Snagger

The reduction in air density from not using an intercooler does not affect the fuel pump or injection quantities at all. Any unburnt fuel will result in black smoke, and this will only happen when the engine is labouring hard - while cruising, the fueling backs off and the engine runs cleanly and efficiently. In theory, you may find a tiny increase in fuel consumption, but this is only because the small reduction in performance whilst accelerating or pulling hard at maximum torque will result in slightly later gear changes, but that will be immeasurably small. The intercooler helps with performance, but it's the direct injection that makes the engine efficient.

I have found their electrical stuff OK and their CV joints are very good (especially for the price), but their seals, bearings and hydraulic components are utter carp. I view their brake components as dangerous.

Yep, it was me talking about the mounting rubbers. They're not special - they're just Bearmach 200Tdi mountings, but they seem to be of a better grade rubber that damps the vibration considerably more than the mountings I bought anywhere else, including Gen Parts, hence my recommendation of Glencoyne as a source. Running without an intercooler will slightly reduce performance at high boost (due to the adiabatic temperature rise not being reduced, resulting in a lower air density for the same boost pressure). It will probably also result in a bit more black smoke as the fuel boost will be throwing in the standard amount of extra fuel in response to the air pressure, but there will be a little less oxygen to burn it with because of that density loss. Turning down the fuel boost response a tad would cure that. The performance loss would be minimal with Series gear ratios, though you might notice it if you have 3.54 diffs. Unless you use the original fan, rad, intercooler and shroud together (next to impossible without chassis mods), the intercooler will not get any fan airflow and will only be effective at high speed from direct airflow, so the intercooler is not terribly effective in most retrofits except on the motorway. My electric fan has never cut in automatically except when climbing the Alps in the height of summer. You'll be OK over winter without one, but as I always maintain to those who advocate running without fans, you'd be a damned fool to leave it that way for the summer. A 14" electric fan from any of the mail order companies is all you need, and the X-fan switch and hose unit from X-Eng is a good way of acheiving automatic switching (far neater and more reliable than the capillary controllers that come with such fan kits), though I'd advise fitting a manual overide switch to activate the fan in case the thermostatic switch fails or to pre-empt temperature rises on long climbs. Mounted directly to the rad with the supplied plastic ties, you can expect rad damage. Fix them to the rad surround or front panel, not the rad itself.

Have a close look at my engine bay (on my blog). You'd be able to do the same but retain the SIII rad and use a Series oil cooler with the standard front panel if you ignore the intercooler. You might be able to squeeze a 300 intercooler infront of the rad, set to the left of the oil cooler. You're welcome to come up and have a good look at how I've done it and come along for a drive, if you wish. It'll give you an idea of the noise levels with the WOR matting, too. It might still be a bit high at 60mph+ for what you seem to want, though 3.54 diffs with overdrive will fix that.

That's a bit of an un-necessary jibe at a fair question, and the truth is that a lot of insurers are theives. They know every scam in the book and many will use every trick to raise your premium and wriggle out of a claim. Yes, they are businesses, not charities, but when they are durectly involved in scams by selling details of accidents to litigation companies and selling personal information to third parties, then that is clear corruption. The general policy of insurers only allowing a driver to have NCD on one car and the other car being charged at a full premium is completely illogical and is nothing to do with calculated risks - it's plain money-grubbing greed - they assume that since you own two vehicles, you must have money to spare and they want as much of it as they can get, and given that insurance is mandatory, it's essentially extortion..

My Marsland chassis is 3mm, but it's a 109 - maybe their Defender chassis were made to standard spec, or maybe they're cutting costs recently? 2mm shoould be alright though - it was fine for the MoD and the Camel Trophy.

The bearing seats look ok to me, but I'm not so sure about the seal lands. You might get away with using grease rather than oil on the seal, though. I'm next rostered to Malta on the 7th July, so I'll try to take a closer look at Siggiewi then (but we tend to be a bit busy when were that low down ). I notice that there are a lot of firework displays on again. You guys go nuts for them! I'd love to meet up for a coffee, but we only spend 25 minutes on the apron before we head back out!

That's for the overdrive model I already have (SX) - I would imagine the combined over/underdrive will be more. But the cost of 3.9 crowns and pinions for a Rover and a Dana diff would probably not be much less, and would be a lot less flexible and would lose out on the very high cruising ratio. It looks like an eye watering price, but it's all relative...

I had one stub axle (front end) which had worn on the top side of the inner bearing seat, probably about .1mm, and had a patina on the underside of the outer bearing, but no discernible material loss. The seal land was perfect, but despite a couple of Gen Parts hub overhaul kits (new brgs and seals), I couldn't stop a slow weep which contaminated the brakes. I put that wear pattern down to having offset wheels, which is why I don't recommend them or wheel spacers. Speedi-sleeves was what I was thinking of, but I couldn't remember the name. And yes, I come to Luqa quite often (like tomorrow morning, and had been rostered for Wednesday too) - I drive 73s for the Irish mafia out of Luton. Where do you live Grem? I'll have a look out for it...

I'm keepingt he3.54s on my axle swap, but I had been seriously considering fitting the 4.71 diffs to those axles. I still might do that if I find the 3.54s too tall. I'd like to have gone for 3.9 diffs - Dana make the gears that would fit the Salisbury and KAM make 3.9 gears for Rover diffs, but it'd be damned expensive. I don't like the 4.71s - they're too low with a Tdi, even with the overdrive, so I'll see how I get on. If the 3.54s are worse, then I'll swap the gears for the lder ones and save up for 3.9s. At least that would also give me a standard SIII low ratio, having already fitted lower low range gears. Alternatively, I might see how much Global Roamer (the new name of Roverdrive) sell their over/underdrive for when it is launched (It was an idea Ray was kicking about when I last spoke to him) to replace my Roverdrive, which would give enormous flexibility with the 3.54s.

