cackshifter

TBH I was being a little flippant about the auto, and you did ask for more; I wasn't trying to inflame passions. Re the clutch, what Aragorn said is bob on, it's probably slipping because it has worn and the engine is giving it a hard time. The VNT being easier on the clutch theory assumes the clutch can actually grip enough to transmit the torque, which yours sounds as if it can't always do. The beefier pressure plate is a good idea as it clamps tighter and transmits more torque, but it will put more stress on your left leg and the release bearing and crankshaft thrust bearings, so you probably don't want to do more than you need to.You could do a lot worse than a talk to Rakeway or whoever did the engine tuning. Nigel

What bits did you use exactly? Nigel

You'd need a ZF4HP22 from a D2 ideally, using the the D2 bits eg the selector, drive plate; you could keep your old transfer box. Ashcrofts can sell you everything for a price, otherwise you are looking at breakers/ebay. But no clutch problems.. might need a cooler for it though. Read Ashcroft's excellent site on it, and have a drive of a D2 and see if you like it - they do take more power. I had a BMW with this box in it once, and it would change seamlessly from 1st to 2nd at about 40, then do up to 90 in 2nd. Manual boxes are commonly geared to do 0-60 so 2nd dies at about 60, at which point you could disappear into the distance... Re Aragorns's comments about torque, he's right, but.. if you have to start a lot of weight especially if the engine doesn't have a lot of low speed torque, the ability of the clutch to dissipate heat becomes important as well, as it probably has to be slipped longer. The Rakeway stuff seems to be designed to handle heat, eg metal release bearing. Nigel

300tdi timing is easy to check - just align the notch in the flywheel (cheapskates drill & tap a wading plug for the flywheelhousing, & grind the end of the bolt in it to a cone) and try a 9.5mm rod (ie a drill bit) in the hole in the injection pump pulley (at about 11 o'clock when the flywheel is correctly positioned), accessed through the little hatch with the 3 bolts in the timing cover (you'll need a mirror on a stick to see what you are doing, but you can probably feel it). If it's not right, loosen the 3 bolts in the pulley and adjust with a spanner on the bolt in the middle, retighten the 3 bolts to 25Nm. Once you have the timing correct to spec, you could try advancing (clockwise on the bolt) it a tad; might be slightly noisier, more powerful and less smokey. I'd scribe a line somewhere when you have it officially positioned and when you get it right, then you can get back to your settings easily. Nigel

Find a nice ZF auto box with all that power Nigel

Electric cooling fan? Nigel

2 excellent threads in Tech archive depending on whether you want to pull the arm off or not. Personally I'd go for not if poss. Just search for 'drop arm' in the advanced search and limit hits to Tech Archive. Nigel

True. Well Ok before the oil is 'warm' ie 100 deg anyway, and that takes a while. But that is just when the wear takes place. Have a read of linky. It's probably free for a good reason. Nigel

A paint guy told me ' if you do nothing else, scrub and dry it before painting' . He said that the rust creates acidic salts which if left bubble through the new paint. He reckoned most paint bonds through a thin layer of rust eg which might ouccur if you washed freshly wirebrushed steel. I think you can only clean where your tools reach; you could use something like Kurust where you can only scrape manually, or Bilthamber have some stuff that removes rust chemically. Faced with the reality of a Defender underside, I think you have to accept that you can't get paint everywhere it really ought to be without stripping it down. I think Bondaprimer is a top product, and covers a multitude of sins very successfully. If you ue Hammerite on top then painting over that might be a problem; note you have to recoat very soon after or wait weeks between coats. Nigel

You sure it's not a snap ring - if it is, the ends are kind of cut at an angle. I think there are tools for removing them easily but...if you have quite a new screwdriver (important the edges aren't too worn) and catch one side of the blade against the casing and the other on the end of the snap ring, with a twist you can compress the ring slightly, enough to get, using your third hand, another very fine screwdriver in the groove behind that end of the ring. With a bit of prising you can then get one end out of the groove, and kind of work it out, like getting a piston ring off a piston (only internally rather han externally). Repeat about 100 times, until successful. Nigel

Ah well good luck anyway. Just have a supply of plasters & Anglo-Saxon dictionary handy... Nigel

