steve200TDi

The racer - Fit new shocks (either remote reservoir or coilovers) - Improver wipers - Improve body work - Sort out god awful exhaust rattle!! - (Maybe fit D2 axles) The 90 - Fit heated winscreeen (with associated wiring) - Make it quieter - Sort out gearbox noise! - Sort out bodywork, add paint and re-sticker We'll see how much of this actually gets done this time next year!! (Here's hoping some of it gets done) Steve

I think they are interchangeable, but remember the 110 hi cap only has 2 doors and the 130 hi cap has 4 doors. So the length difference is the second row of seats. Steve Steve

It's interesting you say they get bent as I've heard a few people comment about this. Are they actually weaker? So maybe worth adding some bracing to them if I decided to use them for comp safari!

Yes I was going to mention D2 axles, but I too don't know much about them and haven't really found any info on the net which sways me towards them. I was thinking of fitting them to my Racer as the track is wider, but I'll have to change my wheels. Also I would modify the chassis too, so if anything hapens to the axle casing I can just swap one out! As at the moment I have a custom rear axle casing as I have front hockey sticks on the rear with a panhard rod. Steve

Yes it is, but unfortunately I don't know any history of the engine. Steve

So yes, it was good: I cleaned up the rocker covers so at least they were a dull silvery colour instead of a dirty brown colour! I've renewed all the injector plugs where needed, so tomorrow I can get it all back together with two good second hand injectors and hopefully it'll be back to normal! Steve

Had a check over the engine last week to see if I can determine my running issue. I had just sorted out the running issue on my Dad's pick up, so before I pulled all the spark plugs out I thought I'd check all the injector plugs........ Guess what I found: So that would explain it, the terminal had rusted through and finally given up. This was one of the rear injectors and so gets all the water running off the windcscreen. The one on the other side was starting to show signs of rusting away too. I have now replaced most of the boots and some of the terminals and will add electrical grease on reassembly. I had removed the plenum to get to the injectors and while I'm at it I replaced the rocker cover gaskets I had already purchased as one was leaking a bit causing a bit of smoke from oil dripping on the exhaust. When I removed the rockers I was pleasantly surprised with how good it looked inside! You'll have to wait for the picture in my next post!

Thanks Dave, thought that might be the case! Need to sort another tube out from yesterdays round! Round 7 from Tilmanstone in Dover held by the Southern Counties Off Road Club was one not to be missed! It was a good round, we stayed running all day and got in the points again by completing 12 out of the 14 laps. We suffered a slow puncture, so that got swapped out and the replacement shock I fitted came detached from the lower mounting but didn't take the spring with it as I fitted a spring retainer. Lap 9 was my fastest, here's a video of it! Now I'm starting a list of improvements for next year! The engine was a little unhappy, but not sure why. I might upgrade the shocks as they were definitely getting hot! And it will made the ride smoother and more comfortable! More cooling for the fuel tank as although it runs fine it is still getting very hot. Maintenance wise: a wheel bearing, new kick down cable, new engine and gearbox oil. I'm sure it will expand! Steve

Repairs are completed! I had a spare shock that I fitted and I welded up the lower spring seat and also added a spring retainer too! The steering box has been tightened up as it had a lot of play in it. I've also been round and made sure every nut and bot is tight and checked for rattles. The rear radiator was rattling as the top rubber mounts had split, so have replaced those and is nice and rattle free! I noticed the kick down cable sticking out a bit further than usual at the throttle end, so I may have adjusted it a bit too much and have pulled it out too far?! I have ordered a new cable and will fit this after the last round and adjust it over the winter. Also need to swap out the flat tyre as unfortunately it did suffer a small pin hole puncture to the side wall and an struggling to get it repaired. What are peoples thoughts on this, is safe to repair it or am I just better using one of my spares or a new tyre. Steve

So I took the injectors to work to flow test them and here's what I found! Yes, one of them wasn't going to do any squirting because of this! Yes, one of the terminals had completely rusted away or at least rusted through. The other bit was still in the connector! Injector swapped out for another one I flowed and with a little bit of vasoline in the plugs, it's back to how it is! My Dad's well happy and we'll be at an off road site somewhere soon! Steve

We've done compressions and we have 125psi across the board, so we can rule out valves not seating and piston rings etc. I'm going to look at the injectors next. We think one may have failed or is leaking, so I'm going to try and test all 8 at work beings you can get to all 8 once you remove the fuel rail! Hopefully we'll find something here as it's becoming a little frustrating as we want to use the pick up! Steve

