RE: SOTW: Land Rover Discovery V8

[357RS]

I bought a 1 year old Discovery back in 1994 and I still have it and use it virtually every day. The only "break down" was a failed clutch slave cylinder and I still drove it 200+ miles home.

I've replaced the boot floor some time ago; I use it hard including off road trials but look after it well too.

Oh yes, it makes a very good town car.

The 'biggest' problem is the room that 4 spare sets of wheels/tyres take up.

[Dodge76]

heightswitch said:

I think the quality of some of the posts in this thread only re-inforce what a load of nobs are about these days. £695 for gods sake.

had someone threw the landrover away and advertised the engine and box as a single lot for £1000 it would have sold within a week and people would be proclaiming that they had gotten themselves a bargain muscle engine....

Stroll on !!

Got to agree with this! £695 for a tidy looking 4.0 V8 that hasn't done silly mileage. Its worth it just for the noise! You would get more than £695 if you split it down for parts!

[Rossco2010]

Despite concern over the mechanicals, the picture tells us the handbrake works! Or the chocks are airbrushed...

[ChasW]

My neighbour had one new as a company car. Even though he had a fuel card he winced at the consumption. He swore he could see the gauge moving while he drove!

[billzeebub]

I bought one of these last winter from my local village mechanic (who is a bit of a LandRover nut). I only went in for a bit of pre-MOT work on my brothers parked up car (in Paris for a year with work). There was a 95M Disco V8 Es parked up at the back of the building with a hand written For Sale sign on it, £900. Looking round the car it had its original Stratstone Mayfair plates on it, 7 seat leather interior in sensational condition, metallic grey paint, working air con and both sunroofs work, with 100,500 miles and full LR service history and recent new alternator. After a bit of haggling I got it for £650. I used it as a second car for my bikes for a while and it was impeccable-if rather loud as previous owner had de-catd it!!..sold it after four months just before the winter snow for £1400!!..and I reckon the new owner still got a good deal on a superb workhorse..

..next car I bought a current model RR which I love but it doesn't quite do for me what a really good old LandRover does..

[Gorbyrev]

grosserbaby said:

Gorbyrev said:

Might get in trouble for this but could it be an ideal donor car for a Westfield Seight? All that burbly V8 Se7en action for £695!!! The rest is flogable parts - otherwise LPG it for big family off road action!

Edited by Gorbyrev on Friday 9th March 10:58

And this article from PH 2002
http://www.pistonheads.com/roadtests/doc.asp?c=111...

Edited by Gorbyrev on Friday 9th March 11:01

Nah wrong engine for that, it'll be a Land Rover standard version low compression and all that.

Good knowledge. But my understanding is many Seights are running with 170hp V8s. This can't be far south of that, assuming not too many horses have bolted.

[bakerstreet]

300bhp/ton said:

The boot floor is not such a big issue, it's not structural and the rear belt mounts go through it and attach to the chassis below.

Easy fix, cut it out and simply bolt in a big sheet of aluminium.

The other end of the rear seat belt mounts do rot through as its a water trap and that is very common.

If the boot floor rots through, I think its an MOT failure.

Engines are very tough and so is the chassis to a certain extent. Its just the bodies on Discos that are the problem. Windows and locks are also great fun.

I wouldn't want a £700 disco as I'm guessing the next MOT could be fairly horrific.

[VolvoT5]

300bhp/ton said:

VolvoT5 said:

£695?!! Would it even make it to the end of the road before breaking down?

Why do you think price means it'll be unreliable?

I don't, it is just soo cheap....

[Roadster25]

Morris Ital door handles, IIRC.

[Trusty Steed]

Robmarriott said:

DVLA database recognises it as 3994cc, it also says it was registered on June 7th 2004, which could indicate it being imported from somewhere?

Could always be a jap import!

[grosserbaby]

Gorbyrev said:

Good knowledge. But my understanding is many Seights are running with 170hp V8s. This can't be far south of that, assuming not too many horses have bolted.

