Dave W

Is it in an existing installation ? Does it have an electronic auto box hooked up to it ? What vehicle is it in ? Do you want to understand how it works and install it yourself or do you want to pay someone else to do it for you ? When I've done it I've always used all the OEM stuff and configured the MegaSquirt accordingly. The OEM crank sensor is a standard VR sensor so can drive the MS directly. The coil packs are easy to drive with standard MS coil drivers. The OEM IAC can be driven by any version of the MS hardware using the standard PWM setup. The only additional hardware you need outside the MS ECU and coil drivers is an air intake temp sender although you can also use the OEM MAF sensor if you want to. If you go down this route though I strongly recommend you build the coil drivers into their own box in the engine bay as it eliminates rogue signals upsetting the MS ECU. I have a good, working, base msq for an OEM Thor V8 if you want to go down that route. If you're happy to get to understand the system yourself with help from the numerous sources of help/information available on the MegaSquirt forums and, to a limited extent, on this forum the I'd definitely urge you to go down the OEM route, if nothing else it will be the cheapest option !

I managed around 10 minutes of the 1st one, was kind of hoping after 10 mins that both "crew" and Jeep would fall down one of the crevasses, preferably ending with the Jeep exploding into a fireball in true IRT animation style. As, unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any realistic chance of that happening it got turned off and the series link deleted.

I'd seriously consider the terms and conditions for any winch and get the level of backup you expect in writing. The early GP winches and upgraded parts were very prone to breakages and had a few design flaws. A lot of those problems and the subsequent development to fix them was funded by the customers - you break it, they bring out a new design to stop it breaking again, you pay for the new part. Red-winch are the new boys on the block when it comes to electric winches and their winch does look really good BUT I'd only buy one on the proviso that if anything breaks in the first year (or 2) they will pay for the repair. If they've got it right (and it certainly looks like a good piece of kit) then a decent warranty (maybe even as good as Ashcroft's warranty) would go a long way towards showing they mean business. Another electric option is the Tibus winch which (I've asked) comes with a 2 year "you break it, we fix it" warranty apart from electric components (motors, solenoids).

Another vote for Britpart ones, had them on my challenge motor seats for 5 years now, still waterproof and despite all the mud, water, sand and other assorted "stuff" thrown at them they're still unblemished and the seats underneath them look like new.

Yes, I'm running an LT230 on the back of the 4L80E although if I were using different axles with a central rear diff I'd be using an Atlas transfer box. As well as being a stronger transfer box it would make for a much shorter transmission length allowing the engine to go further back. The only real danger might come if you get a bit carried away with it in 2WD, be great fun on the road but your rear axle might not thank you for it It should be possible to fit the 4L80E to the RV8, the TransmissionCenter guys that I linked to know their stuff and would probably be able to supply a gearbox with the correct bell housing and cover - I'm sure some of the Yank engines still use the same bolt pattern as the RV8. They shipped my box out via air freight, with them arranging it from the US it was a LOT cheaper than it would have been for me to arrange shipping from this end.

Oh, it's also worth having an interlock/warning on the diff lock switch if you have an LT230. Running the box without diff lock engaged off road WILL kill the centre diff, usually in around 10 minutes. I've done it twice so far

I am fairly gentle on the loud pedal and do have some mechanical sympathy when I drive generally. I have corkscrewed a rear propshaft though so I do have my moments. I run Land Rover axles with Ashcroft internals and ARB diffs. Other than bending a rear axle (more due to a heavy landing than the power throughput) the only transmission part I've broken since 2007 was a rear propshaft. When I had the 3.9 V6 I went through, approximately, a ZF 4 speed every 2 years and I've yet to be convinced that the ZF HP22 is capable of handling much more than a standard RV8. Much like the RV8 engine though if you throw enough money at it I'm sure it could be beefed up enough. The main thing with any auto box is cooling though and all the ZF failures I had were primarily due to them being cooked. On my LS1 I have, as suggested, a 4L80E box that is rated at 1000BHP IIRC and cost a fraction of what it would cost to get a ZF box to a similar spec at the time. Having said that the USD/GBP conversion rate isn't what it was then. I have the "Bionic 80" shown on this page... http://www.transmiss...r.net/4l80e.htm 5 years on and it's never missed a shift or stuck in gear.

