Tanuki
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Posts posted by Tanuki
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This is "failed injector loom" syndrome.
You need to replace the injector-loom itself, which involves taking the covers off the head.
See http://www.discovery2.co.uk/Injector_harness.html for how to fix it.
--Tanuki
Attaching the electrodes of enlightenment to the nipples of ignorance.
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Depending on engine- and ambient-temperature, the TD5 doesn't always light the glowplugs, despite what the 'glowplug light' in the instrument-panel might have you believe/.
(similarly, the ECU can keep the glowplugs heated for some time after the light's been extinguished and the engine's started). This can make fault-finding rather confusing.
Your comment about the engine seeming to turn faster than usual on the starter makes me think 'low compression' - which will make any Diesel difficult to start.
Check your valve-clearances!
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On my TD5 90 the tank sits behind the rear axle; the exhaust has two boxes - the big one is along-side the gearbox/transfer-case, then the pipe snakes up diagonally over the rear axle so the second small box is *outside* the chassis-rail - essentially alongside the rear wheel - then the pipe kicks-out to the left and picks up the rearmost mounting-rubber.
Not sure how you could piece together a system - but if you want someone good to build you a custom exhaust-system I can recommend www.longlife.co.uk
--Tanuki.
"Attaching the Jump-leads of Enlightenment to the Nipples of Ignorance"
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What are the compression-pressures on all the cylinders?
Can you swap out the injector on #1 cylinder with a known-good injector (either new, or from another engine) ??
--Tanuki
"One winter's day the Buddha was walking trough the forest when he came upon a little weasel,
half dead from cold, lying in the snow. Picking up the weasel the Buddha tucked it into the
lining of his warm coat and carried it home to his wife, who baked it into a tasty pie. At
that moment the Weasel was enlightened"
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Check the layout of the HT leads: the Rover V8 is renowned for 'crossfiring' where a spark sent down one HT lead induces a spark in an adjacent lead - if that cylinder's on an intake-stroke when its plug gets fired it can cause all sorts of odd backfires/misfires.
Also, you mention "single point" LPG system - is this a properly-mapped LPG-injector with ECU and lambda-sensor feedback or a crude squirt-and-guess vapouriser/venturi-mixer? If the latter then getting it to run efficiently across all combinations of RPM and throttle-position is really a loser's game.
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Given the improvement in handling they've given to my D90, I can wholeheartedly recommend Bilsteins. Not cheap, but definitely worth it - they're sensibly engineered [the rear ones have a proper Metalastik-type bonded bush in the upper eyes, not the cheap rubber-cotton-reel-with-a-tube-pushed-through thing the OEM dampers (and many replacements) have].
I don't know if Bilsteins are available in a compatible-with-2"-lift version; for high-speed stability when towing a lift's the last thing you need!
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Wow! That's good going!
I generally replace batteries on a 3-year cycle (and keep the old ones around the house for powering inverters/radios/jump-starting-the-generator-during-power-cuts). To me, springing £100 every 3 years on a new battery is cheap compared with the cost of a non-starting vehicle.
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Is it *air* in the system, or exhaust-gases?
My TD5 Defender failed earlier this year when the copper injector-seals leaked and compression-gases found their way back into the fuel-rail. This in turn trashed the fuel-pump before we worked out what the actual problem was.
If you can hear unusual whining/gurgling/bubbling sounds from the fuel-tank/pump when turning the key to the glow-lug-position [before starting the engine] then you could have failed injector-seals.
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My principle whenever doing mods is to always use the most-recent parts available, if only because this means if anything fails in the future you're going to be able to source replacement-parts with the least hassle. To me, vehicle-off-road means lost-income/lost-fun.
Remember that a petrol-V8 is much more rev-happy and rather lower-in-torque than a current-generation turbodiesel: as well as choosing your gearbox [i'd suggest a R380] you may need to re-ratio the transfer-box to get the revs back up. For optimum efficiency, try to gear things so your preferred cruise-speed has the engine turning at half-way between peak-torque and peak-power RPM. Terminal-velocity should be at about 10% beyond peak-power RPM (so if you come to a hill/hit a headwind that slows you, the engine drops back towards peak-power RPM).
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So, it's "Job Done". The front was really rather frustrating - being Nitrogen-pressurised the Bilsteins instinctively want to fully-extend themselves, which makes fitting them back into the front 'trumpets' rather frustrating. I ended up with some interesting bruises and quite a bit of lithium-greease in my hair...