On lap 10 I felt the steering get a little heavy. This hadn't happened on the last outing, so I was surprised that the fluid was getting hot! So I said we would stop after this lap and check the vehicle over! That'll be a pucture or more precisely the valve was pulled out as it was no where to be seen! A quick tyre change saw us continue, we just had two more laps to do, it was achievable! I thought there was a lot of clanging and banging coming from the rear. I stopped mid lap and we limped home for the rest. Looks like it could have been loose for a while as the two washers and bush underneath the spring seating holding the shock in where no where to be seen! Anyway, we managed to complete 10 out of the 12 laps which was enough to qualify for points so we came 7th in class collecting 180 points! I'll be assessing what needs to be done this week so we can hopefully enter the last round in Dover at the end of October! Steve

Round 6 happened at the weekend over Ashford way again at Plurenden Farm with the Southern Counties Off Road club. The weather was dry and the orange G4 Range Rover Sport was to hand as the tow vehicle and what a fine job it does too! The start line was in very bumpy ploughed field and they had even added some horse manure for full effect! The course was good with lots of open sections and the wooded sections weren't too tight either!

Ok, we'll try a known FPR. Also my Dad had the plugs out today and all bar one are sooty, the 8th being wet, but not black. Not sure if this is significant or not?! Steve

So we picked up a spare EDIS module today and it didn't change things. Now admittedly it's not a known working unit to me as I have no history with it, so for future reference is it an EDIS 4 I need?! As it's wasted spark right? Here's a view on start up, all the dials seem to be moving about and on our little run we saw the coolant temp increase to 76 and MAP change too. AFR was moving and so was the ignition. Surely a failed fuel pressure regulator would result in a burst fuel pipe somewhere?! Although it sounds ok at idle, it still sounds like it's running slightly lumpy when driving around. Steve

Yep, the map hose is still connected and seems to reading correctly on the laptop along with all the other gauges. Just waiting on a spare EDIS to try and we'll go from there. Steve

Well, over the last 18 months it has been faultless and a hell of a lot better than the original Lucas stuff which is no surprise! We've done a little bit of tuning, but that's about it. Unfortunately over the last couple of weeks it developed what sounds like a misfire and so we were unable to take it to the Scott Williams Memorial winch challenge which happened last weekend over at West Harptree near Bristol. (My Red one took part and it was a great event!) So it developed a misfire or what sounded like a misfire, so my Dad checked for spark at all the plugs after disabling the fuel supply. Ah! No spark at two plugs, this was narrowed down to one side of a coil back had packed up (it had cracked and bulged slightly). Once this was replaced (and sparks were checked, now 8 sparks) it was still running lumpy and not as smooth as normal. Also there was lack of power and acceleration if you floored it. I thought that the map may have mysteriously corrupted itself, so reloaded it, but without any success. I have spoken with JU (Fridgefreezer on here) and he mentioned fitting a new set of plugs as some of the plugs are a bit black. I fitted the plugs from my Racer, but still with no improvement. So now I'm looking for some help and advice for where to look next. I potentially have kit of MS parts to swap out to see what improves with out shedding out loads of money, so that will help too. The symptoms are: - sooted plugs, black - running lumpy, not as smooth as usual - lack of acceleration and pull JU mentioned that the coil back could have damaged the EDIS unit. Could it be a leaky injector? A dodgy MAF? Thanks Steve

Snagger - I'm running standard 3.54 diffs and half shafts! I thought I would start with those and if I find I'm breaking them, then I'll sort out an upgrade! Bowie - YES! After completing a whole day of racing, it was great fun! Every lap you familiarise yourself with the course and you can work out areas to speed up and areas to don't want to speed up in. There were some turns and sections that we found we didn't need to lift or that others weren't lifting and using a different line. There were areas where you didn't want to speed up because of large ruts or it was too tight. Over the course of the day my lap times did go down and the last two laps where almost identical time wise. So basically it was great fun and can't wait for the next round in September! Steve

No testing was carried out at Slindon, so I'll adjust it on the fly next time out in September. A new video form Round 5 of the SCOR 4x4 Comp Safari series at St Augestine Priory.

