Snagger

I had that with Britpart seals, which are too thick and too stiff. I had to get genuine seals, even they were a bit stiff initially, but they did fit. If you get no joy, you can use later Defender foam seals to the back of the flaps, which have the added benefit of not trapping water in the bulkhead pressings and the subsequent rust it causes. They tend to seal better, too.

Nothing inane about your questions, and by asking them, not only do you gain information, but others with similar but unasked queries. Sharing information and experience is what the forum is about! Search functions on here or on Google are helpful, but have their limitations, and I don't think anyone minds answering even the commonly asked questions.

While in principle the idea of replacing road tax with higher fuel duty seems very equitable, the drivers of heavy or theoretically polluting vehicles and those who use the roads most pay more than the occasional user of an efficient and small vehicle, it breaks down when a driver of a classic vehicle is penalised in tax as well as fuel cost for not driving a modern sewing machine. It gets even worse with electric vehicles - while I can agree that the use of electric vehicles in cities brings some benefits, should electric car drivers benefit from the rest of us paying all their taxes? Remember, a lot of people with older, less efficient cars can't afford new, while many of the electric owners have healthy finances.

I don't know about part numbers, but 300Tdi pulleys are all serpentine belt type, not Vee-belt, so useless on a 200Tdi. 200Tdi engines had three pulley configurations. Discovery normally has a single groove, but has a double groove for aircon equipped models. Defenders used the same triple belt pulley as the 19J (as it uses the same timing case, water pump, PAS pump and alternator mounting as the 19J).

Duty, tax, levy, charge, toll - same thing, bar some unimportant semantics.

Nothing quite so nasty looking! I am very averse to bright metal or coloured under-bonnet or under-vehicle fittings. Mann and Hummel Pro-vent are what I was thinking of.

Isn't that typical of too large a converter? I have a manual 300Tdi RRC. I love it. It doesn't have the lovely V8 sound, nor is it as sprightly, but it can easily keep up with traffic and is very comfortable in all environments and speeds (though it feels like it could do with a sixth gear for motorway cruising). I think elbekko is being a bit harsh on it - it does 90mph, 35-40mpg when laden, is very comfortable and extremely reliable, and that's without any mods or fiddling.

There's a 200-109 owner in Malta (Pat, aka Gremlin) that has very good results with after-market oil catchers. I've forgotten the brand (think it may have been Aussie or Canadian, beginning with M, but could be way off!), but he reckons it's very worthwhile, and drains back to the sump.

They do run so much more quietly and smoothly than Tdis. Their reliability is a pity, as they'd otherwise be ideal for Series retrofits.

I understand that, but take a look at the induction system of any Tdi and they tend to be very oily. The intercooler needs occasional removal and emptying. Mt 109's stays clean because I have a 19J filter system, including the connection with the breather hose. But that's also why I use a K&N filter (with the plastic vortex generator from a standard paper filter added).

One of the three 80" displayed on the launch of Land Rover at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show has been scooped up by LR for restoration at Solihull. Apparently, it spent over 20 years dead in a Welsh field, so it's a wonder it survived at all. It's amazing what turns up. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/classic/land-rover-1948-show-car-restored-missing-63-years/

Blanchard has good quality stock, but they're expensive!

You're right. They're next to useless, though.

You may be right, Fridge - I can't access mine to take any measurements. In fact, David is still storing the ZF for me because I haven't been able to get back with a car and transport it from Sommerset to home. I really don't know how much longer that transmission is compared to the Series unit. There would be plenty of space if willing to move the cross member behind the transmission further aft.

What I don't understand about this cyclonic breather, which is vert similar to that on Tdis, is that the inlet dumps to the middle of the chamber and the exhaust to the induction system is on the tangental edge port, where all the oil droplets are meant to be centrifugally thrown. It seems backwards.

I'm pretty sure that's right, but there is a company called Bustle About that specialises in refurbishing LR trim of all different specs, and I'm sure thats seats this simple would be very cheap to have re-covered.

You need to remove the lower column, but it's easy - undo the pinch bolts at each end and on the sliding joint and then slide them off the splines. Just remember to make alignment marks between UJs and the shafts.

A mechanic friend suggested that to me a long while back. My gut feeling is that it won't help, and could make things worse - the intercooler would reduce induction temperature but increase density. The compression stroke would then have increased adiabatic temperature rise, and the combustion stroke would burn more of the injected fuel. Which of those effects would be dominant would dictate whether the the intercooler affects longevity, but you'd need to try it on several engines of identical condition to get any useful data.

