TSD

The 38DGAS on that engine was a pig of a thing at the best of times, and the isolator pad was so thick I don't think the carb itself got much heating directly by the manifold, even though the manifold has a big heating pad at the base and carries all the coolant from the heads. If the autochoke has been removed (so no water heating by that) and the engine compartment temperatures are low... (Megasquirt transforms that lump totally!) In a car with that engine the underbonnet temps often get quite high, and the standard Ford setup took a warm air feed off one exhaust manifold into the airbox. I guess in a boat there's no radiator and fan blowing hot air around. The other thing that can throw the cooling off in the Essex is the that coolant flow rates around each cylinder are controlled by the size of holes in the inlet manifold gasket. Sometime people open up the holes thinking they will get better cooling, but all that happens is some cylinder get more cooling and others get less. Alternatively, sometimes the copper shims (attached to the gasket) slip during assembly and block one coolant port. I don't think that the block cooling as such is the problem though. Dave

You may be right, the only time I've experienced carb icing it took about 5 mins to become a problem. On a boat though, who knows? There's likely to be a lot of moisture in the intake air, and the cooling setup may be very different - total loss cooling/heat exchanger/radiator? I don't know whats usually done when fitting but the engine temperatures could be a lot different to a typical car setup.

The standard Ford isolator was a 1/2" thick plastic plate, with a baffle plate to stop all the fuel dropping straight onto the manifold and running straight down the middle cylinder ports. Actually it sounds to me more like the opposite problem, carb icing. Running at partial throttle in a wet environment can do that. I'd try drawing the inlet air over one of the manifolds and see if it improves matters.

It 'works' in one of two ways : either the mismatch added by the filter tuned out the mismatch of the antenna (in which case you were just lucky and it won't be the same for a different radio/antenna/install), or (far more likely) it's just lossy. Putting a loss in the cable between meter and antenna improves the measured SWR. Your SWR numbers suggest a loss of around 30%. Sounds a lot but you won't really notice it in normal use. The point is that while the measured SWR has improved, the real match of the antenna hasn't changed, and the transmit power has decreased slightly, so the radio performance is worse, not better.

How does it know if the antenna is too long or too short?

CloneZilla seems to work well.

He's nearly right, except it's not a Darlington. Oh, and if you leave out the series resistor in the base of the first transistor, it's a bit harsh on the BC108 (which saturates at about 0.7V, and then looks a bit like a short circuit), and on the poor logic gate (or whatever it is) that's trying to drive it. Suspect that 100k source impedance and 100n coupling cap won't give much action either, into any kind of real load, at real speeds.

Well I had a fantastic day - BIG thanks to everyone who turned out to help me celebrate First job at Slab is always to entice matey Stefan into an innocent looking puddle... Sadly the Belgians offered a helping hand (and towrope) before I'd built up a full session of urine extraction (Hopefully H doesn't see this, as he later bought the Disco!) Then hand the Ibex keys to Bill S and see what a mess he can make... That water was dangerous... beware the pirate ducks! I reckon Rich (dlander) was stalking me round the site... every time we looked like getting stuck, he magically appeared! Cracking day out! Dave

I thought I might pop along for a while Dave

NFU have Ibex on the books as a listed vehicle, Q plate is not an issue.

Each QED file contains it's own positional calibration, so *probably* can be called anything you like. According to the info I have, the MMI files have absolute position records for each object in them, but I've never delved into them. Dave

Maybe they aren't all the same, but on all the Rover ARBs I've looked at (3) the thread on the outside of the central compression nut is 3/8-24, not 1/8 BSP. These all use an olive instead of an o ring on the copper pipe though, so I guess it's an earlier type. It's close enough to throw even the local hydraulics place, and I'm sure you could wind a BSP in there, but you may wish to check!

5mm olives for plastic pipe are in the RS catalogue, part number 830-110. 11p +vat, but you have to buy 10. Dave

NFU wanted a report for my Ibex when I installed the 2.8TGV in place of 300Tdi. When I asked, they didn't seem to know what constituted a report, or who was qualified to do it. Local MoT guy was happy to issue a fresh MoT, and then write 'New engine installed to good standard' on a headed receipt, which NFU accepted without question. Dave

It happens (happened) to me too My 200 tdi disco did it through 3 sets of BFGs in my ownership (150K + miles). As far as I know, it's still doing it with it's new owner too. Don't think mine was as severe as yours though. On TracEdges, you could clearly see that the trailing edge of one tread block was a different height to the leading edge of the next. I have seen it on other Discos as well. It wasn't severe enough to worry about, I always sold my second hand tyres after 40 - 50k miles so it wasn't hurting tyre life too much. I guess it's a combination of tyre/spring/shock/vehicle weight. Adjust one of those enough and it might go away. Of course, you'll have to drive several thousand miles to spot any improvement, so it could be a long job As Fridge says, it was a well known complaint on Freelanders, IIRC Land Rover changed the tyre type to reduce the problem, and eventually changed the rear diff ratio (And that on vehicles before the VC siezes up!)

