Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Im considering buying an early Discovery which is same model as pictured below, but I dont know the first thing about Rovers except that ive heard the electrics are rubbish and they break half shafts.
A bloke at work has one with a knackered engine due to running on its own oil, and I can prob get it for a slab.
How do these things go, does much break, good driveline? Can you buy diff locks for em? What about engine conversions, is it an ok job to say shove a Ecotec V6 into it?
My aim is to have a mid sized tourer to do say the Canning stock route. The zook is not comfy enough and driveline too weak due to the weight I would have to put in it.
Any advice would be great.

Go very well as a tourer, half shafts shouldn't be a problem for that use. You can buy lockers etc. for them - with the strong dollar many LR owners are buying all sorts of stuff from the UK where there is an amazingly vast amount of kit available at good prices.

Comfy as.

Better with a diesel, I averaged 10L/100km over 50k km