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May 21, 2016 17:24:53 GMT
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Another thread 'transposition' to save a build thread for posterity as its current home is apparently going to expire! Now for a confession: This isn't mine - it is actually a build by my rather talented (IMHO) younger brother - but I'm going to put it on here because: a) he isn't a member (doesn't really 'do' any forums) b) I think its a great achievement & one of those fantastic 'why not' projects First, let's see how good your knowledge of the various Discovery models is... can anyone spot what's going on in this picture - admittedly, I could have made guessing easier but it was difficult to photograph so some of the things that would give the game away are not in view (or are currently missing!):  Clue: the true 'spotters' amongst you will see some features which do not belong together on one Discovery & might therefore indicate what has been done here! |
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May 21, 2016 17:39:22 GMT
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Easy, a Disco 2 shell on a Disco 1 chassis and running gear.
I'd guess from the wheels it's a 200 Tdi one.
The shape of the arch/inner wing really highlights it.
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May 21, 2016 17:46:05 GMT
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While you take a look at my brother's modified Discovery & try to work it out
daslandroverman was too fast for me...
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Last Edit: Aug 13, 2016 17:26:54 GMT by brickie501
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May 21, 2016 18:09:58 GMT
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Easy, a Disco 2 shell on a Disco 1 chassis and running gear. I'd guess from the wheels it's a 200 Tdi one. The shape of the arch/inner wing really highlights it. Ten out of ten!
My brother's 200Tdi bodywork was suffering the usual rust issues. As a mechanic for an independent workshop he has plenty of experience of the rust tendencies of the various models - Disco 1 chassis can still be fine (as his was) even when the body is beyond repair, while Disco 2s are frequently the other way around. He decided to try combining the 'best parts' of both versions!
So off came the complete 'Series 1' body & on went a partly stripped but good 'Series 2' one sourced from his boss; an otherwise fairly tidy Commercial (no sunroofs  ) that had suffered a light engine bay fire.
Most of the body mounting points lined up, it just needed some spacers made up to bridge a few 'gaps'. The steering is a hybrid of Disco 2 column & upper shaft plus Disco 1 lower (for correct splines to steering box).
With some 'parted out' front end panels replaced & a few charred bits (wiring & sound insulation) repaired in the engine bay the major 'mechanical' aspects were achieved relatively easily.
Various leads seen around engine in the photo below were to power fuel pump & solenoid; so that I could see it running I popped in to see the project one day (the ECU provides these feeds through the wiring loom on a Series 2 & it kept cutting them as it wasn't getting the engine signals it expected) :
For those interested in how it goes together, the rear body mounting points are this close to the chassis brackets - just needed a spacer
Oddly to me, considering the main difference body-wise on the Series 2 is a longer rear over-hang, it was the mid-vehicle body mounts that were furthest from being in the right place. Nothing some spacers/brackets couldn't solve though!
Box section (O/S one ringed) is another spacer to allow a (Heavy Duty) Disco 2 rear bumper to bolt up to the Disco 1 chassis
Some slightly later build pictures - including new wheels:
The bigger challenge was getting dash etc working. My brother wanted to try to keep the later instruments, Climate Control etc rather than take the potentially simpler option of a 300Tdi instrument cluster / loom. Somehow, he needed to provide a speedo drive signal & fool some key systems into thinking its still a Td5!
For instance, the BCM, PCM, SLABS, HEVAC & all manner of other 'electrickery' from the Series 2 were trying to use engine data / communicate with each other. However, the main signals have been replicated &, as its now 'fitted' with a Tdi, the computers can 'scream' all they like but they cannot control the engine - at least not now that direct feeds from the ignition to the fuel pump & solenoid are in place. The theory that a car (chassis) of this age does not have / need an engine stop light, so it can be disconnected for MoT, has worked so far....
After several months work, by the Summer of 2013, my brother had the Disco hybrid sufficiently up together to be road legal, but the electronics are an 'ongoing issue'. Turns out the plan to create a hybrid speedo 'drive' was slightly more complicated to achieve than expected... an electronic drive is available for the LT230 t/box (for the Td5 / late 300Tdi Defender versions) but strangely it operates at half the frequency used by the Disco 2 one (4000 pulses per mile instead of 8000) so the display showed half actual speed! A SatNav or, later on, an add-on speedo has had to solve the problem of not knowing the speed for now ...