I'm sure loads use later and larger Land Rover lumps to good effect but worse luck the engine of choice at 3528cc's is the SD1 version which has good potential in standard form for effective and cheap tuning, in fact 170bhp would be just a change of the needles in the SU's and a filter away. This is what has killed a load of the SD1 population which for many sheddy ones would be a good thing but a good V8 Vitesse is a fine car. You could of course use this LR motor as a base for a performance build.

[300bhp/ton]

bakerstreet said:

The other end of the rear seat belt mounts do rot through as its a water trap and that is very common.

Which ends?

the socket end of the belts and lap belt don't. They attach to brackets that go through the floor and are directly mounted on the chassis.

I think there are two main reasons the boot floor rusts. The common thought is wet carpets due to leaky sunroof or alpine windows.

However I think the main culprit (or was on mine) is the cheap metal struts running along the underside of the floor. These seem to made of very poor metal and are subject to all the water and spray of the road and tyres, these rot which infects the rest of the floor.

You can see how this under floor strut caused the rust on my Disco:





See the round hole just below where the strut has rusted through. That is where the rear seat belt mounts pass through the floor. They are mounted on a kind of hinged locating foot which then has a rod going through the floor to a bracket welded onto the chassis. With the floor completely removed you could still bolt up and attach the rear seat belt mounts if you wanted too. The rear floor has nothing to do with them.

bakerstreet said:

If the boot floor rots through, I think its an MOT failure.

It shouldn't be as it isn't structural, think of it like a sunroof in terms of structure. It's just below not above you. The only reason it should fail is if the corrosion is within 'x' inches (6 I think) of a body mount or structural point.

[Steff]

Roadster25 said:

Morris Ital door handles, IIRC.

~


no, Lotus Esprit I think you'll find

[CatScan]

It has an inadvertantly nerdy LR reg - L538 is the internal codename for the Evoque at JLR...

Personally my wallet is not deep enough to keep one of these on the road. Cheapest insurance quote I could get on it was 1150!

[300bhp/ton]

grosserbaby said:

I'm sure loads use later and larger Land Rover lumps to good effect but worse luck the engine of choice at 3528cc's is the SD1 version which has good potential in standard form for effective and cheap tuning, in fact 170bhp would be just a change of the needles in the SU's and a filter away. This is what has killed a load of the SD1 population which for many sheddy ones would be a good thing but a good V8 Vitesse is a fine car. You could of course use this LR motor as a base for a performance build.

170hp from a stock twin SU 3.5 RV8

[300bhp/ton]

Steff said:

Roadster25 said:

Morris Ital door handles, IIRC.

~


no, Lotus Esprit I think you'll find

lol

Or Range Rover, TR7, Marina and many many others.

[DS3R]

Flying Toaster said:

I saw that disco on autotrader yesterday. Strange to see it as SOTW.

Why? Where do you think they come from? www.shedoftheweekcandiates.com ?

Ashally, I might just register that

[Trusty Steed]

Steff said:

no, Lotus Esprit I think you'll find

No Morris Marina ones infact!!

[SuperHangOn]

Had 2 of these (both 3.5 V8i autos in very good condition) and yes there were unreliable! 15mpg makes them practically unusable now. And they rot to buggery.

Heaps of old junk.

Edited by SuperHangOn on Friday 9th March 12:30

[grosserbaby]

300bhp/ton said:

quavey said:

I love these, often thought about owning one after my parents had one when I was younger. However, this particular model I think is a prefacelift with the 3.5 V8. Not the 3.9 or 4.0 that the advert proclaims! Face lift 94 onwards had a much better interior and I'm sure had improved ARB's

4.0 was Disco2 onwards. 3.9's didn't come in until the 300 Series version of the original Disco.

The 300 Series also bought a new interior (far inferior to the original IMO), different door handles, mirrors, headlights, front grill, indicators, axles and gearbox. Along with the 300 Tdi over the 200 Tdi.

Hmm sort of agree on the interior, the later one was workmanlike and boring the original was a Conran effort IIRC. The only thing I can recall was the problem with the arm rest meant that you ended up with an elbow in pain with a golfball pattern on it!

NO I didn't own one but on the day I got made redundant, I picked one up on hire for a weekend in 1992 had a blast on a Tank Range up near Catterick until I remembered we were on Irish plates on MOD land being quite frankly crazy.