thirstybeast

No Accident, this occurred on a gravel road at modest speed (around 40mph), along with the vague steering there was a lack of drive as the half shaft popped and the wheel locked up bringing it to a halt...

A photo of failed front axle on a 2011 model. vehicle had about 44000 miles on the clock when it failed in January 2014. The driver assures me that you can feel something in the steering!!

Sadly I have to agree with Jim's comments, they do seem overated and I have seen 110 rear ones fail at the top ring many a time, could be that the shocks arnt the correct ones for the springs though (not long enough)as that will also cause the problem described above. Thirsty

Despite what is being said on here I doubt your engine will self distruct just because you remove the intercooler. An intercooler cools the air so it is denser when it reaches the combustion chamber, it there fore gives you a better bang for your buck! I wouldnt remove it though as I cant see you gaining by doing so. My defender TDI has no intercooler as I choose to run the larger V8 radiator, this helps when traveling in dusty conditions or when grass blocks the radiator core when traveling long distances off road. On many ocasions when TDI,TD5 or pumas have had cooling issues on long runs due to debries building up in the core I have been able to press on at full speed without a worry. The intake temp without cooler is about 60 degrees C hotter at full throttle than with it fitted on my engine when air temp is about 1 deg C. At idle its about 30 degrees hotter. I have tweeked the fueling a bit and it has caused no problems. I would say though that an intercooler makes the engine more crisp. My Discovery with standard intercooler always feels like it has got more go than the defender without. I would say its down to personal prefrence and how much you like tinkering with your toy.

I have used both 3.5 R380 and 300 TDI R380 with my 200 TDI engine. in what was a 1999 V8 110. I got away with using the V8 R380 for 2 years despite the shorter splines until they finaly ripped out miles from anywere while off road, luckily I had an aframe to drag it back to the road and as weather was good (dry) my discovery recovered it no bother. I have attached a couple of pics showing both versions of the box fitted with a 300 TDI Defender bell housing, they show the diffrence pretty clearly.

I have a 1999 110 that was built with a carbed 3.5 v8, it has a plastic tank like the TD5's of the same year so I guess the only diffrence is the fuel pump assy in the tank. I would have thought parts were available to convert yours but I dont know about chassis brackets.

Dave I have a TDI with R380 on V8 mounts that sounds to be mounted simmilar to yours, from outer edge of handbrake drum to RH chassis is about 27mm.

I used the defender engine bracket and a military V8 chassis bracket from a 110 cut of an old chassis.

Sorry for causing confusion with the thread hyjack but the pitfalls are probably relevant. I have 200TDI engine in the 300 TDI position (forward in the engine bay) 300TDI bell housing and V8 R380. I need to move the G/box about 7 mm ish closer to the engine so I'm thinking about milling a bit off the back and front of the bell housing to get this and then adjust the engine and /or gear boxmounts a bit to make it fit. Have attached a pic of when I first fitted the 200 discovery housing and realised all was not well! The 300 bell housing has worked well for 3 years but I plan to improve it in the next few months.

Mine is a 1999 Defender carbed 3.5 V8 R380 and the shaft is a bit too short. This means the clutch plate does not have enough spline engaging so they tend to wear, I agree the top hat bush solution cures the spigot bearing problem as I have this. Tearing the splines out of the clutch due to the shaft being to short caused me to be stranded in the middle of no wear recently, a new A&P clutch plate soon had me on the road but I need a long term solution.

Jimmy I hope you carry on with this as I want to do something simmilar. I have a V8 R380 that I need to put a 300 tdi shaft into so it fits better on my 200 TDI engine. I havnt tackled it yet as I know the gear ratios are diffrent for some of the gears and think the bearing size changed on later model R380 for TD5. As mine is a 99 year box it may well be at the cross over period so its like opening a can of worms. I took some pictures of a partialy stripped gear box that I am studying at the moment to see how much work is involved but would be happier if some else had done it on here.

Hi I did this conversion to a 1999 Defender V8 with R380 G/box. What year is yours as the pitfalls vary depending on gearbox fitted. I used 200TDI discovery engine, 300 tdi bell housing and V8 R380 gearbox and transfer box. A new bush was needed for the fly wheel housing and the input shaft splines are not quite long enough, its something I have to sort in the next few months as though it drives fine the clutch plate splines are not getting an easy life. On the defender the gbox mounts are diffrent for a v8 and transmit far more engine vibration than the 300 tdi type. I doubt I would do the conversion again unless I had the correct gearbox.

[ There is (or was) just one here before some heathen pulled it out and put a 200Tdi in it (sorry Ralph ). From memory I think it was probably a 98 or 99 model year vehicle . Yes mine is the 99 Police vehicle in Bogmonsters picture! I have just had the bad experience of the not quite long enough V8 input shaft ripping the splines out of the TDI clutch plate many miles from a road and with a full load of passengers who had a boat to catch!! The solution for now is an A&P clitch disc with slightly longer splines than the valeo type. I guess the point is you realy need all the correct bits so dont start the job if you arnt sure. I will be changing the box to a TDI R380 this winter for a long term fix.

I guess you roads are some what kinder on brakes than what Im used too!

Keep them on if you use you vehicle as the maker intended, otherwise brake pads will wear rapidly and un evenly!