1996 Land Rover Discovery XD Eco-Challenge build

preacherman

Explorer
It is my uncle’s fault that I bought this Land Rover. I blame it on him really. In the late 1980’s he gave me a subscription to Petersons 4x4 for Christmas. Not only did he give me my first glimpse into the world of off road trucks, he renewed the subscription every year until I got out of college and could afford to get it myself. I still remember the 1st issue. It had pictures of the camel trophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_Trophy on the cover. Bright yellow Land Rovers dripping with character, covered in mud, slogging through an unknown mudhole in the middle of the night, in God knows where. I was hooked.

In 1996, when I was in college, my roommates and I where sitting around our house one Saturday after spending the whole day riding mountain bikes. One roommate picked up the TV guide (remember when you had to look up what was coming on TV??) and started to read. “Hey there is something coming on tomorrow called the Eco-Challenge. This description sounds pretty cool.” Passing around the TV guide, we all agreed. Mountain bikes, Land Rovers, adventure racing and British Columbia. What’s not to like?
On Sunday Feb 16, 1997, we tuned in to the Discovery Channel to watch the Eco-Challenge Adventure Race. For the next 5 nights, we watched 360 men and women ages 18-73 compete in 5 person teams. The 5 days of TV coverage were actually a condensed version of an 8 day, 323 mile endurance race that was held in British Columbia in the summer of 1996. The race was the brain child of a then somewhat unknown producer named Mark Burnett. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-Challenge

While the race had run twice in 1995, they pulled out all the stops in 1996. While my roommates and I were more interested in the rock climbing and mountain biking portions of the race, we could not help but notice the charisma and appeal of the bright yellow Land Rovers driving the race teams, film crews and staff around. 28 Special Addition 1996 Land Rover Discovery XD trucks painted in AA Yellow. Each Land Rover Discovery XD was decorated with special event badges, sponsor stickers, roof racks, Hella lights, a rear ladder, brush guards, and more magnetism than my college age testosterone could handle.



It was a defining moment for my life. There in the living room of the pink rental house we affectionately called “Pepto” just off campus, I made a promise to myself. Whatever happened after college, wherever my career took me, whatever life had in store for me, I would stay actively involved in the outdoor activities I loved, and I would have one of those 4x4s. While I soon forgot about the 4x4, my promise to stay active stuck with me like crazy glue sticks to your fingers after making model airplanes. Within two years my roommates would get jobs, start playing golf and slowly become fat, middle aged men who “used to do outdoor things”. I, however, kept riding, started overlanding, hiked, backpacked, drove, hitchhiked, and climbed my way around the world. Then I got married and drug my wife and kids along with me.

The Land Rover Discovery XD Eco-Challenge stayed somewhere in my sub-conscience. Someplace in the layers of things you forget, it rested between old girlfriends and the first car I drove. I would occasionally think about it, but for the most part it was just something I saw on TV back in college. Then one day, I came across an ad for this truck, a 1996 Land Rover XD Eco-Challenge.

1996 Land Rover Discovery XD Eco-Challenge


I had watched the truck go for sale a few months earlier but was turned away because of the higher price tag. Now several months later it was being re-sold at a much lower price due to conflict and difference of opinion around the cosmetic restoration it had recently undergone. Now, the price was right, I was between projects and I felt confident that with some work, this could be a great adventure truck for my family.

Note: There is a considerable amount of opinion and conflict around the circumstance surrounding the previous transaction of this vehicle. For this reason, I have chosen to not add some information or easily found web links in this thread. I would like to keep this thread about what I have done to this XD. Before I purchased this truck, I was able to have several lengthy conversations with all parties involved and my main questions where easily answered. All parties agreed this could be a solid truck, no one questioned its authenticity as one of the 28, and for me, the new lower price was closer to what I was willing to pay.

While the nature of some of my repairs will most likely elicit comments about previous statements made about this truck on other forums, I would really like to keep the past arguments in the past and focus on just how great of a truck it is in now becoming with the time and energy I have committed to it.