Well it's all fixed now, with new bolts and some thick washers! I hope not to do it again! I'm all ready for kick down cable testing at slindon tomorrow, could be tricky with a 15mph speed limit though..... And also got a new GoPro mount at the back between the seats, so I'll see what I can get! Steve

Today I refitted the under body skid plate and had a look at the steering system. I will need to order two new panhard rod bracket bolts. I tightened up the steering drop arm and also found something that may have caused the panhard rod issue! Yes! This bracket had cracked, so I recon it had already cracked during the gentle off roading I've been doing recently and the bolts have been taking the strain. The bolts have worked loose damaging the thread, I've tightened them up and the bolts have stripped after a knock during the comp safari. It has duly been replaced with the version that doesn't have slots as that's the one I had in stock! Steve

Thanks Bowie, looks like I'll be doing some testing at Slindon in a couple of weeks! I'll bring some spanners! Hopefully this will improve things as you say! Steve

A short list of things to investigate/sort out: - Panhard rod fixings - Rear diff pan, seems to be leaking or the breathers blocked - Check and adjust kickdown cable It was commented from a certain GBMUD that the engine wasn't reving as high as maybe it should have been when I had my footed planted to the floor, so I will check the kick down cable. I've done a little research on this and looks like there's a measurement for the correct adjustment and making sure the cable isn't seized. But I haven't really found any manuals or literature on it! Any pointers? If that is sorted that will improve acceleration. Am I right in thinking that the Borg warner transfer box only comes in one ratio? I've found that Tomcat motorsport did sell a gear set for it and also swapping the diff ratios out could improve things, happen to have a set of 4.11's in stock Steve

So the time had finally come! The Racer was prepared and loaded on the trailer, we were ready to make the journey over to Ashford for round 5 of the Scor 4x4 Comp Safari held at Bilsington Priory. Were there in plenty of time to unload, get through scrutineering and get ready for the days racing. There was a slight bit of apprehension as I really want to complete all the laps or at least staying running for the whole day. This was the first 'race' since all of my mods and improvements, so only time would tell if it stayed running or conk out half way round! The course was set, 4 miles in total through fields and woods with a total of 12 laps needed to be completed between 10 and 4. Now I thought this was a tall order as any problems or breakages will obviously eat into this time. Scrutineering was passed after tightening the two panhard rod bracket bolts that go through the chassis! In light of this I will go over the whole car and try and check all nuts and bolts, but it does highlight how a second pair of new eyes can spot things. We started the first lap and all was going well until I must have clipped a tree stump or glanced off a tree......we now had some vague steering and less of it! Andy, my co-driver, quickly diagnosed that the panhard bracket had pulled the nut off the previously tighten bolt, thus creating the vague steering. We got out of the woods and limped back to base. Fortunately another team had a suitable bolt long enough for us to replace it with. The original bolt was partially stripped so I suspect my tightening may have damaged it further. this repair lasted for 5 laps, we were starting to familerise ourselves with the course and finding out that certain corners and section could be taken faster, but others that needed to be taken slower as there were a few nasty small ruts that ran across the course that wouldn't do the steering or wheels any good! On lap 7 I can only guess that I must have glanced off a tree or tree stump causing vague steering again! So we limped back to the pits and found that the bolt head had pulled itself through the chassis! A new bolt with some washers fixed that! And yes, this will be on my list of things to have a look at and repair/replace as necessary! The last 5 laps included my fastest times so I was improving which was good! The last lap saw my best attempt at the last gate, taking it flat out as appose to the first lap where I braked and went through the holes (a short video of this will appear soon!) So I was happy! I had completed all 12 laps, ok two maximums, but the car ran all day, with no overheating or fueling issues! I really enjoyed it and it gets better after every lap as you start to know the course and remember where all the little improvements you can make on the next lap and where to slow down and where to take corners faster! I've posted some photos on my MUD WUN Racing page on Facebook which everyone should be able to see, but let me know if you can't and I'll be making a video in the coming weeks. https://www.facebook.com/mudwunracing/ I didn't put the GoPro in so I haven't got a video of the whole lap, but luckily Chris Button (car number 4) did! I was a great course, but I think the video makes out that we were just aimlessly driving through the trees in the wooded section! Whereas it was well sign posted and there was a definite route to be taken! Bring on the next round at the end of September! I have a short list of things to check and sort out! Steve

Looks like I need to add a Wales update!! But also...... I went racing over in Ashford with SCOR 4x4 and it ran all day despite a little panhard rod bracket issue causing a maximun time for 2 out of the 12 laps. I had great fun and the weather was nice too! Full report and pictures soon!... Steve