streaky

For accuracy you have to fit a capillery gauge. The sender will fit in line...usually in the top water hose. Electrical senders are pants and arn't accurate. Just because the gauge is digital doesn't make it accurate though....most racers will use Racetech or Stack. Going digital in the proper sense means spending around 150 quid with people like SPA Design. S.

The problem when fitting an AMPs gauge is that should it ever fail you will also lose your charging ability. I think this is because the AMPS guage is fitted in line from the alternator. Anyone care to add to/confirm this?

I live in Dubai and also have a house in High Wycombe which is why I order my parts from Dingo Croft by email and then collect them in person when I fly back. In the upteen years that I've dealt with them I can't think of a single instance when they've let me down. So long as that doesn't change they will continue to get my business for many years to come. I'm sure that nearly every company in the UK with a computor based inventory has had a similar occurance at one time or another....and this won't be a unique story either. Regards. S.

You're unlucky not to have those connections on your car Tuko. My 98' Discovery is Middle East spec and even they have the heated front wind screen connections in the loom. Obviously we don't need this accesory out here so I used the 60amp supply to power my roof mounted spot lights instead.

As a straight forward speaker replacement you will not beat JL Audios 100mm two way speakers. I've tried nearly every 4" speaker on the planet and they've come out tops by a long way. I bought them from the Sound Gallery in High Wycombe when I was in the UK last year. They are not expensive either..IIRC about 60 quid.

I use a Tuppaware container....if you roll them up tightly you don't need elastic bands to keep them in place.

I have replaced a few of the ignition amplifiers over the years and have noticed that the small satchet/tube of compound that comes with the ignition amplifier has changed. The first time I changed the amplifier on my 98' V8 Discovery (back in 2002) I noticed the paste that you smear on the back of the amp was a white colour. Over the years this paste has dried out and had to be scrapped from the back using a blade. Recently I changed the amp again and noticed that the paste supplied with the amp is a clear silicone type product that won't dry out. I guess that this paste/compound is a heat sink/transfer type product? I didn't have any last week so I used an ultra high temp white grease instead. This seems to work fine but for how long? Whats the perpose of this compound and what can I use in it's place if I don't have any of the Lucas stuff from the box? Thx.

I've heard of people wrapping up shock absorbers with plastic cling film and rags to store them inside the front bumper. Some of the Ozzie guys will secure shocks and steering dampers onto the inside of the chassis rails. I've seen leaf springs secured to the front bumper and JW Ryiadh had a design for a toilet seat where the front grill used to be on his lightweight! I keep a spare serpentine belt and top & bottom hose in the small spare at the base of the wind sheild under the bonnet. Other than that I like to use the wolf boxes with identification labels as well. This way I can get to the bits as and when I need them. My back door has a good selection of 'quick access' recovery items secured to it.

From what we've seen over here in Dubai the cheap chinese compressors are using the VIAR as the benchmark to copy. VIAR are a well known brand and easy to make but the copies don't last anywhere like the better quality original VIAR. Using a tiny little ARB unit to run lockers, free spool, center winch and also pump up the tires wouldn't be practicle without a reservoire and even then the tiny little ARB wouldn't be abe to keep up. I used one for a few years to pump up tyres ut eventually it wore out the cylinder wall. I then moved over to a Bush Ranger unit (VIAR Copy) and it coped well when used with a 5 gallon air tank...but even then it was slow once the air tank ran out. Next I tried one of these twin head compressors same as the Britpart one that you mentioned...it lasted about a year and then ran out of puff. What else could I have expected for such a small price? Now I use the mother of all 12volt compressors...the WARN VTC. It will run air tools straight from the port & pump up 4 tyres quicker than anything else on the market. I have a dedicated ARB mounted under the bonnet for reliable operation of the back and front lockers. You get what you pays for with compressors....don't be fooled any other way!

Mobile Storage systems have introduced an aluminium version of the Disco I rear side storage paniers (storage Pods). They are really neat and come with or without locks. I don't know if they have pictures on the website but if not I took some snaps of them at Newark if you want. I lost my side storage pods when I fitted my stereo system but have still managed keep everything I need for recovery, camping etc. Even my waffles are located underneath the fridge slide for quick extraction. Clever use of space and different sized Quick Fists on the rear door hold everything in place without rattles etc. Velcro straps keep my recovery ropes in place on top of the Sub Woofer cabinet. This is a very cheap and effective solution to staorage and it works well with what I do here on the camping and motorsport scene. S

I've been out of the country for the past week without email but can see that this thread has gone off at the usual tangent. The first picture shows; Blue graph = with snorkel connected. Orange graph = without snorkel connected. Pay no attention to the Red, pink & Green lines. Here's a question for the experts that can be answered from the second dyno plot. Again...pay no attention to the erratic lines on teh lower portion of the graph. How much power will the 4.6 engine lose when the viscous fan comes into effect? S.

We've taken the Soft Shackles on board to join two ropes together. These are made from Plasma rope and utterlise a turbin (sp) knot. Does anyone use them in the UK? Last years Dakar event saw the death of one Japanes co-driver when he got hit in the face with a flying wire winch rope that snapped during a recovery. These ones are rated at 10 tons.Before these came available I used to use a rolled up ewspaper to join two ropes in teh same way as the rolled up towel. I have an amazing video clip from my days in Saudi when we used 8 x 10 meter straps on a single recovery to get a GMC YUKON out of a massive sand bowl. Buying a rope thats long enough to cover all recovery tasks isn't always possible Steve.

