Snagger

The boost diaphragm has atmospheric pressure on its underside. St high altitude, this pressure would drop and it would be easier to turbo boost pressure to overcome and add more fuel, giving black smoke, but that should only happen once the turbo is spinning up, not at low rpm. It sounds like you need to retard the injection timing a little.

Check the distance between the aft face of the fork pads and the centre of the selector inhibitor pin is 18.2mm, critical on a suffix D.

Daan and Koos are absolutely right that an intercooler with no airflow, ie one with the fan and/or shroud removed and low vehicle speed, is doing little. As for its effect on EGT, I doubt it'd be much - for what inlet temperature drop it gives, it probably loses by adiabatic rise during compression of the denser air charge. I have no way of measuring or calculating any of that, but I suspect the effects are minimal.

The rumble was probably from having a bent rod in the first place, which has finally progressed to this failure. Hydraulicing an engine is a serious issue that needs proper investigation. It'll need new rockers and push rods, but as often as not needs new con rods too. This is what happens if the parts are not replaced. At least the failure occurred in a way that didn't cause an accident and Mrs P is OK.

For a single trip, buying snow tyres will be expensive. Renting may be more efficient. If you are going to be driving a variety of surfaces including but not limited to snow and only want to use one set, or if you plan to have your own tyres and use them before/after the trip, then BFG ATKOs are a reasonable tyre. They are clearly not going to be effective as a dedicated snow tyre, but they will be good elsewhere and are long living. I have found them to give very good grip on British roads in snow and ice (albeit only to a depth of up to 6"), far better than the snow-flake adorned Hankook ATs on my RR and Michelin ATs fitted by LR to my wife's D90 (all 235s). In fact, my BFG shod 109 handles snow and ice better than either of those vehicles, despite them both having permanent 4wd, ABS and ETC, and that can only be due to the tyres. The BFGs are stamped M+S (mud and snow), so should satisfy legal requirements (the EU use a snowflake symbol, while these US tyres us lettering), but it's worth checking with the Norwegian authorities and your insurers. As for tyre width, I would suggest keeping the standard 235 unless you are going to do a lot of driving on virgin snow, in which case bigger tyres will help you float. Fat tyres on compact snow, ice or wet roads reduces the pressure on the footprint and thus the friction, so fat tyres will be more likely to result in a loss of traction. I would suggest that 235/85 BFG ATs with a set of chains would eb a very flexible, capable and economical setup, but I would defer to the Scandinavians who are expert on this.

If you had a lack of air but full fuel delivery, yo'd have plenty of black smoke on full throttle. The lack of any smoke at all suggests the opposite - good air delivery but poor fuel metering. The boost diaphragm is a good suspect, as Mav said - I have just had exactly this on my 200 and a 1-2mm split resulted in no fuel response to turbo pressure. It drove smoothly and reliably, but down on performance and with no smoke at all, even at full load. I have to fit the new diaphragm (£20 from DieselBob Tuning, incl post), but the temporary Tiger Seal repair on the damaged diaphragm is holding after two weeks, so as a short temporary measure you can do that id the split is small. I also had a very similar issue with my 300 RRC before I took it off the road. It was the horizontal pin that the cone on the bottom of the diaphragm plunger acts on - these sometimes dry out and stick in the pump case. To free it off, remove the throttle quadrants and the circular plug in the front face of the tower just behind the quadrants, and open the top cover of the tower, note the position of the spot on the diaphragm's silver disc, and remove the plunger and diaphragm complete (can be difficult if the plunger is seized in position against the plunger's cone), then use a soft drift and a very light tool like a toffee hammer to tap the pin free. Lubricate with grease and reassemble, reinserting the plunger and diaphragm in the original positions (if you have disturbed the disc relative to the plunger or forget its position, then the cone at the bottom usually has a witness mark from running on that pin).

110 windows do rattle, but it's simple to fix. The rattles are from the sliding pane rattling in the plastic lower channel (the top and front are felt). You could replace the lower channel with rubber channel from a company like Woollies Trim, or just add a few wedges between the glass and plastic (bits of black cable tie work well and are invisible) if you rarely open the windows. A long strip of plastic, or even cloth, glued in along the length of one side of the channel would be a better solution that would cure the rattle and allow the window to be opened, which is very helpful to rear passengers (or for leaving dogs in the car if you add window mesh guards) in summer.

