Dave W

I'd work on the principal that as long as the TD5 has fuel and the crank sensor is OK they will run even with the wrong injector codes they'll run better than yours is doing by the sounds of it. There's not really a lot that can go wrong with the crank sensor as it's a simple VR sensor reading a bunch of holes in the flywheel and sending the info to the ECU. You've done the obvious things by changing it for a known good sensor and making sure the locating pin is correct. If you have access to an oscilloscope the only other check would be to make sure the signal is strong and consistent at the ECU. You could also do a visual check (not easy !) through the sensor hole, rotating the crank through a full revolution and ensuring there is no debris in the holes that the sensor is looking for. (A long shot but I think we're in long shot territory now !). You may also be able to see if the crank sensor is OK by the RPM reading on your diagnostic toll while it's cranking. If the rpm is fluctuating all over the place it would suggest a problem. Fuel pressure can be an issue but I have successfully and smoothly run a TD5 at just 20PSI with the only problem being a distinct lack of power over 2500 rpm so that's probably not an issue unless it's really low (or high). I'm not sure how you would check the pressure on the return pipe - are you sure you've not got the feed and return pipes swapped over as that would give some really bizarre results ! Ideally you want to test the pressure somewhere between the pump and the regulator as the return via the cooler is after the regulator. Have you visually checked that the lobes on the camshaft are all there and showing no signs of wear ? Just wondering if the injectors aren't being pressurised by the injector lobes properly as the injector lobes are probably more important than anything else in the fuelling system.

Have you tried moving the fuel pressure regulator from the old engine to the new one ? Where and how did you test the fuel pressure ? Have you run the full purge procedure (throttle to the floor, crank for 30 seconds) ?

The EDIS units are fully waterproof anyway so can/should be mounted in the engine compartment. For the MS I personally think the best solution is simply to build the ECU into an IP67 box either still inside it's "standard" MS case or just by mounting the PCB in there without a case. It's also a good idea to put the relays and fuses in there too. For the wiring you can either buy aftermarket waterproof chassis ECU connectors (not cheap) or make up short male to female DB harnesses that go through a standard waterproof cable entry. For the vacuum pipe just use a bulkhead connector. If you make up DB male to female connectors make sure you fill the loom with vaseline and then wrap it tightly as that will stop water travelling along the wires inside the loom. If you only want IP65 protection then the standard MS case already meets that spec anyway, especially if you run a bead of silicone where the end plates meet the top and bottom casing.

I first used it as I couldn't find any decent vacuum hose when mounting the MS ECU in the roof. I was worried about the vacuum vs pressure thing so went for EFi fuel pipe on the grounds that the braided wall might stop it collapsing. I needed a few metres as I was mounting the ECU in the roof and the auto factors only had 1 metre lengths of vacuum pipe of the right size but could supply the fuel hose at any length up to a 20 or 50m reel. I was more concerned about the long term effect of petrol vapour on some of the "plastic" alternatives such as washer pipe so avoided those. I first used it on an MS installation in 2002 and 10 years on that same piece of pipe is still working fine although the engine has long since been replaced on that vehicle. I keep on using it for new installs because I can buy it from my local auto factors or online in 1 metre increments and I just bury it in the loom. The longest run I've used was just over 4 metres due mostly to the convoluted route the loom had to take. It also JUST fits through the MS v3 PCB case hole - or at least the stuff from my local auto factors does. Vacuum pipe is most likely thinner and more flexible, just not so easy to get hold of - at least not until Nige cornered the market

I get most of my stuff from Jegs (www.jegs.com) and not found the delivery charges too silly. Obviously you'll be buying two anyway !

Probably a bit OTT but available from most motor factors and will last forever - I use 1/8 I/D fuel hose. http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/product/Fuel_Hose_3.2mm_%281%7C8%22%29_FUHO3

I use an SPA gauge (dual readout, combined with oil pressure). The best place to put the sensor is at the cylinder head, same place as the EFi temp sensor. The SPA gauge is pricey but you can also set it up to switch a relay for fan control and adjust the warning and alert LEDs. On my engine it's fully symmetrical so there are two positions for the standard EFi fuel sender and I simply used the "spare" one. On an RV8 you could just use a T piece adaptor I'd have thought on either the EFi coolant sender or the temp gauge coolant sender.

