Ha ha. That would be analogous to having an electric car and towing a diesel generator behind it.

Can I chip in with some of the figures quoted (purely anecdotal). Before I retired I used to visit the States on a regular basis. Heat pumps have been common there for a long time, particularly in rural areas. In the UK we lagged behind because of the availability of cheap gas (past tense).
They can also be reversed to cool the house in summer.
Speaking to fellow engineers, they reckoned an air source heat pump gave about 5:1 ratio and a ground source pump about 8:1.
Another bit of useless anecdotal information, a near neighbour where I live had a ground source heat pump installed several years ago with a vertical shaft in his back garden. When they had the drilling rig on site, he did a deal with the guys to drill down another 150m.
He tells me he has kept detailed records and he is getting between 10:1 and 11:1 ratio.

Hi Rob,
I take your point. but I struggled using a press without any kind of guide and ended up knackering a bush, so my thoughts are colored by that.
I think Marty said the official tool was 70mm tall so welding a length of pipe on would make it closer to the official desgn.
As an aside I bought a cheap welder on Amazon a year or two ago and it has been brilliant. Made in China, inverter type with digital readout.
Teach yourself. I did.
Thanks for your input anyway.

I still think it needs a section of pipe welding to it, to guide the bush in.

Car passed the MOT. One advisory. Ugh. Rubber boot over a track rod end has a split in it.
Tester at least said the car was well maintained.

30306 taper bearing
It was romanrob
Radius Arm Tool
I also bought one but have not had the need to use it yet. It is somewhere in the garage.
I have just seem romanrob's video explaining how it works. I forgot about that.

MOT time has come round again. Seems like I have only just done it. Can't be a year surely?
Booked it in for late Friday afternoon, just before the mechanics clock off. Is that good or bad? Maybe they wiil rush it to finish early.
I am not aware of any issues and have been regularly using the car. I looked at last years certificate. One advisory, handbrake too high.
Not been fixed, still the same 12 months later, so I thought I had better fix it now in case they read the past history. So today I adjusted the bolt on the back of the drum as a starting point, then finally took the slack out of the cable. Handbrake is fixed but I observed a drip from the engine which was diesel from the spill back pipes. Replaced 4 of the pipes this afternoon and promptly ran out of tubing (1m of tubing in the kit !).
Will carry on this week. Stressful time.

I do a bit of wood turning as a hobby.
For the best gloss finish, I would say use shellac varnish. It is very easy and quick to apply. I can give further details if needed.
You would need to do a test area in case something else has been applied.
Teak oil is really for outdoor teaks which are naturally very oily. Used on ships decks for instance.
A two pack epoxy gives a very good finish that is durable and waterproof but is more trouble than it is worth. I wouldn't do it on a dash.
Other varnishes use resins with an organic solvent that dries out.
Other options would be an aerosol can of clear laquer maybe.

I have got two stands actually. A 450Kg Clarke one from Machine Mart and the SGS 680kg one. I think they are all made in China.
The 680kg stand is much stronger and has a central fifth wheel in the middle. Some of the cheap ones only have 3 wheels.
The diesel engine is supposedly 40 kgs heavier than the V8. I just know it is very heavy with all the ancilliaries bolted on it.
You can't lift a diesel engine off the floor. I had to borrow an engine lift off a friend to get it on the stand.
Give SGS a ring. I remember they were showing out of stock on their website but actually had a couple in stock.

I bought a stand a while back from SGS. Rated at 680KGs with 5 wheels, it holds a spare diesel engine I have got and is very stable.
They were quite a bit cheaper than anyone else.

One of the channels I follow on YouTube is Salvage Rebuilds UK. As luck would have it, the guys have just aquired a p38 non runner that has been sat in a field for a few years.

p38 DHSE

Early days yet, but interesting to see what progress they make. The guys are very experienced mechanics but not with a p38.

All the alloy radiators now come with the manual gearbox cooler section. I have got an Allisport one which seems to be identical to the direnza.
I just didn't use that section and left it unconnected. Been like that for 10 years+. Overheating is a thing of the past.

Wow !

Tailgate lock stopped working. No problems I thought. I have an emergency pull cord fitted to open the lock. I climbed through the rear door and reached in to pull the cord and it worked a treat. First time in anger, the original actuator is 22 years old.
Took off the lower card. I have a spare actuator and I thought I would just plug it in and verify it is the actuator or else a problem further back in the car. So far so good.
I then discover the spare actuator I have has a different plug. There is an early and a late version apparently and the early spare I have will not fit. I rig up a small 12v battery and with a bit of wire, I test the original actuator in the car. It works OK.
Using a multimeter, I find there is no signal to it from the car. I try the fuel filler flap which is on the same circuit. It does not work either.
I then check fuse 14 under the seat. Not blown. I push it back in and suddenly everything starts working.
There must be a moral in this story. About 2 hours wasted flapping around.

I am pretty sure my insurance covers me for green lanes or "byways open to all traffic" known as BOAT's. Also when I park in a field at say a countryside event, I am also covered. Also forestry commission tracks. The road does not have to be tarmac'ed.