Could you cut/grind a small V down into the groove at the end of the circlip that would let you get something like a small screwdriver or chisel in to push it start 'flicking' it out of the groove. When you put it back/replace it, you could put it back in the same place? Ok I realise its a bit of butchery but desperate times call for desperate measures. Or maybe drill a small hole through into the bottom of the groove from the outside and push it with a fine punch? You could always fill the hole with epoxy. Nigel

That's good to hear. Nigel

Yes I know what you mean now. One thing I would add is I recently had to have a new injector on my Mondeo and the man who fitted it said it might take a while to settle down and for the ECU to relearn the engine. For the first few miles it shunted, and also occasionally knocked, but did sort itself out. I'd say that took around 400 miles to do. Nigel

What is shunting? Nigel

AFAIK the Defender Puma has an ordinary flywheel - please correct me, someone, if I'm wrong. (aside - I think you can now get them for Mondeos too) Nigel

I was wondering if anyone has encountered similar problems to those on Mk3 Mondeos on higher mileage Puma engines. As both a Mondeo tdci and Defender owner, before the Puma engine ever went into to the Defender, I must admit I thought it would be a very suitable engine for the Defender. However there are well documented issues with this engine in the Mondeo (I know, I have had some with mine; still think it's a good engine) so wondered if anyone had similar problems with Defenders (yet). I'm thinking of cam and crank sensor failures and glow plugs dying (cheap) and injector or fuel pump failures (not cheap) and similar. Have the durability problems been sorted? Does anyone have a Puma Defender with 100k on the clock yet? Nigel

It sounds like the fault(I'd guess thermstat as that's cheapest to try!) is unrelated to the advance. I have tried a little advance and it does feel a little better with less smoke, as I think the setings are oriented towards tolerance of poor fuel and lower emissions, but wondered what the long term effects would be (like would the head gasket handle increased cylinder pressure) Interesting you have some history of that with no problem. Regards Nigel

Looking at doing the same myself as I despise those ball joints.I think QT Services also sell the stuff, including that clamp for the draglink to mount the damper. Having said that how hard can that be to make? And do you need the damper really? Bearmach(Mailorder4x4) do the bars but no clamp. Nigel

You can't get better than that usually. If you changed the crank toothed pulley it would have a new sealing surface and would very likely seal with a new seal let alone 2 so it could be getting past the O ring possibly, and oozing between the crank & the toothed pulley. Apart from that and the camshaft seal it's hard to know how oil can escape into the timing case. I do think though that the O ring there doesn't always seal aginst the keyway in the pulley, as it seems to be barely big enough, so there could be a leak path there.If you have it apart again it might pay you to measure how much of a gap you have for the O ring to fill - it could need a slightly fatter O ring (it'll be compressed by the crank shaft pulley bolt squashing everything up) Nigel

I think that could be a possibilty - as could the thermostat- and both very easy to check/change.As a matter of interest, have you advanced the timing any on yours? Nigel

If the engine was sound before, I'd start off with better the devil you know than the devil you buy on ebay. What do you think caused the piston melt? I'd guess the block, crank etc would be basically Ok, but it may point to an injector problem, or maybe a blocked oil jet underneath. So you might need head & injectors as well as the piston, (& rings, maybe big ends). I'd be tempted to drop the sump and look at the condition of the other bits, and get the piston out. If they're OK, a repair sounds do-able - OTOH if it was on its last legs anyway don't bother. Nigel

If the engine was sound before, I'd start off with better the devil you know than the devil you buy on ebay. What do you think caused the piston melt? I'd guess the block, crank etc would be basically Ok, but it may point to an injector problem, or maybe a blocked oil jet underneath. So you might need head & injectors as well as the piston, (& rings, maybe big ends). I'd be tempted to drop the sump and look at the condition of the other bits, and get the piston out. If they're OK, a repair sounds do-able - OTOH if it was on its last legs anyway don't bother. Nigel

Presumably you have checked coolant level etc. Assuming all OK, if it starts to overheat, turn the heater and fan on full, and ease off the throttle (OK you probably won't do 70!) as the cylinder head can be easily damaged by overheating. Might be worth out a flush out of the radiator etc if it hasn't been done for a while, and you have some fins remaining. I'd suggest that as it happens at high speed, it's probably not a fan problem - it suggests there is more heat going to water than can escape, but there should be plenty of airflow - hence radiator has to be the prime suspect as western said Nigel

Just a thought - did you use a 'reputable brand' of seal? Some are better at it than others. Nigel