You can also get problems with the battery voltage compensation setting in MS. It's supposed to compensate for low voltages by increasing the amount of time the injectors are open, the assumption being that a low voltage means the fuel pump will run at a lower pressure and the injectors will take longer to open.

If you have a Nanocom or similar you should be able to get it to work. You'll need to change the injector codes, get the ECU to learn the immobiliser code and possibly change the throttle pedal type (2 or 3 track). If it's a Discovery ECU it gets more difficult but if you ignore the temp. gauge it should still run it.

140 litres

5.7 V8 petrol auto Defender. I get around 400 miles out of a tank full, 450 miles on a really good run, 350 miles if I'm "playing".

One thing I've found as a common cause of this comes down to the way the warm up enrichment is set up relative to the cranking pulse width. There is usually a temptation to overfuel on the cranking setup and then use less warmup enrichment. The biggest problem being that the cranking pulse tends to be "tweaked" during the installations first ever start to find a point at which it fires and it tends to get left at that while the rest of the settings are tailored around it. The result is that you end up with a good effective cranking pulse due to the WUE but once the engine starts the WUE is too small to sustain a completely cold engine. To find a better cranking pulse I look at the pulse width being used at hot idle and use the same pulse width for cranking. I then increase the WUE to compensate for the, normally, reduce cranking pulse. ASE isn't normally necessary for a V8, particularly if you have the IAC set up. ASE when you have a good crank pulse width and WUE setup will just make the mixture too rich when the engine is in it's most "vulnerable" state, causing more problems than it resolves. It's often just "disguising" a problem with the rest of the setup. With the engine hot and with no ASE or IAC, if the cranking pulse is correct you should be able to "start it through the window" and it will crank, fire up and go straight to idle without any throttle input. WUE can then be used to make it do the same when it's cold once you have the IAC set up.

I'm pretty sure it would have been trials, I remember both Steve and Wendy trialled a series motor and I think at one point they may have had one each so it could have been one of those. I'll be seeing Patrick this afternoon so I'll see if his memory is any better than mine. Sometime around the mid to late 1990s I think they stopped trialling and concentrated on challenge events. When Steve "moved on" to the early challenge events I think the first vehicle they competed in was an ex Camel Trophy 110 which him and Neil Redpath won some of the early challenge events in prior to Steve's involvement in the Foers Ibex development. The Muddy Truckers Trophy is running at the end of March - http://www.muddytruckers.co.uk/ "Muddy Truckers" was the informal name of the club that Steve and Wendy formed and this memorial event was set up by and still involves a lot of the club members. There will be a number of the original "Muddy Truckers" there as organisers, marshals and competitors and I'm pretty sure some of them will have photos so if you're not in a great hurry to sell maybe you could bring it or photos along to see what people remember about the vehicle and when it was in use.

Is this the motor they trialled with AWDC ?

The gauge is only a guide, not sure what you think it would be telling you when it's not in the centre ? The TD5 gauge responds to a similar resistance range to the V8 gauge it's just offset relative to the V8 gauge. All the resistor does is bring the TD5 gauge into the same calibration as the sensor. You have to realise that the gauges only operate over a relatively small window of temperatures. The centre "normal" part of the gauge only shows around a 30 degree or less range. Centering the gauge around your normal operating temperature gives you the same range either side as the sensors aren't that different in terms of resistance change per degree centigrade when they are at around the 80 degree mark. Neither the gauges nor the senders operate in a linear fashion.

Assuming it reads high at the moment like my 3.9 did when I was using a TD5 gauge, all you need to do is put a variable resistor between the sender and the gauge and you can adjust it so it reads centrally at the normal operating temperature. The TD5 gauge range is different form the V8 one in that it deflects more from the centre when the temperature moves either way. Somewhere i have the calculations I made by comparing the V8 sensor with a TD5 sensor in a pan of hot water but if you get a 0-100 ohm variable resistor it'll cover the range required. Once it's set, assuming you use a trimmer style resistor, a blob of nail varnish will lock it into position and you can forget about it.

