Thread: What to look for when buying 1998 V8 D1?

Originally Posted by rdenyer

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He has his eyes on a 1998 D1 V8.
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Any tip greatfully accepted
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tip 1: don't do it. Assuming he's young-ish(eg. 18-mid 20's) .. it'll send him broke.
Not due to the maintenance costs .. just the fuel bills will send him mad!(unless he's one of those corporate high flying, multi-million dollar exec type! )

300 tdi is a nice motor, a lot better than I was expecting to be honest.
Can be tweaked a little here and there to provide reasonable power, but economy is so much better(obviously).

Originally Posted by rdenyer

What are the really expensive things that a couple of home mechanics cant fix ?

Cracked block is the biggie. About 50% of high mileage D1 V8's are the victim of over heating and subsequent block failure. The owners will resort to tins of goo in the radiator to keep it together long enough to sell for a few bucks over scrap value. Buyer beware! Only meticulously kept cooling systems save these things from being a total disaster in their old age.

Oh and yes, they suck fuel like no other beast. LPG can take some of the pain away but it's often coupled with failed petrol system components.

The usual rust in the alpine windows, top of the A pillars, front floors, across the top of the windscreen and sills under the doors.

As mentioned bore liners are the big one, to the un trained eye it appears to be blown heads but if its ever been abused and cooked the block is cactus BUT its not that bad, buy a cheap one that you know needs an engine, pull it out and get it ridge lined, new rings and bearings, new cam and reco heads. All up 5k tops and you will have an engine that will run all day every day for the next 10 years.
As far as fuel, LPG scuba tanks in the rear and standard fuel tank will give cheap motoring, my tweaked 4.6 used 22-24 on LPG unless 4wding so cheaper than the average diesel to run and maintain with enough fuel to do decent 4wding trips and it will pull the car and a camper up hills all day if needed.
Replace pumps, turbo, intercooler and pipes on a old diesel and see how far in front you are...
Transmission, go auto every day of the week, strong, reliable, cheap and awesome off road, transfer case good but leak and diffs are stronger than most think and wont break unless tyres over 33's and or abused.
Get an early one without ABS to avoid extra costs and reliability , the early ABS is next to useless anyway if you know how to drive

Yeah, definitely as Discomatt says, try to avoid ABS if possible.
Took me months to find mine in the condition I wanted, with the priority being no ABS, and secondary point no airbag(for me).

LPG is a possibility to help with cost, I have a system for sale(underfloor scuba tanks).
Only problem with LPG is, the cost of the stuff nowadays, about 1/2 or more that of most petrol types.
Back in the day when it was usually close to 1/3rd the cost, you could recoup the cost of the LPG system in about a year or two(depending on klm's done per year).

LPG is a crappy fuel, and the engine will need more frequent servicing intervals and you lose some economy when driving on LPG.

If you go LPG get one already installed, paying for a new install these days is, as mentioned not worth it. If you do go down that rout make sure the install was done by a reputable mob. My first D1 had no issue at all with the LPG, 2nd D1 was a totally different story, installed by total peanuts that wired it so the MAF didn't have power along with the injectors when on LPG which caused heaps of issues and my then mechanic cost me a bomb and still couldn't fix it. Ended up at a good gas place that after a day of testing, searching and fixing finally got it right.
As far as maintenance the only thing I do is run quality plugs, iridium, which get replaced with a full set of leads every 60-70,000km. Oil same as petrol cars every 10,000.
Once set up right the LPG only needs a mixture set and mixer and converter clean every 100,000km from my experience.
LPG 70c x 25l= $17.50 / 100km
petrol $1.30 x 20l= $26.00 / 100km
Diesel $1.40 x 12l= $16.80 / 100km

Not a lot between them all BUT the big difference comes into play when 4wding or towing...

Well well well now there is a golden opportunity to be had. I just have at this moment a 97 disco V8 on gas that I am getting ready for sale. When I say getting ready for sale that means it will have a tune, auto serviced and any thing needed for the road worthy. Plenty of good stuff with this disco as well. Dual battery's, snorkel, winch, near new BFG allterains. Windscreen is less than eighteen months old as is the shock assorbers.
Cheers Hall

Thinking about something bigger for my family, so moving on a 98 build, 99 complied top hat liner rebuild (20000km old) non abs manual. In melbourne. Pm for more details. Ed.