RRC200Tdi

@rgel22, I am so sorry! I only just saw this! I never saw the notification for your reply so I thought this thread had died. I am so glad to see you undertaking this adventure. How far along are you now? I did not use the trim from the '95. I retained the '89 window opening because I used the '89 windscreen. -j

Bummer. They were a fantastic company to deal with and had fast shipping to the U.S. Just a few months ago, it seems, I placed a big order with them for my 200Tdi rebuild, which they quickly fulfilled. The only thing they didn't have in stock was the headgasket, but no problems with all the other gaskets, rings, bearings, etc...

I finally had an opportunity to test this lever I and I am highly confident that @vulcan bomber was correct in suggesting that it is for minimizing kangarooing and it is absolutely brilliant! Now that it is set correctly I don't have to work the throttle when going over speed humps while ascending a hill. When adjusted incorrectly it definitely will change fueling dramatically, but that it not its intended purpose.

Sorry for replying to these old posts, but I happened to just came across this on craigslist: https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/pts/d/los-angeles-triumph-tr8-35-buick-215/7310628599.html I have no idea if this is a good price or not, and of course postage for shipping from the US will be even more deadly... -jack

Ahhh, sorry, I didn't even think about the MT71 not being available in the European market. FWIW, I can say that my BFG MT km2s are reasonably quiet, not a terribly louder than the previous BFG ATs that were on the same vehicle--I mean I didn't notice any change between the tires, but at the time I had a straight-cut geared LT230 driving the four wheels. The BFG MTs are more costly and do have a couple kg weight penalty over the ATs.

Since you are considering the Kumho MT51 tires I thought I might suggest looking into the Kumho MT71 tires. They are rather new and seem like an improvement over the MT51s from what I have read. The MT71s actually replace both the MT51 and KL71. Although I don't have experience with the MT71s yet, we did have some KL71 tires on our Land Cruiser some years ago and were very pleased with their offroad and mud performance in the rainy seasons of Uganda. I currently have BFG KM2 mud terrains and find them to be the best all around tires I have used for the conditions I typically drive in (mountain snow, mud, gravel, and yet reasonable on the highway). I also had BFG ATs and liked them a great deal for more moderate offroad and regular onroad use, but I did not do well in the mud with them. They just didn't clean out well for me in the really thick stuff and I don't think they would have done as well as the Kumho KL71s did in the slick Ugandan clay mud. I need to mention that I had the KO generation of the BFG ATs and not the KO2s, which offer much more aggressive side-biter tread, which might improve mud traction to some extent. We once had some Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs on our Lexus GX470 (Toyota LC Prado) and found them to be unbearable on the tarmac after they had worn a bit. We have since replaced them with Kumho AT51s. They are great on the road, but I have not yet used them offroad at all, but from the looks of them they won't clean out well either.

Can you use your transmission and transfer case mounts to locate the engine or are you doing something non-standard?