My engine is a standard 4.6Efi...no turbo's or superchargers involved. So if what you are saying is right then my standard 4.6Efi would be putting out around 260-280 hp...and that figure I would very much doubt. The figure on this particular dyno screen gives a power figure at the wheels which inturn have to be fed through the transmission, diff etc. Like I said...I'm not a pro at this stuff so when you say that the figures are "way out of whack"...is that based on your personal experiance?. Regards. S.

The actual dyno figure showed 4.1 hp at the wheels so I asked Mark what that equates to at the flywheel. My Discovery has bigger tires than standard but Mark said based on his experiance he'd give it approximatly 8hp at the flywheel. There's an exact formula but because he wasn't familiar with this particular Dyno he gave this as an approximate number. 4.1hp at the wheels is documented though and I have the printouts. Another interesting number that comes from Dyno's is the power difference made dependant on the location of the Airflow meter to the air filter. There was a Rally Prepped Range Rover in the shop too waiting dyno with a SEGEM AFM fitted. The difference in air intake pipe lengths can make a difference of upto 8% in horse power! That surprised me too. Anderzander. In my case the snorkel created a power loss when the snorkel was fitted. On a standard set up this 'Ram Air' theory doesn't hold much weight when using a OEM paper airfilter. The standard paper filter surface is sooo dense that any ram air effect created by the snorkel would be lost against it. PLus....my Mantec air intake faces backwards. If there's time on Saturday I'd like to face it forward to see what happens....but the Dyno costs are quite high and I'm not by any means a pro at this stuff! Another interesting point is that the gap between the top of the trumpets and the inner plennun chamber is very small. You'd have to reduce the trumpet height and inner plenum to get any gains from ram air on a standard set up like mine. Regards. S.

Mark Adams is currently in Dubai working with Team Saluki Motorsports. I was lucky enough to book some time with him yesterday on the rolling road Dyno to undergo some mapping with my Discovery. Amoungst some very interesting finds with the injectors & plugs... we were able to conduct a few power sessions on the Dyno with my Mantec snorkel in place and also with it dissconected. The max power difference at the wheels was 4.1 hp which translates to around 8hp at the flywheel. Marks currently fitting a new type of injector to my car that was developed by Ford Motor Sport. They provide a much better spray pattern compared to the Bosche ones and dribbling injectors will be a thing of the past. He also found that the Champian Plugs reccomended by Land Rover for our climate are running far too hot...so again he's given me the best solution of NGK plug. We also used an endoscope to look down inside the cylinders to see whats happening with out having to take off the heads etc....what a great bit of kit. I'm going back on Saturday to run a second session on the dyno which will prove the before and after differences that these new injectors and plugs make. He'll also finish the mapping of the Tornado chip with a few more runs on the rollers. One very interested part of the conversation was that Marks noticed a huge difference in power loss just depending on the type of snorkel fitted. Good results came from Mantec and Safari. The worst being the Southdown snorkel which caused a power drop of upto 35hp over a standard engine! We'll also throw a K&N filter on the car on Saturday just to see how much difference it makes too. Then I'll remove it..I don't want to ruin my nice 4.6 after spending soo much money on it! What a great day...I can't wait to go back on Saturday!

If the price was right then there would be a very good export market for it. One of the guys in our club had a go at making a system for fitting to Land Cruisers and he reakoned he could do it for less than 200 quid. I don't think the UK off road scene would be suitable unless you could make the inflation tubes fit inside the axle. We have CTIS on the Buggy and even without a tree in sight we've still managed to rip the inflation pipes off in the sand dunes! I doubt very much if a cost effective system could be made for the avergage/casual off roader though. There's a French company who make a really cheap kit...but again it uses large flexible pipes that are prone to being ripped off. It's banned under FIA rules for 4x4's. Only 2wd buggies & T4 trucks are allowed it in competition. Good luck with the concept. I'd be interested in something for a solid Rover axle that doesn't need an on-board air tank & uses a compressor only. S.

The free Java software from amAze is used on the new Sonim Quest phone. It's GPRS based and is free to use as a turn by turn Sat Nav with voice prompts etc. Take a look at their website for a YouTube demo. http://www.amazegps.com/forum/index.php S.

Sorry I can't answer your question directly because I don't live in the UK either but I remember once reading that there is a UK company in the North of England who sells the Safari Guard range of gear. If all else fails....could you not put a spacer under the existing ones? S.

The big benefit of the light bar over the roofrack mounted spot lights is that you can move the bar far enough back to help prevent the light from lighting up the bonnet. The roof creates a 'shadow' over the bonnet so to speak. I now have 4 HID's on my roofrack that sit quite far forward so I fitted some small up-side down eyebrows to reduce the bonnet glare. The matt black bonnet also helps reduce some of the reflected light also. I've now changed from the rectangular IPF Halogen lights in the photo to round HID's so had to make the eye-brows to fit them too. They work very well but look pretty goofy.

I did a search on 'Strippers' and got something completly different!

You could try comparing the speedo reading with that shown on a GPS or Tom Tom device? make sure you do it on level ground though or the reading will be inaccurate.

If it's only for show then it won't really matter then Steve. There can't be much off roading on the Isle of Wight anyway? That 90 does look nice though.

I had a slight wobble coming from the rear end of the Disco. So I had it checked out and was surprsied to find the cause was a bent WOLF Rim. I thought that I'd have noticed hitting something so hard as to bend one of those...but apparently not! They tried balancing the wheel but without much success. Luckily I have two brand new spare WOLF rims......this bent one will now become an emergency spare.

Those points look like the standard ones from the Hummer H3 (another Mopar product same as J33p). Do you get them in the UK? Not sure if they are rated though.

We used to drill them and use locking wire on the Saluki. I know those bolts are quite hard but with patience it can be done.