Tidying up...

...from where I left off last week is what I've been up to.

As I said, the top radiator hose needed fitting and a couple of minor hoses (eg the plenum heater hoses) needed "t-ing" into what was to become the top hose.

The slight headache came when I was looking at the (original) heater hoses. On the SD1 engine, these run under the inlet manifold to the rear of engine, so I connected one straight to the header tank and the other was blanked off. On the Range Rover engine, they are both at the front of the engine, and would need blocking, but that would have created air locks (as they are both vertical).

In a moment of pure genius, I had the bright idea of getting a piece of steel tube, and welding two "t's" to go into the tops of hoses, then running that along the engine, by the injectors, to the rear of the engine, then (with a reducer) to a flexi rubber pipe to header tank. Simple!!! So I filled the system with water/antifreeze and ran the engine for about 10 minutes on Sunday.

That went well in as much as I didn't have any leaks, but it did remind me to do two things. The first was to check for oil pressure (which I have) and that I need to get the fan wired up.

Well, it's Monday as I write this and the fan was wired up earlier this evening and now works fine.

The ecu is now in residence so to speak, but I think I'll be putting a cover of sorts over that for security.

I can't remember if I mentioned that the engine wouldn't turn over on the key, but only with me shorting the starter motor terminals with a screwdriver. Well, that turned out to be a wire in the wrong place! Easy but time consuming fix, and engine now starts on the key.

There are a couple of little jobs that I need to do like wire in the tacho, but they aren't required for the MOT, so they may have to wait, as I'm quite keen on getting the bonnet done. Once that's done, I'll be ordering some more ally sheet to redo side panels and the boot (which is fibreglass at the mo). Had a chat with a friend this eveing who paints for a living and I may have him paint the car. Need to find out what sort of finish I need to get to first. Even wife was keen on it being pro painted when I mentioned it:D

Anyway, I doubt I'll do much on the car toomorrow (Tuesday) as I'll be swimming in the evening, but hopefully by the end of this (bank holiday) weekend I'll have the bonnet done and have some pics for you:D

Till Monday then...

Simon