Turbocharger

Hopefully by now all the motorbikers have stopped following this thread... I've found the vanes are very sensitive to positioning and my crude fully open/halfway/fully closed bludgeoning wasn't good. Now I'm adjusting it half a turn at a time and was getting some pretty good results until I stopped to get fuel. I'd got £10 of diesel in before I saw smoke rising from the car on the forecourt. I drove off the forecourt, went back to pay before they called the fuzz, and came back to the car: The jubilee clips have cut into the rubber water pipe to give a squirting leak (which was producing the "smoke"), but the oil drain had also come undone, hence the oil slick. I'm not sure how much oil I lost but I bodged it back together so it would "nearly" get home before raining oil onto my landlord's driveway again. Deep joy. Now I'm going to bite the bullet and buy a correct-length drain pipe instead of extending the wrong'un, and use some proper adaptors for the water side. Today's job - find an air filter box that'll fit across the back of the engine, flow well, pipe up neatly and seal better than the 300Tdi offering.

Since I'm deaf I had a rear prop UJ let go at the axle end while I was climbing a hill. I hadn't realised I was so close to pole-vaulting death! Since the centre diff was unlocked the car stopped pretty quickly, the prop bounced and rattled a bit but no harm done. I took the remains of the prop off (leaving the broken spider in the axle end since it wasn't far to get home). 100yds later the handbrake drum left the car in a shower of sparks, bounced twice and then shot into the hedge. It seems the PO of my gearbox didn't include the countersunk screw which should hold the drum on. I stopped the car (in gear), fretted about in the hedge to find the drum and threw it in the back with the prop, and then took the whole thing home again. If you've ever driven a LR with the front floor missing, it makes you appreciate how close the front prop is to your feet although I can't say it's driven me to think about prop-catchers.

I could sell you my bagful of 10.8s Tony? I got them off WW - they're a special aerospace grade that he paid big ££ for - when he bought them they had nuts and washers attached but he took them apart, put them in the shed for a bit and then sold them on at a knockdown price. I bought them for my Milemarker, but don't seem to have had any "bits dropping off and me plummeting down a slope" moments...

Just to clarify Les's photo, it's the hex-head bolt that's running "across" the photo. The square headed plug pointing towards the camera is an oil drain - that won't help you with any grinding noises...

Unless you're me... then you have a lock stop with a rounded off head and have badly welded another nut to it so it's too long and restricts steering lock on one side, but at least you pass the MOT

[Husky female voice]... 3 for our S&M special offer, a 2 1/4 diesel Series 3 with a big-end bearing gone [/Husky]

If the belts aren't a testable item, they could be removed for test and refitted if you believe they make your vehicle safer in the intervening periods (even if they're not testworthy).

I'm not sure about adding a box on behind the rearmost chassis crossmember as Phantom has done though - to my mind all the steel that LandRover put together is still there, so it can only be stronger. Of course, the sense of the argument doesn't come into the law... Ironically you could certainly bolt the same thing on with 200 M12s and be legal even though you've weakened the crossmember with all the bolt holes

James, I guess it depends if you want the nut&bolt restorations that abound in the magazines, with every part lovingly painted and allowed to dry before assembly. For a friend's farm hack Series truck we didn't have the time or justification for that, so he bought a IIA rolling chassis and we used a silage handler to lift the body clear (by the roofrack!), an engine crane to move the engine/box across, and then dropped the body back onto the mounts. He did replace some of the essentials like all the brake pipes, but he was able to do that on the chassis as it sat, before we took the old one off the road. There were some minor alignment issues afterwards but nothing a jack and blocks of wood couldn't resolve. Overall, a chassis change in a day (albeit a 14 hour grafting day for three people). As David says above, you need a way to specify exactly where you want the cage feet to land, because a 12.5mm clearance hole for an M12 bolt doesn't leave much wiggle room.

What, 19J owners?

Ooh no <sucks through teeth> I'd put the 10.8 back in. Nige - I've got you down for a tenner on him swapping it back and forth four times on our "advice"? Bish has put £20 on five swaps, and a 10x multiplier if it ends on the original bolt...

I'm sorry to kick Puggers roundly in the knackers but I don't think his is a good project. It's a cracking business proposal and you could definately develop it, proves that it works, start producing machines and then sign a supply agreement with a big chain and a franchise agreement to an outsourced manufacturer (eastern Europe, naturally), but you won't see big marks from your A-level project. Read the markscheme, do what it says, make a (probably pointless) project and take your glory on results day. Then take over the world with the WonderChipper afterwards.

