Boydie

You would think, but not always so. As I said, getting a good used set of pistons prepped and hard chrome plated and mirror polished was a far cheaper option. Incidentally a new genuine - not Britpart - front brake caliper is AUD$285.00 to get a scored caliper bored out and stainless steel liners pressed in and then honed back to standard piston diameter is AUD$235.00. Regardless of price wouldn't you rather have stainless steel cylinders ?

I'm unable to help there, one of the first things I did when I got my Disco was to remove the ABS unit, the second theng was the airbags. ABS is fine on bitumen roads, totally useless on loose gravel tracks if a Kangaroo or Emu bounces in front of you as the brakes refuse to lock up. Air bags are fine though, I simply had to make a choice, airbags or passenger side grab handle and Julies choice was the grab handle.

Any ion or mineral salt additives or bottled products such as Gatorade or Lucozade send my stomach over the top, which is quite odd as pond water bordering on stagnant doesn't affect me at all. and yes, the Australian Bureau Of Meteorology (BOM) is the weather site I meant.

Regardless of the road/track whenever I get home within a few days I get the pressure cleaner out, drive the Disco up on four ramps and get under and clean all the underside of the car and inside the chassis beams. I'm dumbstruck at some of the photos I've seen on the site of really rusty and corroded suspensions and brake systems, CV joints etc. that look as if they have been sitting in cow poo for months. As for your ladies car and brake piston corrosion, well I'd be looking at the 4 years/winters of road salt that we dont have in Australia.

You're right --- only I couldn't source anyone who supplied stainless steel pistons in Australia.

He can contact me if he wants and we can show him around, we live in the Blue Mountains 80 kilometers west of Sydney.

You can go to the Australian DOM site and it has maps of annual temperatures -- average low and high, plan your trip according to the weather. Water, in the deserts in summer allow 6-8 litres per person per day minimum. I've never taken any additives in my drinking water, most disagree with me and give me diarrhea which is even worse but if your system can handle them I'd guess they would have some benefit.

How long has your friend got ? If it were me I would plan my itinerary to arrive in Perth WA and depart Sydney NSW. Pre-arrange to hire a BRITZ Toyota Troopcarrier 4WD, - they are fully fitted out as a camper, all you need to stock it with is food and a small tool kit (they dont include even a spanner set!) and I'd drive overland from Perth to Sydney via Laverton Coober Pedy - north to Uluru and then over the Simpson to Birdsville the Blue Mountains drop the truck off and fly home. Time required, allow at least 3-4 weeks to enjoy the trip. If they needed to cut it shorter than that they can fly out from Alice Springs saving around 8- 10 days. Alternative trip arrive Darwin and Depart Melbourne, an easier route as 75% would be blacktop and it takes in Alice Springs, Adelaide, the Flinders, Gammon Ranges and the Bight. allow 15-18 days. Expect them to return inside 2 years to try to see all that they missed, I've been touring the Aussie bush now for 8 years, I've done well over 185,000 kilometres and not even scratched the surface.

I'd guess that comes down to the preparation of the pistons before plating and the thickness and hardness of the chrome. Did yours come in a small blue bag by any chance ? I do recall that my original pistons were pitted to buggery and the "chrome" was a dull grey and not what I would consider to be "hard".

Several years ago I tried to get stainless steel pistons, I eventually accepted that they were made from unobtainium and even then as rare as rocking horse poo so I did the next best thing, I took a spare set that weren't scratched or scored down to my local metal platers and had them hard chromed and polished. I'd guestimate that they cost me less than I would have spent on a S/S set (fronts and rears) and are just as good if not better being a harder surface than stainless.

Sabre, I'm 68 and retired once a design engineer with access to several well appointed machine and workshops. Increasing the header tank won't make any difference, you could try Evans waterless coolant, the temperature will still be the same (+100) but there wont be any expansion so neutral pressure. I grew up in Kenya so Tsetse flies and I are old friends, total little person I'm not that keen on ! Try wiring the condenser fans to a thermostatic switch in the top hose to bring them on at 90+C - if only to push more air to the radiator.

I'll avoid the drilled and slotted discs thanks, - even the standard ventilated front wheel discs have a horrid habit of filling up with crud and dust on our outback roads and in any case the need for really hard braking isn't an issue. Yeppers, Hobbit, I've got a new set of DBA front discs, they even look as if they have been balanced .

