nicks90

I used to get grief from the vegetablist's driving my diesel 90 about - but now I drive an Audi a6 2.7 twin turbo petrol, tuned to 320bhp and getting about 20mpg........not a whisper. Its bigger, thirstier and utterly lunatic - but somehow I am now socially acceptable.

So what simple diesels exist that are about 200bhp, 350ft/lbs torque, rev to 5k and are 4 cylinders / compact 5 cylinders? Either mechanical or standalone ecu to make it moderately simple...

And axles.... the list gets long and very expensive.

If I had 24k to spend and a new defender is too 'basic', its simple...I'd buy a yota twin cab! But then a 24k motor isn't just a Off road toy is it!!!!! And no matter what you do a defender is ALWAYS basic inside. If it was for Off road, then what the hell is he moaning about interiors for??????? Even then I'd probably buy 10k of merc g wagon and some choice goodies instead of a new defender.

You're right about the d35 being troopers! They should be weaker than a LR axle, but they take massive abuse without complaint, partly due to the shaft's having incredible flex and the diff being so much more rigid. I'd love a d44 rear / front d35 combo from a grand Cherokee with the quadratrak2 LSD's in them under mydefender, would be awesome with superb turning circle. (My GC will out turn my 90, even though its 20" longer and has big wheels) Them d44's you have will be killer under your series.

with such a large free flow oil cooler - how will that affect your oil pressure, especially at engine start?

That homemade axle looks like it weighs more than the moon and has more mud traps than a discovery - and almost as ugly. Good concept though.

He didn't say he wanted bigger tyres... Just bigger 18" wheels. Personally I think 18" disco 2 alloys are nice and if fitted to a defender (adaptors needed) fill the arches nicely due to the adaptors acting like spacers. Some BG a/t to wrap around them and it'll be mint! Also, if you want more POWAAAR... A stage 3 map and upgraded intercooler will be the ticket and a turbo boost box thingy. Leave your exhaust and induction system as it is, you've already done what's needed. Use standard springs unless you want a lift for the "look at me" effect, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to upgrade the shocks. Don't buy cheap gas shocks, they are no better than std Landover items. Bilstein, fox, etc so factor in £90+ per corner or stick with sine new standard ones. New genuine rubber bushes will also improve the handling if they are getting on a bit

if having no mechanical link between the steering wheel and road wheels was against the law, or C&U - then how did citroen get a licence to sell the Citroen SM back in the 70s? that uses a purely hydraulic system with return to centre being controlled by a speed sensitive seperate hydro tank 'fighting' the steering hydraulics.

absolutely! It may not heal the UK deficit, but I would imagine this competition will result in some significant international sales of the GP winches.

I had always assumed that the police have almost nothing to do with rights of way decisions within the national park, though one assumes they can make suggestions or requests to the NPA the same as anyone else. I understand that it is the job of the NPA to make rights of way policy decisions. Am I wrong in this belief? you are right - however the police will have to enforce any restrictions put in place by the NPA.

i'm all for public demonstrations and definitely all for trying to prevent greenlane closures. but I fail to see how a line of 50 dirty stinking landrovers leaking oil and blowing blue smoke, driving about the countryside at slow speed irritating the bajeeeesus out of evey other road user who actually needs to go somewhere, is actually going to improve our image or help our cause. People who will not be impressed with a 'go slow protest' ---- 1) general public stuck behind the queue 2) council decision makers who then have to deal with complaining public 3) police who may have to get involved/inconvenienced in ensuring the protest goes off safely. To get anywhere with lane closures we need all 3 of those groups on our side. Annoying the cr*p out of them is an unusual tactic for sure.

Wouldn't it be easier to flat the panels and apply a metal finish vinyl wrap to it?

FLI speakers are fairly good mid range speakers. A set if small ones to replace the original landrover ones, some tweeters on top of the dash and some 6x9 in the back will make something half decent. If you can stretch to a 4 channel amp to power them - even better. As for head units - as long as it has amp-out, 3.5mm aux in and mosfet power - it will be fine. Unless you spend ALOT, most of you hard earned is wasted on 'features' and pointless goodies, like flashy pop out displays etc

Thanks for all your help. Next job is to get some rough measurements of the arb and start trawling scrappies for something thicker and roughly the right size. So second question... The arb links are currently perfectly vertical, do they have to be like this or is some lateral variation allowed?

what i was thinking of doing was replacing the silly rubber radiator plug with one of Simons metal ones and having the middle drilled out and tapped to accept a threaded 6" immersion heater element. the element would sit in the main body of the radiator and therefore should promote some significant convection current and heat everything quite evenly. Even if it didnt, and only heated up the majority of the coolant in the radiator and inlet/outlet pipes - its still a bloody good start. plus i was thinking of spending £5 more on the heating element with built in thermostat, so that the coolant would not exceed 90C at that localised point to prevent boiling. That point on the rad is only 6" away from an existing hole in my front grill surround (had a winch plug in it) so would seem a logical place to put a waterproof anderson plug. then get a length of amoured 3 core with a 13amp plug on one end and anderson plug on t'other and bobs your uncle!

