Morocco 4x4 overland tour, -1 day till our trip

Are we ready?

Well I have to say I'm laying in bed this morning wondering about a couple of meetings at work and also thinking if were actually ready to go on this little trip which we bought Larry for.  It's been an interesting few months I have learned more about Land Rovers that I thought I would.

I have a large bag of spares, all of which I do not want to use.  Also just to add to the learning and expense I had to weld a new front end on the car.


We will pack in true Suddell tradition, 1 hour before going, and although I think I have what I need for the trip, I'm sure we will be buying stuff along the way, this is normal for me I travel a lot and therefore don't pack much.

We have done no interior mods to Larry on the basis that were only going to Morrocco, therefore its a ground tent for us ;-) that could be an issue on rocks, but hey all part of travelling.

Anyway, a day to go, two meeting to have between now and then, quick packing and then more than 4,000miles in 16 days in a 16 year old car.  Hmmmm.

Different engine oils for Land Rover 300tdi

Some observations on engine oils

I thought I'd put this blog together which I will update over time as I change my engine oils to see what effect they have on MPG and also the feel of my Land Rover.  Larry is low mileage 55k so its a good test bed for this kind of exercise.

I have done this because I have noticed there is some changes in both the running and also the economy after I have changed oil types.  Sounds silly I guess, but having googled around a bit it seems other people have noticed a difference as well.  So I thought I'd put some subjective data up.

Firstly, when I got Larry he had been services by a chap who owned a motor mower company and I remember distinctly he said he used good quality oil which was used in his agg machines.  Our first long run in Larry returned 25mpg, which lets face it is crap for a diesel.  So the 1st thing I did was got a full service done, run the engine for 3,000 miles then change the engine oil again, the crap that came out was amazing and also smelly.

Service 1; I then filled up with Castrol Magnatec 10W40 A, this is a fully synthetic oil and on a run I was getting upto 30mpg and approx 26mpg on a mixed run around town.  Also the engine was quiet and I had no oil use, I guess my engine is in good nick.

Service 2; My latest oil change is with Halford cheap part synthetic 10W40 oil, I have immediately noticed a drop in MPG to about 28mpg on a run and 24mpg on mixed run around town,  Now I have some stock of this oil, but I will be using it all this year due to a long trip, so I will know exactly the mpg for a cheaper brand.  The engine now sounds a little less refind, not that it is refined anyway.

Also on my service 1 I used Halfords air and oil filter, for service 2 its britpart I think.  I'll keep to one supplier moving forward to ensure they quality of the air filter is not the issue.

I'll post updates on this one as I go along.

Adding a cabin temperature guage into a Discovery 300TDI

How to install a temperature gauge into you Discovery

Now I have re-fitted my roof lining I wanted to add a temperature gauge into the cabin, for no other reason than to tell how hot it is when I.m out and about.

I purchased from ebay a small battery digital car thermometer, the type which needs to be installed into a panel.  I had a spare place in the roof just behind the interior light, I believe this is normally where an electric sunroof control goes, mine does not have one so I thought that would be the best place to put it.

So I popped out the panel and drew around the gauge to work out where I needed to cut a hole, then with a small drill I roughly cut out the hole.

Cutting a hole in a plastic panel

I then used a sharp knife to cut the section out and tidy the edges until the temperature gauge fitted, they clip in so the cut needs to be quite accurate.

Hole cut and guage inserted

I then popped the temperature sensor behind the panel and just in the cabin where you can 't see it and pushed the panel I had taken out back into my land rover, bingo...

I can see the internal temprature...  Go me!

Land Rover DIY/Budget Dual Charge system

Dual battery system for Discovery 1

Before my trip to Morocco I wanted to ensure that I had a spare battery charged and ready to go just in case I had issues with my main battery.  However, when I was looking at the off the shelf systems available they came in at about £84 ish for a system without long HD cables or about £70 for one without a display.  I also came across some system which looked thrown together for about £55.


So, I thought it would be a good idea to do one myself.  I'm not an auto electrician, but I know enough about electronics to easily work out the parts needed and I bought on line the minimum parts I needed to create my own system, these were;

1. 180amp heavy duty relay £12
2. Connectors etc £5
3. 2xvolt LED meters £6

So with the total of £23 (not including the spare battery, or cabling which you will need) I started fitting the components to my Land Rover.  I do have a fair collection of tools and things like shrink tubing, cable soldering iron etc so I did not include these in the costs.

Firstly the positioning where the second battery will go is actually quite easy on a Discovery 1.  There is already a space for a second battery in the engine bay in front of the air box.  If you have a snorkel as i do all you need to do is remove the jack and pop it into the boot and you have a ready made compartment.

2nd battery location Discovery 1

So that's the easy bit, the next bit it to understand how to wire the 2nd battery up, there are a few options here;

1. Just run a live from the 1st batter to the 2nd, not recommended at all, but I have seen it done.  The problem with this setup is you need the same batteries and they are not isolated from each other so if one goes wrong and loses charge the other one will leaving you with no power.
2. Install a relay which switched charge to the 2nd battery when the voltage on the alternator is enough to charge both batteries, does not suffer from the issues with option 1, and does isolate the batteries.
3. Dual alternators one for each battery

 I opted for point 2 its not the cheapest works and is reliable.  Option 3 would be fab but at £100 for a new alternator + brackets and cabling it really would be a luxury.

