Lara

I would NEVER use a But splice! It hurts your but far too much, especially if not fully clenched!!! And it only seems to hold the rope really firm when you get scared of something, Otherwise it tends to burn said But quite badly as it slips! Not recommended unless petrified! Lara Mind you, that fear I hear that some have of their wives may help!! What do you think Jbs?

Agreed Lara

Hi, It seems from this post that either I have totally misunderstood what you are saying OR you are not understanding the workings of Universal joints! These not being "constant velocity" joints, You can or "should" NEVER use only one UJ in a drive-line. It causes massive torque reversals and would cause (like you get without caster corrected arms or adjustments to the diff angle) bad drive-line vibrations as the UJ accelerates and decelerates without the equalising UJ on the other end during it's rotation cycle. It is however extremely hard to see what is correct or not as the Defender is not setup with even uj angles to start with, and some models (TD5 etc) are not setup with 180 deg opposing UJs to counter this but this only makes it harder to judge what is right and what is wrong. Not an easy one to answer 100% correctly! I personally like the steering feel at the altered angle and see no reason to alter the actual steering caster angle back to standard, Prop angle yes, because as you point out, the gearbox end is changing out of sync to the axle end on the Defender front axle, and as it is only setup from the factory as "optimum position" at the designed ride height, this needs addressing for vibration free cruising. But strange to do steering caster only! Lara

What, when it sucks in all the 5hit? Lara

Answers to your "anti" corrected arms list. 1. Is re-drilling 2 "hard as nails" swivels plus any future replacement swivels honestly cheaper? 2. Supposedly! 3. Think about it!! How can putting the angle back to standard be worse than moving it away from standard and often needing double cardan props to rectify miss coordination of prop uj angles? Not trying to cause a fight, just sensible observations! Lara

WOW! That is one hell of a heavy snorkel to have caused you to roll over on your side like that!!! Lara

I would totally agree! Workings and looks are very close to your original drawing and simplicity to build is a major factor! I would do the same unless feeling exceptionally flushed with time! If you made a hardwood buck the top carbon one could be made out of ally in a morning, but the buck would take a day Lara PS. We will be waiting for the pictures

More pages for inspiration. I like this one!! Seen at this link! http://www.wolfdirectracing.nl/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=6&Itemid=6 Find out the cost, then chat to me, perhaps we can knock something up! on a one off basis

Nige, If you were talking fast flowing "wet" air then yes it would be better, However the aim of your air box is to run at "Zero" under pressure and to run fairly slow air speeds, your airbox will flow only air and no atomised fuel, therefore your first design will work admirably! Extra trunking and bends in the air pipe will cause much more problems than any pitfalls in your design. Stick with your basic design, it looks fine and will work well! AND you can finish it this weekend rather than taking days of work to make a fancy box for no actual gain! Good luck, Lara

To be honest I think Nige's drawing is probably the best so far on an "overall" assessment! This last one looks nice but I am fairly sure that if made to the sort of scale in the drawing, there would be a disruption in flow on the end inlet (small dia end) caused by the proximity of the bell-mouth to the walls. This would need to be at least 100mm wide at it's minimum, otherwise it looks nice, but may be a problem to fix to the throttle bodies. With the box that Nige has designed, it is big enough not to be effected by flow lengths etc as Daan has stated, and it is simple to make which is always a good thing! The air will be going in to those throttle bodies straight enough not to make any difference. Tapering down is fine but try not to make it narrower on the width any more than 100mm Your attachment method sounds good, or you could make a full box and have a simple screw on (with captives etc) flat "lid" covering a simple oblong access hole on the opposite side to the throttle bodies, to get to your 12 fixing screws for the sandwich plate. a fancy converging 3 tube design would look great but would be one hell of a job to design well enough to tune the best out of it and overly complicated for what is more than likely overkill anyway! A bugger to fabricate too! But sexy Lara

Small addition to my last post as follows. Air flow is massively important at the sides of a bell mouth / trumpet and you need to keep as far away from restricting this area as possible, (at least 1.5" on your size openings) Air flow directly above the Bell mouth / trumpet is not or hardly affected to as close as 1" from the opening on a trumpet with a well designed "bell" and a 2" throat, You can in fact have an injector right inside the trumpet opening and up to 1/2" above the bottom of the trumpet taper without affecting flow at all on a well designed trumpet with a 2" throat! Lara

Hi Carlos, Standard Defender 110 TD5 County Station Wagon 2002 vented discs and callipers should bolt straight on! assuming that the axles are TD5, although I am fairly sure they will fit even if they are not! Lara

Hi Nige, Your air box design looks fine, although a few comments worth a thought. Looks like you have 3 x 75mm throttle bodies, and one 90mm outlet! If so then your 90mm outlet and hose are going to be your restricting feature. I know from experience that you can get well over 600bhp from just two 75mm throttle bodies. And know that a short length of 90mm dia piping will flow more than enough air for any HP your engine is likely to develop so no real worries there, just seems a lot of trouble using 3 throttle bodies and then an outlet with less than half of the flow potential of the throttle bodies! However, If you make a cover as your drawing but with an enlarging area as you go toward the inlet pipe, it will be perfect. As someone said, (within reason) bigger is better, but your scale also looks fine! And as you have done with the throttle bodies, Bell mouths with big radii work miracles!!! even in the air pipe entries! I know I am not the closest location to you but if you would like to play on a flow bench you are welcome to use mine any time you like! Lara

You Hi Tech Nerds are such showoffs Lara

Hi Ian, Not trying to argue as I am sure you have far more experience than me with LR gearboxes, however I am 500% sure that my present HP24 has a Much larger pump than my old 22/24 Hybrid, any notion as to why I seem to have an oddity? or could it be due to the use of the early 4.6 RR unit with the larger input shaft and big 12" Torque converter? Lara