This might be worth a look too... http://sourceforge.net/projects/libwbus/ It's a library of software modules for talking on the wbus. The notes in the wbtool download say :- "This is a compiled version of the wbtool utility included in the sources of the libwbus. If you want to play with your Heater without bothering compiling anything, this is what you want." You'll probably have to install cygwin to get it to run. It looks to still be current (updated recently).

I think the 1533 timer is the oval one? If so, then yes it has a w-bus output, which is active, and didn't appear to be a very complex protocol (though it's 4 years since I looked at it) so it could be faked fairly easily. I think I have a 1533 with a dead display somewhere... will have a look later today.

IIRC there are two more with a remote main gearbox...

It's good practice to run away from one operating above it

Just the small issue of reliably (and cheaply) providing 20A ignition current at 24V without dipping below the 21V low voltage lockout and shutting the unit down. Possibly frig the wiring to power the glowplug direct from 12V (and fit 12V glowplug), since it's live side switched with a relay. The technical manual says there is a series resistor feeding the glowpug on the 24V version, so that may need to be removed also. Hopefully, the unit either doesn't really current sense the glowplug (just continuity), or the limits are wide enough that it works anyway.

I looked at this briefly with MikeTomcat, some time ago. I think the electronics is easy enough, the obvious potential problems are fan motor and glowplug. IIRC It monitors glowplug current to work out if it's lit or not, so you might not be able to just stick a 12v glowplug in. Also, the current draw at ignition makes it tricky to use a 12>24V converter (if you are using the ones I think you are... we tried it already!). You could possibly switch in a small motorcycle battery to get 24V long enough to get it up and running? You also need to fool the interlocks in the electronics - there is a low voltage shutdown - presumably for convenience and safety. Simplest of all, use the 12>24 converter to charge 2 small motorcycle batteries, and run the heater from them. or 24V worth of those surplus D cell nicads you had? You could even get enough current for ignition from 24V of AA nicads, but I'm not sure if the terminal voltage would hold up enough. £20 at maplins. Good AA nicads used to be good for 400A short circuit, assume NiMH aren't much different. Workshop manuals are all available for free download... ISTR the D1L and D1LC are the same size, but the L hass a bunch of relays and stuff in its' wiring loom, LC has it internally. If you do get stuck in, I have a 12V LC for comparison, but I will need it back... the shed gets cold in winter! In all, it may be easier to sell on eblag at the right time, with a decent advert, and put the money into a single 12V one.

Wish I'd realised it was *this* weekend they were setting off... I've still got the HOFS satellite phone in bits on my bench!

Just to note, the Accumate is not foolproof - there are situations where it can get confused and do the wrong thing. I left mine for a few days charging a battery (it should charge it and then drop back to 'float' charge). Unfortunately, one dead cell confused the charger into running at full tilt continuously. When I came back to the workshop, there was a strange metallic smell in the air, and one very hot (and dry) battery. Not the chargers fault, I should have fitted the temperature sensor to the battery which would have reduced the current when the battery heated up. The battery was already stuffed, it wasn't damaged by the charger. Just to note, don't leave it unattended for long periods unless it's already dropped down to the float charge mode and stayed there (not switching back to 'absorption' occasionally). Agree it's an excellent charger though.

I think that's possibly the wrong instruction booklet, ie from a later / more expensive unit. The original 'Tachostrobe' was one of those incredibly clever bits of design elegance, which just didn't bloody work. The knob moves a pivot point up and down a length of springy metal bar, chaninging it's length. When you pull the trigger to run the strobe, it 'twangs' the springy bar like a skool ruler, and just like that ruler, the note changes according to the length. Some backscatter light from the strobe lamp shines past the arm onto a plastic prism on the top of the unit. If the rpm of the engine matches the setting n the rpm knob, then the image of the bar in the prism stays still. If too fast or slow, it moves across the prism. Very clever. Very elegant. Impossible to use, IME. Just ignore it, and use as a normal timing light with fixed advance.

I keep a set in my (electronics) toolbox for work. Lots of stainless M3 pozis that always get the heads chewed off by clumsy assemblers. Won't tell the clients where I got them though. As the old joke goes...$1 for the chalk mark, $19999 for knowing where to put it