04 Land Rover Discovery II

[MStudt]

I recently came across a great deal on the TRED4x4 recovery boards, and picked up a set. I was a bit disappointed that Front Runner doesn't offer a TRED mount, and only offered a Maxtrax mount. The Maxtrax have different spacing than the TRED's so the mounts wouldn't work for me.

After searching, and not finding anything that would work I decided to build my own. These are made from 3/16"x2" flat steel, and bolt on the Front Runner slats. The two brackets have 1/2-13" threaded studs welded in place, and utilize the Hi-Lift locking handles.

 

[MStudt]

We have big things going on right now. A few months ago we decided to bite the bullet, and order a new engine from the UK. So much for not going overboard on this build! The company of choice was Turner Engineering, and they're regarded as one of the best engine re-builders around. After the placing the order with Turner we had the new engine in hand with 14 days.

This is the day the engine arrived.

Next was getting the Rover to a better location to work on it.

Spent a weekend pulling the engine out.

Over the next couple weeks we cleaned parts, re-loomed the engine bay, cleaned up some rust, and put the new engine in.

 

[MStudt]

We're getting even closer after this past weekend. We have just about everything on the engine now, and we don't have any leftover parts. We're aiming to start the new engine this Saturday. I just purchases Royal Purple break in oil for the first 500 miles, and will most likely stick with Royal Purple after the break in. I have a couple more parts that need to be purchased, and possible a preluber to prime the engine.

 

[MStudt]

I never posted about it, but the engine is running now. We ended up having 3 injectors that were stuck open. After replacing those the engine fired right up.

Had a little forward progress this weekend. I was able to install our ARB compressor, and get the winch mounted up.

I decided to put the ARB CKMA12 compressor under the passenger seat. I decided to make small extension to come off the frame I made for the safe. I also added a fixed piece of air line hose to the compressor so I wouldn't have to reach under the seat trying to find the connection. The compressor sits nicely under the seat, and is powered through the BlueSea fuse box that's installed on the platform.

Installing the winch was a pit of a pain. I had to trim some of the grill support to clear the winch, and had to trim the grill some too.

 

[mnofpeace]

Looking good so far. Good luck with it...

I had a Disco I years ago...i loved it, until i didnt. LRs, when they run good, are a pleasure...smooth as silk and capable as a mountain goat.

 

[MStudt]

We took a trip out to the inlaws this weekend to do some much needed frame work. On the way home we noticed the temps starting to rise, and that's a concern.

Last night I decided to start poking around to see what I could find. I already has some ideas on what the issue(s) could be. For starter our fan clutch is toast, and needs to be replaced. Second, our ac condenser fan was completely seized, and that needs to be replaced. I also popped open the bleeder on the cooling system to check for air, and there's a nice big air pocket in the cooling system.

Once I get the parts replaced I'll start bleeding down the system correctly since it wasn't done the first time. I'm also going to add Water Wetter to the new coolant in hopes of getting the temps under control. I know the fans not operating were part of the cooling issues, but I'm pretty confident the major issue was air in the cooling system.

 

[Jesman]

I have an '00 D2 that I use for off roading. I redid the whole cooling system and still run 195-200 degrees. But I love it and what it can do with just a lift and tires.

 

[MStudt]

I have an '00 D2 that I use for off roading. I redid the whole cooling system and still run 195-200 degrees. But I love it and what it can do with just a lift and tires.

There are so many things that I like about the pre 03-04 models.

 

[MStudt]

Over the weekend I was able to get quite a bit done. I swapped out the bad afn clutch, fan blade, and ac fan motor for good parts.

Clutch - 922790
Blade - 620-112
Motor - PM9116 (fan blade trimming required)

Sorry for some of the not so good pictures. I usually have my wife take pictures, but she was working on her own projects. On Sunday I knocked out our dual battery install, and it wasn't too bad. I was on the fences about installing a National Luna dual battery, and finally decided to do it. Since the plan in to live out of the Rover we needed to have some extra juice just in case.

