Irwin the 1995 Disco (200tdi and 5 Spd swapped)

[Colorofkris]

Hey

Im Kris and this is my new to me 1995 Land Rover Discovery Series 1 Dubbed Irwin.


I have now owned this Discovery for about a month, which my next post will go over why I bought it, where, and about the maiden voyage home.

This disco is a 200tdi Swapped Series 1 with a LT77 5 Speed Manual Transmission and an LT230 Transfer Case. It most certainly a project and the list seems to be never ending, but it runs and drives great. This forum is going to be about the building and fixing of this discovery as well as the adventures I goes on. I have big plans for this thing which will unfold over time.

I will start at the beginning for the story of my owner ship. My next post will pretty much kickstart that by going over the purchase and drive home. From there I will update to current day through a couple more posts. To get started here are some of the highlights of the purchase as well as a couple photos from the day I bought it.


Here are some of the highlights about the Discovery

• Over all its in decent shape
• Runs and drives great
• Diesel 200tdi
• 5 Speed Manual
• Original Color- White
• Frame is in good shape
• Price point
• Accessories included
  • Roof Rack
  • Awning
  • Ladder
  • Front bumper (which I don’t car for)
  • Terrafirma Lift
  • Offroad tires (30”)
  • Limb risers

(Pics in following post)

 

[Colorofkris]

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[Colorofkris]

A little back story up to the maiden voyage home...

Ever since I sold my 2nd Discovery I have always told myself I would get another one when the time was right. I didn’t care if it just sat in my yard and rotted for the rest of my life, I just wanted another discovery. I love the aesthetic of the Discovery’s, it is such a timeless design that when built right just look so perfect. Don’t get me wrong, I have always been a defender fan and a defender 110 has been my dream vehicle since I was about 17, but after owning 2 discovery’s I have grown to love the discovery more. Take that in conjunction with the steep and rising prices of defenders, they are a bit out of my budget. That being said I am constantly looking around online for my perfect discovery, going through listings day in and day out knowing very well that I didn’t have any intent of buying at that moment in time. About 3 years ago I stumbled on a listing for a manual series 1 discovery and instantly fell in love with the simplicity as well as the fact that it was a manual! Ive loved the idea of driving a manual but gave up the hope for one when I decided I wanted a disco. I really had no idea the option was even available in America. One day I knew I was going to own one….and then prices started to rise on them. That dream started to drift. Until the day before thanksgiving this year (2020). I was doing my typical browsing of Facebook market place and saw it….. it was ugly, old, in rough shape, and $6500, but it was 200tdi with a 5 speed which caught my eye. (To make a side note some one had inquired about buying the Range Rover which would leave me with some cash and no car so I was actually debating at the time buying one as a project and buying another car after the sale to daily drive.) I showed my wife and she dropped the instant “no that looks like a lot of work”, so I kept scrolling. In the back of my mind there was something about it though. I scrolled though about 100 other listings and was feeling pretty burnt out looking. Finding a discovery is tough work because you just know that no matter what you get you are getting yourself into a lot of work, but at least you can decide what work you want to do by finding the right one. I gave up my search for the day. Later that evening I was on a walk with the wife and the dogs when I did a quick glance at Facebook market place and saw a posting for the same rover as before but priced at $3500 instead of $6500. So I did what all husbands would do at the time and asked my wife “hey if I just so happened to have the cash and bought this would you be mad?” She said “no”, so I told her “cool because I’m going to message him and buy it if its available”. That Friday we picked it up.

The maiden voyage home was like a dream. I picked it up in Savannah GA, which is about 75 miles from where I live in Brunswick Ga. I expected to get about 5 miles into he drive before it would need a tow, but to my surprise it drove like a dream. It was smooth driving at 60mph on the way home. The only issue I ran into was in the middle of my shift from 1st to 2nd I yeeted the shift knob off the shifter and had no idea where it went. It freaked me out because I thought I ripped out the whole shifter. Anyways it was dirty, smelled, and there was ******** everywhere, but it was like a dream and I enjoyed every bit of that 75 mile drive home just cruising.

Here are some photos from the maiden voyage home. My wife was in the Range Rover behind me for the drive….

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[chasema]

Nice Disco man! That looks like it’ll be a good project. I swapped a 300tdi into mine and have driven the ******** out of it between wheeling it and road trips. I have it out right now to do a 200,000mile overhaul but it is a simple engine to maintain and work on and is predictable and reliable. Keep posting!

 

[Colorofkris]

Nice Disco man! That looks like it’ll be a good project. I swapped a 300tdi into mine and have driven the ******** out of it between wheeling it and road trips. I have it out right now to do a 200,000mile overhaul but it is a simple engine to maintain and work on and is predictable and reliable. Keep posting!

