Eightpot

It's quite possible the bulb on the choke/glowplug lamp is faulty. Turn the key till battery/oil lights come on, then turn the key a little more against the spring pressure to activate the glow plugs. If the orange 'choke' light doesn't come on, look for the battery/oil illumination lamps going dimmer as the glow plugs suck the current away7 Hold the key in this position for at least 20 seconds, then turn key a bit more till starter fires up. And do not press the accelerator pedal - the fuel pump has an inbuilt cold start device which doesn't work if you hold the pedal down. If it is still struggling to start, check you are getting voltage to the glow plugs, if thats ok you need to replace the plugs, which are only cheap.

You would need a short bellhousing R380 box, this will drop straight in. regular Defender r380 boxes & disco boxes have a longer bellhousing, which would mean you would need to move the engine forward. Not easy to find, but theres one on ebay at the moment. edit - sorry, still a bit bleary eyed this morning, didn't spot the disco box already fitted.

The TDi is an excellent engine, very strong and will last for well over 350,000Kms if you look after it.

haven't noticed, but I have a reconditioned LHD steering box for sale if you are having problems?

I have used both engines, and can confirm that the Frontera 2.8 is more powerful than the standard Isuzu lump and a Defender TDi by a good margin. Main differences between Isuzu and Frontera lump are the vacuum controlled EGR kit on the Frontera - can all be pulled of and dumped, the oil filter/cooler housing on the frontera sits further back, I swapped the frontera one for the Isuzu one to clear bulkhead better. Inlet manifold is different design - again I retained the Isuzu one as it looks like it flows much better than the frontera one.

Have you tried Equicar for a replacement engine? They are a big 4x4 breakers near Wolverhampton, well worth a try.

Could try Halesowen Engines Ltd, long standing firm with a good reputation, I've used them in the past and was pleased.

I had this happen a couple of years ago when I took a 90 for a mot at a halfords test centre. Failed on a few points, did the work, returned the car for retest a few days later. A very apologetic chap came through from the workshop and said they also needed to fail it on worn axle bushes, a rear light not working and some play in the steering, which hadn't been picked up. He then went on to say they'd sacked the tester, and if I didn't mind waiting an hour they would fix everything for free plus refund the test fee : )

I left my garmin at home yesterday and used the google sat nav on my Lenovo tablet for the first time, worked fantastically well. For anyone looking for a tablet the Lenovo 7" is worth a look - its the only one which takes a sim card (without going on a contract). £149 and I have a £5 a month data sim from t mobile. Bargain.

Yep, the military springs are normally HD , they will be a bit thicker than front springs. Can't recall the colour code, but if you look round the spring you may see two coloured stripes if it hasn't been rusted or painted over. These are a code for spring rating and a quick google or search on this forum will tell you what you have fitted. The springs you want are nrc9448 & nrc9449 - I've used a few britpart ones and to be fair they've been fine, and around £20 each. Have a look on the bay and you'll probably find some genuine ones for the same price, which would obvs be better. If you want to lift the suspension a nadge, fit a couple of canr2938 isolator rings, gives 10m.

Your local garage seemwide of the mark - do a search on the forum for vibration, and you should find lots of info that will help, there are many joints, bushes and bearings that can wear and cause vibration, thankfully mostly cheap and easy to rectify.

It will most likely be fitted with heavy duty springs. A change to standard springs will sort your ride out.

I've used flashband to line floor and transmission tunnel - sticking it underneath so it's hidden - great for soundproofing and no it doesn't drop off when it gets warm, if anything it helps it stick more...

Don't have any photos I'm afraid, but it didn't take more than ten minutes to knock up a bracket with a peice of 25mm angle iron cut and welded to shape. Incidently, you can also use a Defender canister type air filter in the same spot, again you just need to make up a bracket to hold it in place, and the TDI rubber intake pipe will stretch over the filter housing outlet.

Here's one of my conversions - a Disco air filter is easier to install than the canister type, and it's easy to run snorkel tubing from the passenger wing,under filter box and cuve up into the front air intake.

The Astonish stuff makes oil/grease really soluble - you just have to spray it on, leave for a couple of minutes then show it a hose and it washes away incredibly well. Because it makes it so soluble it doesn't leave a black oily stain on the floor - I just chase the debris down the drive with a hose into the drain. According to the technical data It's designed to wash down the drain as well.