Yes

It's pretty much as you'd expect, assuming your 2004 D2 is a TD5. If it's a V8 then you have a problem ! On the TD5 the fuel is returned to the fuel filter having spent some time in the cylinder head. It passes through a fuel cooler but that only takes the edge of it using the coolant system so it'll never come out of that cooler than the radiator. Fuel isn't returned to the tank as such so has a tendency to circulate between the high pressure pump, the cylinder head and the filter.

Yes, that will fit, that's what I have on mine.

No. The 3 bolt uses imperial fittings and most 4 bolt boxes use metric fittings. This also applies to the bolts that go through the chassis although it may not be obvious as they are very close in size so be aware you need to change the bolts as well. You may well have an imperial power steering pump too if they've used all the parts form the same vehicle. For long term ease of getting parts etc... you might want to consider changing everything over to metric. There were some 4 bolt boxes that were imperial and are a straight swap for the 3 bolt box. I believe they were produced during the changeover period between 3 and 4 bolt as a service/repair item. I found out the hard way (in the middle of a challenge) that my 4 bolt box was one of those so none of the 4 bolt boxes people generously offered would fit. BTW there's no reason why the Disco drop arm won't fit the 3 bolt box, I run a Disco drop arm on mine on a 3 bolt box - one day I will get around to changing over to the 4 bolt box in the garage though !

The P and P snorkel looks like this... (with a Safari snorkel top) It doesn't need any modifications to the bodywork, just take the original plastic cover off and fit the snorkel in it's place. The internal "box" for the air intake on the inside of the wing will need modifying to clear the chassis support for the roll cage but that's not really anything to do with the snorkel. That's a P and P expedition cage (with some extras) which, among other things, has a roof tent on it during the summer.

Probably a sticking Idle air control stepper. Try unscrewing it from the plenum and cleaning it.

The Brodit system works really well. The Brodit pro clip (652583) fits really well. My iPhone has an OtterBox protective cover and the Brodit iPhone holder designed for phones with a cover works well with that (875214). You just need the pro clip and a suitable holder for your phone.

Given your location I'd suggest contacting http://www.redpathtyres.com They are a specialist tyre company that do plant, agricultural and 4x4 tyres among other things. I've used them for a few vulcanising jobs in the past, they have their own vulcanising facility. Neil Redpath is one of the owners and has been involved in challenge events for donkey's years.

It's not the silicon pipe that's slipping off the inlet pipe, it's the jubilee clip that's slipping off the silicon pipe. Had a chat with Patrick at Maddison 4x4 about it yesterday and he says he has only used original pipes with the EGR removal kit. He has seen a couple of customer's vehicles come in with self tappers holding the jubilee clip in place though and had wondered why they'd done that ! I's a bit "Heath Robinson" but I guess if you have a wide jubilee clip and put a self drilling/tapping screw through the clip, hose and EGR it would certainly stop the clip slipping off as you tightened it

Could be, as you say, the loss of pressure at the manifold will result in over fuelling and black smoke. Because that particular join is hidden underneath the sound deadening cover it's not immediately obvious there's a problem.

Been having a weird power loss problem on SWMBOs TD5 90 over the last few weeks. It's been intermittently losing power although it always seemed OK when I drove it. On Saturday I finally figured out what the problem was when the power dropped off when I was driving it - no power, lots of black smoke under acceleration. Anyway, it seems that the problem is that the silicon hose from the intercooler to the inlet manifold is sliding the jubilee clip off that's supposed to hold it. As a result it's been losing boost and on Saturday with me driving it blew the pipe off completely leaving me driving a normally aspirated 5 cylinder diesel. Whenever I try and put the jubilee clip on the ridge in the EGR removal pipe that is supposed to stop the pipe coming off means that, as the clip is tightened it simply slides off the end of the pipe. I've put the rubber pipe back on again for the moment. That works OK as I guess the "rubber" being softer then the silicon pipe allows the jubilee clip to grip it. Has anyone else had this problem ? Did you come up with a solution ? Looking at the end of the EGR unit it has a much sharper ridge right at the end of the pipe that would probably work OK so it looks to be the combination of silicon hoses and EGR removal kit that's causing the problem. I noticed the TerraFirma EGR removal kit doesn't have the ridge so might actually work better in this case.

Sounds like you're not getting a tach signal. When you crank the engine over with the computer connected are you getting an RPM reading ? Assuming you're using EDIS, are you getting a spark when cranking ?

