TSD

Yes, that would be something like 20 deg hotter as I said.

I have a tell tale label on the casing of my R380, thats been there since I fitted the gearbox. Despite a lot of high speed motorway work behind a TGV, it's never gone over 85 degrees in 3 years or so. In places like SA, where the ambient temperatures might be 20 degrees hotter, that would push the oil temps more than 20C higher, and I'd consider a cooler might be a good idea. In the UK, the only benefit I could see would be that possibly the oil gets warmed to a better operating temperature. The downside is the small additional risk of failure due to accidental oil loss.

The pasty microwave is one of those daft ideas we came up with while greenlaning one winters day. The idea was to have something like an oversized 8-track player you can load your pie into like a cartridge. When hot, it pops out like a horizontal toaster (straight into your lap, saving you the effort of dropping it there later). I had the parts to make a solid state microwave oscillator of at least a few hundred watts, and aside from parts cost its quite an elegant scheme - the waste heat from the amplifiers can be used to heat the pie thermally, making it very efficent. Sadly there are far too many (slightly) more sensible things I want to build first!

I'm pretty certain that Coldfire you've purloined has enough grunt to cope with a couple of extra duties... plus it's going to put you way ahead in the office 'Smoking Silicon' league table by the time you've finished (Besides, I'm still busy with the worlds most accurate dashboard clock )

Oddly enough, Fridge and I discussed that earlier. Add an IR touch screen on the inside, and you could point at bits of the windscreen that need an extra scrub

I always made my own scrapers, by flattering and grinding a bit of copper water pipe. For the final clean I use the finest of those abrasive polishing pads - like the plastic brillo pads, but much finer - and some brake cleaner. You can buy spray cans of gasket remover, which sometimes helps - I've only used it on composite gaskets though.

BX seats don't have removable bases as far as I remember (owned 5 of them at one time or another). AX GT seats were nice. I always wondered how they would work in a Defender as I remember the removable bases.

Amazing it doesn't go flat sat in a metal battery box then...

If you google for 'tilers-tools' you will find a set of scripts which can convert the png files into an OSM style file tree. I did use the scripts Ed Poore mentioned many moons ago to break the memory map data down to raw graphics files. As far as I remember I had to write another script to create calibration files for OziExplorer. More recently I played around with using tilers-tools to chop up some of my 1:10k ozi map files and create an OSM map tree to use as local data on my smartphone. So yes, all the tricky bits are done for you, just needs someone to spend some time gluing it all together.

RTV just stands for Room Temperature Vulcanising - meaning it sets at room temperature, so it really applies to most or all of the silicone sealant products you see. The price premium is usually related to either the stable temperature range in use, or to the base solvents used. The cheapers ones are (IIRC) acetic acid based (smell like vinegar), are slightly corrosive, and aren't considered safe for use around electronics for that reason. They can also poison lambda sensors.

Well if your truck is as described, "1.4 behind the 200tdi, and 255/85" and assuming standard LT77, 3.54 diffs and 16" wheels, then I calculate the rev limiter is approx. 50mph in 3rd. The numbers might be a bit out, depending on gear ratios and 'real world' tyre size, but if you took the tyres off and ran on the rims, you'd get still 47mph in 5th! My 200tdi 90 LT77, 1.41 LT230, 3.54diffs and 265/75R16 will hit easily exceed 80mph on the GPS. Fuelling isn't standard, and the EGTs are scary flat out, but that doesn't change the revs. Either there's something wrong with your truck or your ears

The noise you are hearing is your 200tdi politely asking you to change up into fourth.

If you're fitting an electric lift pump, as discussed in a previous thread, you won't need one. You can get a 'squeezy bulb' inline priming pump from Bosch (or maybe Hella).

Lots of bridged fuseholder options here ... or plain busbars here

I had those in my Disco, but I found a bucketful of used cupholders at Billing, probably from a coach or similar, that were much nicer. Never found them for sale since though. For my oversize mugs in the Ibex, I have two cheapo tapered silicone hose adapters screwed to the centre console.

QED

I fitted a small Facet pump specced for 4-7psi. (Looks like this one.) 300tdi head gasket has all the holes in the right places, some of them are even the right size.

Odds are it's the lift pump. My TGV got gradually slower and slower, eventually struggled to keep 50mph. 300tdi pump fits with a bit of fettling, but mine still seemed a little down on power. I fitted and electric pump, and kept the lift pump fitted for emergencies. Do Paddocks sell TGV head gaskets, or are you trying to fit a 300tdi part instead?

A full change of clothing covers a lot of situations. Don't forget outdoor trousers of some sort - wet jeans are heavy, cold and uncomfortable. I've rarely needed more than a clean shirt or a dry pair of socks, but the extra space and weight is minimal. Dump the flask, get a cheap portable stove. If you're out for any time at all, the flask will be cold or empty, even if you *did* remember to fill it! Not by any means essential, but if you own a jumpstart pack, it'll be bu66er all use at home in the shed...

I've changed the mounts in the Ibex by lifting the back of the transfer box on the jack. Can't imagine the Defender would be much different?

Quotes from someone who visited the show this year. Don't think he's a member here, sure he'll be along shortly if he is... Great show with some superb trucks on display. It was not a ali-plate and winch show. It was all about trucks for overland travel. The show camp park was interesting as usual. We camped at a proper site which was a tad more civilised. <snip> But the emphasis was on the sort of travel (and the sort of cost) that most of us can only dream about. That said it was pleasant change from Billing. It would be a bit of a trip for most of us (500k even for me) but would make a pleasant few days holiday. The show runs for three days. There was a camp park on a first come first served basis for 5 or ten euros a day. From there a shuttle bus would take you for free to the show. We camped at a very nice campsite about 10 mins away which was a far nicer option (way better facilities, cleaner , quieter , defined pitches)

A couple of friends of mine went last year, and enjoyed it. Will see if I can get a writeup from one of them.

Pressure test. Stem seals are easy to change with the head on, so no big need to mess with them now. I had no signs of problems with them so I wouldn't have bothered if I wasn't changing the head casting.

Find a picture of a tdi head gasket, so you know where the indicator panel is. It hangs out of the side of the head above #3. The number of holes identifies the gasket required. I had a bear of a job getting the remains of the plug out. Welding a nut on the top just removed a few mm more metal. LH drills resulted in a scary big hole , with no sign of movement from the remains of the plug. In the end, I let a local engineering shop dig the remains out for me. Lucky, as it turned out, as the cost of that plus the crack test was less than the cost of the TGV head gasket I would have wasted If you're keen, you might take the opportunity to lap the valves and replace the stem seals while it's off, two of my stem seals were free floating up the valve stem.

Don't know if whole vehicles leave the factory like that, but it's not a fault as such. It indicates the current through the warning light circuit is insufficient to kick the regulator (and hence the alternator) into operation. When you blip the throttle, you force the alternator into self-excitation (fnarr). You could try a higher wattage bulb in the warning light (if they exist in that size) or a resistor (or another bulb) in parallel with the warning light. On the other hand, mines been like that for 140k (was a new crate TGV) and I've yet to get around to it