DIIs and their V8s

[Oliver]

Aloha all from the sunny south pacific!!

Er, has anyone on 'ere (or who have friends that) have had issues with the 4.0l V8 in the DII?

I am looking at swapping to my DII V8 and selling my '98 Tdi is all. It has had to have a head gasket but that's hardly a major compared with slipped liners on the V8. The question is..how often do the V8 ACTUALLY go bad?

Thank you all in anticipation...

[pw8757]

Hi,

There seems to be an endless debate about this. There is even one going on nearer to you! (See here)

Personally I have always loved the big petrol engine of the V8 and the sound it makes, the power it gives and the rest comes down to paying your money and taking your choice.

Unless you live in America or have loadsamoney, you will end up running the V8 on LPG, which will trade some performance against a massive saving in fuel costs. However, the performance issue isn't just about the engine, but also around the suspension and braking setup and fuel economy is more affected by driving style than most other factors.

I'm sure it goes without saying that any engine will fail early if not looked after, so oil/water etc changes are key issues to keep it running.

One thing that I do believe - having had cars that you simply cannot work on yourself - it really is satisfying to be able to look after your own car and any Disco II will put you in that category.

Good luck

[steve_a]

Having had a 200 D1 a 300 D1 Auto, and now a D2 V8 4.0L the major caution I'd add is the extra electrics on the D2 and the need for more modern gear to maintain (e.g. code reader for engine).

If you are happy to have a simple code reader and attempt engine repairs then the rest of the motor is generally mildly modified D1. There are a couple of provisos though...

Suspension - if air then it can cause grief, not too difficult to change to coils if wanted, but some extra expense.

ACE - still not sure what the impact is of trying to fit a lift kit to an ACE fitted vehicle.

Extra electronics - ABS and ACE need a custom diag kit, cheapest around £400 from my looking over the last few weeks. ABS doesn't seem to want to clear the faults even if you fix the issue (you may be able to pull battery, but didn't work for me).

Just be aware that if you like working on your own car then these things can be a real issue, that £400 item is good for ONLY your vehicle. Not another one similar, they tie it to your VIN which means it is an expensive outlay, I don't know if they do a deal to swap a VIN locked licence to another VIN.

Personally I am planning on trading the D2 V8 in and buying a 200 or 300 again because of these reasons and what we want to do with the car here in Oz.