Thank you! Your disco is sweet too! Im looking forward to road tripping this thing, can't wait to try wheeling it too! I'll be posting pretty regularly as long as work allows. I can't even begin to explain the sheer excitement I have to be back in a disco let alone one of this caliber.

 

[Colorofkris]

This update will cover the 1st week of ownership-

I figured the best way to tackle a project this big was to take it slow at the start and just give it a good clean up. After the clean up I could start putting together a project list and a parts wish list online so I can stay organized and focused. (I will most likely be posting a general project list on here at some point and so you guys can follow along.)

There was literally garbage everywhere. Every nook and cranny was just covered in old wrappers, coins, dirt, grime, receipts, you name it. I even found like three and a half cigar cutters. (Speaking of which the dude who had it before me loved cigars….so much that there is ash everywhere and every thing that could be used as an ash tray seemed to be used as one. Don’t get me wrong I love a cigar every once and while, but come on.) I started with a trash can and a bin, all the stuff worth keeping went into a bin, all the garbage went into the trash. The wife and I bought a shop vac and started to vacuum too. This is where I got motivated…., I decided since I was already cleaning and I knew I was going to remove the carpets to check for rust on the floor boards sooner or later anyways and untimely remove the carpets to truck bed line the floors. So what better time then now to pull them out right??

In the process of removing carpets I removed the smaller rear seat, sound dampening, and some trim. I will say the smell of the rover changed drastically after removing the carpets. The only carpet I kept in was the driver floor. I proceeded to check for rust to find the trunk was in decent shape, a small area of the rear seats may need a patch, but the passenger seat….well that was terrible. The seat bracket had actually broken where it mounted to the floor. I called it safari suspension, the seat was wobbling around on 2 bolts and mounted to an almost non existent floor pan. There is a hole in the wheel well and a large crack by the transmission too. I figured the driver side wasn’t much better (and its not). The plus side, I know some welders and its fixable.

The rest of the week was spent mostly just cleaning up what I could. I removed some more trim pieces and the sun visors since they were nasty as well. I didn’t touch on the exterior at all being that there was not much of a point.

I’ll get to my plan to fix those floor pans down the road because they are still sitting the way they were and I have some things in the works.

I also ordered a bunch of parts which I will get into a later update for install. (Prob week 3)

Here are some pics of the rust and the carpet tear down….

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[John R]

What are the wires from bullbar to roof rack for? Haven’t seen them here in Australia.

 

[Colorofkris]

What are the wires from bullbar to roof rack for? Haven’t seen them here in Australia.

They are called limb risers. Just keep the windshield protected from loose branches. Also have heard them called branch savers too.


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[garrycol]

I might have missed it but why was the correct 300tdi with R380 gearbox taken out and a 200tdi/LT77 installed - it would be better with the 300tdi and the R380 gearbox.

 

[Colorofkris]

I might have missed it but why was the correct 300tdi with R380 gearbox taken out and a 200tdi/LT77 installed - it would be better with the 300tdi and the R380 gearbox.

America was never optioned with a diesel so it was the petrol 3.9l and whatever auto tranny that was originally in it. It was swapped a few owners ago by a guy who owned an overland fabrication shop. No idea why or what the plan was with the swap just that it’s there now.


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[garrycol]

It is a shame the correct 300 etc was not used but hey - you have what you have and the 200 is a good engine just hard to get parts for these days - the diesel Disco 1 is a great offroad vehicle as was the 3.9 V8 (I had two from new) so enjoy

 

[Colorofkris]

It is a shame the correct 300 etc was not used but hey - you have what you have and the 200 is a good engine just hard to get parts for these days - the diesel Disco 1 is a great offroad vehicle as was the 3.9 V8 (I had two from new) so enjoy

Thank you. For what I have read I do wish for the ease of finding parts it was a 300, but to be honest I’m just really excited to have a disco again let alone a diesel with a manual. (+25 mpg coming from the Range Rover sport is also a huge plus)


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[Colorofkris]

This update will cover the 2nd week of ownership

I started the week off continuing the clean up of the interior by wiping down door jams and the internal trim pieces using the car guys interior cleaner which seemed to work great and helped to cut down on the overall smell of the inside. While working on the tailgate I decided to deploy the awning that came on the disco as well to give it a good once over. To my surprise it was in great shape overall, just needs a good cleaning as well. I ended up removing the awning and plan to put it back on soon.

I received my first order of parts which consisted of new seats, LED headlight bulbs, mud flaps, interior cleaner, and a blue tooth radio head unit.

