Pathfinder I
Busy weekend, but squeezed in an oil change and rear wiper change. Between my nephews birthday party and a Christmas party for a friend.
Refurbishing a cheap Disco 1
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Member III
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- Jim
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- covey sr
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16986
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Michael, does this piss you off as much as it does me. Why cant these deals be closer. Both of us could use many parts off this girl.
redding auto parts - by owner "land rover discovery" - craigslist
redding auto parts - by owner "land rover discovery" - craigslist
Pathfinder I
Got another order of parts placed over the weekend. New O2 sensors, plugs, plug wires, and bearings to do the rear.
Member III
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Where are you getting these parts . How many sensors are involved. When you change one is it necessary to change all (wise decision). Did your diagnostic devise tell you they needed to be changed ? Why can't ordinary Auto Lite spark plugs be used, same question for plug wires. What about the coil and distributor parts, will they need to be changed as well ? Because the engine is supposed to be a Buick design, cant GM parts be just as good ? Dont you just love talking to a dumbo ?
Pathfinder I
This order was from rockauto.com they beat my wholesale price on bearings, plugs, and wires through our local parts suppliers. O2 sensors were about the same so I tossed them on the order as well.
Pathfinder I
The plugs are just copper NGKs iirc the factory champions were minimum order of 24 and I’m not that committed to one plug over another, just didn’t want to spend $30 on plugs atm. No distributor, and the coil packs are working well looking at their waveforms. The injectors on the other hand are whooped, but I’m researching replacements atm. The O2s I ordered were the front pair, the rears don’t effect fuel trim only emissions compliance(so long as they aren’t setting codes at least). The plugs in the engine were run full rich for a while while the truck had the major exhaust leak, but I wanted to be sure it was all happy exhaust wise before I poured money into replacing the simplest of ignition components. The plug wires on it are some expensive aftermarket set that the LR forum guys swear by but I can’t stand the terrible fit and routing of them.
Enthusiast III
Wow. I am genuinely surprised at how inexpensive a lot of these parts are. There seems to be a lot of redundancy as well with bearing sizes, u-joints, etc.
Are there any common catastrophic engine failures? I have seen some listed for sale with misfires that can't be sorted out or timing chain repairwork needed.
Are there any common catastrophic engine failures? I have seen some listed for sale with misfires that can't be sorted out or timing chain repairwork needed.
Pathfinder I
The V8 requires head gaskets more frequently than some, but it’s not a terribly hard job compared to some I’ve done. Otherwise they require maintenance more frequently than most modern vehicles but it’s mostly pretty simple stuff.
Pathfinder I
Parts came in, can’t believe the spark plug wires were only $12, ended up being $135 for the whole tuneup including spark plugs, plug wires, air filter, and front O2 sensors.
Enthusiast III
$12??! The wires for my V6 Mitsubishi were $40 AT WHOLESALE!
Pathfinder I
Got the plugs in, no idea how long they’ve been in but they are cheap enough to replace rather often if need be. I did find the new plugs off a few thousandths in their “pre-gapped” condition so I set them all to the factory gap, this has really smoothed out the cold idle.
The previous wires were “upgrades”, really expensive but not a good fit for the factory looms to keep them from rubbing on things and shorting out. Forcing them into the factory bits left quite a mark where the PO did manage to get it work.
The new wires went right into place as they should. Hopefully they will last a long time all properly dressed from one end to the other as they should be.
Member III
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That's okay, I too would have expected more. I had to buy a plug set, spark plugs and inline gas filter for my old international this week and was surprised they only came to $60. ($33 for wires-$24 for plugs) Then my handyman charged me $60 to put them on.
Advocate I
If you're curious what your plugs are saying about how your engine is running, I wrote something up on it previously: Spark Plug Reading... - Dune and Dirt
If you can provide a few close-ups I'd be happy to give my $0.02 too.
-TJ
Pathfinder I
Appreciate the post, though not too curious on this vehicle at least. It runs closed loop since repairing the exhaust leaks, keeping the fuel air within an acceptable range given the operating conditions. Unfortunately with the GEMS fuel management the fuel injectors are banked 4 to a side so the fuel being off on a single cylinder would generally point to a failed injector, plug, or cylinder loosing compression due to some mechanical issue. Compression and leak down were verified when I first obtained the vehicle and the injectors were monitored with my labscope before I ordered parts to triage what would be most effective component wise to replace first.
I’m actually working on putting together a stand alone fuel management system to run the individual injectors and coil packs to better rein in and balance this engine under load while reporting back to GEMS that the vehicle is still functioning “as it expects” to pass emissions. It’s been an adventure thus far since all my previous experience was hacking/modding advanced Bosch/Siemens injection used on German sports cars. GEMS is rather archaic by comparison to say the least.
Advocate I
That sounds like a VERY cool project! I'd love to hear more about it, perhaps even start a thread on the system? These days the Holley EFI (and even Megasquirt I used on my last big LS-powered sand rail) are SO good it's hard not to use them... but as you pointed out you won't be able to pass emissions going to one of those systems unless you could get them to report the necessary stuff back to the OE system so that it passes all readiness tests.
-TJ
Pathfinder I
All the bits came in this week to get my roof rack and associated bits mounted on the disco. Much better than tripping over them in the garage. Very happy with the clearance with my storage boxes mounted. I’m only around 2.5” taller than before I removed the factory roof rails.
Member II
Pathfinder I
Been coasting along a few weeks, after getting the O2 sensors in and changing the oil again. Driving it daily working on lists of parts needed, and things amiss with the interior.
Member III
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I'm only giving you a thumbs up to make everyone think I know what your talking about.
I feel so dumb when I read this stuff you do, but thanks anyway for your diagnostic talents.
Member III
- 2,827
- First Name
- Jim
- Last Name
- covey sr
- Member #
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16986
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- none - BREAKER BREAKER HAND HELD CB AND WALKIE TALKIE
