Sorry for the late reply, been dealing with an injured donkey. I know WAY more about animals than doing auto repairs, since I have a rescue. I've had this thing since it was off lease in 2002 and always take good care of my vehicles. This one has never required anything other than routine maintenance until the death wobble came about. It was in 2 different shops, I provided the info I gathered from this forum, and neither shop repaired the problem, just replacing shocks. It has always had a tiny brake fluid leak and when I was out of state for several months helping my mother, it had no fluid when I returned. I added fluid, but the brake pedal still went to the floor. Had it towed to Christian Brothers after speaking to them about the issues. They said it required a new master cylinder, steering box, alternator, belt, and I don't recall what else (invoice is in my Suburban). In hindsight, I probably should have looked into selling it to a scrap yard. They said the engine looked good, it ran great. Had new tires put on after picking it up and planned on sending it to my mother, but needed to drive it a bit to ensure the death wobble was gone. A few days after picking it up, death wobble struck driving in the rain and in traffic. Called the shop to let them know I would be bringing it back in and had printed off the check list from this site. Wanted to run a tank of gas thru it, because the check engine light had come on while in the shop and they said it was gas related. On Thanksgiving day, I was headed to the stable to tend to the horses and donkey, nice part of town, when the engine blew. There was definitely oil in it, because it spewed a trail to where I was able to pull over.
As someone mentioned, I had to decide whether to throw good money at bad, but since I'd already put $3800 into it in repairs and tires, I knew I wouldn't get the money back and started hunting for a used engine for $700 at British Parts International, which happens to be here in Houston. That was half of the one the shop found and a remanufactured engine would be $6500, which was WAY out of the question. Shop is discounting the installation, but I will now have the most expensive 1999 Discovery EVER. And the damned sunroofs still leak.