1999 Disco I 300TDi: Fixes, Mods, & Trips

[EricTyrrell]

Good advise here. I ran my Disco almost entirely stock for over a year and was seriously impressed with the performance. Maybe some rocker protection in addition to the slightly taller springs and +1 tire size. I still run 245/75 R16 on Discovery and have run some pretty tough trails and long trips with it.

Beautiful photo Scott. Reminds me of the white Discoveries used in Fiennes' 1991 expedition to find the lost city of Ubar.

 

[roverandom]

With the diesel up front won't he want a stiffer spring anyway? The aluminum V8 is considerably lighter than the 300tdi.

Rocker protection is key on these discos along with diff guard.

The V8 isn't really that much lighter when it's at it's fighting weight and ready to run. The long block is relatively light compared to a cast iron block but not so much as it makes a tremendous difference once you bolt all the rest on.

I would worry more about the easily bent steering drag links before the rockers. Sleeve them both or fit HD units if rocks are in your future.




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[David Harris]

The V8 isn't really that much lighter when it's at it's fighting weight and ready to run. The long block is relatively light compared to a cast iron block but not so much as it makes a tremendous difference once you bolt all the rest on.

I would worry more about the easily bent steering drag links before the rockers. Sleeve them both or fit HD units if rocks are in your future.

There's about a two hundred pound difference. Remember, all that stuff is also bolted to the diesel.

 

[dcproven]

I had a couple 300Tdi myself, there are plenty of things you want to do.
First of all, learn where the P-gasket is, and keep an eye on it, you don't want to leak any coolant or you'll kill your Tdi
If you need some extra kick, do the RORI on it, just adjusting a bit the pump could improve the pick up from stop (needed if you go bigger than stock tires)
I had 235/85R16 on mine (automatic) and it was OK, not fast by any measure, but OK.
If you load it a little bit, you may want quality HD springs, I have killed MD springs in Morocco in just one trip, of course, if you are not going to do offroad or very mild, I would recommend HD stock suspension, it's probably the best price/quality ratio
I have some info in my blog about my last Tdi if you want to read up.

You'll love this truck, I just wished it was an affordable option over here...

 

[NW40]

Maybe some rocker protection in addition to the slightly taller springs and +1 tire size. I still run 245/75 R16 on Discovery and have run some pretty tough trails and long trips with it.

Scott, with your 245/75's, did you need to do a camel cut or any other trimming? Leaning towards this size to maintain more reasonable gearing with the diesel and to minimize body cutting at this point.

 

[Bigplum]

The sunroof seal is rumoured to be the same as a Peugeot 205 ( French small car) , I'm guessing that information won't be a lot of use over there but it might help in your search

 

[roverandom]

There's about a two hundred pound difference. Remember, all that stuff is also bolted to the diesel.

Yeah, your right. Forgot about the turbo etc. A V8 disco uses 133"lbs coil vrs a 200tdi with 150"lbs coils.
I stand corrected.


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[Nonimouse]

Interesting thread.

Back in March I bought a '98 MY 300Tdi XS Auto for my wife - been looking for a solid Disco1 for 4 years.

She had been built up for Overland but the owner had lost confidence. A friend stripped her of most of the bolt on bits and I bought the rest for a song

I had to strip off the crappy Terrafirma 2" lift - 5K miles and 14 months, no powder coat and the shocks were shot. I fitted standard height genuine parts HS springs and BOGE gas shocks; then dumped the 235/85's in favour of 245/70 Cooper AT3's
She rides like a dream now. No nasty noises from the props, no wander. Takes 6 of us with all the kit and a trailer wherever. I've gradually replaced all the missing trim and internal bits; and along the way picked up a genuine short roof rack for the rear half of the roof and cross bars for the roof rails.

She's got 78K on the lump, with an Ashcroft upgraded 'box and re-con T box. I've fitted 4 pinion 24 spline diffs Front and Rear. Next off is to dump the Deflex bushes and fit SuperPro's. Then it'll be ABD brake discs and EBC green pads.

