Thread: What happened to your Discovery 2 today?

Fitted up some headlamp guards.

Originally Posted by johnp38

I took the head off (again) the Td5 on Friday still chasing the internal water leak and this time found signs of water seepage around number 1, also found No. 1 has a bent conrod (sits half mil below deck while other 4 are proud) .

The head I had on had being refaced and came with the cam and injector rocker gear I bought to replace the badly pitted stuff I discovered not long after I obtained the vehicle, not sure if the refacing had stuffed it but have been meaning to swap it over for a few months now to eliminate it as a cause.

So last night I swapped the cam over to the old head that came with the car and torqued it down (no water loss when I had that head on) . As I need to source another donk anyway due to high mileage and worn bores, and because I can't help myself and have a need to experiment, I actually sprayed the head gasket with copper spray, and used greentops combined with disco 1 injector washers and later rockers from head that greentops came from.

Due to being unhappy with the way the aftermarket head bolts seem to torque up I also re used the OEM marked head bolts that the vehicle came with, immediately I noticed a difference as they got far more progressively tighter at each stage compared to the 2 sets of previous new bolts, both previous sets were name brand but can't remember which what but one is sold in repco.

Are studs not an option for the head? Bolts and torque wrenches are **** imo.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

I hope there isn't too much to clean out.

Some very black tapered rollers from the pinion bearing...Cursory inspection shows the C$P to be ok, but the diff actuall won't turn so who knows what's hiding. Got a SH centre in it for now, need new driveshaft bolts as the Chinese shifter and vice grip treatment was harsh....

Is wheelspin something to be avoided in Discos?

Yes . it depends on the amount of "wellie"
High speed wheelspin causes the planetary gears in the diff to seize onto the cross shaft. The cross shaft then spins and is only held in by a circlip which then spits out and the cross shaft can then drop out causing havoc.
We used to have a bloke in the Range Rover club who used to do a front diff on a high proportion of trips.
I thought that the problem could be reduced by drilling and fitting a grub screw to hold the cross shaft in place. Never got around to it as fitted a Quaife to my then RRC.
Regards PhilipA

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Yes . it depends on the amount of "wellie"
High speed wheelspin causes the planetary gears in the diff to seize onto the cross shaft. The cross shaft then spins and is only held in by a circlip which then spits out and the cross shaft can then drop out causing havoc.
We used to have a bloke in the Range Rover club who used to do a front diff on a high proportion of trips.
I thought that the problem could be reduced by drilling and fitting a grub screw to hold the cross shaft in place. Never got around to it as fitted a Quaife to my then RRC.
Regards PhilipA

It's an issue in all open diffs TBH. Add lack of lube to the mix, as usually the diff isn't level when spin occurs ( they don't hold much ), and also the impact of the wheel suddenly gaining traction again. A rover diff is no tougher than something out of an HQ Holden. GU Patrol diffs are nearly twice as big, and they still break if abused in this fashion.

Interesting idea, that grub screw. I have my blown centre on my bench ATM. I'm going to have a look, just out of interest. My car won't ever be doing that sort of stuff anymore.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Yes . it depends on the amount of "wellie"
High speed wheelspin causes the planetary gears in the diff to seize onto the cross shaft. The cross shaft then spins and is only held in by a circlip which then spits out and the cross shaft can then drop out causing havoc.
We used to have a bloke in the Range Rover club who used to do a front diff on a high proportion of trips.
I thought that the problem could be reduced by drilling and fitting a grub screw to hold the cross shaft in place. Never got around to it as fitted a Quaife to my then RRC.
Regards PhilipA

Hmmm ok, I certainly wasn’t gunning it but wheels were spinning at time of breakage and looking at the pic, my front diff was on the ground…..
Hoping to pull it apart tomorrow.

If diff is damaged I might look at a locker.

Originally Posted by Colmoore

Hmmm ok, I certainly wasn’t gunning it but wheels were spinning at time of breakage and looking at the pic, my front diff was on the ground…..
Hoping to pull it apart tomorrow.

If diff is damaged I might look at a locker.

That's a plan, but I wouldn't be locking the front with out already having a rear locker.

BTW, LR's TC system "should" have prevented the wheelspin. Was it disabled? I've never had much confidence in it.

Originally Posted by FNQLR

Are studs not an option for the head? Bolts and torque wrenches are #$#@ imo.

Way out of my pay grade, honestly when I look at the quite reasonable price of studs for jags that come with studs from factory and compare the prices to the gold plated (to me anyway, depends on your income I guess) custom made studs for the Td5 I wouldn't buy them anyway.

The XJ6 studs are correct length and width (and price) but the thread pitch is different

I re used the german KE Oem bolts that came with it and were kept aside after the head change 3 years ago and they torqued up consistently and tight, much better feel than the brand new sets I have used each head off event, so far from first drive tuesday there was no pressure build up in cooling system and no water loss, I haven't bothered bleeding the cooling system so I can experiment to see if it eventually pushes the air out to the coolant reservoir itself (or not).

I found that I was running a 2.7 bar regulater which I think I must have changed over by accident at some point, and putting a fuel block on with an MSA 4.2 bar regulator cleared the whitish smoke from the exhaust but its dripping as the large O-ring must have dred out while its been sitting around in a hot tin shed, so that is being addressed today.

I also have a weep from the chain tensioner washer so looking for replacement spares this morning.

Still to hunt down a miss that's being plaguing me for months, but it disappeared for about half an hour after I had done the wiring overhaul so I think it's time for a new injector harness. I had thoroughly cleaned it out with brake cleaner after the wiring job and that is when it ran without the miss for that lovely half hour when I suddenly liked my car briefly.