geoffbeaumont

I'd have thought the centre of gravity would be raised less by a body lift than a suspension lift, as the heaviest parts of the vehicle (chassic, engine, gearbox) aren't being raised.

Nice site, Tom

Well, Bogbuster wasn't around and someone had to keep the standards down!

They think it's a gas... Sorry...

Fantastic! We used to have a couple of feral cats (one had a bit of proper wild cat in, I think - had the ear tufts and some of the markings). And they were...fun...for anything like that. The most reliable way of getting the pill down in the first place is to lift the cat (front end only, as long as you do it on a slippy floor or table) by the skin on top of its head (not the scruff). This pulls the cats mouth open and its throat straight. Drop in tablet, rub throat to force it to swallow. Never failed for me. The harder bit is keeping the pill down... This depends on the cat, but sticking their nose in a bowl of milk usually works - they lick the milk off and swallow again rather than bringing up the tablet.

From a purely bling perspective, I'm not keen on the look of the Southdown ram. Certainly an option though, cheers.

Got it, fitted it, broke the engine Cheers! The wheel fits a treat, as does the coil bracket. Bottom bracket was a bit on the short side (courtesy of my measurements, not your fabrication) but I got it to fit solidly anyway - just ended up with a half moon out of the corner instead of a bolt hole at the back. Once I've got the new engine in it I'm going to crack on with fitting the EDIS and Megasquirt while it's off the road.

Quick question (well, two - just to be cheeky ): Where's a good place to get a ram type snorkel top (by itself, not as part of a kit)? Where' can I get the nice metal HT lead clips - the sort that screw down on top of the leads (not sure how else to describe them and I can't find a picture)?

You mean the one with the nice fairing over the pipe? I'd go for one of those if money wasn't extremely tight - truth is, if the rangie wasn't already forcibly off the road I wouldn't be doing any mods in the next few months. My finances need to recover from the hammering they've taken recently

If I was just going for bling I wouldn't need to bring it into the engine bay at all...

That makes me feel so much better about my recent engine capers Mind, at least his engine still works...

It's an old Range Rover...the fan doesn't shift that much air anyway! Hmm, maybe sealing the intake off from the bonnet hinges and replacing the grill with a sealed blanking plate when I'm playing in water is a more practical approach. It'd certainly be a lot less work.

Depends on the insurer - mine (NFU) require a certificate, but I'm told increasing numbers aren't bothering with them. There's nothing 'official' about the certificates anyway, although the LPGA would like you to think otherwise - they're just a trade body. That said, if you go for an LPGA certified garage you know they've at least had some training. If you do it yourself, I think it's only about £25 to get the vehicle checked and certified (that's at least a year out of date and may be trade price, though). Worth it for your own piece of mind, I'd have thought.

Fly tipping maybe?

Getting a rangie slowed me down...the fuel consumption was just too scary when I wellied it...

I'm not sure if there is room to bring it in front of the bulkhead - there's all the ABS and TC gubbins in that corner. I'll have another look when I get it back from Robhybrid. I realised visibility would be an issue - in fact it's the one most likely to put paid to my schemes, as I'm not prepared to compromise safety - but I suspect it'll be no worse than a lot of thick-pillared modern cars. I guess if I had a less air-hungry engine I could run both inputs up the same pipe, with an internal baffle (bugger to construct though), but that's not an option with a V8... Dual throttle body...mmm! Not practical with a venturi gas kit, although it'd be doable if I ever converted to LPG injection. I did actually toy with the idea of turning the plenum round as it'd be easier to get a nice straight pipe run on that side of the engine bay (ABS/TC permitting), but decided it was a bad idea.

Steve, I don't think Rob's going to thank you for that...

Why? For this to happen, as others have noted, it must have been a very dodgy conversion - done properly it should be safer than petrol. I wouldn't want to be near any car if the fuel ignited, but if I had to I'd rather it was LPG than petrol - LPG rarely explodes (it has to be pretty near the stoichiometric mix), unlike petrol vapour. Instead you get a fireball that burns inwards until the gas cloud is consumed - despite the article describing it as an explosion it sounds to me like that's what happened here (if it really was an explosion I can't imagine anyone could have jumped out in time). According to my father, who's a safety engineer in the oil industry, as long as you hold your breath and close your eyes as the flame front passes you you'll normally just lose some body hair and get a light 'sunburn'. Compare that to getting burning petrol on you...

Bet the bugger that forced you off the road didn't stop either

I'm planning on fitting a snorkel to my rangie before I put it back on the road (yes, I know, V8 with a snorkel - bit like a chocolate teapot), and I'm tempted to go totally OTT and fit a second one for the air vent. Well, it is a Range Rover. Doesn't do to get one's feet wet... I've seen a few pictures of defenders kitted out like this, but has anyone ever done it to a rangie? Is it practical? What I'm thinking of is bringing it down the right hand side into the decker panel (mirror image of the the air intake one on the left), then along under the decker, hopefully behind the bonnet hinge and sealed onto the front of the ventilation system, with the original grill blanked off. Comments? On a more general note, advice on doing the engine air intake - what's the best approach? I'm intending to DIY it, partly because I'm on a tight budget and partly because all the decent commercial kits I've seen for the rangie have shiny pipes and I want black to fit with the rest of the truck. As one of the other jobs to be done is fitting the (hopefully) nice, waterproof EDIS ignition, it (or maybe they) will get used in anger, so they need to be properly sealed up.

Looks cool though I like mine so far, but it's only done one greenlaning trip - I broke my engine the day after, so it hasn't really been tested in anger yet.

Having met a few of you guys...what a horrifying thought

All computers have names, even if it's just the one the installer made up for you If your computer is on a network like mine are, it helps if you give them memorable names so you know which machine you're looking at - at the time they were all named after classical composers (currently it's characters from Brian Jaques' Redwall novels). In windows, right click My Computer and select Properties, then pick the Computer Name tab and you can see what yours is called (if you're an administrator it might let you change the name - *don't* bad things tend to happen Changing the description is fine). Can't remember how to find it on a Mac, and if you're using anything else you probably know anyway

They nearly had riots in Venezuela when dad was out there a few years back and they removed the state subsidy from petrol - the price soared from 4p/litre to 8p/litre... Not sure what they're paying out there now.

If you mean steering guards, Southdown (http://www.southdown4x4.co.uk/) list them in their catalogue, although I can't find them on their web site - there's a link for the 'Range Rover HSE/DSE' but I can't find any products that actually have listings for that vehicle... According to the catalogue they do the following. 5mm galvanised steel: HSE/01 front steering guard £97.00 HSE/02 front axle guard £138.00 8mm ali: HSE/01 front steering guard £145.00 HSE/02 front axle guard £195.00 All prices +VAT. It's a fair bit of money if all he's after is bling - although if he ever does put his truck to use off road it'll be a good solid item. I'm not sure who else does guards for P38s - have a dig round some of the 4x4 suppliers websites and see what you can turn up.