"I find it hard to believe you got such a difference in economy just from wheel weights. Were the tyres fitted the same width and overall diameter? A lot of people forget that when going to bigger or smaller (diameter) tyres, the speedo reading is also affected, so the distance recorded will change. Also, I don't think on a slow and heavy 4x4 tyre weight will have much effect. Unless you'd go from a a hi-tech alloy wheel with a small roadtyre to a solid steel one with a massive knobbly tyre." <- The tires were both street tires, the 16s were Michelin LTX A/T2 and the 18s were Premier LTX, so roughly similar. I was thinking about it and I had a similar difference with my BMW E36 M3, where I would get 33 MPG with the stock wheels which were 17 inches and somewhere between 27 and 29 MPG with aftermarket 18 inch wheels (I don't remember the exact mileage with the 18 inch wheels but it was almost the same as my toyota camry which got about 27 MPG). Maybe my driving habits change with the larger diameter wheels 🙂 Otherwise, I really don't know, it was never a scientific comparison. These observations were made when I used to commute 45 miles each way everyday over 3 steep grades up and down. Maybe hill climbs played a role? Thanks for the compliment about the jump. That is actually my 1989 classic although it does look a bit like a p38 in that tiny picture! I used to jump it regularly. That was actually in my backyard back when I had some land. I actually had repaired my mitsubishi montero one day and wanted to drive it over this bank in my backyard and I accidentally got the front two wheels off the ground. Well, when I installed some old man emu shocks and springs on my classic I just had to give it go. That picture was actually a still taken from the video of it (i'll post it if I have it) and was my second attempt. It sort of became a carnival ride for whomever was visiting. Well as these things tend to do, it eventually got out of hand. The last time I did it I was going way too fast and I jumped way too far. There is no picture or video, but it was crazy. When I landed I the steering was horribly off. I limped it over to my work area and found the tire bead had jumped off the rim, but worse both front wheels were noticeable towed out. Turns out I caved in my front axle housing and popped out my Old Man Emu caster correction bushings! Fortunately I had a spare axle with upgraded 24 splines waiting to go in and spare set of radius arms, so I quickly repaired it the next day, as i wanted to move on from this disgraceful incident as soon as possible. I never ever attempted it again!

Thank you 🙂 Hopefully someday I'll be able to finish all the rest of the things I want to do. It wasn't supposed to be a preservation or restoration project so there are a lot of things I did that have hurt its value. It was an old beater that nobody wanted. I categorized it as a basket case when I got it so I had no problem modifying it. Now I get uncomfortable thinking about the crazy things I have done with/to it. I'll feel better if I fully restore another one to offset my Range Rover Classic footprint. Also, I tend to forgot all of this when I am driving it around, or when I'm distracted by thoughts of the leaks that need fixing when I see all the fresh oil spots on the ground 🤔

Great points, Filip. With regard to my thoughts about efficiency, I haven't had the chance to weigh my wheels or know the weight of the 15 inch ones I am considering, but I remember there being quite some difference between 16" and 18" wheels on my P38. I don't remember the actual values, but the 18s mounted with tires weighed a meaningful bit more than the 16s with roughly the same width and diameter. I didn't do any scientific testing, but the general pattern was 18 -20 mpg (US) on the highway with the 16s and 15-17 mpg with the 18s. I inferred that it must of been a result of the difference in the metal to rubber ratio. Those differences seem like a lot, perhaps there were other factors in play that I was not aware of. So, I guess I am expecting a similar outcome, albeit less with only an inch difference. I completely agree with everything else you said 🙂 'Or the other way if you go up to 33x10.5-15. 3% is not much anyway! It may be noticeable when driving off with a heavy trailer, but wont make much difference in normal use.' <- I think this and your overall point is very important to keep in mind. I won't really notice a meaningful change. I had thought that a little smaller tire might make the enormous hills I have to negotiate on a daily basis a little bit easier on the 200Tdi. The other advantage of going with a smaller wheel is that given the same overall diameter and width of the wheel/tire combo, you will achieve a greater contact patch when airing down for off roading. I didn't mention it because I realized that the 31 X 10.5 x 15 would actually have the same sidewall thickness as my 265/75 16 tires 😞 Unfortunately, 33 x 10.50 are about the same price as the 265/75 tires, so no benefit there. -jack

Yeah, unfortunately I had built that center console before I knew about soft dash 😆

Thank you for inspiring some confidence! Now I just need to take the plunge and commit to buy. I have near new BFG mud terrains on my 16s and don't want to have to fork out more money for another new set of tires, but, long term, equivalently sized tires are quite a bit cheaper on the 15s as opposed to the 16s. Going an inch smaller in diameter will also reduce rotational mass and improve gearing, both of which would increase effective power and fuel efficiency. 'I can certainly understand your desire to fit smaller rims instead of bigger as on so many moderns.' <- you truly hit the nail on the head here