The HP24 is longer than the HP22 in the bell housing area due to the larger size of the HP24 oil pump, I think it's 2" longer from memory! I can measure both if you like but it will have to wait till next Monday as am away from the workshop at the mo. Lara

Hi Steve, The questions you ask are interesting and a good point of discussion but severely flawed due to the facts of the accident. Firstly, "Acceptable risk" Death is not really "acceptable" Being responsible for Minors, the girl was 17 so not 'classed' as an adult. Being responsible for the people in "your" vehicle! under "your" control, Crossing a highly flooded river for fun is silly at best, (although fun) but with young passengers is highly questionable! Secondly, they were on a public highway or "byway" to be more correct, This is not motorsport, it is recreational driving, just as any Sunday drive! Not motorsport! If someone with or near the video camera was so astute to think clearly that an accident was highly possible, it does sound like "someone" was under the impression that it was both foolish and dangerous! Just because it was on a public road does not make it safe! We are given brains to distinguish these things. Or unfortunately LESSONS if we can't. What a shame a young girl paid for this lesson with her life! Third point: You are absolutely correct in this assumption and the court agreed. Fourth point. The other drivers, You would need proof etc that the drivers and cars also went through the same obstacle and that the obstacle was in exactly the same condition etc etc, A hard or harder case for the CPS to prove and make stick! but yes you may have a good and valid point. A very good lesson for us all though as I am sure there are many on here just like me who have done silly things in our vehicles before and got away with it by the luck of God! Let us all learn! Lara

We use Araldite and JB weld to improve gas flow in inlet manifolds and inlet ports, used it for many years and never had any problems with it coming loose or melting! I personally have used it in similar applications to this bell mouth with much success. Araldite info sheet shows it works to 100C and although it looses some of it's bond strength, I don't think it would be an isue in this instance. I actually glued a coplete air cooled 2 stroke gearbox together with it when I was 16 after a friend took a hammer to it in a frenzied fit! lost his patience and then gave it to me, I had it running after a long weekend and it lasted for years like that! He was gutted Lara

ARALDITE! No question! Lara

Hi, Nige, remember that it is Torque that kills things not HP, The gears only feel Torque, nothing else!! many torque related engineering problems have been overcome by increasing the engine output speed into the transmission and then lowering it again afterward to reduce the torque loads inside the transmission, but maintaining it at the desired point! It's even been done in F1 so they could use a smaller lighter box with little gears etc ZF Boxes. The ZFHP24 is a lot stronger than the 22 from the start, The 22 and the 24 are non electronic, the 22e and 24e are electronic. The earliest HP24 that was fitted to the 4.6 RR in it's first year of manufacture is the strongest start point and has a much bigger 12" Torque Converter and much larger input shaft. The HP24 has a much larger oil pump and is a far better start than a 22, even a hybrid 22. If you want the best and strongest, get an HP24 or HP24e from the 4.6RR with the 12" TC Have it fitted with HD clutch packs, Heavy duty planet cages and gears, HD Sprag, and all the trimmings. Have the pump pressure at it's max and gears set to shift "hard" (ie no slip) Then use only RedLine "RACING" Trans fluid, not the normal stuff. I had one hell of a time with gearboxes initially and got through over one a month! I have 260bhp @ 4000 and 590nm / 440ftlb torque @ 1800 and all in a 2.5 Ton vehicle with big grippy tyres, so enough torque to rip most boxes apart, to date this box has been fault free for 100,000km minus the first 6 months of going nowhere and blowing other boxes constantly so say - 3000km so 93,000km of reliability, but well maintained and oil changed etc which is obvious! Good luck with the project! Lara

If you gear the cam to go faster, won't that make it a "performance cam" Perhaps that's why they have a lumpy idle Lara

Very easy loophole / solution to all of this, Not going to post it on here fo them to read though and subsequently close! But don't worry, it's easy big enough for a Landy to drive through as long as you do "Break" it! Lara

I wonder how many post before someone brings up the dreaded three letter words!!! Lara

What makes a Darwin award good I always think is the culprit doing something anyone with any sense "just knows" it's going to end in tears! Like this retard! Although almost 30 years ago! at college in metalwork lessons, Because the culprit was in his second of a 4 year apprenticeship, the first two years at a dedicated Engineering training college working solely with machines, machine techniques, milling, turning, welding, fabrication and theory etc, all day every day, he was also sent on one day day release, and to evening college 3 days per week for "further education" felt important by training management, he thought he knew everything, and he didn't take kindly to being taught how to weld in evening class by an idiot who couldn't weld (not properly anyway) so he decided it was better to mess around and show off So, during said welding class one evening, the tutor decided that they should practice gas welding for their course work. Well, Mr showoff then cut out six equal 5" squares to weld together, and cut a round hole in one piece so as not to make a "sealed box" which would be a hazard!! so he commenced and made a wonderful box, welded to perfection on all sides with no filler rod what so ever, Looking very tidy and allowing him to be a big headed thwack and show off!! So now he needed more attention, and started to fill the box with oxygen and acetylene (I don't think he intended to light it as that would have been crazy) But he didn't need to!!! one corner was still hot! and still hot enough to ignite said Oxyacetylene mix and KaBooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooM Blew the box to bits, deafening the whole class for about two weeks and luckily not hurting someone as the box was opened like a cartoon cigar, hurtled across the classroom, and actually tore the steel rather than the welds!! Got banned from practical classes at the day release college (that was good cos they were worthless anyway) and got sent back to his sponsoring company to report his foolishness to the Human Resources manager who was not as impressed as his mates were!! Total Moron!!! I won't do that again Not "that" is a Darwin award! Lara, and I am not proud

Some people buy a complete Defender as a fashion accessory Lara