[play time aftermath!!!]

I think a few pic's speak a 1000 words

notice large stump

now it's magically disappeared!!

I still hope someone has a good pic of the first punch. The prop was done by some impressive reversing up a steep bank on only the front wheels!!!

[300 Tdi Military Fuel Pump Tweak]

to be honest, just read the tech article on here. Tuning the Bosch VE pump is very easy and gives great results. I just did my mates 110 and he can't believe the difference. Took probably an hour to do, but that did involve a trip to halfords to buy a boost gauge. Only tool you need is a big flathead screw driver (maybe a torx head on the 300tdi) and a marker pen. take you time, mark everything and keep notes on how much you change things by. Don't expect warp speed but you can almost always improve the mid range drivabilty of it. Just don't go too crazy!!

[Angle Grinder Accident - Could Have Been Much Worse]

it's funny, I've been helping a young kid build his truck recently and it's like looking at myself 10-15years ago. He pulls out his grinder, no guard, no eye protection and a 1mm fine cut disc. I've now shown him the way and explained exactly why from my various trips to A&E and reduced hearing he shouldn't make the same mistakes as me

just personal experience, when grinding I keep one hand over the power switch, all my grinders have push to stop buttons, I now hold it in such a way if it kicks or binds my hand knocks it off straight away.

[WetRoads.co.uk]

hi, it looks to me like the chap may have changed his DB format. but I've found the DBF's here: http://www.wetroads.co.uk/gis/Old%20GIS/

[B+E Licence]

Just thought I'd add my B+E experience, passed first time about 2 months ago. In my opinion all this stuff about you must use brakes not gear, feeding the wheel, make set go at lights. Total rubbish!!

I used my gears to slow down as learned from my series land rover days, no feeding the wheel (again series days).

The examiners are looking for safe driving above all, of course you will get a the odd unlucky incident and there are thing's you must not do. But give them a nice smooth safe drive, stick to the speed limit and learn the set maneuvers.

I think a lot of instructors try to make things more complex than they have to be partly due to you wanted to get something for your money, but also to make the training last as long as possible. (just my opinion)

Again in my opinion I thought the B+E test was a bit of a joke, i'd consider one of the most important things about towing is "trailer sway" and how to deal with it. But not in my training, notes or test was it ever mentioned.

[Hogmore 13th June]

I wanted to do this one, but unfortunatly looking after a mud monsters event same day been a shires member for ages now but not made an event yet!!

[Mannesman Electronic Hand Throttle]

I love the fact he's taken the time to varnish the wood

[Dremels.....]

I've got a halford's mains dremel copy, I probably abused it a bit to much. it works for 5mins at a time before making death noises. leave to cool and it's fine again.

cutting side, these are the best http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/6PC-Diamond-Cutting-Disc-Wheel-Set-Fit-Dremel-Engraver-/250644171601?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_BOI_Metalworking_Milling_Welding_Metalworking_Supplies_ET&hash=item3a5b8e8b51

the heaver duty shanke holds the wheel well under hi torque and the blades last a long time, I cut through many welds with one disc, when blunt they still work well from grinding. Forget the ceramic disc's, to delicate

[BRITPART - The good bits?]

Another vote for the HD steering arm, mine have been spot on and really nicely finished. Avoid the rear crank seals, I don't know anyone who has had one work!!

[Torque Wrench for tensioning timing belt]

Thanks for the tip, I found one too for $40, with shipping $85, but still a good deal for a tool thats about $300 new.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360256491995

Cheers, Tomas

exactly like the one I got but much newer, very good price too

[Torque Wrench for tensioning timing belt]

be careful of the really cheap ebay versions of those torque wrenches, there not even close at the lower end of the scale. It will do, but keep your eye out for a nice dial wrench, I picked up a 2nd hand snap on one for 40quid on ebay.

[about to get expensive]

i take it your oil pressure is now back to normal?

yes seems to be good again, changed the oil and filter to make sure all was good. Annoyingly there's now a taping coming from somewhere so may have caused some damage. The worst part is my injection pump has deffinatly got issues. The throttle leaver is slow to return and I'm having to use a bungie to pull it back.

I took the top off the boost diaphram cover and the piston is stuck inside the pump, also was very hard to rotate. I don't seem to be getting any extra fueling when on boost so engine is sluggish as hell and toping out at around 50mph. I'm hoping the taping might be related to the fuel pump not injecting correctly. any ideas?

on plus side I repaired my snapped canvas hood stick so it's not all bad news

[about to get expensive]

to split the exhaust section from the turbo core you need to remove the 2part retaining ring and 4 bolts. only two of the bolts actually hold the ring so concentrate on getting those out, once the turbo is split you have full access to remove the other two. With the ring removed it took a bit of effot to seperate the core from the exhaust housing. A good vice really is a god send doing this job.

after stripping off the defender exhaust housing I was able to see how bad the damage was

luckily the exhaust housing wasn't damaged, I guess as it's a harder metal than the impellor

more damage

stripping the disco unit I found it to be in nice condition

To remove the inlet housing it is just a single massive circlip, you need some seriouly big circlip pliers to get this off, be aware of the thin o-ring running round the lip of the turbo core

the two inlet housings, disco on the left, the boost control union needs rotating 90deg

strange damage to the defender one, the disco unit was perfect

side by side rear view, note the wastegate actuator mounting holes are different

taping new holes in the disco housing m6 x 1.0 I think

reassembling the turbo, disco inlet and core, defender exhaust side

all back together

and back in the truck

and the news is good, turbo is working fine, your need a boost or pressure gauge to setup the actuator to the correct pressure, 0.9bar for a factory 200tdi I believe. I just need to fix the other issues now. i've uploaded a gallery to google of every photo I took,might useful as reference http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/101497202247388631569/Converting200tdiDiscoTurboToDefenderTurbo#

Cheers

Ruu

[about to get expensive]

Right fairly good news, a friend of mine gave me an old disco turbo complete with manifold so I decided I would have a crack at swapping the exhaust housings as suggested. I photograhed the whole thing so hopefully others will find this useful in the future. Les's turbo tech article was very helpful too http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=2049

Obviously anything this high precision and involving oilways needs to be as clean as possible and having access to an air duster or air line is great. I also degreased a lot of the parts before reassembly.

