Quagmire

Steve, i think that's the drain hole between engine and box, normally is a threaded hole in bellhousing (never looked under an auto though).

Fitted a set of these two weeks ago - basically the same as what Marks110 said above, they fit with a bit of podging. The turrets I took off were only 4 years old and were shot to pieces- the paint had given up and then held water behind it, looked like they had been at the bottom of the sea! The galvanise is not the prettiest, and inside looked distinctly rough and slaggy, but I reckon that they have got to outlast the painted ones anyway so were worth a punt.

Not as far around as you need to go, but there is a Total filling station in Addlestone (just off junction 11) that sells LPG. Was 74.9ppl when I filled up a couple of hours ago. Further out of the way is the Sainsburys at Cobham, but to get to this you'd need to head up the a3 very slightly from junction 10 of the M25. That has been at 76.9ppl recently and is where I usually fill up. Slightly further round I can't help I'm afraid as I never go that way

You'll need SAER30J9 spec hose I think in order to survive the alchohol content of modern unleaded.

Dunno about diesels but I will say that you have made the best first move possible to keep her running in tip-top fashion by posting on here - lots of knowledgeable people around - they are usually a friendly bunch too. Change all fluids as a first step- and keep a note of when you did them. That way you know all has been done and when. Diffs - drain is on the bottom, filler should be on the front face of the axle casing. Just refill until the oil starts to come out the filler plug hole. Top tip- don't drain any fluids until you have proven that you can undo the filler first! EP90 goes in diffs/axles, swivels and transfer box. ATF Dexron III (Red, fishy smelling stuff) goes in the main gearbox. Have fun!

+1 for oil. I just rebuilt a Disco axle for my 90. One side had oil in, the other had one shot. The oil side was lovely, easy to inspect and clean and everything was in good order. The one shot side was in worse condition (needed to replace ball, and bearings didnt look great, especially top one). On top of that it was a right bugger to clean everything off and is quite possibly the greasiest I have ended up whilst working on my LR's. Even when you think you have cleaned it all out there will still be some lurking in some thread somewhere to pop out and get you when you are least expecting it/ wearing your sunday best.

Chuckle!

When I used to work for a gearcutting firm we also did driveshafts and things, the ones for people like Lola etc were usually made of S155.

Is it definitely smoke and not just water vapour? My V8 will emit vapour if idling for any length of time - it looks like its just been started. First noticed it one day when the a3 came to a grinding halt and didn't move for quite some time...

Does anyone have any tips on getting the bottom nuts on the front shockers? I dont have quite enough thread to get the nut started and so need to compress the bottom most bush somehow... Any tips? Cheers

One more thing was when I took the tops off I deliberately turned on the ignition to run the fuel pump. With the top, spring, piston and needle removed you can see the jet orifice. I was able to verify that there was not a float problem as you would either expect to see fuel coming out the overflow, or pumping up out the jet hole. I had neither of these things happening. Also - how did you set the mixture up? With the top removed you should set the jet height to be flush with the body, then wind it down 2 turns. This will get you running and you can go from there. I use the bottom end of a set of vernier calipers to make sure each jet is set equally at first. You will probably need to lean off a lot from this initial setting to get through emissions...

My 3.5 is on SU's and did this a little while ago. I normally run on LPG but ran out and so switched to petrol for the first time in ages. It was throwing out black smoke and would not idle. Giving it throttle it would bog down and stutter until the revs got pretty high and then it would take off like a scalded cat! I ended up taking the tops off, cleaning the dashpots throughly and refitting. New oil in the dashpots and all was well again. I think I had a piston sticking on one of the carbs.

Thanks bobtail, I already have one - a proper MS that is!

Was browsing the web and came across this article on a mgb with fuel injection: http://www.britishv8.org/MG/HenkJanVonk.htm Which mentions his "Megasquirt based" ECU. Further googling lead me to this: http://www.k-data.org/kdfi/kdfi-1-3.html So is this a licenced MS product then? Looks like they come prebuilt for specific German motors...

