Snagger

I was judging off the front wing being uncut under the spats, which makes me suspect articulation is very limited. Certainly, the stiffer and lower suspension this will need will have less flex than a standard Defender, so it’s ability off road is compromised, even if it’s good on a comp safari track. I have no issue with people making it or buying it - it all helps people keep jobs and folk can spend their money on whatever makes them happy. I just don’t understand the point of such a compromised vehicle, not race car nor off roader nor utility. I can’t see them being used in competition like the original Bowlers, which serve a purpose. But some people can’t understand why we like Land Rovers generally, being content with an efficient but utterly dull euro box...

Thanks. So far, the group I’m in looks like it’ll be ok, though we lost 200 in June (they were all folk with a target painted on their backs by management for some perceived transgression). But yes, a lot of colleagues are in it up to the eyeballs, and the same with several friends back in the uk and Hong Kong in the same job. The travel industry is a bit squiffy at the moment!

I bought a Fairey overdrive via Gazzar last year, but there is a lot of insecurity in the company at the moment (another 400 of my peers got put on 12 months unpaid leave two days ago, joining 1500+ previously made redundant since June, plus all the other staff in other roles), so I can’t really justify the spend on an item I intended merely as a project and don’t plan to later use. I do want to build up a front diff for my 109, though, and already got two good late Discovery diffs locally for a total of £40, a 4.1 gear set from Nige for £100 and plan to get an ATB (many of you replied to my daft questions about which to go for), hopefully early next year. We’re not in lockdown out here, but getting the parts back from the UK is going to be difficult as I won’t be able to come and collect them!

Just so much innuendo there...🤭

Free play on the pedal means the master cylinder should depressurise and the slave cylinder back off, but it doesn’t guarantee that the release bearing will not be pressed against the pressure plate fingers - if the release bearing sleeve was too long, then that pressure could be present. What you need to check is some free play on the fork push rod from the slave before fitting the slave in place (with the rod clipped to the fork, so you’re actually checking for play in the fork and thus the release bearing not being pressed up against the fingers).

I may be mistaken, but I understand the perception to be that the 200 is the less refined but more robust engine, though the 300 has a better oil pump.

200 heads tend to be more resilient, so don’t need replacement as often. 300 heads are reputed to warp or crack more often.

Yep, the LR ones were overpriced but sold well anyway, and this is a much more thoroughly developed vehicle. It’ll sell, but I agree with Red that it’s crazy money for a vehicle that has had its primary focus of being an off road utility vehicle hobbled. This may have impressive numbers and very high performance for a Defender, but only for a Defender - proper race vehicles will be way faster, and a lot of them cheaper too. I don’t see the point either. Still, it’s their money...

That seems likely. I’m not sold on the rear lights, either, but the designer’s explanation for them does make some sense. They may grow on me - I hated the Discovery 3 when it was launched, but it became less ugly with time. These lights are mild by comparison.

The thing is, how many of us are surprised by this? I was expecting more instances of this sort of thing, and I suspect it is happening, but the motoring press have been charmed and decided to favour this model, so I strongly suspect the reliability issues will be hidden or at least not reported from a combination of bias, personal benefits for journalists, and them not wanting to admit their gushing praise was ill founded. I’ll bet there are many hundreds, even thousands of normal owners with no voice and no clout being given the runaround over faulty Pretenders.

Diesel mixed with soot does look and feel oily. The photo of the exhaust manifold in place but induction manifold removed shows quite the soot stain on the no.4 foot of the exhaust manifold. Diesel could get through the cylinders to the turbine housing on the first start up, where the fuel system is purging and the injection happening with too poor a pressure and pattern to ignite, so Red may be on the money.

The steering won’t be a precise as a road car, and the brakes will feel a bit heavier on the pedal, but if the steering is heavy, notchy or has play, or if the brakes or clutch have dead bands and are anything less than sharp and positive, it is faulty. The reputation Land Rovers have for vague steering and poor braking is ENTIRELY due to neglect and laziness of the owners bad mouthing them.