First the defender unit in the car, after reading les's article and all the trouble he and others had with sticking bolts I'd spent 3 days coating every nut and bolt in WD40 and penertrating oil. I then cracked every accessable bolt on the truck as it's mounted nice and solid. There's a mix of 1/2" and 13mm nut's so be careful. I didn't have a single nut shear on stick on any part of this. Basically the second the nut cracked I sprayed on WD and did it up again, repeating a 1/2 turn at a time and it all came to bit's perfectly

The discovery unit complete with manifold, I only soaked the bolts for an hour, but using the same technique as above it came to bit's ok. Just required a bit of time

defender on the left, discovery on the right

same again but view of the inlet section

and the exhaust section

The defender turbo broken down to it's basic layout

the different waste gates, defender on the left

the two turbos, disco on the left

view of the different exhaust housings

same again

and the manifold joint, disco on the left

[about to get expensive]

thanks nick, I was hoping this might be the answer, just got hold of a complete disco turbo and manifold. I'll photo everything as imagine there will be a few people in my posistion soon

[about to get expensive]

I think I'm going to try the disco route, I've found a chap on ebay who will sell a complete disco setup including mainifold for 40quid. I'm pretty poor at the moment so this will be the cheapest route, I'm just very worried about my low oil pressure.

Cheers all

[about to get expensive]

thanks les, I'm getting a bit worried something more serious has happened, just checked the oil level now it's had time to settle. it wasn't being blown into the intercooler, it's now very very high up the dip stick. So I now seem to have low oil pressure too. Also what I though was a sticking throttle cable seems to be the injection pump being slow to return to idle posistion. sigh....

The way I'm writting this now makes my truck sounds like a dog, it wasn't and was running quite nicely (if a little bit smokey)

[about to get expensive]

that's the way I understood it les, I could pickup a good disco manifold/turbo for say 100-150quid, I'd then need a pipe to convert it to fit my exhaust, at least another 100quid. I assume I'd need a disco inlet as well due to the change of turbo position, possibly some change of intercooler pipework and turbo oil pipe work. That probably means a bill of at least 300quid all in. that must be getting close to a recon turbo costwise.

[about to get expensive]

thanks guys, I'm having no luck finding a 2nd hand turbo anywhere. it's so annoying the disco 200tdi turbo is different as they are ten a penny. I'll give some reconditioning places a bell, any comments on who might do a good job?

[about to get expensive]

Hi all,

after a great days offroading my 200tdi finally had enough, after a huge hill climb at full throttle there was a loud noise that almost sounded like a dump valve. it turned out to be the turbo bearing having so much slop the turbine blades were hitting the outer casing and grinding metal on metal.

I decided to remove the turbo from the intake and run the air-filter directly to the inlet and used a cable tie to keep the waste-gate open. I was worried the engine would start running on it's own oil.

now on the way home the oil pressure light started flickering, I immediately shut off and topped up with oil and the problem was gone. 15miles down the road it happened again. topped up and the light went off again.

Now two questions, firstly I'm guessing the high oil usage is down to the turbo bearing being so shot it's losing a ton of oil from that circuit and filling up the inter-cooler. The engine wasn't blue smoking so I don't think it was being burnt.

Second question, what's the best option. The engine is getting on to 180k miles, whilst high it sounds fine and it's only the turbo that has been letting the truck down since I bought it 2years ago.

It seems to be about £450-£500 for a new turbo (unless anyone else has some good leads) for that I could get another engine from a discovery but would need to spend money on a conversion pipe and have the hassle of an engine swap. What would you do?

Cheers

Ruu

[Stolen Southdown towing bracket]

hum, I think I might secure mine away too.

[RepRap - DIY 3D Printer]

superb stuff, I've been thinking about having a crack with one of these for ages. I know the yanks having been blowing a huge amount of cash to make one to go into a 12ton truck. They could then print every component in the US millitary from one vehicle!! It's a hell of a thing

[Battery Impact Wrenches]

I'd just add a note that I own a lot of dewalt kit, a lot of it 5-6years old which has been great. My newer (less than a year old) combi drill is no way as good as the 7 year old one it's replaced. I personally think they have started cutting corners.

I've been very impressed with the Hitachi Li-ion gear my friend has bought and the prices are very good. Not well known, but all my builder friend are swapping to them.

but Makita you can't go wrong

[Stolen Land Rovers]

Hi all,

I'd just thought I'd copy this here, it was posted on my club's facebook page last week, trying to get some dates:

CAUTION TO ALL LANDY OWNERS IN East Grinstead, Forest Row!!!

there have been 4 stolen in past 3 weeks, including a forest ranger landy with a dog in, and one towed off a drive in the night and trailered away!!!

please be careful series landys are being taken as well!!!!!

Cheers Ruu

[USB socket]

cheers guys, I don't think the 7805's are going to cut it with that much heat generation. The tomtom cradle is fully enclosed and quite thick abs plastic so I think I'd be looking at some serious melting. I'll have a look at the other options, doing some basic testing the charging seems to only be 0.7amps max, but I think I need to do some more testing to be sure.

Cheers again