2000 Disco II Major Rebuild/Overhaul by RSPTex

7 minute(s) of a 50 minute read

It looks like Loctite 263 is the way to go for the fasteners, or 272 for bigger bolts. I'm ordering some now. I'm also getting some blue for assembly of the other large fasteners of the engine and transmission.

To all who are considering pinning their sleeves while the engine is still in the truck:

The pressure and torque of drilling and tapping the holes may warp the cylinders. I haven't cleaned the holes up completely or had them honed, but they do look slightly off, as in a protrusion right around the drilled hole. I was gentle with my drilling, but still... We'll see when I drop off the block to be honed. I'll update once I finish the pinning. I tapped all the holes today and will cut the bolts to size tomorrow and de-burr the holes as well. The burrs could very well be confusing me, and it was a long day, so there could be nothing wrong and no manipulation, but I just wanted to throw the warning out there.

Tomorrow, finish pinning sleeves, switch out brake pads, rotors, brake lines, and maybe suspension. That's the goal. We'll see what happens!

 just bought the plugs that are the same part number from Britpart. I bought most of my parts from lrdirect, getting Britpart Brand stuff. It is much cheaper than elsewhere. I like the quality of what I've seen so far. great stuff. The plugs look like a coated aluminum. I'll give them to the shop and have him do them. I'll pressure test after doing everything else and see what I turn up with. I put a good deal of pressure on the threading to make sure I didn't pull it out while cutting, and when pushing on the Cast Iron, perhaps it did deform. I'm still optimistic that it's just my eyes playing tricks on me. I'll know on Monday, though.

8-7-2014

This is a great project! I've pinned the sleeves, and they are now being honed and the block is also being decked, having new cam bearings and freeze plugs put in. I found that on one half of my block the screw depth was .050" longer than the other side, with variation between the 4 cylinders of each side being less than .010". You'll notice on the diagram of depths, the screw length is 1.045" and the depth I measured was the surface of the block to the top of the screw with a depth gauge. I was able to then use nuts to lock in place where I wanted to cut with a dremel and sand/finish the screw from there. I heavily advise against pinning sleeves while the engine is assembled and in the bay. There's particulate matter that WILL fall on your crank, journals, connecting rods, and WILL be picked up by your oils feed pipe and be put into your oil pump, lifters, rockers, etc! I don't think there was any warping done to the cylinders. Some 1200 grit sandpaper and oil was able to get rid of almost all of the lip that drilling and tapping made. The honing of the cylinders is going to take care of the rest.



I have the exhaust manifolds back from being sandblasted. They aren't red with rust anymore! I need to put new studs in them, though. 3 broke, and the other 3 can't be far behind. The pictures are of the manifolds in my motorcycle saddlebags. Sorry for the weird angle.



I'm still waiting on the valves, and then I can finish the heads after lapping the valves to their seats.

I've installed the front axle's lift, which looks really goofy, given it has nothing to weigh it down, so it's super tall. I bought the TF 2" lift kit, and the truck was already using 1" spacers up front, probably to offset the weight of the ARB Bumper. I ordered some aluminum to machine a pair of spacers for the back and give the truck an even 3" lift.



While doing the suspension, I also tried to replace all the brake stuff. That was a crazy experience. The first one is always the worst. It took 4 hours! The brake lines sent didn't have the right fittings and only grabbed onto about 2 threads of the male thread from the truck. Very bad! I'm having new lines sent, which will get here first part of next week, which is also when I'll put the rest of the suspension on. I also have new raybestos rotors and power stop ceramic pads. When I replace the brake fluid, I'll also install the speed bleeders to make that go faster. I've used them on my motorcycles, and you can't beat them! It turns a 30 minute job into a 5 minute job with no stress and very little waste.



I haven't done anything with the transmission or transfer case, yet. I need to read up on rebuilding the transmission so I can get that done and then install new gaskets and seals on the transfer case. Rusty1 was awesome enough to send me an old double cardan front drive shaft that I'll rebuild and put on the front, using the flange that mates with the transfer case (mine uses a D1 flange...). I'm debating the rear driveshaft. I could get another rotoflex, but with 3 inches of lift, I am considering just doing a double cardan on the back, as well. I just don't know how to do it, yet...

Because the truck is gutted, I am now looking at doing the headlight conversion. When I bought the 03-04 headlights to put on my 2000, they were both oxidized, but came with the pigtails of the connectors from the truck, which makes splicing those wires with my truck's very easy. I'll take a grinder to it this week or weekend and get those fitted...then removed to prevent damage while doing everything else. I am also repainting the wheel flares and grille. Paint and sandpaper are cheap, and I am still waiting on parts, so I have time.

I've organized all of the work I'm doing into folders in my google drive. They're continually changing, but here's the link to the folder, so anyone can enjoy access to all my write-ups, photos, specs, notes, etc:

Robbie's Disco II Google Drive Folder

Anyone can view and download everything in it, but you can't modify the them on the google drive folder. You can download all of it and modify it for your own use, though! I'll be updating all of the projects as they get closer to being finished. As you'll see, some of the projects are empty because I haven't started them, yet. They handsfree entry/keyless ignition is still being developed. It'll be awesome, though, I promise you that!

I've also been working on cataloging the specs to all of the bolts I need to replace and get high-end replacements. The spreadsheet for that is in there. I'm only about 1/4 the way through what I want to do on the fasteners.

Screw Land Rover (get the pun?!)

That's all I have for now. I'll let you all low more when I do more. Turns out my wife wants to do things that don't involve a wrench some nights, so I don't get to work as much as I'd like to....