I'd guess at a worn A-frame ball joint or spline wear on the gear box main shaft/ transfer box input gear. The former isn't a big deal, but the latter is.

Once holes start appearing in the chassis, they will continue to do so more rapidly. You will spend the cost of a chassis in a few short years and have a weak patchwork mess that will still need replacement a while later. Outriggers are one thing, but once main rails or dumb irons are going, it's telling you that the chassis' days are numbered.

Remember that while an OD gives a 28% gearing increase, 3.54 diffs give roughly 35% - it's a much bigger increase. Ashcroft's high ratio transfer case uses standard low gears but taller high gears, about 30-32% if I recall correctly, and like the OD, the don't affect speedo callibration. That's still to tall for NADs, but worth considering for punchier engines where you want to leave low ratio unaffected and don't like the added complexity or weak link of an overdrive, and it's a fraction of the cost too.

How bad is the wear on the bearing seat? If there's much of a step the hub will run off centre and the seal will leak (been there...). You could ask an engineering workshop if they couls sleeve the corroded seal land for you - there are slip-on bands made for the very purpose where the surface of the part is turned down slightly and the band then sweated on to give a new surface of the same diameter. Failing that, I could keep my eyes open at Billing for you and bring it down to Malta next time I fly in (or get a colleague to do it for me) and ask the ground staff to take it through to you at the arrivals meeting point... I'll ask the staff when I'm there on Tuesday morning.

A bulkhead replacement is not much less work than a chassis replacement, so you may as well go for it. It'll give you peace of mind, less maintenance hassle and, more importantly better safety, for years.

Sorry!

Yep, but it's slightly trickier than it seems - you have to move the pinion in a little as well as moving the crown wheel towards the pinion to keep the mesh points the same. If you just move the crown wheel across (by adjustingt he diff carrier bearings), then thegears will mesh slightly diffently and could howl. However, like you said, there won't be much wear on the back sides of the teeth, which will become the driving side as it moves to the front axle,and there won't be much torque applied at high speed (because that's normally in 2wd), so setting it up like a new axle should work well enough.

They will fit, but you'll have to position them carefully, especially if they have head rests. They're quite reasonable for short trips and are convenient as a compromise for vehicles that are used for load carrying, but they're narrow for adults, don't give an enormous amount of head room and are quite vertical. they don't give vast amounts of lateral support as their side bolsters are small. If you plan to use them frequently for longer trips, have a look at how I fitted a pair of Defender front seats as a second row pair to my 109 - it's all on my blog, along with how I set up my seat belts.

Swap the diffs over then! The front diff doesn't wear much because it spends most of its time idling, with the road wheels turning it and the only resistance the prop UJs and 4wd front casing's bearings and oil. The rear is driving all the time, though, so gets the most wear.3.54 diffs are too tall for a 10J (2.25 nad) or 12J (2.5 nad), as you'll never have enough torque to reach cruising speed and even pulling out at a junction would become difficult. An overdrive is far better, allowing you to cruise at lower rpm, saving fuel but also making a more comfortable drive. With a 2.5, my 109 would do 60mph on level road (with no significant headwind) with the OD engaged, and that's with a big roof rack and bullbar with lots of spot lights, a spare on the bonnet and four mudflaps, all creating a lot of drag. The 10J should manage the same on a "clean" Series vehicle without bother.

Really? My standard had brake won't pull to the top of the ratchet anymore, now that the tansmission stays where it should, and I can park on a 1:8 slope with ease (I haven't found anywhere marked steeper, but had no trouble off road on steeper inclines in the Alps, either). I suppose if you do a lot of wading, then a disc brake has the advantage of being self cleaning, but for most users, the tie rod is all that's needed.

With airport taxes getting silly, traditional foreign holidays are going to eb a thing of the past for a lot of people and a rarity for others. Domestic holidays or driving to/around the continent will be more common, and what better to do it in that a converted 109 ambulance?

Who keeps telling you to leave it? That's poor advice as autos gradually cook their ATF. You should remove the sump and clean or replace the filter, too, if it hasn't been done recently.

Fair enough! At least you still have a proper bulkhead with vent flaps!

I've never driven a 2.6 - my only experience of one was a friend's 109 twenty years ago, and his was plagued with reliability issues. I'm under the impression that they're more temperamental than the 4cyls, especially the cooling system, but hat once correctly set up, they're a great drive. As far as improving their perfomance is concerned, I've heard of the use of different manifolds and carbs, and possibly a different cam shaft, from another application of the same base engine. The name Westlake rings a bell.

If the fuel injection is a little retarded, it results in blueish white smoke when cold and a reduction in performance, but it also makes starting much easier. Advancing the injection a little to much gives significant black smoke on full throttle, a harsh engine note (a bit of a bark), lessened performance, higher running temperatures under load and more difficult starting. The timing should be set that you get just a little black smoke at full throttle and just a trace of harshness when going from low rpm to full throttle under drive (ie not in neeutral with the bonnet up!). Slack in the timing chain or skew gear and drive on 10Js causes a lot of timing trouble, so check the condition of those parts if you are having any inconsistent behaviour or trouble setting accurate timing.