I believe great trucks deserve to be driven, enjoyed and properly kept. From my first conversations about this truck with the past owners one thing was clear. This great low mileage truck was being overlooked in a larger conversation about disclosure, quality of work and proposed value. For me, the necessary repairs were achievable, within my budget and abilities and small in the larger scale of vehicle preparation and restoration. In short, I felt like this “child” was getting overlooked in a nasty divorce. At some point, it became more about the divorce to many involved and the fact that a very solid base for a truck was being sold was overshadowed.

With that said, I will now start the fun part of chronicling my building of this great 1996 Land Rover Discovery XD Eco-Challenge.
 

czenkov

Adventurer
Congrats

Glad you found the Disco and "rescued" it from that situation it had, through no fault of its own, found itself in. I know these aren't living things, but all the same, it is good it found a home. Looking forward to what you do with it.
Congrats.
 

Factoid

Three criminal heroes
Git after it! Every vehicle has a story, particularly one this old. Forget it, move on, have fun, make it yours.
 

pdXDisco

Observer
Great write up! Good luck with the repairs, and I hope she turns out to be a great truck for you.

I've got a page setup on Facebook for owners of XDs, TReKs, and Eco-Challenge trucks. It'd be great if you registered it. Also, I'm working on an article for Rovers magazine, and I'd love to include your story. If so, shoot me an email and we can coordinate it.

https://www.facebook.com/landroverdiscoveryxd/

Thanks!
 

preacherman

Explorer
Great write up! Good luck with the repairs, and I hope she turns out to be a great truck for you.

I've got a page setup on Facebook for owners of XDs, TReKs, and Eco-Challenge trucks. It'd be great if you registered it. Also, I'm working on an article for Rovers magazine, and I'd love to include your story. If so, shoot me an email and we can coordinate it.

https://www.facebook.com/landroverdiscoveryxd/

Thanks!

Sounds good. Email sent.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

sheep_dog

Observer
Good luck with the build. I will be following this one. Always nice to see a event truck that's not a CT restored and brought back to life. Nothing against CT, but I feel like the other events often get over looked.
 

preacherman

Explorer
Land Rover Discovery XD First Impressions

My first order of business after purchasing the truck was to get it from Nebraska to Texas. I have had great success and great fun purchasing trucks on Expedition Portal and doing a “fly and drive” in the past. After checking the map and pricing plane tickets, I called the seller and told him of my intentions. He immediately told me that was not a good idea. While he didn't know of any large pending issues with the Land Rover, he was worried I would have problems on the way home. After thinking about it for a few days I reached out to the seller who sold it to the seller. He was less than enthusiastic as well. Just what was I getting myself into? I just had the trucks past two owners tell me driving the truck 800 miles was a bad idea. Suddenly I was a bit worried about my purchase….

Jumping on the web, I went to U-ship. https://www.uship.com U-ship is an Internet based online marketplace (like eBay) that specializes in vehicle shipping. You go to the web site, enter in your details and multiple companies bid to ship your item. After entering the Land Rovers info, I began to have bids to ship the load. Over the next few days I sorted through shipping bids and finally decided on a company called Montway https://www.montway.com With strong reviews and an open top car trailer, I had a shipper. The next few days were excruciating as I waited for the new truck to arrive. I read and re-read the on going discussions online about the truck. With opinions ranging from, "it's a great truck" to opinions of "it is a pig with lipstick". I worried about what I was getting into.

Finally at 9:30 at night over a week later my new Land Rover XD Eco-Challenge showed up in front of my house. The driver was warm and friendly and was filled with stories of people who had approached him about the Land Rover as he transported it from Nebraska over the past two days. “Man, people dig this thing,” he chuckled as he unloaded it. Good decision or bad decision, the truck was here. It was time to see what I was in for.

