rusty_wingnut

You'd need to try hard to keep up with me on a wiggly road on my bike

my 96 molested 300tdi does 33mpg

I did it with nothing more than an overheard gantry and chain block, the engine crane (which you will need for lifting enigne and tranny as one!) and an old oil drum I lifted the bonnet off and removed the front panel, both front wings were still connected, I think I roped the bulkhead mounts through the engine bay to save the wings and then used the engine hoist as a leveller on the spare wheel carrier (my back door was knackered and survived) then used the oil drums to prop the rear tub while I used the enigne crane to swap transmission etc. I think I could do it quicker than I did, I spent some time setting up my X arms and making those fit along with the springs etc. A simple like for like swap can be achieved even quicker. I think I only disconned the chassis and engine electrical harness from the bulkhead, pulled the clutch slave cylinder out of the gearbox (left it bled ready to refit) undid the gear levers and hand brake, drain rad and removed that and intercooler. and Undid the brake feeds from the bulkhead (2 lines?) Very little work, then obviously undid the body mounts, realised I had forgotten the gearbox electrical harness and lifted the body off I need to dig the pictures out of the process, all of it easy with a bit of scaffold, some clever thinking and not opening the doors while the body was up in the air I changed all of it myself, had very little help from my old man, my work mates were stunned when it drove back into work on Monday morning

Did my chassis swap in 2.5days on my own. Body off in one hit no messing about, only bolts I replaced were the M8 x 25mm on the rear tub mounting bolts and the rear shock bracket bolts. Good idea to soak everything with diesel before hand and worth buying a selection of jubilee clips

I've got a nearly new 8274 with Xp motor, GP main shaft upgrade or summink Albright etc, really is over and above any winch I've had before

I had one go on the A3 50mph uphill accelerating in 4th. Ithe knuckle cracked on the transfer end - the slider part flew across the road and god knows where it ended up, the rest was going round and round, it twatted the floor and kicked up a laod of dust, then got caught in the wiring which held it in place until I had slowed. Nice.

I made my own, cut out for the seat belt, first aid kit hanger, inspection light mount and two mounts for 6x9" speakers. All stained black - looks proper

Chaps, as usual a pleasure! Solved by cleaning the chassis earth, and also connecting the redudant winch earth lead for good measure. Everything is now working properly

Thanks chaps, it's a 96 300tdi. I am thinking about the chassis harness too, remembering that the headlights get mildly brighter with thre hand brake on

Think I might be answering my own problem but a little search revealed this: http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=51786&st=0&p=467689&hl=+headlight%20+earth&fromsearch=1entry467689 This is going to be a joyful evening

I have a weird electrical problem that I think is due to a bad earth somewhere. Basically all electrics work fine until I use the headlights, when the headlights are on - be it dip, main and full beam the rest of the electrical systems are effected - the wipers slow, the heater slows and when I flash the lights the radio dies. Clearly (correct me if I'm wrong here) I have an earth problem on the headlights, question is where is the earth connection for the headlights? Cheers.

Good advice - cheers chaps. I am looking at a JE 4.8 with an auto behind it. Already setup and proven with an expensive ECU. So power wise I am led to believe it is around 350bhp? I'll have a search. I am more scared about cutting the engine mounts off my galvy chassis

Chaps, I'm seriously considering converting my 300tdi 90 to a Rover V8 and am interested to hear the thoughts of anybody who has done this already. I realise the engine mounts will change and a bigger rad is required. But does anyone have experience of modifying the wiring loom and doing the plumbing of air,water etc pipes? Anything to look out for?

I'd be checking the condenser....

Not really abuse, but I think you're being daft - how can you think it's legal to do what you're describing? Buy yourself a Defender and save yourself a whole world of effort/aggro and pain.

Don't get me wrong I went down that route - but it didn't feel like a Series anymore To me it was more like a poor set of brakes, springs and comfort bits with a big engine bolted to it. So I went back and refitted every single original component I had kept. I rebuilt my 2ltr petrol engine with some trick bits to give it a bit more go, the overall result is pleasing. My main point is as someone who has done the modifying a series thing, just exercise a little caution and try to keep what the motor is about in the first place. Each to their own though and all that.

The top outlet is to vent to atmopshere or somewhere like the breathing system on the engine. You should have an inlet, and an outlet, inside there may be a baffle to turn the gasses and almost stall the flow allowing andything denser than air to drop into the bottom of the tank and the air to travel out of the top end outlet. The bottom drain can be connected to the nonpressured side of the sump with a one way valve if required - though I would not reccomend that in this case.

Peter Best were decent when I was running a modified motor.

buy a 90? By the time you've gone to the effort of chucking all that kit in Series you might as well bought a 90.

if this LEZ business materialises and looks to be costly I am going big, big HFH style V8

I recently rebuilt my 2ltr petrol to a hotter spec than original and it cost me well over £3k despite doing nearly everything bar machining and parts myself. Looks good mate - keep it going!

In those 2years I have put nearly 50k on this engine.... I have also run it with a VGT (1.2bar max pressure) and upp'ed fuel settings. It's always been reliable. I have changed the thermostat and low and behold it's fixed, run just under halfway again and the hoses feel cool after doing a couple of highspeed A roads.

I could well be up for this Martin, I have a few mates who would probably be interested also!

Green thing is correct

mine has been running with the timing 2degrees advanced on the injector pump for a around 2 years now and only recently developed this fault. It does help the performance a bit IMO. I'm going to try changing the thermostat as it's getting progressively worse, on the 3mile run to the chippie it got the gauge above halfway!!