Dave W

It depends on the level of event, the license you need has to match or exceed the status/level of the event. All competitors need a suitable license so in a challenge event the navigator (as a competitor) will also need a license (although this may be a club card). The most basic competition license is an MSA club membership card and is valid for "Clubsport" and "Clubman" level events. For National B and above events you need an upgraded license that you buy from the MSA. Some event types can only be run at National B or above so require a license. This is the case for point to point (XTC), comp. safari etc... Challenge events can be run at Clubman or National B level, primarily/normally determined by the number of invited clubs taking part. If you choose "Challenge Event - National B" instead of "Challenge Event - Clubmans" when applying for the permit then you will require a National B status license for both driver and navigator. I have seen nothing in the 2010 Blue Book that would require any competition license with a higher status than a Club Membership Card. There is an "oversight" that would suggest you don't even need a membership card but that's covered elsewhere in the competitors regs. Perhaps you could be more specific in the reasons you think competitors need a National B competition license ? The only thing I can find is (P)24.2 but that doesn't require a National B license it simply doesn't require you to produce a club card and then 24.2.1 further clarifies that for National B and events not including challenges you need a National B license. It may be that there's another reg that I've missed ?

Those are the earlier ones, for those I wouldn't go anywhere near a Britpart one as the plastic they make them out of melts and the bulbs fall out ! I recently got a brake/tail unit in an allmakes box that seems to be pretty good, not sure where I got it from though as it's been on the shelf for years.

Where are you shipping into (the regs vary even between Vic and NSW) ? How long for ? Temporary import I've done a couple of times, can't help with permanent import though.

Which type are they ? If they are the type with the removable bulb holder then you can buy just the bulb holder from Land Rover for a quid or so. I buy the Britpart complete units (if needed) and then replace the bulb holders with the Land Rover parts.

It depends on the age of the loom but more recent ones earth at the bulkhead earth distribution point, a stud located on the front of the bulkhead just to the right of the footwell, near the "hole" where the wiring goes in/out of the dashboard clocks area. All the main bulkhead loom earths go to there eventually too and, to avoid possible problems, I run an extra cable from there to the battery. Where the rear loom plugs into the bulkhead loom you should see another pair of wires with an M6 tag on them that supply the earth to the loom. Earlier looms used an earth tag at each side of the back body, screwed into the top of the inner rear wheel arch near where the wires come through from underneath. Probably one of the reasons early rear lights always seem to be plagued with earth problems

That's all covered by the PCIDSS regulations, any system that processes/passes sensitive data (PAN numbers, CSC) has to be compliant regardless of being an internal system or a customer facing system. As part of the regs they have to be independently penetration tested and if you develop your own software, even if it only passes a number and doesn't store it, the code has to be checked by another developer and the developer can't test or deploy the application. The PCIDSS consultation "gravy train" is even bigger than the Y2K one was, we now have 3 layers of consultants where the consultant we deal with on a daily basis has to ask a higher level consultant to check his decisions... I hate to think what it's costing but it's kept me gainfully employed for a year or so now !

I have a mud console in my competition motor, mainly for all the switches but it also houses a cheap radio/cd/mp3 set. It's not caused me any problems and survived bouncing around the outback with no problems and without coming loose. I've looked at the Raptor but they're just plain ugly and look like they've been bolted on as an afterthought. The MUD one looks like it's meant to go there, if you see what I mean. The only improvement I'd like to see on it is a better radio mount that allows you to attach the rear bolt fixing. the way it's set up means you can't bolt the radio in so it relies purely on the plastic to stop the radio bouncing up and down. It's not caused me a problem, just an observation.

Just an update on this in case it's of use to anyone else. I ended up doing a kitchen experiment with a pan of water, a digital thermometer, a TD5 coolant sensor and a 3.9 EFi sensor (2 of them actually so I could double check the readings). This is the result.. (sensor value in ohms) Temp....TD5.....3.9....3.9(2) 10......3900...1198 20......2700....810 30......1810....543 40......1213....360 50.......877....254....230 60.......636....173....184 70.......454....118....128 80.......336.....84....89 85.......298.....76....72 90.......252.....63....60 95.......224.....56....50 100......190.....50....30 The second 3.9 sender was only measured from 50 as that was what the water had cooled down to when I started with that sender ! I then checked the gauge itself by connecting a variable resistor in place of the sensor on the vehicle and finding out where the cold mark, centre and hot mark were. The cold mark (the dash just above the blue area) comes in at 185 ohms The centre comes in at 106 ohms The hot mark (the dash below the red area) comes in at 63 ohms The first thing this showed me was that the TD5 sensor was a none starter, the TD5 ECU must use a PWM signal or a resistor ladder to control the gauge based on the sensor input as using the sensor direct won't register on the gauge until the coolant is over 100C I'm not sure why the two 3.9 sensors were so different but I'm guessing tolerance differences as they are from different manufacturers, maybe one of them is after market or maybe LR changed suppliers. They are, however, at their closest around the important 80 to 90C area. Looking at the gauge requirements and the sensor output it looks as if adding a resistor inline with the sensor of around 30 ohms would put the gauge in the right ball park. I'm going to fit a trimmer pot inline with mine so I can make fine adjustments to it to compensate for any change in the sender unit as there is about 5 ohms difference between the senders I have at the important temperatures. I'll use the second sender as it has a bigger swing when the temperature heads above 90 degrees so will give a more obvious gauge movement if the engine starts to go over temperature.

