elbekko

It's pretty easy to bodge: * Find a sturdy cylinder so the inside fits over the bit that comes out, and is at least 3ish cm high (more is welcome); * One M6 (I think) bolt, an M6 nut, and a sturdy metal plate (a washer will NOT be enough) with a hole for the bolt that fits over the cylinder; * Turn the bolt until you're sure it can't rip out of the thread (so a good few turns in); * Turn the nut until everything is under pressure. Make sure everything lines up. Keep turning the nut; * Pop. I've never really had any trouble doing this, apart from finding those *censored* metal plates somewhere in the shop...

I'm not saying no to gifts...

Pff, the average greenlane does that to me

A Leatherman perhaps? Always comes in handy.

I've got a standard 300TDi behind an R380 and BW (which about the same as a 1.2 LT230). I find it works pretty well, but that's on a 245/70R16, so not totally comparable to a Defender.

That one works, thanks.

Well, those look like poo :/ I think I'd rather stick with the AT²s.

Same here.

Somewhere so that you'll drown before the ECU does - the roof or so.

Well, I certainly didn't think of that one

Look at the rockers, or use the timing mark in the front (you'll probably need a mirror and a keen eye though).

Timing, timing, timing?

Not from an RRC engine bay, that's for sure And quite hard to hold on to too. Perhaps next time I'll take off the intake, might reduce the weight a bit.

Thanks again Les, that looks like a very clear and detailed guide.

Hmm. It's what I fitted to my other block, as it was the one that came from it - which AFAIK had a new head about 150k km ago, so I wonder... The new head was put in by a non-LR mechanic though, so you never know he just played it safe. So the only true way to know which gasket to use is by using a DTI as described in the RAVE? I'm still in the dark on what caused this particular failure though, although I don't know who replaced the head gasket, I just know it was done very recently. I found some papers in the car which lead me to believe it wasn't a DIY job, so I doubt it has been done half-assed (although you never know...). But perhaps I should try finding out more when the rangie gets home (a friend is picking it up from where I had to leave it) before I jump to conclusions.

Can the booklet include small cockups with large consequences? If so, I have a tale about a camshaft...

Priceless We must have enough for a book by now

Thanks Les, I was afraid of something like that. I don't think I can have the head re-skimmed, as it's already a 3-hole gasket. I do have another from my old block, but I'm unsure as to whether the problem with that block was in the head or below, so I don't really feel like throwing that on. And to properly check the block for dead-flatness I suppose it would have to be taken out and taken to a professional? Or would a straight ruler do? On a side note, what are the chances the head's been damaged by running hot (top of the gauge hot) for a max of 5 minutes (probably not that long, but that's the earliest I can remember looking at the gauge)? Argh, and they say these things are reliable. I'm seriously starting to consider a V8

A while ago there was a thread on here about the pros and cons of MLS (multi-layer steel) head gaskets. It was mentioned that sometimes they leak, and that they need different torqueing from what's described in the RAVE. Mine seems to have burst through yesterday, with (according to the previous owner) about 3-4000km on it, and properly too. Engine got hot, the expansion tank had a ****ton of pressure in it, and what looked like steam was coming out of the side of the block and the oil filler cap. So I'm guessing the gasket blew through from the cylinder to both the oil and coolant lines, which is, well, no good Now, before I throw in another one and hope for the best, I thought it might be best to find out how to prevent this from happening. I asked my parts supplier, but he didn't have any special tightening data. Does anyone here know? Or am I better off finding a composite gasket and throwing that on?

Be careful what you say about a wiki being lightweight. MediaWiki (what Wikipedia uses) is pretty damn heavy, and won't run very smoothly with a lot of traffic unless you throw hardware against it. But the upside is, there are plenty of other wikis that are much less resource-intensive.

So, to summarise this topic: bring back the RRC with a modern engine and a bit of quieting. Off-road capability + comfort + style.

I'd be up for developing and hosting (at the start, not sure how well my shared hosting would hold up) a site for tech archives. Compiling the articles on there into a PDF every month or so probably won't be too hard, although PDF generation libraries aren't all that easy to come by (unless you pay silly amounts of money). A website is easy to search, and writing a good search really isn't all that hard if you know what features to use (well, English-language search anyway...). The problem there is - it isn't this forum anymore, which I value greatly, and I don't have nearly enough time to have it finished anytime soon. Also, who's going to write and edit the articles? Wikis need a lot of moderation, and everyone knows allowing every idiot out there to write tech articles could have some pretty bad outcomes. Of course rating systems could solve this, but that's another discussion. PDFs may be 'bloaty', but it's one of the few formats that can properly handle cross-platform formatting. The only PDFs I've encountered that aren't searchable are those containing only pictures. I think the best way is to let the end user decide the format, and different formats are offered - PDF (downloadable and relatively easy to search), online (easy to search), downloadable (but hard to search) website, ... I'm just throwing out ideas here, no clue if they're the right ones. The biggest problem with getting a content-based site launched is having actual content. In comparison the rest is fairly trivial.

See, I've been reading this everywhere, but I ever only saw one slot in my flywheel...