But -- it was *definitely* worth the struggle. The rear-end no longer does the old bunny-hop bump/thump when crossing one of the usual full-road-width utility-company trenches, and catching a pothole part-way round a bend now doesn't give a sensation like the front-axle's making a bid for freedom.
Trailer-towing's great too - those sections of motorway where HGVs have put ruts into the slow-lane traditionally caused a 'weave' as the big flatbed continually tracked from side to side in the ruts, and this annoyingly tugged at the LR's tow-hitch. Now it's all much more stable; when on a non-rutted section everything held together nice-and-smoothly at *ahem* 80MPH.
All things considered, Bilsteins are a *vast* improvement over the standard shock-absorbers. If your OEM shocks need replacing, invest in German quality engineering! Why do Land-Rover specify cheap-and-nasty [made-in-Spain] shock-absorbers as standard, when for not-that-much-more they could get vastly better, longer-lasting and safer ride/handling by going to Germany???
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Check here:
Thanks! I think I'll be making a call to Zeus over the next few days. It seems silly to replace the corroded calipers with another pair that will go the same way after a decade; Stainless is for Life!
--Tanuki.
One of the best friends of Progress is Speed!
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While doing the Bilstein-thing to the rear of my 90, I noticed that the brake calipers are well corroded. I've been regularly [every couple of years - when replacing the pads] cleaning the pistons and applying a bit of Lockheed brake-grease, but now the exposed piston-parts are rather crusty and I don't think they will retract properly when it's time for another set of new pads.
So - has anyone had any success with the stainless-steel piston kits I've seen advertised? Or should I just buy a pair of new calipers and be done with it for another decade?
--Tanuki.
"Sir Henry recently invented lighter-than-air, Helium-filled bubblewrap - enabling him
to post an entire Land-Rover chassis by post for a mere £1.75. Royal Mail are not amused"
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To be honest, I don't know what the ride's like - since fitting the Bilsteins I've driven a majestic 25 yards - and that was just so I could get the other car out!
Real testing takes place tomorrow.
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UPDATE: The rear Bilsteins are now on.
If you're doing this, here are a few hints.
1] Wire-brush the damper-mounting nuts to remove accumulated grot and give them daily squirts of Plus-Gas or other proper releasing-fluid [*NOT* WD40 !] for a week before starting work. The bottom-mount nut will then unscrew easily, only needing a good hand-grip on the barrel of the damper to stop it rotating.
2] Remove the yellow paint from the threads: ten minutes with some Nitromors and a wire-brush will help your new nuts screw into place *so* much more easily!
3] There are 2 different threads of nut supplied with the new dampers. One is for the lower mount, the other for the top chassis-mounting bracket. Take care to get them in the right places. Trust me on this...
4] Wearing a rubber glove dramatically improves your grip on the barrel of a damper and will let you tighten up the lower Nyloc nut to the required torque with ease.
5] Make sure the springs are properly seated again before lowering the vehicle on to its wheels: otherwise things can end up a bit lopsided.
--Tanuki.
"The tag on a T-shirt I bought today carries the assertion CARELESSNESS CAUSES FIRE. In my experience wielding an oxy-acetylene torch is a vastly more effective way of causing fire than just being careless."
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This weekend I get to fit a set of Bilstein gas dampers to my 90TD5. Always assuming the nuts come off the old ones - I have been daily squirting all the mounts and the front turret spring-retainer bolts with Plus-Gas for the last week in the hope it will loosen things up nicely.
I'm hoping that replacing the 90,000-mile-old original dampers will sort out the odd hoppity-sensation at the rear when going over potholes - it sometimes feels like the back axle's trying to escape!
--Tanuki
"On the eighth day, God went off-roading"
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Check the spacing of the HT leads: I've come across a couple of instances on old Rover V8s where the HT leads are clipped close together and they inductively cross-couple - so a spark sent to one cylinder 'leaks' across to an adjacent HT lead whose piston is actually on the intake stroke - and half-heartedly fires it!
Worst case this can cause a massive backfire through the intake system - and blow all the oil out of the SU dashpot or explode the intake-trunking if you're running a crude 'venturi'-type LPG setup rather than a proper injector-per-cylinder system.
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You can get electric water-pumps:
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I don't know the answer but can wholeheartedly recommend the guys at Merlin Motoreport (based at Castle Combe race circuit) - they've sorted me out with all kinds of fuel-pipe adapters/T-pieces, oil-cooler hoses and similar stuff in the past.