I dont mind bedding in, I'm quite used to it even so from what you have said I'll go for the Mintex. I have a little electronic tester for moisture content in the brake fluid, it tells me I'm very close to having to change and the front discs have been machined to their limit so as I said, this brake service will be the biggie, front and rear pads, rear discs skimmed, new front discs and replace the fluid. I use Castrol DOT4 and I buy it in a 4 litre container. I have a little PVC adaptor I made up so I can connect the bottle direct to the master cylinder and then just pump away on the front lawn, I can explain away the faded patches of grass at a later date

Sabre, I relocated the condenser myself. The first thing was to have the system pumped down. I than had to have four brass fittings turned to match the standard ones. These go at each end of the extension pipes. You will need these brass fittings, A blowtorch able to melt blue tip silver solder. A refrigeration vaccuum pump (I hired mine) and gauges. A 3/8 & 1/2" hand copper pipe bending tool. Normal hand tools, cordless drill etc. Silver solder (blue tip) and flux paste. The pipes required are 3/8 & 1/2" heavy duty refrigeration copper pipe, get at least 4 metres of each size. Also have some straight joiners, 45 and 90 degree elbows. Remove and relocate the condenser and its fans from the front of the car to the underside of your roof rack, position is so that the angled curve of the roof forces air to pass up and through the condenser. Relocate the filter dryer from the front of the condenser to vertically next to the driver side battery, the existing refrigeration tube will fit it, take care not to kink it. the compressor discharge hose will twist around to the new location of the two new pipes. the liquid line (38') will enter the wheel arch (fit a thick grummet to protect the pipes from rubbing) and pass it through to behind the driver side headlamp and connect to a NEW filter dryer. The discharge (hot gas 1/2") will pass through the wheel arch in the same opening, both copper pipes pass up the outside of the drivers "A" column and connect to the condenser. The liquid line needs to be extended from the opposite side of the condenser. Reconnect the condenser fans to the wining loom. When all connections have been made attach the gauges and evacuate the system,Ii had mine on vacuum for well over 24 hours. Go to your local auto airconditioning company and have them recharge the system with refrigerant, it will take marginally more than standard due to the additional pipe run length. Job done.

Sabre, I've never had a camper trailer fitted, it's on the bucket list but so far we have managed with the Disco as is, no rear seating, camping under the awning under the stars. The air conditioning condenser has been relocated to the underside of the roof rack c/w cooling fans, it works perfectly and allows more air into the radiator. My plastic front grille has been drilled to allow greater air flow, both pics are in my gallery. No, welding up the top of the water galleries 1-2, 2-3, & 3-4 does not affect the cooling, all three are "dead ends" as are no corresponding waterways in the cylinder head --- all it does is delete the narrow space between the galleries and the cylinders. I dont agree with closing off the radiator bypass, you could end up with a air lock and no way of removing it - thats what the "by-pass" is there for. My radiator is a 3 pass 1/2' core, the standard core is 2 pass 3/8" core, (some export models had a 3 pass 3/8" core) mine is a full copper core out of a Mack Dyna truck cut down to suit and is far more efficient than the standard core and any good radiator service place should be able to fit the same core as mine to your copper headers. I still retain the original thermo mechanical fan, no mods needed, it fits without any risk of hitting the face of the radiator however be aware of rhinos. My temp never goes above 95*C even on 45*C ambient day's driving over soft sand dunes, revving in low range with very low tyre pressures. My normal engine temp is around 85-95*C. I'm going to try Evans waterless coolant just to see how it goes, not having any radiator pressure can only be a positive thing.

It's that time again, major brake service. This time I'll need to replace the front discs as well as brake pads all round and a complete two year flush of fluid but I was just wondering what make and standard of pads you guys were using, what results you have had and other handy comments.

Les, The really big Caterpillar and Kenworth truck engines made in Mexico have their crankshafts optically / laser measured for journal diameter and the block for cylinder alignment, apparently they measure down to 0.0001mm, I guess thats why those mega-litre straight six diesel engines last for a million kilometres.

Yeah, it was totally and annally retentive. The whole exercise was just to see if it could be done. The same as weighing the pistons after and rubbing the skirts down to get the exact same weight using an electronic chemical scale that measured down to 0.001 gram, there was no real gain by doing it other than the fun of building the "perfect" engine. I once had a Datsun (Nissan ) 1400cc rally/race engine that I scored from Japan, every tiny bit of excess material had been ground off the block (externally and internally) with a tool grinder to reduce the total block weight by reducing it by some 15 kilos, it would have taken whoever did it weeks to get the block down to that final finished weight, totally within the rules as there was nothing in the specifications that said the engine block had to be a certain weight. Would I ever do it again ? possibly yes with say a Ford 1800 BDA Rally engine or a Mitsubishi 1600cc Twin Cam (a very rare beast) but never again with a 300 Tdi.

