TSD

At the risk of being a bit technical on a technical forum... Under proper running conditions, the actual ignition voltage isn't any higher than with a standard coil. When the ignition fires, the plug voltage rises rapidly until a spark is ignited, then falls quickly back to a much lower sustaining voltage until the stored coil energy is used up. However, I have seen papers suggesting that quite a large percentage (5-10%?) of ignition events (in a Kettering ignition system) result in some form of partial misfire (late firing, incomplete combustion etc.). The high energy coil might (probably will IMHO) result in an improvement to those events, as if the plug doesn't fire the voltage will continue to rise until a spark is established, and the spark will be of longer duration due to higher available energy. The effect is probably quite small, but on an engine with sub-optimal chamber design, like the RV8, it might be quite noticeable. I doubt that a high energy system will be that much better than a standard EDIS system though. Remember how much better an EDIS system is than a Kettering one? Thats because it uses up most of the available improvement (coil energy management, high voltage ignition, timing accuracy etc.) On a system with standard plug leads, it might well be a disaster. Once a spark path has been established, then a low energy path exists for a spark to track. One no-fire event at startup will expose that part of the system to the highest available voltage in the system. If a breakdown occurs and the spark tracks out, it leaves a trail of carbonised oil, plastic etc. which is slightly conductive. This makes it easiers for tracking to occur on this path later, when the voltage is lower, during normal running. Inductive coupling between adjacent cylinders (usually #3 and #5 on an RV8 IIRC) is also likely to be more of an issue with higher energy systems. I doubt either will be an issue with Magnecor leads - I'm sure you know how hard it is to fire a timing light over magnecor leads. The next big improvement in ignition is probably ion sensing. Saab and GM spent a deal of money looking at it in the 90s. Sensing the spark current allows a controller to infer a lot about whats happening inside the combustion chamber, and make suitable changes to mixture and timing on a per-cylinder basis. I've not read up on that in a few years though, don't know what the current state of the art is. D.

Left handed drill bits are ideal for this job (with a reversible drill of course!). Chances are, it won't matter if you arent perfectly in the centre because as you move up to larger drill sizes, the stud will usually unscrew itself.

I commuted 90 miles a day for 6 years, first in a 200tdi Disco, then in the Ibex. Hang the sense of it, life's too short to spend 2 hours a day driving some hateful eurobox PoS - I'd rather be sat in my Ibex shivering and going deaf

Worked fine for me, just made sure it was well rinsed off and wiped over with an oly rag afterwards.

And a grounding bolt on the bottom?

OK, I think this is right, but maybe a grown-up will check it before you start wiring?

I should learn to read better, you already said the solenoids are single pole (2 large, 2 small terminals). Does the motor have 2,3 or 4 terminals?

I'd guess the solenoids are single pole types, like this one? :- I've seen them used on older Warn winches, in particular with permanent magnet motors. They can be used with series wound winch motors as well though. (I had an M8000 with PM motor and solenoids like that). Can you confirm how many terminals are on the solenoids, and on the motor (and maybe post pics)? Then I'm sure someone will beat me to providing a schematic for you Dave

10W/40 is within the range spec from Land Rover. Sump capacity is 6L, plus about a litre for oil filter change etc.

I've got a DeWalt 1/2" driver I've had for about 8 years, which shows no sign of giving up. Not the ultimate in torque (being 12V), but enough for most things, and small enough to get into places that larger ones I've tried cannot. I think it was about £250, with two batteries and a 1 hour charger. (I've got a mains powered one for silly torque, but rarely use it) Being 12V, when the batteries finally die, I'll just attach an Anderson connector Seems it's got cheaper too, it certainly looks like the same one... http://www.toolsave.co.uk/product.php?prod_code=DW053K2 I have heard that DeWalt quality is not what it was, but no personal experience. These are the only DeWalt tools I own, and I'm more than happy with both of them. Dave

And Argentina International Engines built a range of engines called Powerstroke. The 2.8 is the smallest of these, though it bears no relation to any of the others in the range. The 2.5HS which they also built (= 300TDi) didn't get the name for some reason. The 2.8TGV didn't officially make it to the US in a production vehicle AFAIK, only in South America in Ford pickups, Merc Sprinter vans and some others. At least two, maybe more. Seems they now have seperate websites for each branch of the company, so it's all a bit obscure. Engine specs are available on the MWM International website. Operation and Maintenance manual is there as well. Sadly they don't seem to allow free download of the workshop manuals and parts catalogues like they used to.

Doesn't have much in common with the TGV or 300tdi. It's a 3V/cylinder OHCish design.

Motor and Diesel offered this conversion at one time, but I understand they only did a few. The engine is (confusingly) known as a 6.07tca , as stock it is about 180bhp. It was used in pickup trucks in South AMerica and possibly in Oz as well. I've heard of them fitted to Defenders, and also Ford F250 pickups. You might get some more info and experience on the HS2800TDI list on yahoo groups.

