What have you done to your DEFENDER today?

[JimC]

That would be a surprise with all the lock downs they are having...

Ive ordered from them twice this year and both times shipping has been crazy fast. Lockdowns don’t seem to be affecting everyone.

 

[jymmiejamz]

I started my D90 for the first time in months. Drove it around and parked it, went to start it and had a crank and no start condition. No surprise, the HEI distributor had left me stranded again with no spark. This time the coil pickup has failed.

 

[Napalm00]

Mocked up for custom injector lines.

when I started this project like two years ago I was planning to use a discovery 200 TDI timing case. It puts the injection pump in the same location as the 300 TDI case. So it'll be able to just use the 300 TDI injector lines which have the correct size nut for the smaller 300 TDI injectors.

welp over the course of two years I totally forgot and got this timing case instead. I knew this was going to be an issue about 6 months ago but had to get it to this point to actually get it mocked up so I can get custom lines made. they're going to be expensive but thank God there's a place that's relatively local to me it's like three of the spots in the entire country who can actually make these lines.

For those who don't know TDI lines all need to be the exact same length no matter the bends/routing

 

[WreckITFrank]

@Napalm00 and @JimC

Enough with what you did today posts. You both owe this community separate build threads.

@Napalm00 is the injector piping length due to timing?

 

[havens51]

Drilled out the old rivets on the 110 and replaced them with unpainted aluminums. I like the look. I may change them again to closed end rivets so no water egress.

 

[JimC]

I got a transmission cooler (that came from Synchro Gearboxes in the UK, makers of the Slick Shift) installed today in between working on Adam’s truck and encouraging him as he packed his truck’s oil pump with Vaseline to re-prime it.

I’m satisfied that this installation will work, but im actually not happy with the way the kit forces you to plumb the system. The valve block and the heat exchanger have hose barbs on them, so they need hose clamps which I hate. Once I added the tubing bends that I needed and double-clamped the barbs for added piece of mind, I had a damned plethora of hose clamps all over the place. Routing the lines also kind of sucked though I fire-sleeved them to protect them from the exhaust heat. If they don’t really work out then I’ll get rid of some of this stuff and install something like the 97 NAS trans cooler lines and heat exchange.

bonus pic of Adam getting oil in the face.

 

[Napalm00]

Oil and water plumbing

 

[Napalm00]

I'm thinking of wrapping the manifold where the oil return line ( big one ) is super close . Thoughts ?

The hose is rated to 500 f for what it's carrying.

 

[WreckITFrank]

Used to be a big fan of dei wrap when I went way faster in vehicles. Sold the kits for years, wrap, spray, stainless ties. Looks great too when done right.

 

[JimC]

I took the truck to an exhaust shop to get it better aligned. The stock mounts and the Allisport exhaust just wouldn’t play well together. We’re nice and solid now. Took a pic of the truck in the fading light. Even got some air in the tires, free 1” lift!

 

[LazyRabbit]

finally got my truck tuck out of storage after 15 months. After a battery charge, she started right up.
Changed tires from very solid KM1s (you can really tell the rubber was better back then) with some used KM2s.
Waiting on a new radiator (they are not terribly cheap). Need to change fluids, install rear silencer, new front shocks, new panhard bar and track bar, and eventually new springs, but i'm afraid they will lift the truck a little and then she wont fit in the garage.

 

[MountainD]

finally got my truck tuck out of storage after 15 months. After a battery charge, she started right up.
Changed tires from very solid KM1s (you can really tell the rubber was better back then) with some used KM2s.
Waiting on a new radiator (they are not terribly cheap). Need to change fluids, install rear silencer, new front shocks, new panhard bar and track bar, and eventually new springs, but i'm afraid they will lift the truck a little and then she wont fit in the garage.

15months? That drive, I bet, was awesome. Long time to not drive her —although, I’ve been through those stints.

 

[LazyRabbit]

15months? That drive, I bet, was awesome. Long time to not drive her —although, I’ve been through those stints.

Yes! Can't wait to get some of these things sorted and take her on some outings

 

[4RF RDS]

Touched up scraped paint on the frame (from off roading and rock crawling). Undercoated the frame for winter driving, replaced gauge bulbs with LEDs and added temp gauge for the Roamerdrive. My OCD would not allow me to keep the digital volt meter opposite so I added a VDO volt gauge for symmetry.

I believe my dash and guages are now finally done.

 

[JimC]

I’m to the part of the project where every little thing just takes forever. In addition to helping/hazing Adam while he continued to suffer through his fuel pump ground problem with 66/500 I did lots of random stuff to 145/500 that somehow took all day.

First I got all the interior trim bits recolored. I didn’t want aged grey to complement my off-white paint and planned tan seat covers. I opted to change the tone slightly to #120 Ford dark parchment in spray cans from LVP. On the hard plastic bits I used the adhesion promoter first.

I also spent an inordinate amount of time adding accessory circuits. I hate power leads coming off the positive batter post and I’m not big on auxiliary fuse boxes either. Fortunately I had another option - since my harness has the disco-style fuse/fusible link box under the passenger seat I was able to connect to the unused terminals (this truck doesn’t have ABS, power windows, etc) for my additional circuits. I used one for my Optimill hi-power washer, one for Eberspächer power, another to power the camera rear view mirror and brake controller, and the last to provide a clean source of power to my extra gauges. I ran the leads from the main fuse box to some unused spaces in the under-dash fuse box with the help of some terminals I got from PaulMc - an amazing Rover connector guru who floats around most of the boards.

 

[JimC]

Oh, more stuff. In the last couple days there were more essential but fundamentally unimpressive things happening. I finally got some 1/2 inch fuel tube and a 3/4-1/2 reducer so that I could plumb the fuel tank vent. Also I pursued one of my least favorite pastimes with vigor. Dissecting connectors got get them to fit through grommets i usually hell, they all seem to work slightly differently and it’s hit or miss as to whether the correct method actually releases the terminal. At least I did remember that I had a couple different sizes of stainless tube floating around that I could push through grommet and make it easier to feed and fish wires.

 

[Napalm00]

Getting really close to taking it off the stand and putting it on the crane for clutch housing work. The oil return is millimeters from the manifold so I wrapped it but, I expect it to fail eventually. I may have to use hard copper tubing and an flare nuts, sucks.

 

[MountainD]

Getting really close to taking it off the stand and putting it on the crane for clutch housing work. The oil return is millimeters from the manifold so I wrapped it but, I expect it to fail eventually. I may have to use hard copper tubing and an flare nuts, sucks.

Can you change it to 4AN line or similar? Drill out barb on turbo and tap? Not ideal for sure

 

[Napalm00]

Can you change it to 4AN line or similar? Drill out barb on turbo and tap? Not ideal for sure

The oil return is gravity fed and needs to be WIDE open, it's an10 ~5/8. Unfortunately it can't be reduced, if it backs up even momentarily the turbo could bleed oil. This turbo type (VKLR) is very susceptible to this failure type due to it being a ceramic ball bearing turbo with floating seals.

All of the other lines are an4.

I'll also note that this is the highest temp braided hose I could find. It's goodridge ptfe an10 hose from pegasus.

The manifold was lava wrapped and I may wrap the hose in the dei gold reflective tape.

 

[MountainD]

Got it. I was looking at wrong line (thought you meant how close the on on top was). You engine isn’t a typical configuration, either...at least for a 200 block