Thinking about this I do wonder how hard it is to get at the actual MAF output without introducing errors so you directly know what the ECU is seeing.

If that can be done with the resources you have then I'd look into putting the two MAF sensors in series as close together as possible and log the outputs simultaneously. Switch them round and repeat to verify that there is no systematic error due to position. Shouldn't be as both sensors will read the same airflow. Divide one output by the other and, in theory, you have your conversion factor directly.

Of course its never that easy but if you can simultaneously measure the outputs from both sensors under the same conditions a heck of a lot of potential errors go away.

With this sort of thing you have to pay very careful attention to the result you want rather than trying to characterise things and sorting it out later once you have, hopefully, accurately calibrated measurements on both.

I'd expect the tuning fraternity to have add ons to their flow benches for testing and verifying actual MAF outputs on a modified engine. They aren't particularly accurate devices in instrumentation terms. Repeatable if well made but production variations are wider than I'd like.

Clive

Serpentine auxiliary drive belt is the first place to look when you have a squeak. Unlike old style Vee belts serpentine, multi Vee, types don't wedge deeper into the pulley under load for more grip so it takes very little contamination to make them slip prone.

A teeny front oil seal leak put mine into mouse mode. The leak was no worry but the squeaking on cold start was a pain.

Clive

Richards oil pipes are much more confidence inspiring.

If its good oil its amazing what you can get away with.

Official unofficial kid sister lost the sump drain plug on her diesel Disco when pulling into a motorway service station. Oil slick ended just before she parked. Found the drain plug, had it recovered refilled and all seemed well. According to Almer Motor Works at Hatfield that is who were the shower who forgot to tighten the drain plug. Not their first codge up either.

So she found another 4x4 specialist, Romanian guys, (even worse) and swopped the Disco for an L322 'cos she'd lost confidence in it! Disco was still running just fine and made at least another 10,000 miles before we lost track of it.

Clive

Looks to be a cheap and crappily made pipe to me.

Common practice with that sort of "make up any pipe" system is to run an expander round inside the metal pipe to swage out a ring or two for the rubber to grip. Crimp squeezes the rubber down around or between the raised rings so it can't come out. Kinder to the pipe than barbs but you have to get the sizes just so. The rubber pipe would have to expand to go over the ring. Metal sleeve stops that so the pressure only has to be enough to hold it in place.

That one looks as if the crimp force is generated by knurling rather than squeezing so I'd expect to see two swage rings on the pipe. One each side of the knurl effect. Normally knurls are though of as raising metal but on thin material with compressible inner support they go down just fine.

Its always surprised me how little it takes to hold a flexi pipe against considerable pressure. You just have to make sure the pipe can't stretch and shrink its wall thickness to win clearance. One place where Poisson ratios, in this case basically the tendency of the flexible "rubber" pipe wall to get thinner if its stretched, can bite you. Its not the same for all pipes. The way the hidden re-enforcement cords are laid in can make a considerable difference.

Given the right pipe its possible that simple frictional pressure on plain pipe would be OK at lowish pressures. But I'd be very chary about expecting a "rubber" pipe of any style to have a low enough Poisson ratio not to thin its wall down enough under longitudinal stretch pressure sufficiently to loose grip. Which is what has happened there.

Contrast with the nylon pipe on our air suspension systems which essentially doesn't thin down when pulled.
Clive

Pop LED Bulbs in the search box, select topics the search and you will get a list with a number of discussions.

Good LED bulbs are much better than old style in both light output and reach.

My understanding is that current MoT test guidelines make fitting a LED bulb in a non-LED approved headlamp is instant fail. On on the road it probably isn't an issue so long as the beam pattern is correct. Decent LEDs will give the correct pattern, or one near enough not to make a difference as the emitters will be arranged to mimic the shield on a H4 bulb. Cheapy "made for the American market" crap throws light everywhere and will get you stopped.

I believe the Osram LEDs are in the process of getting German TuV approval as replacements. Already done for some of the single filament replacement range.