There's a fantastic degreaser by a company called Astonish - it's usually a pound for a large squirty bottle, and is the best stuff I've ever used. Lots of the poundshops sell it - theres a link on the website for stockists. Ridiculously good for a quid - I went to the wholesalers earlier and bought a case as it only costs me a pound to fully degrease an engine bay, gearbox an axles

I've never had an oil cooler fitted to any LT77 I've used - presuming the fittings are BSP you could just blank the ports off.

You should find it will fit in no problem, and the gearbox crossmember will bolt up to existing holes. Just done the same thing on mine using a Disco R380 box, and it was far easier than expected. gearsticks come up well clear of the heater unit, just had to alter the hole in the transmission tunnel. It also meant I could get rid of the hopeless multi-link handbrake mechanism that never worked and fit one from a Discovery - again very easy and considerably more efficient. even with no soundproofing or carpet and a gaping hole round the gearstick till I sort it all out, it's considerably quieter than the LT95 ever was!

Well I'll be very interested to see the results when you're finished. I used to run a n/a and wanted to fit a stage 3 head etc to try and get more oomph from the engine, which was woefully slow, but did ok on fuel, usually 30mpg. Since then I've had lots of TDi's, much more powerful and again around 30mpg. I installed an Isuzu 2.8 TDi, which I think is a more refined and better engineered engine than Land Rovers - tuftrided, balanced, chrome liners, higher revving, manifolds looked more efficient, and a crossflow design. Again I got 30mpg. The workload involved in pushing a heavy brick with loads of gears and heavy spinning metal bits seems to level out any efficiency gains between engines in terms of mpg (excluding the petrol engines which were even worse) Over the last few years I've driven lots of different n/a engined Defenders as well though, usually ex military, and the difference in performance is pretty big. Some are utterly sluggish, and the one I'm using at the moment is equal performance wise to a 19j TD I also have, apart from a slight drop off uphill. So by making one as good as it could possibly be, plus making a few improvements, you would end up with a very driveable engine. I'd still just pop a TDi in though

Sometimes it's just nice to have a project isn't it. Personally I don't think you'll gain much, and practicaly it sounds like you're potentially going to spend thousands to gain a few mpg, which doesn't pay off. You can get 35mpg out of a TDi if you pump the tyres up, empty the weight out of your car and drive slowly. You can put less power through the drivetrain by simply not opening the throttle all the way. If you want it to look like an old 2.25 engine simply mix old engine old, sand and feathers in a bucket, open the bonnet and hurl it in. but wheres the fun in all that.

You can get to the top nut by jacking the engine up, removing the engine mounts, then dropping the engine down till it rests on the chassis mounts. Easy with an engine hoist, pig without. Horrible job, and all because LR didn't modify the bulkhead when they came up with the Discovery - bar the scuttle panel it's exactly the same as an early Range Rover, which was designed round a different engine and box.

Personally, I would much rather take out the engine than the gearbox. If you've got an engine hoist it's a far less fiddly job than taking the box out, and easier to get back together again. Good opportunity to check hoses, pipes and whirly bits as well.

VOSA say an MOT is no guarantee of mechanical safety or roadworthyness - it's just to check cars meet with current "road safety and environmental standards". Don't think there was a car made before 1960 that was either safe or environmentaly friendly, so they might as well give up checking them.

I normally use a 120 or 180 to flat back camo paint, it's normally laid on thick and nasty so clogs up quickly if using a fine paper. Make sure you wear a face mask when sanding - the military IRR paint is toxic Once you've got rid of the cracks, peeling bits, lumps and bumps, you can finish the surface off with some 400 wet & dry paper which is fairly quick to do. Do remove as many of the bolt on bits as you can as already mentioned, it will make for a much neater job. If you're using a roller, either use the wool type rollers or get a good stock of foam ones - depending on the type of paint you get and what it's thinned with, it disolves the foam after a few minutes. you'll need some brshes too, and just like decorating your living room, do the corners and bits you cant get a roller into first. If you need paint, do a google search on automotive paint supliers in your area, then pop in and ask for 2.5 litres of NATO green satin synthetic , and get a litre of fast flash thinners, or white spirit to thin it down with. Bear in mind the temperature at the moment as well - best to do it indoors or wait till spring.