IMHO its a great looking vehicle & a fantastic achievement by my little bro to 'combine' these two Disco models!
I have had a few chances to use it & its a nice drive - goes well & very little body roll considering the 'old' suspension setup. Two years ago I got to compare it with an actual Disco 2 (& a Freelander 2) after being provided with Land Rover transport during a work trip to Africa.
Started with a V8 Disco 2 but time & various drivers had not been kind to it - the pulley tensioner went a few days in - so I had to swap to a i6 Freelander 2!
But back to the story ... my brother's truck compared favourably to the above when I got to borrow it when needed a larger vehicle but my 90 & RR Classic were off the road!
Here it is, with a 'friend', during my first loan period:
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Last Edit: May 21, 2016 19:52:32 GMT by brickie501
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May 21, 2016 19:51:31 GMT
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I try to help my brother out so I asked some questions over on the Land Rover Addict forum: Bonjour, Brickie: "Does anyone know of a 'plug-in' frequency multiplier that he could buy to correct the feed ?" You could try a good Rally shop.  We use these "Brantz Sensor Pulse Doubler" Demon Tweeks and the likes sell them to make the Rally Computers a bit more lively. Personally, I don't like them as the simply multiply the input pulses and give false reading every now and then. For road use you should be fine. We modify the vehicles a bit and put in a separate sensor... HTH Passed that info on to little bro but the auxiliary speedo works so he has just stuck with that...
Last year, a 300Tdi engine replaced the original lump but generally the Disco just continues to be a real workhorse. It is frequently pressed into all sorts of duties round my parents farm & here it is at the end of my most recent loan period "supporting" my Land Rover 90!
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That is really good engineering, one hell of a way to try and beat the rust issues tho! The lesser (more human, less landy-nut) eyes may not even notice what has been done, well worth it tho! I will admit I didnt, and my mum has always had discos, so do have soft spot fo rthese. Definitely a car on my bucket list.
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I try to help my brother out so I asked some questions over on the Land Rover Addict forum: Bonjour, Brickie: "Does anyone know of a 'plug-in' frequency multiplier that he could buy to correct the feed ?" You could try a good Rally shop. We use these "Brantz Sensor Pulse Doubler" Demon Tweeks and the likes sell them to make the Rally Computers a bit more lively. Personally, I don't like them as the simply multiply the input pulses and give false reading every now and then. For road use you should be fine. We modify the vehicles a bit and put in a separate sensor... HTH Passed that info on to little bro but the auxiliary speedo works so he has just stuck with that...
Arjan's a knowledgeable chap, a little nutty but knows what he's on about. With regard to keeping the original engine Ecu, BCM etc happy then this link may prove useful. It's an Aussie who put an LSX V8 in a Disco 2, fair enough he started with a V8 model, but the general idea will be the same? Sounds like hes worked out that if you feed the ECU enough information to make it think it's still running the show, and everything else on the car will operate as intended, but it might be useful all the same? I'm a little surprised the Disco II speed sensor won't fit the Tdi transfer box though. www.haultech.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=700 |
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MonzaPhil
Posted a lot
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought
Posts: 2,456
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Jun 21, 2016 10:02:54 GMT
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D2s get their speed reading from the ABS system not from a gearbox output.
Currently going to be fitting the 300 instruments to my D1.5 conversion.
Thanks for the info though. Ill crack on with mine now.
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This is now a clicky linky!  |
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My brother wanted to try to keep the later instruments, Climate Control etc rather than take the potentially simpler option of a 300Tdi instrument cluster / loom. Somehow, he needed to provide a speedo drive signal & fool some key systems into thinking its still a Td5! .... After several months work, by the Summer of 2013, my brother had the Disco hybrid sufficiently up together to be road legal, but the electronics are an 'ongoing issue'. Turns out the plan to create a hybrid speedo 'drive' was slightly more complicated to achieve than expected... an electronic drive is available for the LT230 t/box (for the Td5 / late 300Tdi Defender versions) but strangely it operates at half the frequency used by the Disco 2 one (4000 pulses per mile instead of 8000) so the display showed half actual speed! A SatNav or, later on, an add-on speedo has had to solve the problem of not knowing the speed for now ... D2s get their speed reading from the ABS system not from a gearbox output. Currently going to be fitting the 300 instruments to my D1.5 conversion. Thanks for the info though. Ill crack on with mine now. Yes, only the Defender has a gearbox speedo drive & I didn't mean to suggest Disco 2 did too, so should probably have said "... an electronic drive is available for the LT230 t/box (for the Td5 / late 300Tdi Defender versions) but strangely it operates at half the frequency used by the Disco 2 (4000 pulses per mile instead of 8000)..."