Try a different manufacturer - they are certainly not all the same. Oddly enough, it's often caused by using too large or too 'good' (low ESR) smoothing caps. My personal fav. is the surface mount switching FETs that can happily melt the solder joints without failing. They either fall off the board and disconnect the power, or slide sideways and short out the power rails

Certainly, if you can find one. Tracing the International part number through various manufacturers catalogues, the only difference I found indicated was that the International part calls up a special tooth profile. The same part number is used for the HS2500, which afaik is a 300tdi by any other name. I couldn't find any info on what was different about the profile, and when I changed mine the belt looked exactly the same as the 300tdi belt I fitted.

With any linear regulator in this package type, you'll always find it's running hot at 2A out, even with a higher power regulator. 13.8V in -> 5V out at 2A means (13.8-5)*2 W of heat = 17.6W The package type means that the internal electronics is running about 50C hotter than the case when it's on a good heatsink. So if it's hot to the touch, the insides are more than a bit sweaty. If you use the 3A device that BBC suggests, the numbers are the same, except that at 3A it's more like 75C hotter. If you can get away with 1.5A, a good solution is RS 672-7155. Just as simple to use as a 7805, but about 90% efficient, so less than 1W of heat at full load and no heatsink required. They do cost a bit more than a 7805 though

Yes it's a 100% swap. International list a different belt part number, but I don't know what the difference is. LR parts fit just fine.

The only TGVs I've heard of being killed were because of overfilling with oil. It causes the engine to runaway and burn all it's sump oil. Apparently there is an issue caused by using a 300tdi sump but the TGV dipstick (in a different position to a 300tdi) which means that it's easy to ened up with too much oil in the sump. Not sure if this is the company you were referring to, but Prins Maasdijk seem to understand the issue.

At one time it seemed there were only two manufacturers of tdi starter motors, Valeo and Bosch. They were at least the only ones I was ever offered. I got through 4 Valeo motors, each one lasted about 50-60k before giving trouble, always weak solenoid/sticky pinion gear. The last motor was Bosch LR Gen Parts. It lasted 80K without trouble but jammed recently. The cause was the reduction gearbox inside breaking up. There was little visible wear, it needed a cleanout but there was plenty of brush length left in the motor. Compared to a Bosch OEM motor, the OEM one had no dust seals inside, so the gen parts motor would probably last much better/give less trouble if used offroad. Last motor I bought (2 weeks ago) was branded 'Global Power' on the box. No visible makers marks on the motor or solenoid. It came with a convincing looking set of test results, and was cheapish. It works at the moment, I know no more. My Bosch OEM motor had a busted outer casing, but had done very low miles - I have rebuilt it into the Gen Parts casing and put it on the shelf ready for next time

Funny you should mention that... I think I know why the starter was jammed though. This is the carrier for the planetary gears :

Is that the M&D 'normal' heavy duty clutch they recommend for the TGV, or the super expensive 'special' they offer? With the 'normal' M&D uprated clutch, I drove around for months with bad clutch judder, then the centre of the driven plate exploded on a hill climb at Seven Sisters I needed it sorted in a hurry, so bought the mega priced clutch from M&D, which has been fine for 60K so far. I have similar drivetrain to you, but the Ibex is lighter, being 90".

As Retroanaconda says, OEM is not the same thing as Genuine parts. I stripped two starter motors last week, both Bosch, both bought new, within a few months of each other. One had the LR oval embossed in the casting. The Gen. parts one had a different casting design, giving better sealing around the solenoid mounting, and used a fully sealed solenoid with a bonded rubber boot around the solenoid plunger. The OEM one didn't make much attempt to seal the solenoid mount, and had no seal on the solenoid plunger at all. Oh, and the LR one had a busted gearbox too.

Be aware that the usual plastic packaged variety (TO-220) of L7805 will be running close to it's thermal limits at 1.5A on a decent heatisnk. Depending on manufacturer they start to shut down around 125C or 150C internal.

Complete info on the various options and specs is here but shorting D+ to D- indicates a 'dedicated charging port' which implies 5.0V +/- 0.25V at up to 1.5A, and should be safe for any USB device to be plugged into.

As others have said, you want a 5V supply into the usb socket, not 12V. Also quite a few more recent devices (phones, GPS etc.) require more than the USB standard 500mA to charge properly. These devices will not charge properly if they think they are connected to a PC port, rather than a dedicated charger. Several ways are used to signal this, but the most common one of late is for the charger to short the two data wires together to indicate a dedicated charger. This is used by Nokia amongst others. At least, don't cut the data wires off too short until you're sure you won't ever need them From memory, standard usb wiring colours are :- Red - 5V White - data (-) Green - data (+) Black - Ground Dave