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In regard of 'centering' the steering I'm reminded of what the 1970s-era rally-drivers [in Mk.1 Ford Escorts] used to do: put a band of white PVC tape on the steering-wheel top-dead-centre when the car's pointing dead-ahead.
That way you'll always be able to get the steering into the centre-position irrespective of what your instinct and tactile-feedback may be saying.
If it's good enough for Hannu Mikkola it's good enough for me.
--Tanuki.
"If you're a Bewildebeeste being chased by a lion you don't actually have to be able to outrun it; you only need to be able to outrun _one_ of the other Bewildebeestes who are running with you".
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People fit snorkels, wading-plugs and extended breather-pipes for diffs/transfer-boxes/gearboxes.
But they forget things like the wheel-bearings, the power-steering-reservoir, the battery, the handbrake-drum, the headlamps, the brake-fluid-reservoir [you should
truly panic if you have ABS and it gets full of water!], the alternator and the
starter-motor.
My only wading-related failure was a TD5 alternator/vacuum-pump, which
exploded rather expensively all over the A390 a few minutes after getting
wetter than an otter's pocket during flood-rescue work in Cornwall last year.
--Tanuki.
Windows has detected new hardware. Do you want to configure "Airbus A380" now?
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Sounds like you need a visit from the Gas-Axe [a.k.a. an Oxy-Acetylene torch set with an oxidising flame].
--Tanuki.
"Radclyffe - fetch the toads! We're going to play Wind in the Willows."
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A dodgy ignition-switch can kill alternators: they depend on continuity through the switch [and the warning-light bulb] to sense the battery-voltage.
Any interruption to this path will mean the alternator can't sanely sense what the battery terminal-voltage is and it then either cranks-out max-volts [cooking the battery and giving yoiu headlamp-bulb life measured in spectacularly-bright minutes] or it blows-a-regulator/diode-pack and then dies.
--Tanuki
"The tag on a T-shirt I bought today carries the assertion 'CARELESSNESS CAUSES FIRE.' In my experience wielding a flame-gun full of kerosene is a vastly more effective way of causing fire than just being careless."
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To do anything on a Salisbury you need a proper spreader. Over-do this and you will permanently upbugger the axle-casing.
Setting the crownwheel/pinion mesh also requires a knowledge of how to use "Engineer's blue".
Then there's the issue of the collapsible spacer and fun with spring-balances needed to set the pinion-preload (you will be replacing the pinion and the pinion-shaft bearings as part of any swap, won't you?)
I've got rather a lot of experience of Salisbury axles - as used by numerous 1960s Jaguars, Gordon-Keebles, Aston-Martins, Reliant Scimitars - and industrial dump-trucks!
Have a look at http://www.winget.co.uk/document/SERVICE%20%20MANUAL%20SALISBURY%205HA%20AXLES.pdf for some good guidance.
[if you're in the mood, consider fitting a Pow-R-Lok LSD - but remember that then you need to use appropriate friction-modified oil or the 'wavy plates' will have a short and unhappy life]
--Tanuki.
"Today's forecast is: moderate to heavy patches of Frogs and a sunny outlook, but with a belt of inflatable pink vibrating Lizards moving in from the west as the weekend comes to an end, followed by a visit to the psychiatrist for better drugs sometime Tuesday"
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A friend's three Rhodesian Ridgebacks worked rather well at preventing the theft of his HCPU, chainsaws and quad-bike.
The offenders were cornered and took emergency refuge in a mobile toilet: when he called the police he told them "no need for you to hurry, nobody's going anywhere."
I think a bunch of pikies are eying up my 110.
Yesterday while I was unloading some material a truck with 3 blokes in stopped and wanted to know if I wanted to sell it and whats it worth ect, and later last night another traveller type vehcile made a meal of turning around in our street right next to the Defender.
I think its time to rig up an alarm ! Has anyone got some good suggestions ? What about those bars that lock the steering wheel to the pedels are they any good ?
Regards
wizard
loud noise coming from 300 tdi engine
in Defender Forum (1983 - 2016)
Posted
Sounds like #3 cylinder is not firing properly (the white smoke being unburned fuel).
Do a compression-test: if #3 is down on pressure you know to look at valves/pistons (or possibly a cracked head?)
--Tanuki.
The trouble with real-life is the lack of cool background music.