However I suspect this is really for projector lights such as the Hella "90 mm" pair my Norton now wears which were designed for commercial vehicle use. I've been told that LED in a good projector light will not be questioned at MoT time. Which doesn't help matters on P38.

All my interior lights are LED and much better for it. LEDs in the reversing lights too which are an improvement. Youthful bursting with energy glow-worm rather than old arthritic glow-worm so objectively still rather crap.

Dunno about the P38 but LED in the red reversing lights and flashers can look odd due to spectral effects. Depends on the dyes and lens materials. Whatever it looks like it certainly won't match the official spectral standards, which are surprisingly tight for something so apparently minor. But who is equipped to measure that on a car.

Clive

If the pipes have shrunk due to heat and age its probably time to replace them. The shrinkage process makes the material a little more brittle and raises the stress where it pushes onto the connectors. Mine are fine, for now, but on other vehicles I have seen them crack around the swelling where the pipe barb is. Doesn't take long to go from a weep to a full on leak.

If its gotten seriously old and heat affected just squeezing it can drive a decently long lengthwise crack.

Naturally once cracked it won't pull off. Just snaps. So you have to carve the left behind bit off with a sharp craft knife. Such joy. Worth the cost of new joints to avoid.

Clive

Welcome aboard and best of luck with tackling the issues.

Apart from simple mechanical things fixing issues one at a time on a P38 with a whole slew of them tends to be slow and unproductive. Best to identify a group that are common to one system and sort the lot in one go.

As per book.

Shortcuts pretty much invariably blow up in your face. Quick ways generally take longer than following the book too. With a few honourable exceptions. When in doubt ask here.

Slew of issues means you are facing "old car blues" partly odd things just ageing out but mostly too many years for the careless or unthinking to do bodges and unorthodox repairs. The truly annoying thing is that fundamentally the P38 is pretty simple. Screwing things up is generally harder than doing it right.

The book is RAVE.

A must have. Not sure where the best download is now but someone will know.

RAVE runs just fine as a computer based system but I printed my download out and slipped the pages into transparent sleeves before assembling into ring binders.

About 3 ft of shelf space!

Transparent sleeves meant that I could assemble an oily finger proof job specific manual into another binder to take down to the car with me. Unlike a Haynes book of errors a ring binder stays flat and open.

I'd struggled through a couple of jobs before doing the printout but the one that convinced me I was right to take the time was an electrical issue. Simple enough except "Where's the poxy multi plug!". RAVE has all the numbers from the circuit diagrams organised, tells you where it is and pretty pictures so you can see what it looks like. Yay. All manuals should be like that. Gawd knows how long I'd have taken to find it without the book 'cos it was about 6 ft away from where I thought it should have been.

Regards

Clive

I bought one over two years ago after the HEVAC display intermittent partial failures started getting a bit too common. Damp and low battery seem to be what surfaces the problem although the root cause is connection deterioration due to old age.

Thing started behaving again immediately except for very occasional loss of a couple of segments when damp and battery low. Magic.

I guess the magic is wearing off though as almost all off has become pretty common since early December. Even a good long run to de-damp everything and get the battery right up didn't cure things for long.

Need to check a blend motor too so I guess I shall be digging in soon when things warm up.

Clive

Had similar pipe issues on my Yamaha GTS1000, a known design problem due to the inlet pipes being mild steel welded stainless steel catalyser box. Obviously the pipes corrode and leak or break off.

Standard fix is to have new stainless steel inlet pipes made and welded to the catalyser box. Cost me £180, including carriage both ways, to have four new pipes made and welded on by a specialist bike exhaust fabricator. Which included making a jig. Clamps were extra. I chose Mikalor stainless band clamps as being bike appropriate. Bit spendy but I use them on cars too because they distort the pipes less than conventional U bolt ones so its (usually) possible to get things apart without cutting.

I imagine any half decent stainless steel car exhaust fabricator could do a similar job on your catalyser boxes for, probably, less money as much less jigging would be needed.

If not abused OEM cats seem to have very long lives.

Clive

When mine arrived I put a meter on it and voltage seemed a bit down from full charge so I put a cheapy (LiDL) intelligent charger on it. As I recall things it reckoned something like 2/3 rds to 3/4 charge so it got a couple or three hours tickle up whilst I finished off what I was doing when it arrived.

