Disco Purchase Advice Needed

[bfrieck]

I'm planning on putting a Series body on a Disco or RRC rolling chassis. I've found a '95 Disco at my friend's salvage yard with some body damage which is obviously irrelevant to me since I don't plan to use the body and don't think the wreck affected the running gear. However, my friend is not sure the engine is any good. I can have the rolling chassis for little or nothing so I am wondering about how hard the motors are to come by (i.e., how costly). Are used ones available? What about rebuilds? Any advice would be welcome. Also, the tranny is an automatic - who made those are how durable are they?
Finally, how fearsome are the electronics - the truck in play has had some interior parts removed, none that I care about, but wires are protruding from the dash, etc. - does it have an ECM? What about the coil is it a single unit or does each spark plug have its own? Was that year model fuel injected?

[Les Parker]

Hello there,

If you go with the 3.9 DI Engine/transmission, it will give less headaches of any of the other V8 options, are far as wiring goes. (IMHO)
It has an electronic distributor, fuel injection (with ECU), so ensure all this is supplied with the units.
The gearbox (auto) does not have an ECU, so that is a blessing !

I would suggest buying either a factory shop manual or one of the CD ROM's RN offers (# LHP33, currently $29.95), and familiarising yourself with the wiring and general fitment and the mechanics of the engine/transmission.

All the best

[mearstrae]

As Les says, you'll need a good manual with wiring schematics and good pics of the whole lot. The ECU should be a 14CUX unit and you'll need it and the wiring harness to the engine, the unit is in the passenger side kick panel towards the top (fun to get out sometimes). The trans is a ZF with overdrive and a pretty stout unit. It would be best to try and get the engine running and see what you've got. Depending where you live engines can be hard to find in running condition, rebuilds are available at a hefty cost.

'95 R.R. Classic LWB
'76 Series III Hybrid 109
'70 Rover 3500S

[1996trek4]

Auto is a ZF and very stout...ZF sells transmissions to BMW and a whole host of other manufacturers besides Land Rover. It is not computer controlled in the Discovery 1. I believe 1996 was the first year for coil packs, you will need the ecu, maf and associated components all matched together. if you have the whole vehicle, you will have everything you need. 1997 went to advanced evap and has more crap on it for emissions control. The advanced evap trucks have a big square evap canister on it's side with hoses and wire plug out the inboard end between the washer bottle and the water reservoir with the fuel pump relay between the canister and the reservoir. The fuel pumps are different on these trucks too. The standard evap trucks canister is cylindrical with the hose fittings and plug on top. A 1995 should be a distributor truck. You will not be the first to put a series on a D1 chassis. Remember, the wheel base on a D1 is 100" so I hope your plan is a 109 because I do not think the D1 chassis is very easy to shorten. You will have to remove the rear cross member and weld on a series rear member. Body mounts should be relatively easy. I'd keep the floor pan so you can utilize the D1 seats and center console.