The TD5 fuel tank uses a standard fitting for the pump assembly. For the V8 I replaced the TD5 pump unit with the one from a V8 Discovery with a plastic tank. I assume you could use a 300TDi Discovery pump. The 90 tank isn't as deep but it didn't take too much work to shorten the support pipes on the unit that restrict how far it will compress. (that probably makes more sense if you've seen how the pump unit fits !). If you do what I did and get a TD5 engine loom you'll be able to hook your 300TDi harness up to it and it will plug straight into the bulkhead harness. For reasons best known to Land Rover the coolant sensor wire goes from the sensor to the TD5 ECU in the engine loom and then goes out of the ECU into the bulkhead loom. So to get the temperature gauge to work you need to join the wires together in the seat box.

The TD5 bulkhead will fit but you will need a TD5 bulkhead loom which will also mean changes to the dash and clocks etc... The TD5 bulkhead loom routes differently to the 300 TDi loom although you could fit the 300TDi loom if you cut a hole in the centre of the bulkhead for the loom to pass through. I prefer the TD5 wiring system but if you just want a straight swap then cutting the hole for the loom is probably the least work. If you go with a TD5 loom.... I'm still in the process of doing the same thing but with a V8. When I ordered the chassis I asked them to add the TD5 tank mounts to the chassis which they (Richards Chassis) were happy to do. You could cut and shut the bulkhead loom to supply nearly everything you need for the 300TDi engine but when i did mine I bought an old TD5 engine loom and adapted that to fit the V8 which, being an EFi with LPG, was probably far more complicated than a 300TDi would be. Doing it this way means that the only modification you need is done to the donor engine loom and a couple of links across to the bulkhead loom under the drivers seat to provide the coolant gauge signal. By doing it this way it means that, if the need should arise, I can change to a TD5 engine and the wiring is all there bar the engine loom and injector harness.

I had some contact with the ZF compushift when it was being developed/tested by Maddison 4x4. I remember the shift output being implemented and tested as a way of notifying the engine ECU immediately before a shift in the same way as the factory gearbox ECU does. I'm not sure though if that made it into the production versions. You could try having a chat with Patrick at Maddison4x4 - http://www.maddison4x4.com/ as he knows the Compushift in it's various version pretty much inside out. I think Maddisons are still the UK distributor for the Compushift unit.

You need the gauge off the 50th Anniversary model or NAS spec. The older carb V8 sender is a different thread to the EFi one so they can not be swapped unfortunately. The last couple of vehicles I've done I've changed the gauge to the one above, it isn't cheap though. One option I'm investigating at the moment is to use a TD5 sensor. A TD5 gauge gives pretty much the same response as the V8 carb and 300TDi gauge, hitting the red at about 70 degrees C. The TD5 sender is just short of 12mm thread dia and the EFi one is just short of 16mm thread dia. I'm off to our local engineering place later in the week with both senders to see if they can supply an adaptor or a blank that I can drill and tap to take the TD5 sensor as that might be a cheaper option than buying a new gauge.

Can't help specifically but I do know that the later spped transducer on the Disco I that replaced the speedo cable was different to the identical looking TD5 Defender one. The older Disco one seemed to put out a signal straight from the hall effect module so was a much lower voltage signal that needed addition circuitry to clean it up. The TD5 Defender version puts out a simple on/off pulse. The TD5 Defender transducer will fit onto your transfer box if you can pick one up cheap enough.

There's not much relationship between power output and brakes, especially at such low levels of power to weight. In theory higher power will give you higher speed but from 70MPH it takes exactly the same braking performance to slow down a 50BHP vehicle as it does a 500BHP vehicle if they are the same weight. Of more importance will be the tyre size you choose. Tyre size directly effects braking performance, the bigger the tyre radius the more stopping power you need from your brakes to achieve the same deceleration. Vehicle weight is also a factor with a heavier vehicle requiring better braking systems. On a TD5 110 you already have pretty efficient brakes so I'd leave them as standard. If you're "enthusiastic" when driving along tight twisty country roads and find you're getting brake fade and/or smoke/burning from the front pads then look at putting vented disks on (you might already have them) and maybe some EBC pads as they run better when hot but aren't as sharp when cold. I've smoked a set of EBC front pads before now (off road on gravel tracks) but compared to the huge plumes of smoke issuing from the 110 following me the EBC pads were in much better condition and I still had a pedal. That was also on 35 inch tyres so the brakes were working very hard.

