Turbocharger

Ed, Further to my PMs I have had a few more thoughts. As I said, I did most of my own work so don’t know a great deal about garages other than at MOT time. As they said ^^^^ above, Christian Autos is good for bits. There is a place on the old Stroud road where the ‘d’ is in Gloucester Road that sold me an indicator lens and had some vehicles for sale, they might do work too? Mayborn 4x4 in Brislington did a 300Tdi conversion on a mate’s car, took a while and charged handsomely but there was a lot of work because he kept adding bits to the spec to tidy the car up as a “mid-life mild rebuild”. He was happy with the end result. Somerset and Wilts LRC have a lot to do with Beckington Motors, I suspect one of the club members runs the place so at least they should know what they’re talking about. As Mr Hobbit suggests, there are a number of places in Bristol that looked at doing my auto box and I’d recommend none of the ones I found – I had to do the job again myself afterwards. I’ve been into Dunsford before, I didn’t like the screen prices on the forecourt and I got a slightly ‘greasy’ impression from the sales/parts guy. I wouldn’t return. Best of luck with it!

The series preview suggested they will return again to "the absolute limit of cocking about" but today's episode was good. Still, wouldn't want to put everything good in the first episode... I say a promising warm up on their out-lap.

Is the model a prototype for other models or for full-scale vehicles? You might have problems up-scaling the inertia of the drivetrain if the latter - sounds like an interesting project though. Keep us up to date please!

Warning: these diffs contain only witchcraft and hallucinogens. There are no user-serviceable parts inside, if you open it up you will end up with fairy dust all over your workshop. I told you when you bought it that it was like a diff but not better... should have bought a TruTrac Pull it apart and see what's inside, it's not like you can flog it to an unsuspecting forumeer now...

Well, thanks chaps for all your help. The timing belt was broken, replaced in about 2hrs and it starts on the button. Job done and I've surely earned myself some brownie points (and bought a new lead light into the bargain). Total cost £40 (incl the light) and not too bad a job at all.

I've used pressure washers in the past with a ball bearing in the lance (to stop grit entering?). Pointing it straight up into the air/down at the floor or using inertia to "push" the lance sharply forwards or backwards (I can't remember which) while pushing the trigger solved the 'feeble dribble' problem. Does your machine mean that when you get backspray from whatever you're cleaning, it's warm?

... although the con-rods are properly bent they might not fit up the bores without some fiddling - ask me how I know.

Slightly OT question - why are the wholes not equally spaced?

Ashcroft and ACR list them built up with valves etc at £400 (and a performance option at £500), DLS and both the 'addocks list heads at £250 although I presume that's a bare head (with valve guides?). Anyone ever bought such a thing? Is the performance head a worthwhile upgrade?

To clarify my comment before David spat his dummy, I thought the Railko bush was tapered and shimmed to control friction and lateral tolerance - seems I might be wrong.

Where's the best place to get hold of a known-good cylinder head? My brothers have conspired to need another one, for this weekend ideally. They're in Derbyshire and would like to get one reasonably local but my Classified ad hasn't borne any fruit. Ashcrofts? Breakers? Going housebreaking?

I've got a B-plate Ninety, lift-up handles and windy windows and someone screwdrivered the locks in Bristol about three years ago. Pete at Christian Autos in Kingswood had barrels on the shelf so I took the opportunity to make both front doors use the same key. He's on 0117 960 1443 and he's quite happy to mail order.

I asked Les...

David, By my understanding the swivel is a taper to accomodate lateral movement, although probably not enough of a taper to take out 1mm of play!

Thanks Les. I'm reticent to throw time and money at it if there's damage but if there's not likely to be any bent valves and other nasties then I'll take the front end off, time it up and wrap a cable-tie round it. Since that counts as a Fiat rebuild I may also treat it to a new alternator belt. First step is to see if the cam goes, meanwhile I'll buy some more Haynes lies. Thanks for all your help guys. Can we have a new forum? "LandRover support vehicles, tech and discussion".

Les, are you sure it's an interference engine? Reading the Fiat forums suggests only the 16v engines meet in the middle, the 8v incl 55SX are free to spin. It might be time for me to learn about a whole new engine, deep joy. It's frustrating because I'm away all week so I'm building a plan for execution on Friday. Meanwhile SWMBO is stocking up on rags and firelighters...

Can I flood an EFI engine? I'd guess that's eliminated anyway since I left it for half an hour. I tried looking at the cam but there is a baffle. It does seem to spin quieter/more quickly but that might just be paranoia. Could that make the EFI light come back on when cranking? (cam sensor?) Les- how much work is in a Punto cam belt job? £250 isn't attractive on a 1994 car, it had 55 horses when new and most of those are now asthmatic, lame or faking disability. If a coil/ECU has gone west I may have Punto seats in the Ninety soon. I will, in order: 1) Look for the cam spinning 2) Pull a plug, look for wetness/colour/disintegration 3) See if sparks are getting down the sparktubes from EDIS to the plugs 4) Put a Tdi in there, they're nice engines 4a) consider Mark90's rag and fag option I'm surprised FF hasn't extolled the "deerproofing" module in MS yet...