I have had minor faults on a 200 and a 300 Tdi that resulted in full boost from the turbo but no fuel response to that boost - the 200 had a tiny split in the pump diaphragm and the 300 had a seized pin that the the diaphragm plunger works on. In both case, power and torque were down, but fuel economy was good and there was no trace of smoke at full throttle. Engine coolant and oil temperatures were slightly reduced. So, you could reduce the boost by adjusting the waste gate actuator, or you could just blank off the boost line from the turbo to the injection pump if performance is not an concern. It makes the vehicle sluggish compared to normal, but swifter than the old normally aspirated engines.

I don't think you'll have to do anything but turn down the boost fuelling a tad to avoid smoking excessively at full throttle. That's an easy enough job - undo the four screws that hold the top of the boost tower on the injection pump, note where the dimple is on the silver disc in relation to the pump, then pull the disc, diaphragm and plunger up and out to look at the cone on the bottom, and then reinsert it with the cone in a position where it is slightly flatter rather than heavily tapered. You may ned to adjust it a few times to get it right, but you really just want a little thin black smoke at full throttle, not completely clear and not thick smuts...

I'd recommend black.

I have had two kits, and lined the back of my 109 in chequer plate patterned matching material from him (comes in 8x4' rolls). It's pretty effective at noise reduction, though some additional matting over the gear box and the tops of the foot wells would be of benefit, and looks exceptionally tidy. It's also very robust. Don't use proprietary car cleaning products to clean it, just use warm water with a little washing up liquid - the silicone based car products leave a residue which over years creates a brown laquer that is a hell of a job to scrub off. I used a scrubbing brush and brake cleaner to get it off, and the matting has come up like new.

The catcher rings sit on the inside of the brake back plate, bolted through using the same six bolts that hold the back plate and stub axle to the axle case. They sit around the inboard end of the hub and catch centrifugally thrown oil, allowing it to drain to the bottom of the cavity inside the catcher ring, where it is directed away safely via a drilled hole at the bottom of that void to the other side of the back plate and through a slot in the bottom edge of the stub axle flange, so that it can dribble harmlessly down the visible side of the back plate. I would expect the rings from any post 1980 axle, including 90/110 rear axles, to fit. You may need to drill and slot the backplates and stub axles accordingly.

The Woolies track is good for the top edge, but not so good in the corners and on the vertical edge - it buckles and jams the windows. I've bough some of the original LR felt to redo those sections, leaving the Woolies track just on the top and maybe a few spots along the bottom (if it''ll fit) to replace a few bits of the plastic lower track that cause the glass to rattle.

Doesn't sound unreasonable if the engine is idling with no load.

They're well inside the weight limit - think of a fully laden Discovery with three pax in the second row and another two on dickie seats in the back, and that's a load of 400kg+ on the rear axle. A pair of axles weigh less than that.

If you need that much steering wheel movement to start displacing the road wheels, you have severe wear or slack in the system and it should be very easy to find. It sounds to me like the PAS box is worn. Tracking should be 1.2 to 2.4mm toe out at the rim. 1mm toe out at the tyre shoulder is too little and will not help your handling.

The fan idler shaft bearings also fail, but are special and come already fitted to the timing cover. remove the belt and check for play and squeaks. The water pumps are also squeak prone when the coolant is cold.

I have a '95 Tdi with R380. While it's good for me in the UK, fuel prices being what they are, I think the others are right - keep yours a V8; the LSE models are just too heavy for the Tdi, which is hardly sprightly even with the R380, let alone the ZF transmission. The V8 has better power and torque and is a little more comfortable to drive, so an LPG conversion of that would be preferable to a Tdi. I would also have said to keep the standard suspension and Borg Warner unit as they make the vehicle drive so much better, but if you're using it for rock crawling, then the LT230 may be better. Make sure you get the LT230Q with the quieter gears and 1.22 ratio, not the Defender 1.4 ratio or earlier 1.6 ratio.

It won't spin freely, just turn with constant light pressure from your fingers. Should lock up when hot.

Some resistance, but easy to turn.

That's very clever!

I have had similar issues. It's the injection pump. Diesel Bob Tuning did mine and I have been very pleased with them since.

Wheel bearings, brake disc and joint are the things I'd check, especially the latter.

I can't say I've noticed a major change in vent effectiveness whether I have my bonnet mounted spare wheel fitted or not, and that must disrupt airflow more than the humped late bonnet. It does have an effect on the windscreen washer jets, though.

Chelsea, you can use a second hand chassis and the parts from the older vehicle together, but you need a Vihicle Identity Check and a Q plate with a new VIN at the end of it. Wht is utterly illegal is to use either the TD5's or the older vehicle's identity. The ebay sellers in the posts above are clearly acting criminally to aid ringing.