Whether I had made a good decision or not, I was completely smitten with the truck in front of me. Bright yellow, covered in stickers and badges, and sitting at a perfect ride height with the two-inch lift and new tires, the Discovery looked the part. If vehicle preference starts with driving a truck you enjoy looking at, I was well on my way. This XD looked good.

Jumping in the drivers seat I started to let my doubts creep in again. Many of the dash lights where burned out, several trim pieces where damaged and the drivers seat felt like it had old bath towels stuffed in it. Cranking the engine over, it idled well and drove when I put it in gear. All the gauges seemed to work, so I dropped it in gear and took it for a spin.

While the Land Rover drove well, I immediately noticed a few problems. Besides the obvious trim problems and fit and finish issues, there were some glairing mechanical issues.

First, there was an obvious alternator whine through the radio. The rectifier was clearly not doing its job. Next, the transmission was slushy and flat and refused to kick down when accelerating. I had purchased an ultra gauge and connected it to the OBDII port. While there where no check engine lights, the ultra gauge lit up like a Christmas tree with warnings, problems, and engine codes. There was also a shimmy in the front drivers side wheel above 30mph that I assumed was a loose wheel bearing.

My short drive filled me with both joy and fear. Driving the XD confirmed my hunch that it would be a great truck, but it also revealed a litany of issues. This was going to be interesting…

The next day I was able to get the first picture of the new Land Rover next to my dual sport.

Land Rover Discovery XD and Triumph 800XC
 

DiscoDavis

Explorer
Nice write up. Funny those two guys didn't feel confident about you driving it back. Sheepdog and I actually did exactly what you describe, and the seller in our case was less than forthright in the sale, he hid several mechanical and electrical defects from me until we arrived in Prescott. We did however make it home with no issues.

With enough tools in carry on luggage, and a decent jack with a few cases of fluids I see no issue in it. Sorry to hear about your issues, I've found the D1 to be simple enough to work on. Does it have the LRSV plate inside the hood?
 

preacherman

Explorer
Nice write up. Funny those two guys didn't feel confident about you driving it back. Sheepdog and I actually did exactly what you describe, and the seller in our case was less than forthright in the sale, he hid several mechanical and electrical defects from me until we arrived in Prescott. We did however make it home with no issues.

With enough tools in carry on luggage, and a decent jack with a few cases of fluids I see no issue in it. Sorry to hear about your issues, I've found the D1 to be simple enough to work on. Does it have the LRSV plate inside the hood?

The seller I got it from was very open about everything he knew was wrong with it, he was just worried there might be more he had not discovered. He had only owned the truck for a short time and was worried about it. It turns out he was right, but I will get to that soon. I was more worried about the previous seller discouraging me to not to drive it given his insistence on how great of a truck it was. The LRSV sticker is not there. There is one sticker that looks like it may have been the LSRV sticker but it is completely faded out and unreadable. There is another place where some type of sticker obviously was near where I have been told the LSRV sticker should be, but unfortunately no LSRV sticker.
 

Longtallsally

Adventurer
It's funny as I have done 2 recent fly and bring home excursions: a fly and ride for a bike the end of last summer, and my recent Disco purchase.

Your story of the infatuation with this particular one is really engaging- thanks for taking the time to share. It is very much like the wanderlust I had in seeing my first Disco back when the Camel Trophy was still running.

It's funny as your experience was similar to mine in terms of honesty of the seller- very straight forward deal. I did a 500 mile drive back and he didn't want me to get stranded, so he tried very hard to make sure it was sorted. Ironically at pick up, the 3 amigos came on and I since had to do a radiator in addition to a whole host of interior bits to be sorted. He felt so bad that he reduced the price so dramatically that there was no negotiation required. It made it home no worries and I've just been doing a little at a time to sort it out. Ironically it has become my daily driver and I'm having a blast and I love to read about folks saving cool machines like this with a fun back story, so it will be fun to read as you go.
 

preacherman

Explorer
Land Rover Discovery XD Diagnosis

The next weekend I planned to take the whole Saturday just making a list of what was wrong with the Disco and what would need addressed. My oldest son was turning 13 the next weekend and I had hoped we could take the Land Rover up to Santa Fe camping for a father son outing. Getting up early I opened the hood, got out some small tools and my creeper and then spent the next several hours crawling around, under, inside and above the truck. I inspected every square inch, several times.