i'm still toying with the idea of putting a small 240v immersion heater into the coolant system somehow and fitting an anderson plug on the grill - park up and plug my truck in to the garage on a timer. 6am the immersion heater turns on and heats up the coolant for when i get out the house at 7.30. instantly warm engine and heater!

thats pretty much the same engine they use in grand cherokee and merc ML series trucks. Pretty good engine, I was certainly very pleased with its performance in the cherokee. Easily upgraded with a plug in box to give it 200bhp and 460Nm torque and now I am full of cheesy grinning and 'boy racer lead right foot-itis'. Does alright on fuel too, steady 70mph returns 9.5l/100km The engine also runs with a completely standalone engine ecu in the grand cherokee, and the auto box (also merc) also has its own stand alone ecu, so wiring should be fairly simple with no BCM and other hellectrikery to worry about.

Slightly strange topic and not LR related - but it is for a 4x4!!! My other car is a jeep grand cherokee, and whilst its a lovely vehicle to drive and does everything my old D2 does without the build quality and rust issues - it does tend to be a bit rattled by poor road surfaces, cambers and tight corners. A very popular mod by GC owners is to fit an uprated HD rear anti roll bar from addco. This pretty much sorts out the handling issues and turns it into a very nice composed road warrior. However the price and availability of these anti roll bars is not for the faint hearted!!! So my question is this - is ARB material some magic formula of unobtanium, or is it just standard mild steel bar? The rear arb on the jeep is a standard C shape, no funky kinks or bulges or anything like that - so would it be possible to get a bit of 1" bar (same as addco uses) and bend up a new one, drill a hole in each end ot accept the bolt that attaches the link arms to the axle and jobs a good'un? I have a variety of poly bush blanks that i could make replacement arb mounting bushes out of - or ream out the existing bushes to accept a 1" bar instead of the original 9/16 - so mounting it should be simple too. any advice appreciated! Nick

what about the daihatsu 2.8td? They can be intercooled and fuelling/boost tweeked for some quite silly powers. About as straight forward, non electric engine you can get! HoFS guys have some experience with these engines - didnt Mouse have one?

i would avoid procomp shocks at all costs with the use you are wanting your 110 for! Especially the heavy weights you carry. they are weak and under damped. With what you describe, i would suggest ALL your money goes on decent quality shocks and just stick with some britpart HD springs.

i cheated when i changed mine. Loosened off the nuts and fired the engine up for 5 seconds took the fuel pipes + nuts off and they all came out in my hand edited to add - engine only ran for 5 seconds as once the injectors had loosened in their holes, all the cylinder compressions dropped and it stalled the engine. Easy way of knowing they were loosend off!

which is why the abs/tc system starts to overheat and shuts down when you give it some protracted abuse offroad - or it certainly did in the wifes disco2!

the amp is connected + and - to the battery with properly thick cables from a reputable audio specialist and other than when there is alot of other electrical load, it all works faultlessly. would a dying battery cause this? Reason I ask is that my motor always starts on the first full compression cycle after using the glowplugs - so i havent noticed anything untoward. However upon questionning the wife (who never waits for the glow plug light to go out) she said the other day when it was frosty, the engine turned over very slowly for about 5 turns before catching and she was surprised it fired! So could a poorly battery cause this?

Wondering if anyone could help me identify a strange electrical / audio issue i am having with my 300tdi 90. as it stands at the moment the electrical system is completely standard and all of it works!!! I now, screwed it now. It is also fitted with a 250watt amp and some rather nice speakers in the back. This is powered directly off the battery and the amp is turned on by some black 'exciter wire' that comes from the stereo, so the amp only powers on when the stereo does. Wiring to the stereo is all standard wiring too - other than none of the speaker wires are utilised, as the speakers are all connected to the amp. Problem i have suddenly started to experience is this - if i subject alot of load on the electrical system, I get popping noises from the speakers/amp or in extreme cases the amp turns off! For instance, 1) lights on, blower on full, rear demist on, wipers on and stereo on. Continuous crackle or the amp turns off 2) lights on, blower on full, wipers on part time. every time wiper starts its stroke - pop pop. 3) Blower on full, rear demist on, wipers on part time, as number 2. turn some of the other electricals off and the popping and cutting out of the speakers stops! I;ve checked my alternator and when at idle its pushing 14.2v across the battery and this rises to 14.4v at fast idle. So the alternator seems to be fine. So i cant understand why all of a sudden its started to cut out the stereo speakers/amp under heavy load. the least it could do is not interrupt my metallica session and cut out the bloody lights or something equally as unimportant (JOKE!!! well.......) any idea why its started to do this, or am I looking at a goosed alt or maybe the battery is going weak? cheers Nick (please shout loudly, i;m deaf) C