I just bought a set of Continental CCs for my XC90 a fortnight ago. So far so good. They have much better grip than the Dunlop X50s they replaced, and the Pirelli’s before them, and will cope with the winter rains better than the very dry-biased tyres that dominate here.

30 miles won’t burn off any oil spilled on the outside or left over from assembly. You do need to keep an eye on levels, though, as that will tell you if you’re burning it. I think the oil cooler is more important than the intercooler, and I’d recommend you fit one urgently. Mike said on his Brit Rest videos that while the 200 and 300 composite head baskets are the same, the multi layer steel gasket is suitable for the 300 only because of the repositioning and smaller size of the oilway for the head feed not matching the drilling positions in the 200 head. I don’t know if he’s right or not, but I hope he’s wrong or that it was an odd batch or supplier he had as that is what I have on my 200, supplied by the engineering shop when I collected the rebuilt head from them. Could be an expensive mistake.

I was about to suggest that!😀

You need to find an honest tester, then. It might be worth reporting that one to VOSA for fraud.

I must have always underrated art - apparently it does save lives!

On my 109, the BFGs last over 90k (miles). On the RRC, they manage about 50, because of the viscous unit in the Borg Warner scrubbing them a bit on tight turns - mine got used a lot for town driving. It had no problem with grip, but it’s a Tdi, so doesn’t have the performance elf the big V8s.

Evolution is still happening. I read an article last week about changes in the last 100 years, and the number of people who grow wisdom teeth has dropped massively in that time, and most people now have weaker, smaller jaws. There has also been a change in the skeletal structure of the feet, with more small bones or differently assorted small bones. A third artery in the fore arm that exists in foetus but normally disappears is now increasingly common in adults, again changed in the last few decades. Quite surprising. They put the common weakness of the jaw down to better cooked and softer food not needing so much chewing. The smaller jaw doesn’t accommodate wisdom teeth, but they’re no longer needed. They didn’t explain the feet. Looking around British town centres on a weekday, I think we can see a strong case for HG Wells’ idea that humanity would evolve into two species, the Eloi and Morlocks...

That’s it. Seal parts 2 and 3 together with sealant, then used more sealant on the flange of part 2 to the wing and secure it with its hidden screws. Then fit the snorkel. That is the same type I installed on the TDCI. The foam gasket is not permeable and is thick and sturdy enough to form a good waterproof seal. If you don’t have a gasket, then you can either fabricate one from neoprene sheet or you can use more RTV sealant, but the latter does make the snorkel a permanent fixture.

Mantec products rusted in weeks through their powder coating. The problem was not the powder coat itself but the complete lack of metal preparation - they didn’t descale, de-rust or even clean the metal, and they never demurred the edges of stamped parts like window grilles, so the covering was compromised from the start.

I think that is for the ABS.

There’s lots of money to be made from safety regulation.

My BFG ATKOs had much better grip on wet and wintry roads, including treacherous frosty block paving, than the road biased Michelins fitted by LR to my wife’s 2009 90, and I could brake far harder with those with no ABS than she could with her ABS and I still wouldn’t skid. The same type BFGs were also very good on my RRC. I think they’re an excellent tyre. I haven’t tried their ATKO2.

The factory intake can easily be waterproofed with RTV sealant. Remove it, bond the two parts together, bond it to the inside of the wing and the foam gasket of the snorkel will seal the base of the snorkel to the outside of the wing (use more RTV if you don’t have a thick enough gasket). Make sure the rest of the system’s joints are tight and sealed and it’s done. You shouldn’t need any custom parts. I did the above on my 200Tdi 109, using the factory intake and a plastic Mantec snorkel, and on my wife’s TDCI 90 with a Safari snorkel. The latter was more difficult to waterproof because of the duct connection to the filter casing being such a loose fit - it needed a lot of RTV, it it worked.