mickeyw

I've always replaced UPS batteries on a 2 year schedule. They're meant to do more than that, but this is playing safe, or so I thought. I've often been able to use the SLA units removed for camping purposes, and rarely had one that has actually gone bad.

It seems they are made from veg oil (rather than crude) these days, as are a lot of other motor components. A few years ago I had an lengthy saga with the local foxes chewing the end caps to the point they'd leak and/or fall off.

I bought an Ultimate Speed charger from Lidl a couple of years back, and it's been good. This one looks a bit more hi-tech.

There are some guys in the States fitting Powerstroke 2.8l crate engines into Defenders and Disco 1s. Apparently they suit the application very well. Just throwing in an option. No idea on ££££ i'm afraid

I would say that is a perfectly acceptable method of repair. Folk have been using Helicoils and similar for many, many years. Running a drill into a hole where there is not much of an increase in diameter often results in the drill snatching. The fact that you're using a pistol drill, rather than a drill press makes this situation even more likely. You just have to hold things as steady as you can and go carefully to avoid a wrenched wrist.

I used pipes from a RRC on my 90. Mine was a factory V8. I used the bog brush cooler but had to alter the brackets to fit narrower Defender radiator panel. As for joining the cooler to the pipes I got some hose from my local hydraulic place and jubilee clipped it over the swaged pipe ends. The pressure isn't all that high.

Yes they are.

Some years back I went through a similiar hunt for consistent stat behaviour. I had examples from our revered purveyor of blue boxes, genuine LR from a stealer, Waxstat, Allmakes, and local factor's cheapy brand. I never expected to see so much variance, or that the genuine LR item would be one of the furthest from correct temperature. I think I stuck with the Waxstat one in the end.

This is my thinking too.

LED technology has advanced quite a bit in the couple of years since this thread was started. There may well be better LEDs available now. That said, I was going to comment that the OP was comparing a 6000K cool white LED with a halogen, which is probably around 2500K. Comparing luminance different colour temperatures is not going to give a very fair result. I'd have tried the warm white LED vs the halogen. SImonr once wrote some good posts explaining how our night time perception of detail is affected by different colour temps.

Where did you get the Ferm one from Ian? In my memory that name was an old Screwfix own-brand thing, since replaced by Titan. As for the Parkside, I've not seen the die grinder before, but all the other stuff I have from them is pretty good considering the low price. Let us know how this one performs.

I would be very happy getting that much from my 110. The best I ever got in the 3.9 V8 90 was 18mpg, following a 2.5 NAD to Wales. As for diseasels, Mum's old 110 CSW 300 Tdi generally averaged around 28 with quite a bit of local stop-start farm work.

The black oil would be expected if a graphited assembly paste such as Graphogen had been used when building the engine. IMO this is a good thing, and I would expect to carry out an oil change after an initial 500 miles post rebuild in any case. Although you say it was a full rebuild you don't mention whether the bores were honed, bored, or re-lined. I'm assuming the original pistons must have been used. If the bores weren't at least honed the new rings don't stand much chance of bedding in correctly, hence your high oil consumption.

What Reb said ^^^ And they're well versed in exporting all round the world.

Dremmels are a mere shadow of what they used to be. We have a occasion Al job we use them for at work, (yes I know they aren't industrial grade products) and they rarely last 3 months each. Luckily RS Components honour the warranty despite the used. The trouble is they've become too cheap to be made of any substance, and finding alternatives is not straight forward. For porting I'd say you want something that take 1/4" shank tools, rather than delicate 3mm. There are a few mains powered versions and the have a good length of nose to get in awkward spots.