24 June 2007

Well, no more trouble since replacing the water pump. The exhaust still is a bit black when the throttle is at full, but I think that retarding the fuel timing slightly will cure it.

I still need to finish the interior by fitting linings to the inside of the hard top walls and curing a couple of rattles, but otherwise it’s going well. It manages 65mph on the flat without too much trouble, though getting there takes a little while. I’m pleased with that, as it’s still running on the 12J engine. I’ll be buying a new RM Roverdrive soon, so that will help keep the engine noise down when I’m driving over 50mph. I still need to get the fuel heat exchanger to run on SVO, too. That should save me £150 per month, and should pay for itself on the first tank of waste veg oil.
We’ve had a lot of rain in the UK recently, and the interior has stayed dry. The Smartscreen wiper system has been very useful, making driving in light rain or drizzle a lot less of a nuisance.

It’s still turning a lot of heads – a lot of the other fathers at the kids’ school ask Helena about it when she does the school run, and several of them are starting to find themselves in domestic arguments having told their wives they now want a Defender to replace their BMW or Audi! It’s very satisfying to drive something you’ve built from the ground up, especially when it gets so much positive attention.

The only issue with it at the moment is the auxilliary electrical system. All the accessories work perfectly, but the battery seems to loose its charge over a month or so. I haven’t been using many of the accessories at all, other than the stereo and anti-theft devices. It takes a good charge from the mains charger and runs fine for the month, but then the voltage seems to decline. I suspect that the split charger isn’t working and that the battery is not being recharged by the alternator. I’ll get a replacement at Billing next month – I’ll be going in the 109, hopefully for at least two of the three days.