rick

...., naa, just couldn't be arsed.........

3M Scothweld 2216BA structural aircraft adhesive. I used to use it to bond race cars together, it's used on most aluminium/unobtanium aircraft parts including military jet skins. Etch the surfaces and use lots of nice, carcinogenic methyl ethyl ketone to clean the oxide coating. Lots and lots and lots of MEK, wipe clean with white paper towel to check then double check with a water bead test, then re-clean and apply adhesive. Portions are critical, either by volume or weight, but easiest just to use both tubes entirely. The stuff is amazing, brilliant in shear, and has flex.

Naa, just found a couple of fluids that worked better for me I've recommended Redline MTL to a few people, most like it, some didn't, and R380's can be idiosyncratic in their preference too. I ran MT90 in the Patrol g/box for a short while and ended up using it in the LT230. 20,000km does seem to be the fluids life, a few of us on the AULRO board have noted shift performance has deteriorated and noise has increased regardless of the fluid used at that mileage. (kilometerage ??) Tim Slako (the Aussie Redline importer ) and I had a few very long and in-depth phone chats on fluids quite a few years ago. Did I mention I drive it like I stole it ?

FWIW I logged some g/box temps a few years ago. IIRC (and the memory isn't quite what it used to be...) I think I hit 75*C or so 7km from home just cruising up the highway @ 100km/h. Can't recall the ambient, but it was only a mild day. The t/stat is rated @74*C........ I'd use a dedicated air/oil cooler. That was taken with a thermocouple attached to the pump transfer pipe on the outside rear of the R380.

I'd fit the cooler, in my experience the things get bloody hot, regardless what engine is in front of them and regardless of what fluid you use, and again, just my experience, Redline MTL wasn't up to an Aussie summer, way too much bearing and gear rattle and the changes went to hell with any ambient close to or above about 33*C, which isn't that warm. A mix of MTL/MT90 was better, but Castrol Syntrans 75W-90 shifted more cleanly on an up change. All those fluids were toast by 20,000km with the beginnings of fluid shear. (Syntrans is good for 400,000km in large truck g/boxes) Years ago I logged some temps on the bypass tube and it was up to 76*C in only about 5-6km of highway running from cold. A cast iron case, a pump, gears and too small a fluid volume kills fluid quickly. These days I'm running Motul Gear 300 75W-90 (I can hear the howls beginning now ) just to cope with the load/temps, an oil cooler is the proper fix.

FWIW I just use Mercedes spill rail hose from a diesel specialist. (external cloth braid) Lasts much longer than the Land Rover/Bosch stuff and cheap as chips, I was given a foot of it eight years ago at a diesel shop, only had to replace it once since.

Personally I'd only use Mann-Hummel, Fleetguard, Donaldson or Bosch. I've only used Donaldson or Fleetgaurd for years as they are cheap and available 'locally'.

You don't even really need a diff spreader. While a spreader is nice a couple of tyre levers will get the centre out and careful persuasion gets it back in. That's all most of us use on this side of the world when fitting lockers. BTW, the Maxi Drive Sals 'spreader' was clever, rather than spreading the case across the journals it compressed the case vertically, springing the case horizontally. Nice.

Or you could buy an 8" butt weld forged pipe cap and fab one up. A bit more work (ok, maybe a lot ) but should be a fair bit cheaper initial buy price. http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/land-rover/387000-sewer-pipe-cap-diff-cover-writeup.html

I ran OAT for years in a Tdi no problems, it came filled from the factory with it. I've since converted to Cummins PG Platinum HOAT, just standardising across the board, could get it cheaper and less possible problems with a hybrid OAT. I'd never go waterless, water has a far higher specific heat capacity than almost any other liquid and far higher than either ethylene or propylene glycol, which is why it's always recommended to never exceed 50% by volume with EG or PG coolant. I just don't buy the claims of waterless coolants.

And here's a couple of photos. I've wrapped the first 3' with ThermoTec header wrap to reduce the heat coming into the cab, it's made a hell of a difference, and for those that will scream it will induce fatigue cracking of the system, it's been like this for five years and about 80,000km now. The two unwrapped photos are from six years ago, about twelve months after I built the system.

What we call a resonator here is a muffler to cancel out or at least reduce the drone type harmonics you can get. When I first built the system I ran it sans anything, so the cab became a muffler. Right on 100km/h the entire cab resonated with the exhaust, it'd almost pop your eardrums. I discussed what i needed with an exhaust shop and fitted a short, (I think 12" long x 5" diameter) resonator, just a straight through muffler right at the end of the system. It killed most of the harmonics I was experiencing. [edit] you can see it tucked between the wheel and chassis here, with the exhaust tip just dumping over the mud flap bracket.

Cheers fella's, but I'm not surprised re Britpart The reason for the Q is I'm looking at converting at least the front stub axles to 200Tdi ones which are longer/have a wider bearing spacing.

