Thread: New member with a new Disco

Originally Posted by Fausto79

I wouldn't even get out the car, let alone swim.

Take the car swimming then?

It's been a while since I've been here. Car hasn't had much use, was away with work for 8 weeks and a bit either side of that was not driving it. No mud around here to play in!

Yesterday pulled the plugs, cleaned up the distributor cap and rotor. Checked the timing and the vac advance, replaced the lower steering coupler as I had stripped it. Now the steering is actually 'connected' and doesn't feel anywhere near as vague. Car is running a bit better as the vac advance hose had cracked and would advance but over a second or two loose all vacuum so I put a new line on. Cleaned up my plugs and car is all sorted.

This was all triggered by a recent fill up of around 21-22l/100km which wasn't great.

Well my fuel consumption didn't improve and I was only netting about 300km a tank so I have been messaging blacknight (Dave) and asking all sorts of stupid questions. His responses typically comprised of - my car needs a turbo, 3 less cylinders, and to be diesel. Even after the new fuel pump went in, which made a bit of difference to the power and way it ran, it still wasn't like it was in the past.

I decided to pull the injectors. My gut was telling me that I had a leaking injector. The car would take a few key on and offs to prime the rail in the morning. The exhaust also smelt a bit like fuel, but no real other give aways. Anyhow, even against Daves advice, I kept the V8 and got to it.

What I found was some very very dirty injectors. This is a mix of clean and dirty carby cleaner that I had been pulsing. Once the injector came clean I would flush it a bit more, to give you an indication of how dirty the actual dirty fluid was.



I found what I hope is part of my problems. One of the injectors had worn terminals. However still worked fine. But the main problem was one of the injectors would flow without being powered on. I flushed the injector a few times both ways, and then it appeared to 'come good'. A few more flushes and I feel confident it will do the job.

I bought new o-rings as some of them were so brittle they just broke off. Combined with the carby cleaner, a few sections of fuel hose I was about $30 down. Well worth it as the car is now running quite well. The short trip around the block, the idling, the power is far better, and what small hesitation and stumble I was getting when going from reverse-drive and drive-reverse has gone. It might be my enthusiasm or dehydration, so hopefully I can get better 'data' tomorrow on the first cold start to see if the injectors are still leaking down or not. On first start tonight the car was spitting out a lot of water. It has been raining a lot up here, so I put it down to condensation.

I didn't have a gasket of any sort in between the intake and the runners, so I slapped on some gasket goo there.


My trumpets were really dirty, which this picture doesn't show very well. So I gave them a thorough clean up too. Maybe every bit helps.

Picked up new rotors, went to go replace them and I havent got a 52mm socket. No surprises there really. Felt kind of stupid not having one. Got the car on stands only to not have the right gear. Not the biggest mistake I've made but oh well. The tyre shop who recently rebalanced my wheels have also done the nuts up to what feels like 300ft/lb so I can't actually break the fronts loose so I'll drive the, literally, 200m to the tyre shop to have them loosen them for me and borrow a mates socket to get it done tomorrow. I might even repack the bearings if the mode is right.

New brakes are on and they do feel better! Much improved when out bush and they are dirty. On the road only a minor change. I was getting a steering wheel vibe around 85km/h which is where the disco spends most of its time. I wasn't sure what it was as it came on fairly quickly, which made me second guess my wheel bearing tensioning and new discs. But I once overed all the steering components and it was the radius arm bolts at the diff end had slackened off a considerable amount. I cranked them up as tight as I could and it seems to have sorted that out.

Now to an ongoing problem. Damn fuel economy and power. The car is either getting worse weekly or I'm expecting more from it. The brakes aren't sticking nor is the hand brake. The engine does have a fair amount of blow by - so much so that if I open the oil cap when the engine is running the car nearly stalls! It may just be getting long in the tooth... hard to say. I am considering actually taking it into a Land Rover specialist to see what he thinks. Maybe it is normal *doubtful* but at least I'll know. Might be time to either upgrade or throw some new rings in it or..?

Due to a recent 4wding outing where I was splashing about in clay, mud, sand and water my alternator has decided to scream about it. That will be this weekends job, to pull the alternator and replace the bearings... again. Still running fine otherwise, it just sounds beyond horrible.

Well, my ownership of a Land Rover has concluded.

I decided to sell it, not becuase I didn't like it, but becuase I enjoy new things and thought I would enjoy a change.

Got a good chunk of cash for it and have moved onto a WJ Grand Cherokee. 2.7 CRD - Mercedes engine. Has a few problems but I am working through them. Nothing seems too big, the worse problem is an injector tick, but it drives okay.

I think I'll hang around on the forums as there is a lot of good knowledge within these boards.