After purchasing a busted Discovery, tearing it down and finding out I needed a new engine, there were some serious decisions to be made. First the decision to pull the trigger on this project. I will be honest, I have never done something like this before. Besides throwing some mods at a Subaru WRX and putting a winch bumper on my previous Discovery, '“builds” and especially projects of this size were a bit out of my comfort zone. Because of that, I hit the books. Well.. the internet to be specific.
I think I read every forum post, blog, facebook comment, and article about replacement engines for these vehicles. One article that I was heavily influenced by is this blog post from Offroad Discovery. If you are considering an engine replacement for your Land Rover Discovery, I highly recommend you read this article. I even reached out to the owner’s of that blog for some advice along the way and there were very kind to reply.
After crunching the numbers, weighing the options, and discussing with my wife, the summary was this: We could spend about 15-20k to bring this vehicle up to where we were comfertable taking it on trips and exploring off road areas. For a functioning and reliable adventure vehicle, this didn’t seem too bad. I couldn't think of a better choice in this price range. There were used 4Runners, which would be a “smarter” choice in many ways, but none spoke to me like this Land Rover did. The heart wants what the heart wants I guess. And my heart wanted this Land Rover.
Now that we were committed, we had to decide where to source the engine from. As in the Off-road Discovery post linked above, I had narrowed it down to two suppliers: Atlantic British and Turner Engineering. Turner Engineering is a engine building shop in the UK that specializes in these type of engines. Atlantic British is a US based Land Rover parts supplier that has been selling engines in the past few years. Both of these companies sell engines that address the design flaws of the original engines that make them so unreliable.
I was working with a local shop in the California Bay Area and they had a relationship with Atlantic British and were inclined to order the engine with them. The upsides were that the shipping would be faster, they are easier to get ahold since they are in the same timezone and if there was any warranty claims needed, it seems like it would be easier to resolve. I was more inclined to go the Turner route. First, it is a little bit unclear exactly where the Atlantic British engines come from and overall their company is a bit opaque. Turner specializes in building these engines only and there are hundreds of success stories online of Discovery IIs with Turner engines. Another reason I wanted the Turner was the fact that I assume they will be around for a while. While doing research on engines, there were many small shops and engine builders that sold engines for a few years, someone had a problem and went under. While I do not think that Atlantic British was going anywhere either, Turner seemed like the most solid choice. With a bit of nervousness and not really sure what I was doing, it was time to act.
I reached out to the sales email address at Turner Engineering and got a prompt reply from Frida Turner, I guess it really is a family business! Frida and others at Turner were more than happy to answer questions and walk me through the process. I had decided from the beginning of this project that I would only move forward if I was able to deal with a great shop and a great company to get the engine from. I was now confident that I had both. After picking out a few options such as upgraded heads and camshafts, it was the real point of no return… time to pay up.
After completing an international wire transfer, I got the confirmation email from Turner, my engine was being finalized and would be shipped out soon. I remember having the distinct feeling I did when the Land Rover was being towed home on the night I bought it: “I am not so sure this is a good idea”. What if something went wrong, the rest of the truck needed serious repairs too, the engine had problems or other unforeseen disaster cost more time and money? I think the stomach for these decisions and unknowns is what separates those who prefer to buy new vehicles, keep them for bit and then upgrade to something knew and those who are willing to go through the ringer to have an maintain an older vehicle. And I get that, my wife and I have a new-ish Honda Civic to rely on as the car that just always works. To be honest, I really wasn’t sure what kind of person I was yet. I thought each step towards getting this vehicle running again would bring excitement and joy, but so far I was just becoming a bit more worried. When it was all hundreds of dollars here and there to see if I could bring this Land Rover back to life, it was all fun and games. After the serval thousand dollar wire transfer the stakes were ratcheted up and emotions were involved. I now really wanted and needed things to work out.
As the engine was in transit, I was scrambling to figure out what else to change and fix while the engine was being replaced. Since the old engine was being removed, this was a great time to change things that would be difficult to reach once the new engine was replaced. For a complete list of what we decided to change out, view our Discovery’s full maintenance history here. Things happened fast. Within a week DHL called me to inform me that my engine had arrived in the US and there were a few customs problems to sort off.
The shop had a lightening fast turn around time and within a week, the transplant was complete. At this point the Land Rover had been at the shop for quite some time and I almost forgot that the result of all this research, ordering, and planning would be receiving the vehicle I had been dreaming about: a Discovery II that was “reliable”.
Whats next? Well, after a few hundred shakedown miles, we are planning our first adventure.