"don’t kick yourself too much about scrapping range rovers" Thank you. Yeah, how could we have known that these neglected and forgotten vehicles were going to one day be valued again. I thought I was unique in my appreciation of them back then, but now I always receive compliments on my old worn Range Rover despite the mismatched panels and its general unkempt appearance. Also, in the US, we had a program called 'cash for clunkers' which led to a glut of Classics in the salvage yards for a period of about a year. Some in very tidy shape even. That ended up leading to their extreme rarity we now find here in the States 😟

Here is the last picture of the firewall. You can see the heater inlet/outlet pipes passing through. Here is a photo of the steering column test fit. The main mounting bracket attaches to the dash support thereby locating the rest of the bracketry. You can see the shiny bits on the lower left of the column bracket. Those are the mounting studs (with nuts) I welded to the sheet metal which form the lower mounts for the entire dashboard structure--the dash mounts to the steering column bracket which then mounts to the inner body structure and dash support. As long as the dash support is properly located, everything else should be in alignment. The HVAC fitted. With the steering and HVAC installed the project really appears to be coming together. I know all of this came back out a few more times for wiring and paint. Although I used the lower HVAC welded-mounting brackets to locate everything else, the top of the HVAC box was about 1/4" too low from where it meets the dash vent housing. It wasn't so bad that some additional adhesive foam couldn't seal the gap. I don't think the lower HVAC brackets were off enough to cause this, because this was not the case with any of the test fittings before the wiring was completely run. I think the wiring that runs atop the HVAC box was interfering with it from being fully seated up against the dash support. I might address this issue when I will anyway need to do some rewiring of a relay panel I had located next to the brake pedal, as I can no longer easily access the panel with the dash in place after I later added a clutch pedal. And the last photo from the time period of this project. This was probably a test fit immediately following the previous photos and probably another exciting day. I can see the relay panel I just discussed, still needing to be installed and much of the wiring was still in need of attention. This pretty much concluded the fabrication portion of the project. Wiring was next. I remember I spent about a day and a half wiring up the gauges. I had originally planned to build an instrument cluster with some aftermarket gauges as I was really after a race car look and I wanted to have a fully custom dash. However, when I reached this stage of the build, I thought it would even better if I could utilize the factory gauges and warning/status lights. The first challenge was to switch from a cable driven speedometer to an electronic transducer driven one. It turns out that it couldn't have been any easier as there was a transducer device already sending a signal to the ECU and cruise control. In the end I still replaced the old convoluted cable/transducer system with a strictly transducer unit from a Disco 1 just in case there was an issue with the signal type, which was a simple swap. Next, it was a matter testing for all of the signal inputs in the gauge cluster and all of the outputs from the '89 factory harness. The speedometer was the most challenging, since I had to drive down the road with no dash to measure which wire it was. The wiring of the steering column was pretty straight forward. I soldered all of the connections here. The HVAC was super easy, as the system just needed accessory power and ground, the rest was self contained. I decided to use the '95 fuse panel, so I took some time to solder all of that in. Unfortunately, I made most of my wiring pretty tight, which I regret today. I left a little slack for servicing, but it wasn't nearly enough. I will probably address this as well when I relocate the relay panel. The other major task at this time was rewiring the systems that require relays, such as the wipers, rear window defroster, lights and turn signals, etc... I really don't remember much about wiring these, so I presume it must have been relatively straightforward and completed in a day or less. At this stage I also wired in a nice comprehensive alarm with remote start and power window/sunroof control. My newly acquired underdash real estate quickly vanished! I did not rewire the cruise control at this point as it seemed daunting. Some few months later a revisited the idea as I faced the consequences of this in the form of a speeding fine. My speed had crept up while I was driving and I exceeded the posted limit by 4 mph, which apparently was enough to warrant a fine 😡 I hesitated no longer and quickly worked out the wiring for the cruise control. Unfortunately, my Rangie in its current iteration no longer utilizes this modern marvel of human creative genius. I hope to someday take the time to re-incorporate a functional cruise control. Not long after this picture was