The first day after receiving shipment I went ahead and installed the new headlight bulbs which make a world of difference. With the days being shorter and my drives to work being about an hour each way in the dark it is definitely my favorite upgrade so far. I was hesitant installing LED bulbs at first because I really don’t want to take away from the more classic look but function over form for this matter. I also unboxed the seats which are pictured below but have not yet done anything with them since Im waiting on the universal seat mounting brackets to come in. The universal seat brackets are corbeau’s however the seats are just some universal bucket seats from eBay. I wasn’t ready to commit to a huge purchase on $900 seats yet. The seats I did pick out though were only $240 and look way better in person then I expected. I will see how they hold up and replace them if necessary. Also on order is a single lug nut which has not been received yet. I’m missing one on the driver front wheel, there is one in the glove box that looks like it was cross threaded at some point.

The next day I installed the mud flaps since I had to run to the store and get a small hacksaw to cut off the old bolts. The existing bolts were just those round fasteners and the screw with no recess for a driver. So I just hacked them off. The new flaps were and easy install after that and definitely add to the overall look of the rover. I feel mud flaps are just a classic rover look so I couldn’t go very long without them.

Last but not least I removed the passenger seat to continue rust assessment. The floor pan under the seat is pretty well spent.

Currently in the works is a new plan for the floor pans which scraps the idea of getting sheet metal and welding it in place and doing a bunch of patches. I was able to get into contact with someone who is willing to cut out some floor pans out of a rust free D1 and ship them to me from Washington state. This guy is my hero and can not thank him enough. The time frame is a little slow due to his current workload but non the less it is my best option so I’m being patient. Once the new pans come in I have a friend who is going to cut out the old and weld in the new as well as make some patches. The current time frame is looking around mid February. After installing the new floor boards I will be truck bed lining the interior and installing the aftermarket seats as well as some new seat belts.

Here are some random pics of installs, the awning, the missing seat, and the new seats....

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[Colorofkris]

This is more over just a misc post

Got in touch with a previous owner who was able to send me some pics of the rig back in its prime. Just thought it was cool and that I would share with you all!

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[Colorofkris]

This update is about week 3 of ownership

Just a heads up I may refer to the discovery as Irwin through out this forum, it’s just the name of the disco. Just don’t want to confuse anyone.

Week 3 was probably the slowest week yet. Due to my work schedule I spent more time driving it then I did working on it. Through the week I spent most of my lunch break doing small projects here and there but nothing major. I did manage to remove the driver side carpet and get an assessment on the driver side floor pan which was a little bit worse then the passenger side. I have no plan to remove the driver seat until I replace the floor pan, I feel that one it comes out it won’t go back in, and I need to drive it. Even though I didn’t get much work done I did manage to get to the store and get stuff to change the oil. I have also found that the stereo situation is a nightmare. I will eventually tackle this however it may be a slow process.

On a non repair note I have been driving it, after selling the Range Rover, daily about 80 miles a day at least and it is performing excellent. I don’t want to jinx it but so far is smooth, comfortable, and getting great gas milage at about 26mpg. My drive is mostly on the highway which the speed limit is 70mph, I run normally 65mph just to keep it in its comfort zone. I know it should prob get a little better mpg but I haven’t done much to it yet (let alone anything to help it run better which will be coming sooner or later).

So a couple of issues that I have ran into since the start of daily driving the disco. First off is 2nd gear. I get a grind when putting it into 2nd when cold and occasionally while just driving around after warm up. I have been doing a lot of research on the Lt77 Trans and there is a lot of talk about 2nd gear being a bit weak in the synchros. A few things I have read about this and feel free to put in some input…
* 2nd will grind a bit while warming up
* Baby the shift into 2nd
* Correct Trans fluid (instead of the OG ATF)

What I have found since reading up on the trans is that after it warms up 2nd gear is much easier to shift into. It really only grinds when I try to “give er”. I have learned to do the shift from 1st to 2nd in 2 steps were I go from 1st to N then wait then to 2nd. This only results in the grind once in a blue moon or only when warming up. The owner before me was also topping off the trans with ATF which I feel is another issue. I will be ordering Redline MTL and doing a fluid change. ATF was known to prematurely wear the synchros and redline was the biggest recommended fluid I could find for the Lt77. If all else fails it may be time for synchros. I do try to shift from 1st to 3rd as often as I can just to avoid the strain on 2nd gear.

The other issue I am currently running into is a pop from slack in the rear drivetrain. I will hopefully be getting it up on some jack stands next week to see where I can find the slack. Im going to start at the rubber coupling on the rear drive shaft and work way from there. I might go ahead and order a replacement coupling anyways just to have it done, I know those are a problem child anyways.

Some other things I am looking into doing in the next couple weeks for preventative maintenance …
* Diff Build Change (Front & Rear
* Transfer Case Fluid Change
* Air Filter Change

Vacation is coming up on week 4 so I will have some time to work on the discovery then. We originally had plans to do a week long camp trip in the blue ridge and smoky mountains but that was canceled due to my wife’s doctor appointments after her car accident this last month. Also I sold the Range Rover which would have been our means of travel. The disco needs the attention now that Im daily driving it anyways.

Here are some photos of the Driver floor pan…

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