October 2007 – Tdi Planning

The 109’s still going well, though a small amount of play has appeared again in the steering. It’s well after the steering box – I was able to check that much single handed. I suspect the steering relay pinch bolts have stretched, allowing a small amount of movement between the relay shaft and the two arms, just like before. I have bought some new hight tensile bolts and locking nuts to cure the fault.

Alun’s been round for a tea and a good look, so here’s some news on the engine upgrade planning so far:

I have sourced a Discovery 200 engine with about 100,000 miles, still in the donor, so I can check it over running before removal, and have all the ancilliaries;

A LRUK forum member is selling me his 300Tdi manifolds and turbo, getting me round the chassis clearance issues. Muddybungy is going to Sodbury tomorrow, and is going to try to find me a 200Defender manifold set to allow me to choose whichever fits best;

The rad and intercooler will sit just behind the Defender grille, forward of the cross member, on a purpose made frame that will replace the SIII rad mount. This means that there will be plenty of space for the Tdi’s viscous fan, and there will be no need for an electric fan (a pet hate of mine);

The batteries will move under the rhs second row seat – purely by chance, the dimensions of the “biscuit tin” support for the seat and its spacing from the wheel arch are a perfect fit for the twin batteries and split charger, so the underbonnet cradle will now be free to come out, allowing more space for the injection pump and blade tip clearance on the fan. An external Anderson socket will allow easy jump starting or recharging if required;

The standard Tdi expansion tank and Defender twin pump windscreen washer bottle (currently hanging on the front of the the SIII rad panel in front of the batteries) will fit on the rhs inner wing;

The routing of the air ducts from the snorkel delivery pipe and the type and location of air filter are still an issue to be solved, but I’m loosely planning on using a Discovery/RRC 300Tdi air filter-compressor inlet pipe and a mixture of intercooler ducting.

All of that should allow me plenty of space to keep the Kenlowe Hotstart and fuel heat exchanger where they are and maximise the efficiency of the rad and intercooler. It should all be a relatively straight forward fit for such a mod, save for the issue of the initial airways. However, I have some leads that should bring up a wide choice of plant air filter units of all sorts of dimensions that fit LR ducting, so a neat solution should be quite possible.