Didn't need the extra charge but as I had the time and the car wasn't scheduled to go out for a week or so it seemed sensible.

Clive

Biggest time saver is getting yourself properly organised before you start.

Separate places, with labels, for the new O rings et al organised by what goes where and similar places for the old parts being replaced and things being removed and refitted as part of the process to go. Not forgetting places to keep the screws in order.

Obviously fairly detailed notes / labels as to whats what, where it goes and which side of the block you will be working on.

I suspect that sorting a proper notes and places system is a almost as effective a learning tool as doing your first one. Likely to take an hour tho'.

I'm fairly methodical but wasted ages first time through with an O ring and "did I / didn't I" mix up. Primarily due to thinking that simply laying out on the bench would be good enough. Not quite. Most likely due to disorientation when flicking between the how to notes printed off the internet, the block and the bits being taken off / put on. Once I'd lost my place in the sequence trying to figure out exactly where I was at was hard.

Got a check off list for doing the brakes for similar reasons.

Clive

Your back axle looks somewhat similar to mine, albeit I have about half the rust. Boat launching sounds a likely reason. Rust so caused seems to blow up much thicker and more crumbly than the normal slow rust on inland vehicles.

Agree as to the near pristine condition of bolts when extracted, whatever the condition of the head. Surprised me when I first started spannering mine. Land Rover clearly got all the basics much righter than the are normally given credit for. Yes Mr BMW I'm looking at you, and some Japaneses. Bikes especially.

I do wonder just how well the P38 would have turned out if there had been a bit more money around to do the engineering details and production set up details a bit more properly.

What would have happened if Rover had had a strong, dynamic, board devoted to car production at BMH and BL merger time rather than the elderly and weak, mostly financially obsessed, one it actually had. There is no doubt that Rover, and to some extent Jaguar, were frequently used as a cash cow to support the rest of Leyland. Would the money have been sufficient to support the essential 2000 - 3500 replacement, up date the Range Rover on schedule and take the Land Rover itself updating a bit further although that was mostly funded via military contracts anyway so was mostly zero sum for Leyland. Possibly if Leyland / Triumph died early enough to open up the Triumph 2000 market to a proper Rover, not the seriously cost cut concept SD1, rather than split.

Clive

One day I might get the rubber treads off the set of steps I've had in storage for the best part of a decade to sort out the corroded square tubes, add drain holes and get a pro refinish. But its been 9 years since I got them, "perfect condition" said the lying E-Bay toad. I'm not sure that I truly miss having them. Except maybe when washing the roof or strapping something to the roof rails. The long outer tubes on mine are both mostly three sided rather than four so a boat load of tricky welding if things are to stay straight and be properly sealed at the end of it. Not forgetting appropriate drain holes.

If the chassis brackets are that rare then perhaps I should tool up for a few sets. Not hard to make in OEM form with the bolt on side-plate. Easier if a simple three sided weldment will work tho'. I'm not set up to paint properly so would be delivered in bare metal. Can't believe where time goes. Date on my drawings is August 2015.

Clive

Ages ago I drew out the sidestep brackets for an American(?) forumite on the dark side who wanted to make some custom sidesteps.

PM me if you'd like a pdf copy of the drawings.

Clive

Consider your routes and avoid things like pulling away off a steep hill into a tight right angle, or more, junction.

I had a CV joint on a SAAB 900 pretty much explode on me in such a scenario. First knock as I balanced power, clutch and handbrake to pull away. Loud bang, nasty shudders et al and not much drive as we went over the camber on full lock. Impossible to abandon there but fortunately just enough drive left to limp it 50 yards to the top of a steep windy hill with a nice bus stop lay by at the bottom so it could be coasted down to relative safety. The collection of fractured bits that fell out when I took it apart was impressive. Amazing that the gaiter held it in. Never did figure out how it still managed to drive.

Automatics are kinder to the drive than manuals but still something to consider. Don't forget to settle it on the handbrake before engaging park. Besides jolting the park pawl as the car rolls into balance it will also stress the joint.