Couldn't remember where the D2 signal came from so thanks for confirming it's the ABS - I'd meant to ask my brother again - makes sense they use one source since ABS needs to know speed anyway, but odd for Land Rover not to have stuck with one signal rate across the models considering how little it tends to change its products 
Been following your similar build, that's great work too! I'm really starting to consider trying to convince my brother to build me one too - although he's lost a bit of confidence in it due to some $h1tpart components, he used in the engine rebuild, failing. My parents have just got a Disco 3, so he's tending to use that for towing etc now (& therefore so am I for the moment)...
... so maybe I just need to convince him to sell me the 'hybrid' 
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MonzaPhil
Posted a lot
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought
Posts: 2,456
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They do have a strange combination of things that just work together and things that will never work together.
I'm glad mine is all together and sorted. I think I can pick up on the speed sensor wire and connect it to the TD5 loom to give me Speed Locking but it really isn't an important feature. I've also just secured a full A/C system so let's see if that will work!
I'm sure it's possible to sort out all the sensors with some clever electrickery but I'm much happier with stupid wiring.
Ah. A Disco 3000....
Done a few miles in those.
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This is now a clicky linky! |
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A slight tangent, but I found myself wondering how easily one could introduce an L320 RRS shell onto a P38 chassis.
You'd need to sort out your own dashboard to make things work, but with a 3 litre BMW six or similar it would be an interesting end result.
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Battenberg
Part of things
Time for Cake....
Posts: 745
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A slight tangent, but I found myself wondering how easily one could introduce an L320 RRS shell onto a P38 chassis. You'd need to sort out your own dashboard to make things work, but with a 3 litre BMW six or similar it would be an interesting end result. The L320 comes with a Diesel BMW also...... |
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Current Fleet:
1968 Wolseley 1000
2022 BMW 430xd MHT Coupe
2007 L200 Animal - Dog walking transport
1998 318is Coupe
2007 Mini Cooper Supercharged
1989 BMW 530 - in storage
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I'm glad mine is all together and sorted. I think I can pick up on the speed sensor wire and connect it to the TD5 loom to give me Speed Locking but it really isn't an important feature. I've also just secured a full A/C system so let's see if that will work! Good luck - will be interested in how you get on! A slight tangent, but I found myself wondering how easily one could introduce an L320 RRS shell onto a P38 chassis. I once had such thoughts but of a Freelander 2 shell on a Range Rover 'Classic' (maybe even an earlier tax exempt?) chassis. After all, it's been done with a few Freelander 1 shells ... they generally look a bit 'awkward' though & I wondered if the later model might look better (would have to use very small wheels I think) while bringing even more of the benefits of a later bodyshell / interior... ... then, possibly like you; my wondering turned to using one of the newer generation of Land Rover chassis with independent suspension etc. Possibly making this more relevant to 'RR' though, I've daydreamed of fitting one of the older bodyshells (which I generally prefer): an original Range Rover or (bringing things back to this thread!) a Disco 2... Nothing more than day dreaming so far though  |
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A slight tangent, but I found myself wondering how easily one could introduce an L320 RRS shell onto a P38 chassis. You'd need to sort out your own dashboard to make things work, but with a 3 litre BMW six or similar it would be an interesting end result. The L320 comes with a Diesel BMW also...... The early L322 had the 3 litre M57 as the diesel option, the L320 had the 2.7 litre TDV6. |
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L322 really is a bmw with a green oval on it,
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True.
BMW wanted to keep it when Land Rover was sold to Ford, but they managed to wangle it as part of the deal.
I've heard a lot of the electronic problems with the later Jag engined ones are largely due to issues trying to make BMW ECU's work with the Jaguar ones.
It could have been the X7, although I think it was a much better Range Rover.
Quite a tangent we're off on here...
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) that had suffered a light engine bay fire.