As long as the only connectors that have been removed are the ECU connectors you should be able to use the rest without too many problems. Obviously make sure the cut ends are insulated/protected as many of them are live. The wiring for the dials is not included in the loom, there is a small sub loom that links the bulkhead loom to the dials. The bulkhead loom contains all the necessary wires, just the last bit that is separate. Where the ECU plugs have been cut off you will need to bridge some wires unless you want to bypass some of the loom. If you are using TD5 gauges then the ECU on the TD5 adapts the output from the coolant sensor to suit the gauge. As a result the engine loom connector isn't directly connected to the gauge and you need to connect the two wires together where the ECU plugs used to be or bypass them and go direct. The only other thing I can think of that may cause you a problem is the lack of the AS10 immobiliser - if you don't have that you will need to rewire the starter motor relay to get the vehicle to crank over. The under seat fuse box requires a battery feed which, on the TD5 runs direct from the battery box to the ECU box under the seatbox. If you get a copy of RAVE for the 2002 MY Defender all the connectors are pictured/described and all the details of the wiring are covered in the wiring diagrams.

It depends if you want to use MegaSquirt or MegaSquirt and EDIS. There's no reason at all why you can't use the standard crank sensor and flywheel together with the standard coil packs. The only real downside is that you can't run a Nige "cookie cutter" installation. Whilst there is nothing wrong with a cookie cutter installation there's also nothing wrong with rolling your own either. It really comes down to how much work YOU want to do. If you want to buy something that is more or less "off the shelf" from Nige or a similar supplier and put in a minimum amount of work/time yourself then the cookie cutter LR4x4 build is probably your best bet. Not sure what the "waterproof coil packs" thing is all about, the Land Rover ones are fine underwater, can't help but think there's a bit of FUD marketing going on from certain suppliers. IF you really want to believe there is an advantage to using a Ford Fiesta coil pack over a Land Rover V8 one then you can direct drive those as well of course without the EDIS but I've never seen a problem with the Land Rover packs (the later style ones that is). I've used the Land Rover packs with EDIS too and they work fine. If you do decide to go for direct ignition drive the only thing I'd say is you should build a "coil driver" box to go under the bonnet, that way you can keep the high voltage noise around the MS ECU to a minimum. The only direct drive MS setup I ever had a problem with had the coil drivers inside the ECU box and I suspect the problems I saw were down to the noise they generated. I'd also go for MS2-Extra or maybe even MS3, MS2-Extra offers a LOT of advantages over MS1-Extra, particularly with configuration and fuelling accuracy.

Or get someone to stand on the brake pedal and see if the wobble goes away - if it does then it's wheel bearings, if it's not then most likely one of the swivel bearings.

On the face of it I'd say you're advance is a bit high for idle and that may be contributing to the problem. Have you checked the advance with a timing light and ensured the timing marks are correct ? Just to rule it out as a source of problems, warm the engine up and while it's idling disconnect the 4 way plug from the idle air control stepper on the RHS of the plenum. See if that makes any difference to the stability of the idle and also to the low rpm cruise problem.

There are a few reasons I prefer them... and I'm sure some of my reasons aren't unanimously accepted The Thor manifold seems to give better low end torque than gems, in particular on the back of an auto box I've found the same engine with a Thor manifold seems to be able to hold 4th with lockup over the gems version at lower rpm. It seems to move the torque map down by 2-300 rpm. The banana manifold design seems to stop leaching between cylinders, especially when you're bank firing the injectors, I think that helps with the torque as well as giving smoother running due to the more consistent fuelling at lower rpm. It certainly seems to give a more consistent lambda reading pretty much throughout the rev range. The standard IAC can be controlled directly by the older MegaSquirt ECUs. The fuel rail without the built in regulator makes it easier to use an aftermarket adjustable regulator. Regulators like the Mallory one allow you to tune the fuel pressure on the rail and give you a more consistent pressure than the OEM ones. having it adjustable means you can tune the fuel pressure to give the best compromise between a consistent idle and a reasonable duty cycle at high revs/when accelerating hard without having to use the HR MegaSquirt code.

Thor would be my choice, no question. As well as just being an all round better design IMV you'll even be able to use the factory idle control. I do happen to have a Thor inlet manifold with fuel rail, injectors etc... if it's of interest - I bought it to fit to one of my engines before I went down the LS1 route.