Decided to spend a couple hours on Victoria last night, mounted air filter housing, installed fuel return line, hooked up glowplug relay system, routed fuel pedal cable and connected turbo exhaust pipe. Did a quick double check of things and touched her off...barely spun a half revolution and it was running. Idles and accelerates smoothly.

It has to come back apart, new boost hoses should be here tomorrow and turbo intake hose, radiator and inner cooler were just ordered. Went with Rovers North for last purchase, hope it's not a mistake...???...truth be told...l've had horrible luck with them for the most part. Thought l'd give them one more chance. Everything says it ready for immediate shipment...but we will see.

Last shipment from Rimmer Brothers...5 days to my door...we'll see what RN takes this time.

 

Well, Rovers North knocked it out of the park. Was checking tracking number this morning and it said order was in route for delivery...l was like...no way. Way. Ordered everything Tuesday and it was at my door today at 11am. Dropped rad/inner cooler in and took for test drive...WOW...the 200tdi is like driving a sports car compared to the 2.5td. Man, you can really hear the turbo spool up now.

Great job Rovers North...you're back on my "nice" list.

 

Installed new boost tubes and intake tube (from air cleaner housing to turbo). I've put about twenty miles on it so far, seems ready for a day trip.

It starts at the touch of the key, old 2.5TD was a bastard on cool/cold mornings. Still can't get over the power diffence...night and day.

Decided l'm going to hold off on interior work, until warmer weather. Going to concentrate on electrical stuff, extreior lights, two-way radio and upgrading electrical connection in rear.

Oh, l did install aluminum fuel tank guard/shield. Went smoothly, all nuts spun right off...if you can believe that...lol. Was all geared up for them snapping like butter...but l guess the two days of WD40 made a difference.

 

I’m glad it went well for you. More power is always better.

 

Well, it's been a while since posting. After replacing the 2.5TD with the 200tdi, and still be shutdown internationally by the covid thing, decided to rebuild the engine...so it would be fresh for any major trips. Pulled engine March of 2021, ordered a bunch of parts and took head in for machining. Then in August of that same year l developed an issue, health wise. After several months of misdiagnosis and prolonged downtime...finally got diagnosed and started treatment. Anyhow, while l was down and out the machine shop finished the head, so, l swung by and picked it up in late November, but they loaded everything, since l had no use of my hands or arms. Well, months go by, waiting for treatment to improve my issues. March of 2022, finally feel like doing some of the engine assembly. Start by installing pistons, first couple go fine, even though l'm struggling bigtime. Third one rolls out of my useless left land and hits the floor. So, things come to a stand still again, order another piston from Turner Engineering in UK. First piston gets delivered somewhere, call Turner Eng and they say it's insured and send out another a few days later, it arrives...so...since l've had a few extra months of rehabilitation and my hands are much better, strength-wise, still have dexterity issues. Anyhow, the rest of the pistons go in, rebuild bottom end, oil pan goes on, roll engine over to set the head. Getting ready to torque head and notice the thermostat housing is missing...and it has to go on before head gets set on. Search entire garage and everywhere l can think of...and no housing. Call machine shop and they said they loaded it up, l'm like...l don't think so. Figure, how hard could it be to get another one...well...12 months later...and after three wrong housing from UK...believe l have the right one in route.



Fingers crossed.

So, as you can imagine...l've been a little bummed about the time frame of this whole project and fight to regain any type of ambition for finishing this thing. I'd bought some new-to-me front doors shortly after diassembling the engine, when excitement of moving forward still existed, mine were horribly rusted, especially, the inner frame portion. Well, today...l fought through the "l feel like giving up on this thing" and went out in the garage and installed the doors.



Left side went on pretty nice, didn't fight me at all.



Right side...whole nother story...lol. But she's on, couldn't finish...hands were starting to really give me fits. They just stop working when they get fatigued.

What a difference these doors made! Plus, new hinges really helped stiffen her up.

Anyhow, that's a short, blow-by-blow report about Victoria and her battle to ever see the road again.


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sorry to hear about your struggles. hang in there. I enjoyed reading the update.

 

Thank you. Yeah, the hardest part is taking baby steps. Built/brought back from the dead my 01 Discovery in a matter of a year and constantly made progress in leaps and bounds and enjoyed every minute of it. Hopefully, a few jobs completed will spur some substantial motivation to keep moving forward.

 

Progress...

Painted doors, color match was prefect, almost unbelieveable for spray bomb. Granted, the rest of the beast is set in 34 years of historical correct patina..but you can see the base color is spot on. Doesn't match the front wings, since they have been painted before...and it's an off color.

Anyhow...





Don't have the cans at home, to pass on info about product...but l'd highly recommend for touch up. Cans had nice fan-type spray and covered nicely. Think l'll spray the rest of her when the engine gets running again. Ah...the engine. Received thermostat housing, perfect! Bolted it on the head, perfect, set the head and started torquing...second bolt from the end...snap..not so perfect. l'm like...really? Snapped another taking it back apart, brilliant! Luckly, the broken portions came right out with little resistance. Ordered new set. 44 years of being a mechanic...never snapped a head bolt in my life. Started reflecting on my decision to switch gears and sell the Porsches and "get into rover" instead...since off roading is where my soul feels comfortable. But...l believe these things are slowly eating my soul for lunch...lol.

Don't even want to mention old whitey, 04 Discovery, has been running great and it's nice to have both eyes on the road, instead of one on the temp gauge. Extinct's thermostat mod is a great improvement!



She kind of likes the Colorado or she's just cold...cuddling up to him and all...lol.

 

Okay, bit chilly today but you'd never see the "Duke" complain about such things. So, it was 31°F in the garage when l got up, but the temps were dropping like a rock outside (19°F). Fired up the heater and waited two hours. 35°F when l stepped foot back in the garage...thought..screw it..l'm getting something done today. Puttered away for four hours, assembling from the head up and putting on everything else. Never got above 37°...but stayed close to heater and that helped some.





Have to push defender out some to get to overhead hoist, so that was out of the question...Duke mentality or not..lol

Felt good to get something done thugh!

 

Windchill is negative 20° right now...good time to be a polar bear.