Day 1

My plan was to get the heads off today.
Start Time: 2pm

I think I spend more time running back and forth to the counter getting the right tools to do the job than I spend actually working on the Land Rover. The first step in doing the work that I'm doing is to drain the antifreeze and oil. The drain plug for the oil is huge. How huge? well it took four trips to get the right size...23mm? Nope, bigger. 26mm?? nope, bigger. 30mm? Too big, dammit. Finally got it with a 29mm if I remember correctly. But of course when I tried to get the socket wrench on there, it wouldn't fit because something else that I don't know the name of was in the way so I ended up using an adjustable wrench...which is what I was going to do in the first place but the rep at the hobby shop recommended not to as it could "round off" the nut. Never listening to him again.

Anyway, oil got drained. I think I had about 2 quarts drain out. Considering there should have been about 5 or 6 in there, it might have been a little low.

Antifreeze: This is where I started to figure out why they call this vehicle the "Discovery", because you start to "Discover" how much of a pain in the ass it is to work on and you also start to "Discover" that the Brits didn't intend this vehicle to be a "Do It Yourself" vehicle like the Germans did with the VW. To drain the antifreeze, rather than doing the sensible thing and put a drain plug on the radiator, you have to take off the lower radiator hose. And then there's a couple inconveniently placed drain cocks on the engine block as well. I consider myself a forward thinker and looking at this already thinking "good god, this is going to be an environmental mess". So I did what I could. I put a drain pan under the hose and hoped for the best. Sure enough the water exploded out as expected with about 3/4 of it getting into the pan. The rest...well, we'll have to let mother nature sort that out.

The real fun came in with the drain cocks. Both of them have a square nut on them and were in a spot way to small for any human hand to get into...what the hell was I supposed to use to get those off? I am pretty skinny though and I forced my arm and a 11mm socket between a bunch of bars and what not and in a very awkward way I managed to get one of them off. I never realized how much coolant stays within the engine, but it came out in a burst as well. I managed to get out of the way on the first. However on the second my arm got stuck and I couldn't get out of the way...

Well, by this time I was soaked and ready to go home. But I still had another hour to play with. I did manage to get the alternator and A/C off without much trouble, at least something went right.

End of Day One: 5pm

Total Time So Far: 3 Hours

History

Being the environmentally friendly guy that I am, I bought a Land Rover Discovery back in January with the intention to travel Europe in comfort. I also enjoy the idea of being able to dominate the road with this tank of a vehicle. However, since owning the thing it has brought me nothing but despair...I guess this is karma slapping me in the face.

Two days after I bought it I lost the one key that I had. That was the beginning of the money pit. It cost over $200 to get a new key and key fob. I drove it for about a week and noticed that it started blowing out a lot of black smoke on acceleration, and it would start to stall at times. The stalling became more frequent and I found myself pushing the thing more than I was driving it. So I began troubleshooting. I gave it a full tune up, replaced the fuel pump and checked a bunch of sensors...another $300 later and still nothing. Being a man, I absolutely refuse to take the thing into a shop and have some other guy put their hands on her. Just to make sure the engine was alright, I decided to do a compression check and found out one of the cylinders wasn't getting any compression...hmm. After some research, it has been determined that it likely has a bad valve.

Do I really want to deal with this? Well yesterday I figured its been sitting outside my house for the past four months, it probably wouldn't hurt to work on it myself.

Now, for those that know me or have heard about what happened to my house, I will remind you that I am not a professional. I'm going into this thing sort of blind. I have to manage to not only take my engine apart, but also put it back together again...correctly.

If an experienced person was doing this, it should take about 10 hours. I plan to do it in 7 (yeah right). So if you like, follow along and enjoy my pain as I go through this experience. I'm armed with my Macbook with electronic version of the Discovery mechanics manual, a Haynes manual and whatever tools I can find at the hobby shop. May God help us all...