I usually go to the Pike St Brewery, Robbie, along with the crew, as that's not far from our hotel. Not bad, but always keen to see the locals' favourites! I quite like the idea of the 4.71s and 1.003 transfer box as that gives you very practical high range and extremely low low range, and also saving all the effort and cost of messing about about with the diffs and limiting the cost and work to installing the transmission, which you were already going to do. The only issue with that is the debate over the strength of the crown wheels, which should be OK unless you're going rock crawling, but pegging the front diff would cure that. Nige (HybridFromHell) is the frum diff guru and has plenty videos on diffs and shafts if you look up megasquirt.co.uk on youtube. The auto needs a specific flywheel housing, the flex plate, torque converter and fluid cooler system, so it's not a simple swap, but I'd imagine the parts from 200 and 300Tdi Discoverys would be as easy to come by over there as a short LT77 - I know V8s dominated sales there, but at least the Discoverys sold in reasonable numbers. The biggest snag may be the length - you'd probably be looking at fitting a Defender bonnet and front panel (use a wire grille and you can call it Stage 1 V8 panelling, so still authentic SIII for the purists). Apart from giving instantaneous gear changes that prevent loss of momentum off road (ideal for sand, deep mud or hills) and being impossible to stall on steep climbs, the ZF is the toughest gear box fitted as standard to Defenders/Discovery/RRC, and also cushions the rest of the transmission from shock loads, so that protects shafts and diffs well. I bought a 200 ZF with associated gubbins from a member on here, and the flywheel housing from another, with the hope of doing that mod in the future if it is viable from a tax point of view - I think it'd be a nice drive and certainly quieter, smoother, tougher and more reliable than the other options. Les Henson fit one in his 200Tdi 90 rebuild, though he hasn't yet replied to my question on how performance is affected by the manual to auto swap.

This guy seems to think the welds will cause cracks in the surrounding material. Welding them has its issues, but I suspect more to do with softening the shafts through annealing rather than making them brittle. However, I'd rather see the whole shaft subsequently baked and annealed for consistent heat treatment, rather than having localised heat from the welding and variations in hardness unaddressed. His grub screws to lock the shaft halves don't seem a bright idea - I can imagine them acting like cams, turning torque into thrust forces that will put the threaded joint into tension as well as overloaded shear.

I watched your youtube video about the three shaft types, Nige. Quite an education. The last sentence of the above interests me - does that mean the CV and sub shaft of the early Discovery type (domed drive flange with integrated stub) is stronger than the contemporary 90/110/Defender unit with thick drive flange and 23 spline CV with integrated stub? I had assumed the Defender version tougher but more expensive to produce, hence the RR and Disco having the other version. Are those two CV versions interchangeable with the same stub axle tubes and swivel housings? It's something that irks me, having the 110 rear axle and Disco front with mismatched hubs, and I presume there is no stub shaft that would allow the star type drive flanges to be fitted without replacing the CVs. Have you come to a decision on whether to continue the KAM fusible shaft production yet, anyway, or is it too early to decide?

Not if they are OK, but you'll need to clean them up and have a very close look for cracks, particularly hairline cracks. But, if they're not cracked, then you'll be in a very rare position. I bought a 12J from a fire damaged vehicle for rebuild, but came across a cheap Tdi before I did the 19J. I pulled the head out of curiosity and found each piston cracked clear across the crowns, wide enough to see daylight through the cracks, and that is pretty typical with one of these if it's burning oil. That head gasket failure is heading towards a valve push rod bore, which also acts as an oil drain. It could have been sucking oil into the bore on the induction stroke, but that's unlikely. Almost certainly, the compression and combustion strokes resulted in gasses being pumped into the push rod bore and thus the cam gallery and block, pressurising the block and causing heavy breathing with a lot of oil mist, and that'd be the source of the oil being burned. Happily, these engines have cast iron heads that are more resistant to gas erosion than the alloy heads of Tdis, so it should respond well to a skim, but check for cracks between the valve seats. Again, these heads are more tolerant than the Tdis', and cracks are more reparable. It's pretty normal for the pre-combustion chambers to have cracks emanating from their squared corners; don't worry about those unless they are more than half way to the edge of the outer diameter of the chamber piece or unless the chamber is loose in the head.

Regarding the engine mount clearance issue, I have 12J/19J mounting brackets on my engine, so I never ran into that problem. But I have hears from other sources, not just Glencoyne, that a little light grinding sorts the Series mounts out.

The Discovery LT230 with 4.71s would be quite low geared. That LT would be 1.22: vs the 1.15: of the Series, so with 4.71s and an LT77 which overdrives by around 20% compared to a Series' overdrives 28%, and I think you'd have a final ratio not far of standard Series without overdrive. The 1.22 LT would really need 3.9-4.1 diffs to give it similar final gearing in hihg as a Defender. The reason I say it's an expensive method is the cost of buying the C&P gears, which will come in at about $1000 new before even paying for fitting or getting the bearings, seals and other bits involved in building up diffs. That's a lot compared to just getting the right LT230 to start with. I did a few spread sheets on Ashcroft's gearing calculator to consider options for my 109, and the ZF with 1.2 transfer box gave very similar top gearing to the Series with overdrive, and by using 4.1 diffs, it'd come out very close to a standard Defender's 5th high. Because of my low range mod, my low range 1st with 4.1s would be close to a Defender's 1st low, too, if I remember correctly. It was just the ZF combination that had a much higher first low, no trouble going up with the torque converter, but could be an issue going down with the lost engine braking. A 1.002: LT230 (from a V8?) would fix that with 4.71 diffs, but I think they're pretty rare.

Discovery 200 has a green plastic ring, while the 300 has a yellow plastic rectangle end. The 200 type fits the block with an olive and male threaded sleeve, while the 300 type has a rubbur o-ring and us pressed into a plain drilling, held in place only by the upper bracket.