The lump is an EDC unit, which is a damned site less scary than I thought - runs sweet now; and I'm getting 33 to an Imperial gallon (27.5 miles to a US gallon). With a 22 gallon (US) tank range is good

I could get used to the old girl - so much so that my 110 is sulking

 

[ZG]

Yeah, your right. Forgot about the turbo etc. A V8 disco uses 133"lbs coil vrs a 200tdi with 150"lbs coils.
I stand corrected.


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It's really not only the turbo, though that is additional weight. The V8 block weighs 182lbs, the 300tdi block weighs 303lbs.

 

[Saratoga]

Workshop manual direct from publisher ? 60 uk pounds brand new

 

[drifter-co]

Nice Disco, look forward to seeing your progress.

 

[NW40]

Nice find! Who did the conversion? Can you post some photos of the engine bay?

I believe Reborn & Company in Shelby, NC did the conversion. Here's a couple quick photos of the engine bay:

I have some info in my blog about my last Tdi if you want to read up.

You'll love this truck, I just wished it was an affordable option over here...

Thanks, dcproven. I'll definitely check out the Tdi on your blog. Always looking to see what others have done with their Discos. And as far as affordability, the purchase seemed to make sense to me when I weigh the fuel savings and the longevity of the Tdi engine. Larger up front cost, but seemed to even out over a few years.


@Nonimouse, do you have a build thread for your Disco? Like I mentioned to dcproven, I enjoy reading up on what/how others have done with their Discos.

 

[NW40]

I spent a week ago Saturday with Brian at Defenders Northwest in Gig Harbor, WA doing a thorough inspection of the engine and ancillaries. It was an excellent learning experience, somewhat of a 300Tdi crash course. Brian is a great teacher. No major surprises with the condition of the truck.

In more recent news, call me crazy (my wife does!), but I bought a 94 donor truck late last week. It has some usable parts I need as well as some fun parts (SD rack, bumper, winch, diff guard, etc.), some of which I planned on buying anyway, so made sense to me to get it all in a relatively cheap package. A bit more work involved in cleaning up the parts, but that's part of the fun of it.

Started suspension work on Saturday. The donor truck (seen in the rear in the next photo) has an older OME kit and spacers installed, which I plan on moving over to my 99 Disco. It rides pretty firm, which makes me think it's an HD kit. Not ideal, but it will provide a lift for slightly larger tires and carry me over until I can afford a new Medium Duty kit.

Didn't have too much trouble tearing down the suspension on the parts truck, but my 99 Disco has some seized bolts/nuts as a result of its prior life on the salty East coast. I sheared two of the shock tower retaining ring bolts right off. Not a big deal, as replacement retaining rings from TerraFirma are fairly cheap.

But the current show-stopper is the top and bottom shock mounting nuts. Despite PB Blaster and a propane torch to break the rust bond, I can't get them off. Additionally, with all our efforts, we managed to round out the top and bottom shock bolt stubs (round stub with 2 squared off sides for an 8mm crescent wrench) that I assumed are supposed to be used to help break the nut free. Here's what I'm talking about:

The bottom nut simply won't break free, and the top nut has broken free, but takes quite a bit of force to turn, and I've run out of shock bolt stub to hold the bolt steady while I turn the nut. Make sense?

So what are my options here? I'm hoping that an impact wrench will be able to twist the top nut off without needing to grasp the bolt. Not sure what to do about the bottom, though. There's not enough room to get an impact hammer into the axle shock mount. Thought about trying to grasp the shock tube with lock-jaw pliers (didn't have any available on Saturday) while turning the nut with a crescent wrench. A friend of mine also recommended using an air hammer chisel to turn the nut or split the nut, or to use a manual nut splitter. I'm open to any ideas you might have. Was hoping to save the shocks to move back to the donor truck to keep it drivable, but at this point, I'm okay with destroying the shocks if that's what it takes to remove them.

Ideas?

 

[ZG]

Are you going to reuse the shocks? I'd just cut the studs.

 

[David Harris]

A pipe wrench on the shock body works better than vice grips.