FFS a lot of **** gets spewed about on forums..... I've read and been told a 3" exhaust will definitely lead to turbine overspeed and the turbine and/or compressor will rev into oblivion, (can happen in theory, highly unlikely with an inefficient T250-4) that the big pipe will cook the turbo, (what ??!!) that..... The facts. Stock pump fueling, 255/85-16 tyres, digital pyro in exhaust manifold, highest EGT ever recorded on hills around here at WOT, 5th gear, 2.5km long climb, 180m altitude gain, 900m ASL at gap, 623*C max EGT. Another mountain pass near here, approx 250-300m ascent buta lot steeper and lots of switchbacks, most all of climb in 2nd, 623*C. Fitted 3" exhaust, much wider rev band through the gears. Previously 3rd woould peak at 75km/h, 80km/h and it would just stop revving. New exhaust, hit 100km/h in 3rd up a hill. (yes I'm mechanically insensitive, I used to race open wheelers ) Still ocaisonally take it to 90-95km/h if situation demands so obviously a huge decrease in backpressure. remember, this is a long 130 system too, so higher duct frictional losses than a 90 or 110. Max. EGT's dropped to around 598* max. recorded temp. which confirms huge backpressure drop which gave more scope for increased fuel/pump settings. Pump adjusted very soon after pipe fitted, can now exceed 750* on climbs if I don't abck off. Over 7 years later and the engine now has 304,000km and it's all still together, no bangs from the little Garrett. Yes, 3" is overkill on a Tdi, but 2.75" pipe was stupidly exxy here at the time and I didn't want to make a 2.5" system from scratch and find I had bugger all improvement. I will dig the photos up

Ideally replace the axles and flanges with Hy-Tough (the old Maxi Drive) or Ashcroft axles and flanges. I don't think Keith at Roving Tracks in the US is selling axles anymore, but call him and if he is, that may be a much easier source for high quality axles for you and his axles were flanged, so that eliminates a potential problem too. GBR and Lucky 8 are two other sources in NA from memory for either Ashcrofts or Hy-Tough. Further to Bills post, the hub seal he's talking of to use is part # RTC3511. Use either OE Land Rover or Corteco, anything else may not be up to snuff. It's a double lipped, spring energised oil seal, not a grease seal so it stops carp getting in as well as out.

I tend to trust Bearmach, not so sure on Allmakes although I have an aluminium Allmakes heater core in (made in the PRC) ATM. Yes or No ? Are they up to Genuine spec in material and machining ?

Must be a different blend to what Castrol sell here, the stuff we use I found better than MTF94, so go figure ?

A 3" pipe goes past the g/box and t/case + cross member with miles of room to spare. You just follow exacly where the 2.375" one went. As for the dump, you use a standard three bolt flange flange, thoat the cast dump out to 2.5" ID and get someone to flare up some 2.5" pipe to 3" at a 15* or so taper, I just made a flaring swage out of some 3" bar stock I had lying around, stuck it in a press with some 2.5" exhasut pipe I had and made it up. Buy a bunch of mandrel bends, a decent muffler and most definitely a resonator and go at it. Trust me, it will need to be muffled, if you don't install a resonator a new muffler will be created, it's called the cab. The harmonics when cruising at 100km/h will destroy your brain in 10 seconds flat, and SWMBO could hear me near 8 or so km away from home coming down a mountain side, it's that loud. Don't let anyone try and tell you a 300Tdi Garrett turbo acts as a muffler. I'll post some photos up later, they're on the home PC.

I'm curious, which Syntrans ? Castrol Syntrans 75W-85 would be the most popular R380 blend used in this part of the world for the reasons I've listed above.

My rad bloke reduces the bleed to 1/8"-3mm, some close it off entirely. Why Land Rover made it so large is anyone's guess, why they've done more than several things over the years not even a couple of Australian Land Rover engineers have been able to tell me, they reckoned Solihull was a different planet sometimes......

No it's not. MTF94 is a 75W-80 manual trans fluid blended by Texaco. It has a Kinematic viscosity at 100*C of around 10cSt. Most xW-80 MTF's have a kinematic viscosity around the same, ATF's are around 6.5-7.5 cSt @ 100*C. A big difference. There are plenty of MTF's around, how they shift is determined by the friction modifiers used. Basically they are of a type that the coefficient of friction increases as the hub speeds get closer together, allowing mesh of the 'dogs. Standard diff oils and motor oils have the opposite property, ie. as the differential speeds of the synchro clutch and hub get closer the coefficient of friction drops which can lead to dog clashing, the old gear crunch. R380's can be idiosyncratic in what fluids they like too, most here In Australia end up using Castrol Syntrans 75W-85 as a) we can buy it (you can't get MTF94 here anymore) b) it's a 75W-85 (11.9cSt@ 100*C) so copes better with the higher temps and loads we experience here. c) shifts very, very well. and FWIW I don't give a toss about the first couple of first to second changes first thing of a cold morning at -6*, but I can do without the baulky shifts and gear and bearing rattle on +35* days so, I actually use Motul Gear 300 these days, a 75W-90. Excellent shifting and no gear or bearing rattle, and it still shifts OK in winter (VI of 222) The R380 has 305,000 hard km on it now, so the fluids I use must be working OK.

I reckon a string line is as accurate as a laser. Hell, most all race cars are still strung, even in the top line pro series with insane budgets. As you said, the secret to a full time 4WD Landy is 0-2mm toe OUT. Most steering shops still set them with toe in.......

More boost should reduce EGT's with the same fuel settings, not increase them, but.... The problem with a T250-04 is that 20psi would be getting outside the efficiency range of that little turbo so the heat produced to generate that sort of boost would start to be pretty high. If you had a better turbo pumping out 20psi you wouldn't have had that sort of EGT issue.

Bill, Dave updated one of the threads on AULRO with pics+ details of the new P38 replacement CWP's, I'll dig up a link. [edit] here http://www.aulro.com/afvb/90-110-130-defender-county/144708-life-puma-rear-diffs-9.html

Back here in Oz ? A mate has the local tyre service/produce/general store and he serviced a 2.8l Lolux a few weeks back taht hadn't had an oil change for 35,000km. It was a pretty good ad for Fuchs Titan Ultralube 15W-40, it was still fluid ! (sort of ) The ute belongs to a local cockie (another mate) who just doesn't believe in servicing. The boys finally convinved him to do the timing belt 6 months ago, it was only 100,000km overdue !