taken I had started a full time seasonal position as a Science Tech for the Department of Fish and Wildlife and had to pause any further work on the RRC. Fortunately, I had reached a good stopping point in which I could use the vehicle as it was and didn't need to make any major changes for awhile. Unfortunately, the work I was doing encouraged me to resume my studies and I immediately enrolled in a Masters program at the conclusion of summer (this is where the Rover factored in as my research vehicle), further delaying the completion of this project. Rather more unfortunately, as soon as I completed my Masters I immediately headed off to Uganda to assist my future wife with her PhD project, which then led directly to my own PhD project in Germany that continues to this day (though I am finishing up and stateside again). The Range Rover was stored throughout this time. I had a brief break in my studies in 2015, which I used to undertake another project on this vehicle which involved that clutch I mentioned earlier, but I never fully completed the final custom fabrication work of this project, nor have I even settled on the direction I plan to go with it. During the 2015 project I had also made some changes to my interior plans. My wife was not a big fan of my boy racer seats and I had a nice set of '95 power adjust seats lying around in storage. I wasn't really ready to sell them so I made a big decision to move away from 'raw functionality' and shift toward 'comfortable functionality', with a little elegance. I removed all of the carpet and sound deadening from my '96 Disco donor vehicle. I cleaned the carpet--it is a wonder how restorative a pressure washer can be to old stained carpet, it looks next to new now! Apart from a few fitment issues it fit well enough, though I am still trying to source a new cargo area carpet. I modified my modified seat brackets to fit the '95 seats and installed the corresponding rear seats as well. I restored the power seat switches to full functionality and now I couldn't be more pleased. One regret I have is that during the 'Raw Functionality' phase I dyed the front door panels black. My plan was truck bed liner on the floors and roof and a fully black interior, since my seat and dash were black. Well, when I transitioned to 'Comfortable Functionality' I now had very rare and nearly pristine 1995 door panels, no longer matching and ruined by black dye which makes me sick. Fortunately, I never got around to dyeing the rear doors so they remain almost perfect (these were not from the '95, I purchased them from some other Range Rover). Here are some photos I took yesterday of the dash and interior as they are now. I have not reinstalled any of the components in the center bezel. I am planning to do some custom fabrication when I have time and I have not settled on which type of head unit I am going to go with. Also the technology is moving so fast right now I think it is best to see what comes along. We have a 2005 Lexus GX470 which I installed a 10.2 inch tablet in and now find it alluring, but I am not sure if it would be appropriate in an overlander that will likely see some rough environmental conditions. Another shot of the dash. The pictures don't really do the seats justice they look a lot nicer in real life. Seat switches are restored, but I the top panels are from the Discovery. I will eventually sort them out. I thought I might get questions from the other photos about this center console so I took a picture of it. I don't remember the impetus for building it. I guess it was intended to be some sort of command center where I had my GPS and all of my 12 volt accessory connections. I remember one reason I constructed it though, I didn't have any cup holders and as a North American I needed cup holders! I later had to make some improvised modifications with a sawzall to accommodate my later project (I guess the left two Autometer gauges and LT77 shifter arrangement reveal the nature of said later project). It looks like I might have had a bolt-on top panel at some point, but I have no memory of it. Here is a picture of the rear seats from the '95. Again the picture does not do them justice. The rear door panel shown in this picture was pristine before the latch on the rear seat caught it once, but otherwise pretty nice.

Next, I repaired the right-side pedal-box opening. I then became obsessed with removing any unnecessary holes in the firewall My first target... and sorted I don't know how far this lunacy went as I don't have any more photos of this step in the process, but I am sure there were at least several others. As time consuming as this was, I did find it useful in terms of learning sheet metal work. It also makes for a cleaner looking firewall. Sometime down the road I would like to go back and smooth out some of the imperfections on the firewall and repair all of the unused holes in the rest of the engine compartment (there are so many in the inner wheel wells!). I am planning to pull the engine sometime to lower the mounts a tad to improve the head clearance on the firewall. I will probably make the final finishing touches on the engine bay at that time. I may also do a full size intercooler at that point as well.