Turbocharger

I converted my 2.5NAD to 300Tdi three years ago, and it's always been the same - I fill the coolant up and it chucks a load out when it gets warm, then the level recedes to this condition: Thing is, since the level in the header tank is below the pickup now I can't tell if the block level falls (until it siezes!!). It's been ok for 3 years but it'd be nice to know if I'm worrying needlessly.

Thank you to the forum member who PM'd me to point out that there may be some mud, water or loose gravel on the lanes that will be driven - I've decided to drop out on those grounds I'm afraid - just got scared about the idea of maybe getting stuck and bearing Bish's mantle. Hope to see some of you at the SW punch challenge though.

The round foglights are a recent thing, certainly Td5 - certainly not a series 3 thing. Of course, if it's asymmetric like the drawing then you'll want to throw it away anyhow...

I was quite scared how easily it drilled out with a 12V battery drill.

I drilled mine out recently to replace it with the winch wanderlead socket. I think the barrel would have come out if I'd been interested, drift out the rollpin which secures the big hooky thing on the back (kinda P shaped) and then push the barrel out from behind.

Max load 1380kg per tyre, the Ninety weighs 1600kg(?) ish - so less than a quarter of their rated load each.

It'll also burn more fuel and have a lower top-speed, although the acceleration will be better. My brother's Ninety is similar to mine but on 205s and it really seems to zip around (especially around corners) but it's really revvy at 70mph.

So am I totally OTT running 32psi in my 235/85 TracEdges on 100% road use?

I give up... what's he changed?

? John (TeamMilemarker)

You can buy them separately, I think I was quoted £60ish? I paid £25 second hand though, from Christian Autos in Bristol. I'm not wholly convinced about the Defender arm giving better clearance though - the 'ball' of the balljoint has to be in the same position to give the same steering geometry, you're surely just rearranging the supporting metal? Of course, if you've done it and it works then I'm wrong.

I just swapped from a Defender drop arm to a Disco type one. The Defender arm swoops down and holds a special ball joint in the arm; there's a swan-neck on the end of the trackrod which then swoops up over the ball joint and drops on from above. The Disco arm points nearly flat forwards and accepts a normal ball joint from below. This arrangement seems much more elegant to me and uses more standard parts but doesn't give anywhere to mount the damper. (It also seems to work loose more often but Loctite will cure that).

The worst thing about owning a patent is that it's your responsibility to defend it; you have to prove that the other party has infringed your design. For the sake of taking someone to court because they've welded some pulleys to their own private car, not worth the solicitor's fees. The patent will defend Foers against the likes of Scrapiron etc though.

In-line emulsifiers are already commercially available too - I believe the PuriNox testing ran up to 20% water in fact but since the volume of 'fuel' is taxed there's no incentive here or in the USA. With either system you'd need distilled water and doing it at home you'd need to premix and stir the concoction before lobbing it in your tank. That said, even if you kept the same MPG with 20% water you'd be paying less than 75p per litre (equiv).

You can see John Foers' original patent applications here but, as the name suggests, it's patented.

With water injection it's not about air density particularly, you're putting something else into the cylinder that gets MUCH bigger when it turns to steam. Your peak cylinder pressures go through the roof, but that pressure's pushing the piston down. Also, during the phase change the steam reaction is endothermic, knocking the top off the peak in-cyl temperature with a very favourable result on NOx emissions. As has been mentioned though, get it wrong with a little too much water and you'll suddenly regret the whole idea. The alternative is to inject as much water as you like once the compression process has taken place (so long as there's still enough diesel to initiate combustion). There's already an injector firing at TDC so why not lump the water in with the fuel? Water emulsion in fuel. However, since our government would tax the emulsion as normal fuel (instead of 25% duty reduction because the fuel's 25% water, for example), it's not economic to produce and sell this fuel which reduces emissions & consumption and improves performance. Ho hum.

To be honest, the water spray bit works quite well, there's plenty of water going everywhere and wetting everything when the car's going along. There's definately an effect on the EGT from spraying water (although little I could actually feel), I just don't think it's as effective as fitting a bigger cooler will be. If I can resurrect my rolling road programme I'll see if I can get anything meaningful out of it next week sometime.

As a Defender owner with bolted-in seats, I'm gaining more and more respect for the 'tow it and start it' method since jump lead access is such a pain. It's only cost two back doors so far (well, the same one twice actually, but the second time we were towing backwards and he couldn't see because of the aluminium rivetted over where the back window broke first time...)

Well, I took the Ninety out last night (with new blingy towbar) and played with my water spray. I've recently turned the fuel down in search of more economy so it's not developing the high EGTs it once would (1/2 turn on the main fuel screw has dropped peak EGT from 730+° to around 682 last night). I brimmed it with fuel, pointed it down the motorway and nailed the throttle to the boards. On the flat, indicated 75mph is max speed with EGT around 650°C, although the shown EGT is heavily dependent on engine speed. As the speed drops to 70 or rises to 85 (up and down hills) the EGT goes to 630°C or 680°C respectively. Ambient temperature was around 10degrees. Given that variability, I reckon the water spray drops the EGT by up to 30°C at full load with the intercooler in 'steady state', ie after 5 mins hard driving. Inspecting the intercooler afterwards it was completely dry. Over the 22 miles of balls-out full throttle driving I averaged 15mpg and used a full washer-bottle of water (filled in Bristol, if it makes a difference).

S'funny, I turned up wearing my best suit and let you do all the spanner work while lying in the dirt, but I feel absolutely fine this morning. Sorry! I've been pushing on an adjustable spanner, starting to feel it 'give' and thinking "when it slips off I'm going to punch that sharp sticky-out thing and it'll reaOWWWW". I also like to shout 'ow' whenever something slips or falls, just in case it's going to hurt.

As you say, the airbox pressure should be negligible. I fitted a vacuum/pressure gauge so I could see the manifold vacuum at high revs under no load, but in fact there's a slight pressure generated from even the raw air passing through the engine and turbine. There shouldn't be any condition when there's less than atmospheric in the airbox, unless you put your hand over the end to test the seals and empty all the oil out of your axles...

It's a throttle position sensor for the mini-ECU to control the EGR. Unplug and continue as before.

I looked at but surely the underside of the switch isn't protected, and will get just as wet as the top?

I want to mount a switch, ideally a momentary toggle switch, on the front panel of my LR to operate the winch. Budget is a fiver, it's a Milemarker so only needs to carry 2A. Where's best?

I'm using 0.2mm² wire for my winch, it'll pull the vehicle with all the wheels locked - am I doing something wrong?