Driving properly off road, forcing the car through the bush, has a high risk of scrapes and dents or even rolling the car. Cover might then be third party only.

Could just be overfilled. My car expansion tank level settles down around the joining crack where the plastic is moulded.
If there is no sign of overheating, the cooling system is just not holding the pressure in. Are the hoses hard after a run?
Caps wear out as do the threads on the expansion tank.
I would fit a new oem cap. Put silicone grease on the tank threads to help get it good and tight.
You can get a pump and gauge to pressure test the system if you get desperate.
Aircon condenser will be corrosion from the outside. Some are sold that are just bare aluminium that will corrode in no time with salt on the roads.

The ac compressor and clutch on the diesel is buried on the RHS right at the bottom of the engine making access difficult.
You can get to it if you take off the front RH wheel arch liner. The clutch clearance is set by swapping different thickness spacer washers.

I should also point out that the wine was to last the two of us for a year. It was carefully stored in my wine cellar (my shed in the back garden).

I have brought back 450 bottles of plonk in the back (approx 1 Kg each) via Calais plus towing a 2 tonne caravan and two adults.
1 tonne in the back is quite a bit more.
You are not going to damage the chassis or bend an axle. The air bags are probably the weakest point but they are limited to 10 bars or so?
Tyres? Are yours within date and in good nick?

I had painful experience last year trying to swap out my transfer box for a new one. It is on the cards to have another go at it this year after I tick off a few more jobs round the house. I need to psyche myself up first.

Some of you may recall I got a local garage to do the heavy work. However the job went pear shaped. Horrible grinding noises from the new box. They ended up putting the old box back in to get me going. Cost a bloody fortune in labour. Charged 11 hours.

With hindsight I think it must have been my fault. I had replaced the epicyclic gears and I had also had the case apart. Something must have been dislodged inside. I need to have another look see and test it properly before refitting it. How? I don't know. Maybe spin it using an impact wrench on the drive shaft?

The know the garage never disturbed the gearbox when replacing the transfer box but they obviously have a car lift and a gearbox jack.

Richard: Once the propshaft, exhaust and cross member are off, what causes the box to hang down? Is it the weight flexing the engine mounts? I can't picture what the problem is. Won't it just slide straight back? Maybe support the gearbox separately?
You can tell I don't know what I am talking about as I haven't done it.

I have bought a platform lift and I like the idea of making a cradle for it to hold the box. A picture of yours to show the angle would be helpful.

I can rope someone in to help (haven't told them yet). I know it weighs 75Kg.

Swapping the HP22 gearbox for a HP24 box on the diesel is pretty straight forward. I fitted one to mine over 10 years ago and it has been fine since.

The HP22 was only used in the 4.0 petrol and the 2.5 diesel, while the HP24 was just used in the 4.6 petrol.
There are actually two versions of the HP24 gearbox - an early one and a later type, which is known as an 065 box. The number will be found on the gearbox plate. It should say something like 030 - 065.

The 065 box is a direct swop for the HP22 . The earlier HP24 is 15mm longer. It can be adapted to fit but it saves a lot of hassle if you find a later 065 box. You need to use the diesel bellhousing, the bolt holes are the same, and also use the diesel torque converter. I had an uprated one fitted that was supplied by Ashcrofts but I think they no longer do them.

No electrical mods are needed. Continue to use the same diesel gearbox ecu.

My car used to hunt up and down the gears before I chipped it. Towing up a hill was awful. It would drop from 4th straight down into 2nd, rev like hell then change back into top. It would then repeat the cycle, ad infinitum. Chipping the engine changed all that with later gear changes.
The uprated TC helps with later gearchanges but is or was expensive. I would continue to use the OEM diesel TC if I were you.

Cooling was a problem on mine at the start but It was only when towing in hot weather, like towing a caravan in France in the summer. Solo is no problem at all. Following Dave Ashcrofts advice I fitted a thermocouple to the gearbox sump and fitted a gearbox temp gauge in the dash.
The gearbox will overheat never mind the engine.
With a chipped engine it could be 40 to 50% more power and the torque increase even more than that. It means 50% more heat and cooling has got to be spot on.
The plastic on old radiators goes brittle with time and they can burst violently. Mine did several years ago.
I fitted an Allisport radiator which has better cooling. It looks the same as the Direnza.
More sure your viscous fan works ok. I also did a mod to the electric fans at the front to turn them on manually when needed.

Another thing I would point out is that some aftermarket radiators that are advertised have a much reduced heat transfer area. They are very shallow front to back. You get what you pay for I guess. OEM rads will be fine and the alloy ones I have seen all look OK. All diesel rads are now sold with a manual gearbox cooling section. Just don't pipe it in if fitted to an auto.

You can't fit fog lights to an auto diesel because the gearbox cooler gets in the way of the nearside one. Later cars have a fan on the cooler and have even less clearance. Manual diesels could probably be fitted with fog lamps however. You would have to fit an after market auto gearbox cooler up front and remove the original cooler under the wing to fit fog lights. The wiring is there ready for all models but would need activating in the BECM.