TD5 injection pump ? Lift pump ? TD5s have more in common with a petrol EFi than a 300TDi as far as the fuel system is concerned. They use a combined swirl pot/filter unit with two pump stages in the in-tank unit. A low pressure pump in the tank feeds the filter/swirl pot unit with diesel which runs through the filter and back into the high pressure pump chamber. The high pressure pump (also in the tank) takes it's feed back from the filter/swirl pot and pumps the fuel into the cylinder head maintaining a steady 68psi or thereabouts in the head, maintained by the pressure regulator. The camshaft is used to provide the final pressure at each injector. Fuel returns from the regulator, via the fuel cooler, to the filter/swirl pot where it feeds back into the high pressure pickup. Any air is bled off the top of the filter/swirl pot and back to the tank via a membrane that only allows air past. If you modify the fuel system you are far better off ditching the lot and installing an EFi style system with a single high pressure pump with a pre and post filter of some kind. Personally I use an inline EFi pre-filter and a 300TDi post filter as it gives some water separation. On the OPs vehicle it sounds as if the low pressure part of the in tank pump is failing. It can gradually fill the filter/swirl pot during the bleed process but can't keep up with the demand from the high pressure pump. It will run for a while as the fuel coming back from the engine is fed back into the high pressure pickup but eventually the high pressure pump will end up sucking air back from the tank into the filter/swirl pot. Either that or it's plumbed in incorrectly !

If it turns out to be a 90 one I may be interested in it I'd go outside and measure up the 90 now but I'm a wimp and don't want to lay in the snow !

The best place for the LPG is in the tank. Propane is nasty stuff and is a huge fire risk. It's heavier than air so spreads out at ground level all around you. If it finds a source of ignition then the whole area goes up in a fireball. You should be able to disconnect the pipework from the tank without any gas other than the gas in the pipes escaping. I used an engine crane and a couple of lifting straps to lift the tank out of mine.

Not sure if it's quite what you mean but for my Mudstuff dash I ran all the wiring for the dash to a couple of multiway plugs and then sat and created a wiring loom on the back of the dash that plugs into those connectors. You can do away with a LOT of wires that way. For example you only need a single wire for the sidelight/illumination feed. Having a dedicated loom behind the dash means you can do all the gauge and switch wiring in comfort and you don't end up with a rats nest of wiring. The vehicle side of the loom just meant running the wires I needed to the multiplugs. If you are using the carling switches and haven't done so already I'd recommend getting the proper connector blocks for them too as they make it a lot tidier install and much easier to replace or move a switch should the need arise.

The TD5 "standard" fuel system is way over complicated when it comes to modifying it, you'd be better off ditching the in tank pump and the 2 stage system and fitting a single external pump. Have you used the full standard system with the TD5 fuel filter ? When it stops, what does it take to get it started again ?

You can't cruise comfortably in an RV8 at less than 2000 RPM because the power drops off anywhere below that generally. If your combination of tyre size and gearing is dropping your cruise speed down too far you'll end up in "kickdown hell" where you have to kick it down to maintain your speed, it speeds up, you ease of the throttle, it changes back up again and the cycle begins all over. Shifting it into 3rd can make it more bearable (there's a reason there's no gate between D and 3). V8 autos are easier to drive when you're under geared than over geared and a lot of people swap out the standard 205R16 tyres for something bigger and then find it doesn't drive as easily as it did.

I think all 3.9 and above ran them. Disco and RRC 3.9 and above ran them and possibly 3.5 Disco. They weren't fitted to 3.5 RRCs. Having said that they used the radiator side tank type which are, IMV, more of a heat exchanger, keeping the oil at around the same temperature as the coolant so on cold days the oil is heated faster up to operating temperature. I've always used a TD Defender radiator with my V8s. They have a side tank oil "cooler" and are the biggest standard radiator LR produced. If you want to see a pic of one I have a 2 year old one in the back garden that I took out of Pam's 90 over christmas.

It depends a bit on which version of TD5 rad you have but as the top hose and bottom hose are in the right place for a V8 it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with a suitable pipe arrangement. If you have a later rad where only the front one of the two 15mm bottom connectors are used you could possibly use that to connect to the bottom of the expansion tank, probably drill the restriction out a bit though. Be aware that some of the earlier types, where both bottom pipes are used, are actually two isolated cores so the bottom 15mm pipes are a separate rad that was used exclusively for the fuel cooler. You'll need to add a bleed tap into the top hose otherwise bleeding it is probably going to be a real pain without a cap on the rad.

If you want it to read anywhere near accurately you're better off using a matched sender and gauge. A Durite electrical oil pressure gauge costs around 30 quid and includes a matched sender unit.