Does the bang happen when you're going in a straight line or when rounding a corner ? As for warranty, it depend really. I've only had a major claim on a vehicle that was just out of warranty by 6 months and Land Rover were very good about it and replaced an engine FOC even though the vehicle had done 8000 miles more than the 60000 warranty and was over the 3 years as well. Your vehicle, OTOH is 5 years old but if you can show that you've had it serviced to their spec. every 6 or 12 months (or whatever the intervals are for your vehicle) then they might consider it, the Land rover dealership that does the work will need to make your case to Land Rover though, you can't do it yourself. Transfer boxes are normally pretty bullet proof but the diff is weak and will fail if you spin the wheels for a sustained period without locking the diff. If this sounds like something you may have done then that would point towards the problem. Having said that though, if it really only does it in 3rd gear then that can't be transfer box related.

No, I would say that vegetable oil is comparatively passive. It's not something I'd use all the time anyway but works well and is normally in plentiful supply. My old engine hoist was, like most I suspect, one of those that became "communal" being passed from one person to another to the point where tracking it down was never easy. The seal around the control valve went after a couple of years so it would steadily drain it's contents between use. It got filled with just about everything with no detrimental effects. As far as I know it's still going strong although I've not seen it for about 2 years.

I used olive oil in my old hoist, worked well although I did replace it with hydraulic oil later. It did allow me to get an engine in on a Sunday afternoon though Vegetable oil also works, just depends what's in the kitchen cupboard !

Most LPG is a mix of Propane and Butane. Propane copes better with cold weather and as a result most suppliers increase the percentage of propane in winter relative to butane to make it more reliable. The downside is that the calorific value of propane is lower than that of butane meaning that you use more fuel to do the same job. It's not unusual to see the price vary in winter too as Propane is more expensive and the increased percentage usually adds 1 or 2p to the cost of the LPG. I always got the feeling this was more noticed with the more local small suppliers rather than the big chains who charge a bit more all year round. If you are one of those that worries about such things, the winter mix of LPG produces less CO2 than the summer mix too (propane produces a lot less CO2 than butane). Air density also plays a part at this time of year too, the colder the air going into the engine the more oxygen is available to burn the fuel so both petrol and diesel engines with a way to take advantage of this (closed loop EFI for example) and increase the fuel accordingly, will see better performance. You'll also see improve petrol MPG anyway as you get more fuel in a gallon when it's colder than you do when it's hot.

While there is every chance you need airbags etc... it's also more than possible for you to have an air leak somewhere. If you have a blowing exhaust then that is almost certainly the case, especially if it's a diesel. The hot gasses escaping from the silencer melt the airline above it leading to complete failure of the EAS. I've seen vehicles come in with complete EAS failures and drive back out 10 mins later after doing nothing more than replacing a melted section of tube with a tube connector and strapping a patch over the silencer while a new one is put on order. I'd advise against running around on the bump stops for anything more than driving it to a garage to get it looked at. It's designed as a "get you home" nothing more. Like a lot of these things it won't get any better on it's own and it'll almost certainly cause more damage the longer you leave it.

The two electric window switch apertures are close but are a bit too short and would need cutting away. A MUD dash would be a lot simpler I suspect, even if you wanted to incorporate it with the rest of the 02 dash panel with the different vent control levers etc.. I assume you have a radio rather than a storage bin in the centre of yours ?

Probably safest to check your specific hoses, normally they are either 16mm or 19mm depending on the mood LR were in when they built yours !

You could always move to Yorkshire, no problem competing in one of our RTV trials with your vehicle as is

Not sure if it's still available but when LR first changed from the filter with incorporated hose ends to the later screw fitting types they also produced a conversion kit. This kit included 2 short hoses with the connectors swaged onto them as well as a new filter. It was only a couple of quid more than a filter at the time. It might be part number STC1677 as that is described as an assembly.

For removal I use a pair of mole grips clamped onto the stem and sort of pull and twist. they normally pop out fairly easily. I'm not sure I'd want to reuse it afterwards but they do normally come out in one piece so if you were really stuck... For fitting I do something similar but more gently as it doesn't normally take much to pop them in As with all tyre related operations and some others I am told, lubrication is your friend.

Bear in mind that if the bolts are seized into the bushes (radius arm to axle) then you'll need new bushes and new bolts to put it back together with. Personally I'd check them before turning up at the garage then you can have spares with you before chopping the bolts, either that or just buy them beforehand anyway as you'll use them eventually if not now.