One shot is horrible stuff- You think you have removed it all and yet you still end up covered in it from a seemingly clean component...

Was following a very nice P- reg 90 south on a3 past Guildford today on my way home (was around 17:30). It was blowing a fair amount of blue smoke and I am not sure the driver realised - also the passenger side tail-light was out. Vehicle was a nicely resprayed 90, in a kind of brown/grey colour with a black roof, gunmetal boost alloy on the rear door and black tinted windows. Also rear crossmember had black chequerplate attached. I last caught sight of it turning right at the Shephard and Flock Roundabout (Farnham a31). If anyone knows the owner can they please let them know? Cheers

So are all the suspension bushes new front and rear? If not then that could conceivably give you a wander. Steering not centering as said above likely to be too high preload, I did the very same thing once when I tried to guesstimate it on my 90.

I have still not implemented my own MS1 installation fully yet (is only running ignition) so probaby not the best to comment, but from what I have read it would seem that piggybacking is the easiest way forward. That way the original ECU thinks it is still in charge, but in fact is doing nothing to control your fuelling or spark. One thing that may happen (i think) though is that the factory ECU trims fuelling from a standard base map to suit over time. These trim settings may end up out of whack if the system is trying to trim fuelling and it is seeing these changes are having no effect, it'll try bigger changes and so on. This shouldnt be a problem though unless you try to run on the original ECU again, except perhaps it may eventually cause the systen to throw a warning light (thats just a guess though)?

When I did megajolt on my 3.5 it was available in kit form, and the price differential between it and megasquirt (kit) was quite high which at the time made it a good first step. However if there is any possibility that plan you to inject later, with mj no longer available as a kit I'd say you may as well fit megasquirt and use ignition only at first. Learning curve is a little steeper and there is more soldering, but with the info on here and the msextra site you should get there no probs.

Good point!

Damn, saw that too late! *edit - another couple - X-Fortress, X-Guard (These have probably been said too! )

X-oskeleton? Or the Irish version X-O'Skeleton Seriously now: X-Defender? (kind of relevant I guess) How much are these likely to be when they come out? I would like one.

On my 90 the rears are pretty shiny - it is my daily driver though and the rear calipers were rebuilt with stainless pistons so should be relatively trouble free (I hope). I have noticed though that they are never quite as good as the fronts, unless I have been towing at which point they seem to clean themselves right up...

Is hard to say what has gone on without taking the heads off - but first you could try the usual checks for compression, look at the plugs etc (are any wet/ any steam cleaned etc). The subject of RV8's doing horrible things is covered pretty comprehensively in various posts on here. Use google to search as it beats the mother out of the native forum search tool... With heads off it should be fairly obvious what has gone on. As to what went on with the seized/ running too freely thing I have no idea- someone with more RV8 experience will probably pipe up soon enough. For more v8 specific reading try www.v8forum.co.uk Good luck with it!

First of all how levers in total do you have? Do you have a red and yellow one? If you do, then you have a series gearbox setup which will be part time four wheel drive. Pull the red "ketchup" knob back for low ratio (which engages 4wd too), or push the yellow "mustard" knob to engage 4wd in high ratio. A series setup has no centre diff and so you should not engage 4wd unless you are on a slippery surface. To disengage 4wd then pull the red back (if its not already) and then push it forward again. the mustard knob will pop back up. If no mustard and ketchup levers, do you have 5 forward gears? If so, does the shorter lever move forward, backward, left and right? If it does, you most likely have an LT77 and an LT230 transfer box from a coil sprung LR. keep the short stick to the right and the center diff lock will be disengaged. I forget which way round hi-lo is but it will be obvious when you try to drive. The diff-lock fitted to coil sprung models only operates a centre diff in the transfer box, and not lockers on each axle as some people sometimes think.