miketomcat

My ibex has HD steering bars, front diff guard and a tank guard with removable tow bar. Sills are box section anyway but plan to add tree slider/step tube at some point. Our 110 has Fairey 525 with associated HD bumper, 10mm Ali steering guard (protects the bottom of the winch and steering bars), front diff guard and tree slider sills. It has standard tow bar/plow. Both are on 33" tyres. I did Ladoga with similar protection to above and a rear diff guard on 45 (90). All my trucks get used for club marshaling, green laning and towing. Mike

That sounds like a head gasket to me. How much pressure does it keep after shut down and for how long? Neither of mine hold pressure in the cooling system much longer than an hour and even then it's about lemonade bottle levels. I've had one just pressurise the coolant with no other symptoms, no residue, it had gone between number 3 and a water way. Mike

On the ibex I have a 24 spline disco axle up front with vented discs and 110 front calipers. On the back I have a Salisbury rear axle converted to disc. Our 110 is on stock axles 10 spline and solid discs up front and Salisbury with drums on the rear. In my opinion the Salisbury axle is far stronger in stock form than the equivalent 110 rover rear axle. I will say it's worth converting to discs on the rear, whilst well adjusted drums in good fettle are almost as good as discs they don't stay that way for long. Where as discs are fit and forget with consistent braking. Mike

I suspect nonimouse is referring to the tubes the lashing eyes are mounted to. Mike

It wasn't the radiator adapter thread that was the problem, the Ali rad didn't have any adapter at all so the pipe and bend were 30mm shorter and cleared the steering box. The thread that was the issue was the temperature sender. Mike

I have paint but it's 2k and one coat so thin but robust. Mike

We think it was stuck rings from being in storage. Ironically I did check the bores and they did get a squirt with WD-40 before I put the head on. Mike

Yeah but my life would be boring if I didn't do daft things like this. Fortunately I have a very understanding wife. Quote of the day has to go to Dave " some people wouldn't see this as a social event but you can't own enough engines to take apart." Mike

We had stock (24 spline disco) shafts and cv's up front and a borrowed ARB and HD shafts in the rear. Mike

Well that didn't go according to plan. So we couldn't get the down pipe off the turbo, easy fix just used the turbo off the original engine. Next go to fit the temp sender only to discover one thermostat housing appears to be BSP and the other NPT. That's ok we'll just Rob the housing off the original....... except the bolts are corroded and seized in there. One undid but wouldn't come out the other snapped off, I'll be drilling that then. Next can't run the engine till the oil cooler is connected, grabs the radiator stellaghost kindly donated. Oil cooler fittings are different, yay, TSD has an old rad with the right ones. Drop it all in only to discover the oil pipes now won't go in as they foul the steering box, I'll put the old leaking one back in then shall I. Finally we're ready to start.. dead nothing. Find the cable that should be on the starter DOH. Now we can start it turns over and over and over. That sounds like no compression. After some head scratching and tea we check the timing and tappets both fine. This doesn't make sense even with one down it would try to start but this feels like all are down. Fortunately TSD has a compression tester 1 and 4 almost nothing 2 and 3 ok. At this point I have that sinking feeling we're going to be taking the head back off to God knows what. Before we do I suggest oiling the pots to see it the compression comes up, both 1 and 4 do. Well bugger it let's put the glow plugs back in and give it one last try. After a couple of attempts (clearing the oil that's hydraulicing it) it coughs and dies. Second attempt it starts to run away a little so shut it down, but this is probably just burning off the oil in 1 and 4. Third attempt finally it runs and ticks over. I've still got to fit the bump stops, replace the rad, put some antifreeze in and it looks like the glow plug relay has failed engaged but I've driven it home and it seems to be running nicely. Mike

Old one out. Swap some bits over. Replacement back in. Enough for today. Found a broken bump stop mount, while the engine was out we had room to weld it back together. Hopefully get it running tomorrow. Huge thanks to TSD for his help and use of his workshop. Mike

In 45 I had two matched battery's and a split charge diode. The ibex I have now has the aforementioned blue sea acr and a pair of 110 amp varta AGM stop start battery's. The acr is set up to link automatically when the start battery rises above 12.7v but manually connects both battery's when the winch is turned on. Mike

I have a 500amp acr from blue sea on my ibex. Mike

Possibly because the heads clash with the foot wells. Certainly this would be the case with a 200tdi, TD and n/a as all are quite close to the bulkhead. The 300 is quite a bit further forward though. Mike

This may help (copied from another thread): finally i have a fairly good list for coil sprung land rovers. All measurement are approx standard working length flange to flange: defender 4 cyl/200tdi: 90 front 667 rear 667 110 rear 1055 130 rear 1480 300tdi/ td5 upto 02: 90 front 627 rear 712 110 rear 1080 130 rear 1520 post 02 td5 rover rear axle: 90 front 627 rear 712 110 rear 1170 130 rear 1600 V8: 90 front 627 rear 712 110 rear 1080 130 rear 1520 tdci: 90 front 700(bearing slip joint phasing can't be changed) rear 650 110 rear 1110 130 rear 1540 discovery I/II all: front 637(td5 double carden) rear 887 range rover classic V8 borg warner t-box: front 688 rear 885 LSE: front 637 rear 1080 V8/VM/200/300tdi: front 637 rear 887 hope this helps others if any are incorrect let me know. mike

The route is a corridor so you can go off the beaten and often have to. We had to squeeze between two trees at one point, it resulted in a snapped winch line (tied it together to fine the stage, then spliced it in camp), two doors that wouldn't close anymore (bungee between to hold them shut) and quite a few more dents. Mike

https://youtu.be/VFt6KkQcZLI Us on the dune race. Mike

Tourist doesn't do the tree of God. The year we went was dryer than normal but on river crossing was half way up the windscreen. Mike

I accepted the risk that I might be coming with a scrap truck. Dirtydiesel did scrap his range rover after the event. Mike

Those tyres will be fine in adventure the route isn't the same as tr3 up, a large portion is but several of the more tricky bits are skipped. Don't worry there's still plenty to keep you occupied. We did air down to about 15psi with no form of "stick" on the bead. Yes we punched tyres off but normally only one on a stage, one stage we did three but if you can't put it back on you shouldn't be going. We had European breakdown cover but you still need to get out of Russia don't you daan. There were several trucks in one of the classes with families in including kids. Dirtydiesel did it in a range rover, the Belgians I think took too. Dan and Jen took a camel 110! Mike

Still looks like slurry.

Back wall is fully down now and amazingly the floor levels are near enough the same. I'm not moving stuff into the back section yet as I'm going to paint the rear floor (yes fridge I'm going to paint it 😛), oh and I may have an engine swap that's going to take precedence. Mind that should give the screed time to dry out properly before I paint. Mike

I'm fortunate enough to be in good health for now, but I'm well aware of how things can change. Consiquently I've been a platelet donor for 20 years (the bit chemo inadvertently kills off) just to try to do my bit. I wish you and everyone in a similar situation a full and speedy recovery. Mike

Careful if you visit you may get roped into carrying this: Or Down there. Mike

Give me a couple of weeks years to tidy it up. Your all more than welcome anytime. Mike