Ride it!

Today I took my 26 year old Land Rover to get my 20 year old bike to a local trail, to have some fun in the trails. It was a great morning, creeks have water, plenty of mud and challenging (for me, probably easy for a young'n).

Anyway, if you have it, ride it! it's fun to get out there.

Head Gasket

 So after leaking about 5 liters of coolant in less than 200 miles, I decided that the head gasket was only going to get worse, so I decided to just do it at about 193k miles. It looks like they have done it before, and I suspect it was done wrong, reason why it was leaking coolant, no oil contamination no overheating AFAIK, compression was meh, but not really bad, so it was just going to get worse.

It took me a few days of work (few hours a day) the heads were done by ADV in the valley, we'll see how they do long term. But the good news is that today it started right up, smooth and so far so good. I will drop the pan tomorrow (oil was fresh but I want to change and clean it all to be on the safe side).

If it all holds well, it's time to start taking this Disco on a little trip to test it off road.

A few pics:

Headliner work

 Basically all the Land Rovers I had (but the one I bought new in 94) had issues with the fabric of the headliner.

I've done from fixing the loose spots to removing the fabric and leaving it be, but this time, I tried something I saw before and I liked it, paint it black.

Attached some pictures.... this time I actually followed RAVE to do the whole thing right and not forget anything.

Also, I checked and clean all leaking points since it rains inside quite a bit. I think between the sunroofs and the roof rack old gaskets, it was getting a decent amount of water in there (surprised didn't rust, although this is SoCal), but anyway.

After all that here you have our "new" er, refurbished headliner:

Compression test

 Since I got the Disco I have been suspecting head gasket issues, the good news is that is just external leak, but it will probably have to be done soon.

I did check compression today and cylinder #7 where the compression is lowest is where the leak is, it's not really bad yet, but for sure, I will do this before summer and/or any long trip. Best number is 172 and worse is 142, 30 difference. Not the end of the world, but certainly it's looking like I am doing the gaskets soon...

It's incredible what people would miss, but there was a whole rubber cap in the spark plug in #7, how can you miss that?

Anyway some pics:

More updates

 OK so this is the list of things I did to it so far:

• Sub-woofer amp didn't work, opened it up, and as usual bad solder points, fixed them, replace the bad LowFreq speakers and Bob's your uncle! ;)
• All the locks are now functional
• Some switches (fog light in the back and front) wouldn't work, checked continuity, nothing, opened them up clean them and now I have functional extra lights
• Coolant leak is still there, seems to come just above the head gasket, on the corner of the intake manifold, is so small I may just ignore for now and top off as needed.
• It rained hard and of course, there are leaks in the roof, I'll work on that one day when I remove the headliner to peel the swagging fabric and paint...

That's all for now

First few weeks with the 98 Disco

 The main reason I bought this truck is it looked like it has been well taken care of all its life. Maybe at the end a few years of neglect and barely driving it, but otherwise, really good shape for a 26 year old Land Rover.

I got it with a Check Engine light and failed smog, a quick diagnosis resulted in a replaced O2 sensor on the driver side but probably original on the passenger side. Scan said O2 heater was out, checked continuity and that was it, rushed over the street to British Pacific and next day I got the truck to pass smog after driving it like a maniac (it drives very nicely).

OK, so smog and check engine light done, registration done as well and the non ending list of jobs started to pile up:

• Brakes felt bad, so flush was in order, liquid was almost black, after flushing brakes, feels much better but is still a Disco, I am so used to the EVs now, that brake performance is just bad compared with new cars
• Coolant was low, and it smelled like it was leaking somewhere, tracing it all the way to the radiator... wait this is not the standard plug on the radiator?... it wasn't, I'll check if it is tight, bare hands, and I got the head on my hand... plastic has disintegrated.... well, since is not the standard a trip to the parts store to see what the hell is this plug... found one brass this time and all is good on that front
• Power locks, well they are old so they don't work that great anymore... since I have done this before I got a generic set and replaced the back door for now, today I will keep on going, easy some fabrication required to adjust the rod size, but that is all, simple.
• Removed the subwoofer, didn't work anyway and was messing the aftermarket radio, now I have radio but no low freqs. I'll survive, I may do some custom thing here, after all sound is my thing
• Interlock actuators for the Transfer (and ZF gear lever), since I drove my 95 Tdi Euro spec without it, I just remove it from my LRs, this was bad since the one in the LT transfer was stuck, probably never used the Low 4x4, anyway, messy but needed work in my book, all is good Hi-Lo working, lock as well.
• Rear power windows, as usual, checked the ECU, some cold solder and the fuse was gone as well, operational again
• I have a ticking sound, I found a have a missing bolt so I will try that, but might be some sticky lifter as well, I'll found out soon
• The Front bumper guard was modified to fit a trailer hitch, seats awfully out and weird, so got it out left the hitch as recovery point, anyone needs one? 😁
• This one had a snorkel kit half installed, it is the NON ABS kit, and this one has ABS of course, so I'll see if I can cook something but it is for looks only at this point <sigh>
• Battery wasn't secured but at least the hardware was included in the trunk of the truck, so I was able to secure it.
• I did a little oil flush and new oil/filter
• New air filter
• Checked levels obviously, I think the ZF was checked without running, it was low <sigh> hopefully it wasn't bad seems to shift fine and ATF is red and smells as usual, we'll find out
• One light bulb out
• The leather(?) cover for the transfer lever was peeling (like all of them) I removed the black coat for now, I'll replace soon.
• On start I cannot really hear the fan, quick check on the fan clutch, it's weak, so got a replacement, this time I got the Borg/Warner OEM, I think it's worth the extra money for peace of mind

That might be it for now, but it seems to be in very good health, for being a LR in the US where nobody knows them and do all sort of weird things to them. I'll add pictures and stuff later on. Cheers!

well, I guess I am back

I've been looking for a 4x4 truck to replace the RRC, my head wants an EV but I don't think we are there yet for Backcountry exploration and general 4x4 with an EV just yet, but getting closer, I just want a smaller non luxury 4x4 with decent range once they exist, I'll jump into it...

But for now, I bumped into a very well maintained 98 Discovery, like the one we had about 15 years ago, and I decided to start a new project, this one will be kept mostly stock (for now anyway)

More to come soon but here is a preview 

Cheers