Mark

We have am '03 plate 1.8 petrol freelander, and have had for 18 months now, and we love it. The only job I have had to do on it was related to the engine, so no really relavent here, but the point is if you buy a good one, they are very good. My Dad just traded in his X-reg TD4 after 260k miles, and he traded it for another TD4 Freelander (this time an '06). anyway, for your budget you should be able to get a good car, if you are carefule and take your time choosing the right one. Cheers Mark

Many, many times.... although other choice phrases were available and utilised too...

OK, some pictures: first I modified the airbox; adding a new entry flange and blanking off the old one The flange is stainless, and is made from a piece of tube tig welded to a flange that was made on the lathe. There is also another piece of stainless in there as a spacer, and a neoprene gasket clamped together with stainless m6 machine screws, with lots of silicone to sealing it up... The entrance was blanked off with a piece of aluminium bent to shape, and riveted in place, and again lots of silicone involved.. Then I attacked the inner wing with a 4" holesaw: Sadly I didn't pay enough attention to what was on the other side (really should have known better) so had to go about capping the strengthening rib, and adding some new... This meant I could then use a silicone elbow from the raised air intake off my 200 tdi as a cold air feed into the modified airbox: and it can be used the other way round when I get round to fitting the snorkel off the 200 onto this truck Anyway, the general layout is this: It is an awful lot of work to enable the battery to be fitted, but it works well, and I will end up with the raised air intake fitted too... Hope that helps Mark

Les, it's in a disco at the moment, but it will end up in a freelander... but that's another thread. Possibly studs are not a good idea though, as you point out, you cannot lift the head straight up while it's in the disco... I suspect that lack or availability, cost and practicality rather rule out using them... cheers for the suggestions though chaps. Mark

As Mr Orange says I have done it on mine, but a lot depends on what else is fitted to the truck - namely ABS, EGR valves and Mass Airflow meters... Mine has the lot, which rather complicated issues. If you don't have some of them, then it is a bit simpler. My solution ended up being rather extreme, as I managed to drill a large hole in a slightly inadvisable place, straight through the strengthening section on the inner wing, and had to weld in some sections to give some strength back to the panel. I will put some pictures up in a few minutes once I have sorted them out.

Following on from my question about helicoiliing a pulled head bolt in my 200 TDI, someone has suggested using ARP studs... Does anyone know if they are available for the 200TDI? if so, who might be able to supply them? Cheers Mark

That would likley be 'PlasticBadger' his build thread is here: Disco on Toy axles

1/8" BSP I think...

Thanks for the advice chaps. Mo, any advice specifically? Steve, I didn't know ARP studs were available for 200 TDI's, but it makes sense I guess... suggestions on where to acquire them? Other option would be to drill and tap to M14 or M16, but that means drilling the head to get clearance, which I really don't want to do... suggestions appreciated, keep them coming chaps. Mark

would be an impressive achievement...

The sign on the gate on the way out said that it will be on again on 5th April and 4th October 2009, so I can only assume that they plan to continue. hth Mark

Check the Tech archive - there are some links there which may allow you to download the genuine manuals...

I need to repair at least one head bolt thread in the block of my 200tdi. The only real solution to this seems to be to drill out and use a helicoil type insert. However, on looking around, there seem to be several kits available to drill, tap and then put in the insert, so I wondered if they were all much the same or if there were brands to be avoided? Looking on eBlag there seem to be several people selling differently branded kits, some including the drill and some not, so if anyone has any good suggestions on where to get a good quality complete kit for M12x1.5 then I would be grateful. Cheers Mark

Orange and I were there, attempting to sell, and not to buy. We were pretty successfull on the not buying front, as we found very little that we wanted. Sadly we were not very successful on the selling front. I didn't think there were that many people buying, but that was probably directly attributable to the weather. Didn't actually manage to bump into anyone we knew for most of the day, till Jez and zuz wandered past our little stall... I think if the event can grow, for both sellers and buyers then it would be really good though. Personally, I miss the old sodbury, so this seems like a really good step to a proper replacement.

I tend to use 16 gage which is just over 1.5mm thick. Much more than that and it becores a real pain to bend and work with. hth Mark

Personal Shopper and delivery service available if you need it Si. Orange and I are taking the trailer, just in case... Cheers Mark

As far as I know x-eng will be at the london to brighton run I am afraid.

So, we have at least established that it is a petrol one right? and your actual question is 'can I use unleaded petrol in my petrol series 3?' if so, then yes you can run a normal unmodified petrol 2286 on unleaded as they were designed to run on very low grade fuel. If you are worried, then either use a lead substitute/additive or change th head for one with hardened valve seats. may I suggest you ask a more specific quesiton next time, or at the very least give some more information about the vehicle in question? Thanks Mark (with moderator hat firmly on...)

In case it isn't clear, the rubber strips at the front and rear of the floor had to be saved from the donor car - they were in very good condition really.

Sent. just in time, I hope...

Rear Axle will be fine on it's own - the diff ratio is the same. There has been some discussion on whether the brakes need to be biased differently with the discs being more efficient than the original drums, but the consensus seems to be that they are fine. hth Mark

Have you thought about putting a shelf in between the alpine windows? you could have a solid shelf up there to take your amps, leaving you with one of the side pockets free in the back. A decent low profile sub in a sealed box, built to the right shape to fit snugly in the pocket space now liberated by moving the amps out of the way might work well. The shelf would give you plenty of airflow, without losing masses of space in the boot, as it would only need to be low enough to take the amps and a little bit of headroom. just an idea.... My disco came fitted with an all Alpine system with 2 way components up front, and full range drivers in the rear pillars driven by a largish alpine amp, installed in one of the side pockets at the back. The front components are in custom door builds, and the factory fit components are also still there, but not used. Incidentally, does anyone have any 5" mid/bass drivers or a set of 2 way components with 5" drivers thay don't want any more? One of the coils in mine has died, but I really just want to replace that driver rather than the complete set... Cheers Mark

yep, it certainly is - here's how we did it on Orange's Truck

That looks exactly like a valve stem cap - or 2... which is exactly what you have described. At worse, you will have some extra wear on your valve stems, and your valves gaps will be somwhat in need of adjustment. To check, just take the rocker cover off, and it should be apparent which ones are missing. They are very cheap for genuine parts, so when I found mine was missing a couple I did the lot with new ones. You then need to set your tappet distances, but that is not especially taxing. hth Mark

I am in San Francisco at the minute, and thought that while I was here, I might pick up a few of the American off roading magazines to see what they do different here vs at home... I know about petersen's off road, but are there any others that people can recommend? Also where the hell do you get them from? There doesn't seem to be an equivalent of WH Simths here, and when I went into Borders (Big Bookshop) I was presented with a vast selection of UK based motoring magazines (Top Gear, classic and sports car, Car, evo, etc) but no US based 4x4 stuff at all! Any help muchos appreciated. Cheers Mark