Overall my impression was good, with a few caveats. Here are the major things I saw.

First, there was very little rust. There are two small sections of rust that had been previously documented by the seller, but to be honest I was not that worried about either. Both smaller sections are fairly limited in size and should not be that hard to repair. Both spots are in somewhat weird places for a Land Rover but the good news is the normal places are 100% rust free.

Door rust hole



Seam rust on the surface


Next up, to evaluate the paint job. It’s the best paint job I have ever seen…. as long as you stay 20 feet away. :Wow1: The truck had previously been repainted before and the amount of overspray was simply staggering. The seller had warned me about this, but up close, in person, in the sun, it was a lot to take in. It had obviously been painted very fast. The good news is overspray just takes time to clean up. It is not a hard job to clean up bad overspray, just a time consuming one. One good news/bad news element about the paint however is that the new paint color is just slightly darker than the old color. You can see this in the doorjambs the most. It is only visible in direct sunlight. While I cannot tell if the new color is darker because the original paint color (AA Yellow) is faded or because they got a color slightly off, in some weird way, it does help confirm the real identity of the truck. Because the doorjambs, under hood, and engine compartment where left unpainted they revel the original color (AA Yellow), which was only used on the LSRV (Land Rover Special Use Vehicle) in 1996. The silver lining on the paint is that 90% of everyone who sees the truck will not notice the quick paint job and that the largest single best indicator of the trucks Eco-Challenge status, is the original paint color in the areas left unpainted. When the overspray and other paint flaws are addressed I suspect most people will not notice these problems anymore. There are however, many issues to address.







Next up I opened the hood. Since I could drive I have purchased 31 different 4x4's. When I bought them some were running, some were not. I have worked on jeeps, landcrusers, scouts, fords, and several other brands. I have done engine swaps, transmission rebuilds, carb teardowns, transfer case swaps. I was prepared for anything. What greeted me however was the single oiliest engine I have ever worked on. This Land Rover Discovery has a special talent when it comes to leaking oil. It appeared that every single seal was leaking something. In just 3 days of sitting in my driveway a Picasso of oil shapes and colors was starting to form on my driveway. It was clear I could not get anything done until the engine got cleaned up.

In my house our laundry room is right next to the garage door. Hooking up the garden hose to the hot water outlet in the laundry room, I grabbed a bucket full of detail brushes, degreasers, foamy engine brite, simple green, power purple, and elbow grease. After sealing up the electronic bits with tin foil and saran wrap I spent the next 5 hours scrubbing, hosing, scraping, brushing and cleaning the engine bay. My weapons of choice ranged from a toothbrush; to a stiff bristle toilet brush. When I was finished, I had a clean engine bay. The front axle was so grimy and caked with grease and grit it had to be scraped off with a putty knife.

I didn't take a picture before I started but here is it clean...



I could now get a better picture of what I was looking at. While cleaning I discovered the main two sources of my leaks where a power steering pump and most likely a rear main seal (I am still trying to pinpoint this one). It turns out not everything was leaking, just a few small leaks that had gone way to long.

Checking the truck over for a few more hours it was clear I should not take it to Santa Fe the next weekend. While most of the problems I found were minor, I found enough to make me think I should not take it out just yet. Better safe, than sorry. My son was disappointed and my friends called me “a wimp” but something told me not to drive it on an 800-mile road trip. I closed the hood and called it a day.

Over the next week, I continued to plan, make lists, and wrap my head around everything the truck needed. On the drive to Santa Fe my son and I spent hours making lists of what needs repaired, what we should tackle first and what modifications we would like to make. Our excitement was starting to grow.
 

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