Its impact and jolt loads against stationary that really makes cracks spread. Running loads not so much, as there is far less inertia to work against, until things get really bad. Knock due to wear can be nursed along for ages but if one of the drive components has a fracture crack its much more risky.

Clive

The Guild of Experienced Motorists (GEM) offers an insurance based system using local contractors. You call them, they make the arrangements. You pay the contractor and claim back the cost from GEM.

Worked fine for me many years ago when my SAAB 900 blew a CV joint and had to be recovered.

GEM Members only so membership fee puts the price up. Back in the day it was an attractive deal as the total was rather less than AA, RAC et al. Only reason I joined up as soon as I'd got enough driving years in. Long time ago now. But prices have crept up over the years. Pushing £80 now I think so may no longer be decent value.

Clive

Don't know what the P38 switch innards are like but the last time I encountered a similar problem, not an indicator switch, it turned out to be a detent spring issue. The spring had roughed up the part of the housing that it ran on creating enough drag to slow the detent down enough that it couldn't keep up with the switch centring spring so the switch could overshoot.

The moving parts of that switch had been lubricated with some sort of greasy stuff which, on the evidence of the squidged out stuff alongside the pivots, was clearly well past its sell by date.

If your switch is similarly afflicted the usual strip, clean, polish off wear marks and re-assemble process should fix things. Dunno what the current best practice is for lubricating such, mostly plastic, things is. I'm minded to try a silicone / PTFE blend spray next time.

When it comes to stripping the $64,000 question is how many self ejecting and self hiding springs, primed for instant escape into the darkest corner of the workshop, are there inside? Working inside one of those big transparent plastic storage boxes is said to be effective at preventing such escapes.

Clive

Magic number(s) for E10 compatible fuel hose are SAE J30R6 and SAE J30R9. R9 is higher spec, dunno exactly what the difference is, but both are happy with E10 and higher levels of ethanol.

If the specification isn't clearly printed on the hose don't buy.

Clive

Garvin
What breed is your small blast cabinet?

It would be helpful for folk to know a reliable source for one which comes with a properly balanced set-up of air nozzle, blast nozzle and gun throat size to work with smaller compressors.

Seems that some have such a poor mix of components that it's amazing that anything actually comes out of the business end. Of course I only tend to see the bad ones "Why won't it work..".

Clive

Although 20 cu ft min of air is a comfortable recommendation for abrasive blasting you can get very satisfactory results with less if the air nozzle is suitable size and the blast nozzle itself not too big.

I have a pdf of the official Guyson air supply recommendations for their range of air and blast nozzles. Can't figure out how to post it but PM me if you'd like a copy.

Summarising at the small end -
A 2 mm bore air nozzle requires 3 cfm at 30 psi rising to 7.5 cfm at 80 psi.
A 2.4 mm bore air nozzle (which I use) needs 4 cfm at 30 psi rising to 11 cfm at 80 psi.
A 2.8 mm bore air nozzle requires 6 cfm at 30 psi rising to 16 cfm at 80 psi.
A 3.2 mm bore air nozzle requires 7 cfm at 30 psi rising to 17 cfm at 80 psi.

Blast nozzle sizes arent so critical. Important thing is that the nozzle is large enough not to choke the flow. Undersize, or close to minimum size, blast nozzles wear fast. I'm using a 5 mm nozzle which is really too large for the 2.4 mm air nozzle but it works well enough.

Again summarising at the small end -
A 3 mm bore nozzle accepts 7 cfm at 30 psi rising to 21 cfm at 80 psi.
A 5 mm bore nozzle (which I use) accepts 19 cfm at 30 psi rising to 48 cfm at 80 psi.
A 6 mm bore accepts 34 cfm at 30 psi rising to 80 cfm at 80 psi.

Most low end blast kit seems to come with 6 mm blast nozzles and 3 mm air nozzles. So air nozzle is oversized for small compressors. Hence the common "you need 20 cfm" comments. Usually the syphon / pick up arrangements are undersized which doesn't help.

Clive