I took the original box, and cut a little off the bottom to help fit the batteries.

Next I added a battery tie down that uses two of the mounting bolts. This is very simple, and wraps around the new tray, and both batteries to hold them in place.

While cleaning the garage I was able to find a nice sheet of aluminum that I used to make two single battery trays, and a corner piece. I used RTV to fix the corner piece to the battery box. Since it was open to the elements I decided to cover it.

Here's the finished product. I'm not to keen on the location, but there isn't much to work with under the hood.

I'll have to get a picture on the monitor mounted inside still, and I'll post that here later.

 

[MStudt]

With the long weekend I was able to get some much needed work done, but not as much as I was hoping. I started the weekend by trying to wire up our led lights from Cali Raised. I always like sticking with OEM switches on the dash, and keeping the OEM switches on the Rover was what I wanted. After playing around with the Rover switches I decided it wasn't worth the headache anymore. I messed around with these switches for a good 2-3 hours before giving up on them. No matter what I did I couldn't get them to work.

The other option was to pick up some Carling switches, but those wouldn't fit in the dash openings I had to work with. After 20 minutes of searching I came across a guy who was 3D printing switch pods for the ashtray spots on D1's. The pods from D1's also fit the D2's, and of course this lead to a purchase. Here's the item that I purchased to house the new Carling Contura switches that I also bought.

Of course my lighting is on hold now, but we already know everything works. All that's left is installing the switches.

 

[MStudt]

With the switches being a bust this past weekend I decided to move on. I was able to install front and rear differential skids, and the Southdown snorkel. My wife only asked for a couple things on the Rover, and having a snorkel was one of them. I didn't get pictures of the differential skids yet, but I will get some tonight.

Below are a couple pictures of the snorkel. I didn't take any pictures of the install since it was pretty much a guessing game. To say the Southdown snorkel had instructions would be an exaggeration. It came with a template for the cutout, but that's about it. I had to do some searching for Google images to get everything figured out. In the end I think it turned out pretty good. I still need to seal it up just a little around fender fitting.

For those of you familiar with the Southdown snorkel you'll notice something different about this one. I worked with Southdown before purchasing the snorkel to see what they could come up with for an elbow. I didn't want to run their typical snorkel end, and wanted to use a Donaldson Top Spin filter instead. They were able to bend, and stretch an end fitting for me that allowed me to mount the Top Spin filter vertically.

 

[MStudt]

For the last month or so we're been battling high temps on the engine. I though I had it figured since the fan clutch went out. I swapped that, and nothing changed. After a couple days of driving the temps started getting hotter, and then I started leaning towards the t-stat. I swapped that out, bled the system, and added a bottle of Water Wetter. Nothing changed, and now temps are around 230.

I started doing a lot of research, and found out when the fan clutch goes out you need to replace the water pump at the same time. When the clutch went out it started to get a wobble to it, and that wobble caused the water pump to get out of tolerance. After looking at the pump last night it not has some movement to it, and that most likely caused the impeller to come loose.

This week I'm going to replace the water pump, and put a new fan on it again. If this doesn't fix the issue we're going to be looking into plan b since we'll be done with the Rover for a while.

 

[Caliraisedled]

For the last month or so we're been battling high temps on the engine. I though I had it figured since the fan clutch went out. I swapped that, and nothing changed. After a couple days of driving the temps started getting hotter, and then I started leaning towards the t-stat. I swapped that out, bled the system, and added a bottle of Water Wetter. Nothing changed, and now temps are around 230.

I started doing a lot of research, and found out when the fan clutch goes out you need to replace the water pump at the same time. When the clutch went out it started to get a wobble to it, and that wobble caused the water pump to get out of tolerance. After looking at the pump last night it not has some movement to it, and that most likely caused the impeller to come loose.

This week I'm going to replace the water pump, and put a new fan on it again. If this doesn't fix the issue we're going to be looking into plan b since we'll be done with the Rover for a while.

Love the build! looks great, hope you are enjoying our pods!