Remember what you're aiming for - good marks, not a toy to play with afterwards. I have to recommend a simple project, something you know you can complete. You'll not get many marks for drawing a moonrocket and presenting a piece of pipe with holes in at the exhibition. On the other hand, a simple closed-section aluminium buggy frame (with some computer analysis of the frame in bending and torsion), well designed and carefully built, should get you a good mark.

It makes you realise the luck of the occupants of the Strata Florida accident that the LR4x4 trip managed to recover - water's an awesome power. I stopped to look at the weir of a water mill last night and just stood transfixed - SO much water. Our thoughts are with the family.

Paul - did you hear how this meeting went? I couldn't get there (yes, technically it's after work hours but only just and a long way from Bristol...)

It used to be 'badly oversprayed grey' from what I remember. You've worked miracles there Rob, cracking project - well done. Particularly like the wings and the side-exit exhaust.

I can testify that 135hp + 1060kg + rwd + bald budget tyres = neeeeawm screeeeech <clenched teeth> + no bang + brown stain + same-day bill for Goodyear Eagles I bet the MGB doesn't handle quite like it used to. Now, talk to me about SVAs, C&U and 'wings covering roadwheels'...

I agree with separating the two functions: If one was left-hand drive I could have a go at driving both at once...

I actually really like that, although I'd prefer a diesel version. £4k though!

A mate of mine was drinking in a pub in Derbyshire with me, with his 110 crew cab outside in the car park. He kept chainsaws and various paraphernalia in the back all the time. Someone came into the pub and asked whose the 110 was - a local scrote had put his arm under the canvas to feel inside for anything valuable, and had found his border collie asleep in the back. The collie had claimed the arm as her own using her teeth, and she didn't want to give it back. His reaction was priceless. He picked up his pint, smiled and said "I'll be out in a bit".

Ashbourne's at the south end of the area with lanes, but I ran two day's laning with a group of friends in 2003 - one day between Ashbourne Buxton and Leek, and the second day with an early morning towards Sheffield and then driving back towards Ashbourne.

My mother has suggested that she would receive campers so long as they were honest, polite and didn't let her dogs escape. There's a shower and toilet room just inside the back door, and maybe a kettle if you make one for her too. £5 a night? There's room for 10 tents, and we're between Ashbourne and Belper (about 10 mins south of Matlock on the Doric map). PM me if this appeals and I'll sort out the logic-sticks.

Thanks Eightpot - the other wing is full of brake fluid, coolant, PAS fluid, winch fluid etc though. I'll find a gap for it, it's only a pipe and two spade connectors. This evening I finished the second installation (doing it properly this time). There is evidence that the exhaust side leaks at every gap - no surprise here. Since I hope it's on for a while this time it went together with a smear of exhaust gum on the interfaces: All built up again and I went for a drive. Note to self: engine will not make any boost at all if the "intercooler to inlet manifold" hose is missing. Second test drive: I've found I have to think of the variable geometry as a 'big' or 'small' turbo. Small turbo gives quick response for little engines, but is overwhelmed by a 2500cc unit. At the 'biggest' setting it should be too large for a 2500cc engine and so no wastegate is required. With the lever around the middle it wasn't making any significant boost, and this wasn't getting better as I made the turbo 'smaller' - when it got adjusted it quite 'small' the crisp turbine whine turned into a horrible 'splurge' sound under throttle, and at the worst case the engine sounded like it was misfiring. I conclude that the blades are stalling or working against excess pressure - either way, not enough air supplied and so it misfires. There was probably black smoke too, but it was dark and so hard to tell. Adjusting 100% the other way (big turbo) gave smoother, better running but less boost. I hope by tweaking and tweaking I can find a sweet spot in the middle somewhere. I got a reasonable setup and it was running well, so I pulled over and took a video. This clearly wasn't on the road, that would be dangerous - I was using a kinetic mass dynamometer on private land. By the power of the internet, you can join me on this run: In case you're worried, the boost gauge sometimes sticks as the pressure level falls. However, for this run it suddenly started running badly again, and at 00:12 you can clearly hear the misfire. I limped it home and garaged it, suspecting I'd broken it with the abuse of my hillbilly test method, but a quick check for fluid leaks afterwards showed this: The nuts have vibrated off the diaphragm and the turbo was running in the 'smallest' position again. After the weekend I'll put it all back together and have another go.

Will - when you took your truck off the road, most people didn't have electricity. Warthog - nice setup, and it puts the weight of the winch where you want it too. I think it's a sensible location, even if you were just using it as a rear winch. I trust you're going to cover up those solenoid terminals?

I can give a couple of days laning based out of Buxton from my 8 years living there, and I'll definately be joining the trip although I'll be kipping at my parent's house near Ashbourne.