of Camel Trophy. The problem is that diesel Defenders are an arm and a leg, and honestly for farm equipment comfort, $30K is WAY too much money, no matter how you try and justify it. Importing a Discovery 300tdi would be the easier solution but what scared me away was not being able to see what the body is like, buying a truck sight unseen from across the world is kind of daunting.
If someone would to search their local kijiji or craiglist they would come across a plethora of cheap Discoveries, and i mean CHEAP. For less than 2 grand you can get a good condition truck with a blown motor. Yup, they ALL have engine issues, whether the owner is being honest and telling you or the issues havent arose yet the engine is a ticking time bomb.
Its actually mind boggling how crappy the 4.0 and later 4.6 V8 engines are. Basically they are buick all aluminum 3.5L V8 engines from the mid 1960's that Buick abandoned in the 80's. Land Rover decided that they know better and continued to plod along with it.
This is how bad it is, Head gaskets are a regular maintenance interval of 80K miles! Every single block casting is defective and the blocks WILL crack between the cylinders. The coolant passages are not up to spec causing cyl 6 or 8 to overheat and crack. The steel sleeves that are installed for the cylinder walls are incorrectly installed causing them to not sit properly from factory, when the cyl cracks this causes the sleeves to be able to move with the piston causing massive coolant loss into the cylinder chamber. This is called the sleeve drop.
Overheating the block is what usually causes all these issues but an overheating problem is rare? Not on a Disco, due to the use of Dexcool, a known coolant that is much more corrosive, the entire engine is bound to leak. Valve covers, water pumps, timing covers, head gaskets, intake valley are all well known and documented to spring leaks. This coupled with the fact that the stock temp guage is an idiot light that only moves once the engine has already over heated is the perfect storm of disaster.
Should i continue?
Its a shame that such an iconic and great offroaded that offers great road comfort and legendary offroad capability was only offered in North America with that crap engine.
So to cut it short the plan is to mate the ALH with a Toyota 4runner transmission and slap that into the Disco.
Custom motor mounts, tranny mounts, exhaust, coolant lines, PS lines etc etc will have to be fabricated as well as custom drive shafts with Discovery flanges on the axles and toyota flanges on the tranny side. One other big hurdle involved will be the emergency brake system. Land Rover uses an idiotic system of a brake DRUM, yes a DRUM, like on the back of older cars that sits bolted to the back of the transfer case and the cable actuates the brake shoes inside. Since i cant keep that, nor do i want to, i need to figure out how to retain my e-brake. Two solutions that i can try. instead of drum use a disc brake and a e-brake capable caliper and mount that to the back of the transfer case or swap the stock rear calipers with similar calipers that have e-brake capability. Havent decided on it yet, will have to see.
I purchased a 2000 Discovery II with a blown engine for $800. Frame had a bit of surface rust, actually very little for a 13 year old car, nothing some elbow grease wont be able to fix. Body has very little rust and all in easily fixed places. Salvaging the transmission and engine netted me $120 in scrap metal, another 250 for the two catalytics so the actual truck has cost me less than $500.
ALH donor vehicle was a 2000 Jetta 5spd i parted out. After selling the wheel, transmission and bits and pieces the Jetta is paying me to take its engine.
If you'd like to see all the pictures of the progress check here.
http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/Red_Liner740/library/Discovery%20TDI%20swap
The pictures have descriptions
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