I suspect that thebiggreenthing is in a similar position to quite a few on here: bought a vehicle, had it a year, popped the engine and replaced/upgraded it with another factory option. Then thought about rear discs 12 months later, but the gearbox went bang so had to hook that out. By year four he's got a good deal on a pair of axles with clever diffs and changed the t-box at the same time. In year five the car's getting old and looking a little 'battle worn' and Mr MOT spots some corrosion, so it has a crossmember or rear half chassis. After a season's challenge events he's now replaced most of the bodywork and, although the car is to nearly-original spec, none of it is original any more.* Trigger's broom lives on, but when do you hold up your hand and say you ought to have it looked at? The critical question is - is this a one-way street to paperwork hell that you can't stop once you've started. That would put me off if my vehicle fitted the description above. *For the Will Warne option, simply omit the words 'and replace' from every stage of this stripdown.

Surfing the web at the roadside (gotta love technology... just not Italian technology) I found a reference to an inertia switch by the passenger seat. I found a rubber grommet on the floor by the passenger seat with a 'petrol pump with a line through it' icon. Pressing it there seems to be a switch underneath but the action is very vague, I'm not sure if it's pressed or not. However, as Mark suggests I can smell fuel in the intake with the air filter off so something's getting through. I thought about the cam but I can't check at the roadside because the cam/rocker cover doesn't show the innards. On initialising the ECU I can hear the fuel pump run and it did cough weakly on a couple of occasions if I left 10secs for anything in there to evaporate. I'd have to brake hard to unseat the belt. I checked all the fuses and nothing seems amiss. I haven't actually dipped the tank but if there's a smell of fuel, there's probably fuel. I couldn't check for a spark because the leads are sheathed in rubber and the dizzy's bolted down under a cover.

As some may remember, SWMBO has a Punto which I have a strange affinity for. Avoiding a motorway closure we took to the back roads ("it'll be an adventure" - last time she said that brought on the Incident of the German Pikeys.) Piloting the Punto in a spirited memorial on the day of Colin McRae's funeral I spied a deer, braked hard and didn't hit it. Result. Then the engine lost power and coasted to a stop. Key on and it gives battery and oil lights, and the injection light shows for 5secs and then goes out as normal. It cranks and turns but sounds like 'constant speed', no varying load and the inj light comes back on. The fuel tank's half full and I couldn't see anything pouring out. I've fiddled with a button that looks like it might be a fuel cut out reset on the floor by the passenger seat, but with the air filter off I could smell fuel after waiting an hour and then cranking it. 2hrs later TroddenMasses appeared with tea, sandwiches and a rope and dragged it to Bristol for us. My affinity for this diminuitive example of Italian automotive guesswork is waning. A) can someone tell me what's wrong with it? B) does anyone have a similar car (94 Punto SX 55) to do some tests for me? C) anyone know a Fiat-style LR4x4 forum? I have found some with posts like 'where does washer fluid go?' and 'I bought a car with the EMS light on. The man said it was good but it rattles a bit, burns more fuel than my mate reckoned it should and it eats the ceramic on spark plugs. Are these related?'. Nobody seems to be fitting Ducato axles, tyres from Asda shopping trolleys and making their own traybacks. SWMBO is in the LR this week and she's threatening to use public transport. Help appreciated.

It can be a problem with biofuel, since you get buildups in the injector nozzles which stop it sealing properly, so it dribbles before/after injection, and this can cause holes in pistons when it's shot its load before it should even have started to spray. That said, it could just be dirt, manufacturing or material fault, phase of the moon or bad luck... Thanks for the photos though.

I had one just like SheepPimp's - ran fine, no loss of power, just a HORRIFIC rattling from its innards. 4 new pistons and it went back together fine too... Tony - what was the injector fault - hosing, poor spray pattern etc? Could this be due to your veg oil system do you think? I'd be interested to see some really close-up photos of the injector tip if you can do something clever with a magnifying glass.

Round his part of the world that's a way of referring to oneself...

They're in Glos near Tewkesbury, only about an hour up the M5 from me in Bristol (must update my profile!)

I know nuffink about axles, I had AEU2522s on the Ninety and bust them apart with a 2.5NAD. Now I've got the weakest Td5-style CVs and can't touch them with a Tdi. There's a company on Ebay doing racking, I'm looking at a little bit for my garage in Bristol. Do you want to go for a group buy?