One zero too many and just to get all four pistons exactly the same height from the gudgeon to the crown, the same as using wet and dry to rub/file the skirts to get them the exact same weight, no real reason other than being annally retentive and having too much time on my hands

One zero too many

I do have a "mate" who has a local engine re-building workshop, 75% of the work I did in my own cave, the machining and centrifugal component balancing he did, another mate welded up the defunct water galleries in the block. The block itself was shot peened in the water jackets to remove any casting burrs etc.to improve water flow and a fair bit of residue casting sand and chemically cleaned at a specialist. My next project engine which is sitting in the man cave will be done in two pack flame red with the exhaust manifold ceramically coated in gold just for the hell of it and it may well end up in my Disco.

I got mine off EBay, it's made from a billet of alloy and has an auto cut out vacuum switch built into it. They are normally fitted to high lift camshaft drag cars and racers that are unable to generate sufficient vacuum. The unit in total is around 3" high x 3" wide x 3" deep. I connected the intake connection to the brake booster with vacuum hose and the discharge connection to a small hose with a made up foam rubber "stocking" to reduce exhaust noise. It came with four little rubber isolation feet which I discarded, on my Disco it's mounted just below the brake booster on the inner wheel arch and wired to the FIP Fuel cutoff solenoid - as is the fuel pump. Full vacuum is established inside 2-3 seconds at which point it turns off and it comes on instantly the brake is applied. When I ordered it I paid for a spare rubber diaphragm but after seeing it I could easily make some out of an old inner tube with a wad punch set. Noise wise, yes, I can just hear it running over the engine as its constantly coming on and off in traffic when you're using the brake, I dont think the four little rubber buffers would reduce the noise and any and in any case the connection to the brake booster is now less than 200mm long and its location is very tight. The fuel pump is a high lift, high volume solid state pump, it comes on with the ignition and supplies a lot more fuel that the FIP requires, purging a new fuel filter is a matter of turning on the ignition and the fuel is flowing out of the filter vent screw inside 3-4 seconds. The standard alloy bowl sedimenter was replaced with a aftermarket filter/sedimenter unit so that the fuel to the fuel pump is filtered. It has the added advantage of having a clear bowl so any water can be easily seen.

Sabre, beautiful job. The two things I did with mine were to dump the mechanical fuel lift pump and vacuum pump. I installed an electric high volume unit next to the sedimenter on the rear chassis rail - instant priming of any replaced fuel filter, and an electric vacuum pump, You would be amazed at how quiet the engine is without those two ticking away and the Wabco vacuum pump is a carp design whereas an electric vac pump will turn off once the correct vacuum is achieved, if you're driving on a freeway it's not needed whereas the Wabco pump runs constantly.

I change the engine oil, oil and fuel filters every 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) I just use a good quality mineral oil, the 300Tdi doesn't need full or part synthetic. The gearbox (s) and axles get their oil replaced every 40,000 and the clutch and brake fluids get replaced every two years. or when the moisture content requires it,

The crank was replaced because the bearings the crank was scored and the bearings were buggered. The new crank was obtained along with a new oil pump, bearing and seals. The crank was machined to replace the two woodruff keyways with a single full key and then nitrided to give it additional strength as well as stress relieving it. All the rotating parts, crankshaft, flywheel, and clutch plate and harmonic balancer pulley were balanced to 12,000 RPM - only because that was the maximum that old mates machine would go up to so thats what we did. The bores were honed and new teflon coated pistons obtained, there was negligible bore wear, certainly not enough to warrant a re-bore so standard diameter pistons were selected. The pistons were selected from a box of about 20 to try to get four that had the exact crown to gudgeon pin measurement, two were skimmed by about 0.0001 mm to match the other two, they were then trimmed at the bottom of the skirts to weigh exactly the same as the lightest piston as were the conrods after being shot peened to stress relieve them before being adjusted for equal centrifugal balance, they were also checked for length and the shortest stretched to match exactly the longest one, bear in mind we are talking thousandths of a millimeter in some cases and weights of .0001 of a gram using electronic scales. The push rods were all checked for length and the bore machined to accept Ford V8 hydraulic valve followers and the manual tappets replaced with Ford roller rockers. In short we built a full spec racing engine capable of ridiculous engine revolutions that will never go above 4000 RPM There are 3 water journals between 1-2; 2-3; and 3-4 that do not have matching journals on the cylinder head. These were TIG welded up (lower heat) and the block skimmed, these journals reduce the sealing distances and the common head gasket failure occurs between cylinders 2-3, I doubt if this engine will ever have this failure, certainly my Disco 300Tdi engine which has had the same modification hasn't ever blown a head gasket in over 300,000 kilometres.