No with option 2 you need to do some wiring.  I found this diagram on the net which lays out what you need to do.

Dual battery wiring diagram

You can see from the diagram it has two batteries, a relay to split the charge, fuses at the + posts for the batteries to connect to each other, a feed from an existing source to trigger the relay, which again is fused and also a meter to test the charge system.

Now I have included some pictures below on how I wired the system up.  I used to do a lot of electronic, but not on cars, and I was always amazed just how bad some of the wiring on some other systems was done.  So I have tried to ensure if you have not done this before I have given some tips on how to prevent things going wrong.  It is at this point where my cabling will probably break due to smart arse karma, but hey ho.

Wiring the main cables

To put the crimp terminals onto the thick cables you will need to get a good crimp tool, I have a Laser 5284 crimp tool and some battery terminal connectors.  The crimp tool works by inserting the wire you want to crimp with a crimp on the end and smacking it with a hammer to crate the crimp, the tool is about £15 but it worth all its money it creates very good crimp connections.

Laser 5284 crimp tool

The crimp terminal end connectors you need look like this.

Crimp terminals

You should get some shrink tubing as well to ensure you cover the end of any cables you are making up, this will prevent any short in the system.

You will need to lay out the cable where you want to run it in your engine bay, cut it to length and then put the terminal connectors on and complete the main cabling.  Some images below.

Cable run around the back of the engine in P-Clips

Cable run along the lines of existing cable

When you have crimped and connected the cables the ends should look like this.

Crimped and shrink wrapped connectors

In the image above you will see a smaller cable with a crimp connector on it, like the little crimp connectors you get from halfords etc.  These are a nightmare, in my opinion they are ok to do wiring with if you don't have to 100% rely on them, but they tent to break and causing shorts or a loss of circuit..  So what I would suggest you do with these is the following.

Firstly strip your wire you are going to connect to a crimp.

Stripped wire, sorry its blurry

Then tin the wire with some solder, put the end connector on and then solder them together.  This will give you a strong wet joint between the crimp and the wire, then put some shrink tube over it.
 

Crimped and soldered

This will give you a really good connection for you smaller wires which should not fail.  Tip, when you do your soldeing put the shrink tubing on 1st, its unlilely it will fit over the connectors after.

Crimped, soldered and shrink wrapped connection wire

Now all you have to do assuming you have done all your cables right is to connect the system up.

This is the connection from the + terminal on the 2nd battery to the 1st fuse box.

In line 60amp fuse holder

The cables is run around the car to the relay.

Cable run

All the way around to the relay, you can see the connectors setup on it below.

Dual battery relay wired

The red small cable is the one that goes to the back of the alternator, on my land rover there is a wire which supplies a voltage to make the dashboard low battery light go out, I know I'm sure it has a better more technica name for it.  You basically run the red wire from the relay to a 1amp fuse holder, then around the engine following the wiring to the alternator and clip the relay feed wire to the back of the alternator using a quick splice crimp connector to link the relay to this wire, see below.

Quick splice connector

This is where mine is on the alternator.

Alternator connection

The thick red cable from the relay then goes to the main battery via a 2nd 60 amp fues to the + on the battery.

Relay to behind the battery box

Up onto the + terminal

The other small black cable from on the relay goes to earth on the chassis or bodywork.

Relay to earth.

Also the 2nd battery needs and earth and good one, I have run the - on the 2nd battery to the chassis leg.

2nd battery earth to chassis leg

Make sure you cable tidy everything up and nothing is moving around, screw the relay to somewhere sensible, mine is on the inner wing, and give it all a tug to ensure its not going to come loose.

 Testing the Dual Battery setup

To test the system you will need a multimeter, you can see my 2nd battery standard voltage below is 13.13v standing.

2nd battery not being charged

When the engine is on and running this goes upto the charging voltage of the alternator, see below, mine is 14.18v, probably should be a little higher.

2nd battery on charge

If you do not get this when the system is on you have a wiring fault, you will need to use your fused multimeter to check the following.

1. You feed from the alternator is working, set the multimeter to Volts put the + into the fuse holder from your feed wire into the fuse holder, then fuse holder to + to multimeter, - on multimeter to - on earth or battery.  With the engine off this should ready 0v, with the engine on it should be 12v+.  If you get the 12v bit this is not where the issues is, reconnect the fuse and relay.  If there is an issue I'll bet it with the connector you put on the back of the alternator
2. Check your small earth wire from the relay to ground, disconnect it from the relay, keep it connected to the car and do a voltage check from the + on the primary battery to the - wire to earth, this should read something like 12v+, if this is not reading then your ground is not good enough and you may need to find another, or run it to - on the primary battery
3. Then check each connection from the + on the primary battery, with the connector off the battery, to after the 1st fuse, set the multimeter to ohm you should get 0 resistance, if you do not and you get a high reading -1 on mine then there is no circuit and the fuse has gone or is not connected, if the fuse has blow you have done something wrong with the wiring, check it all again do not just replace the fuse
4. Check the continuity of the cable from the relay around the engine bay to the other side of the 2nd fuse before it connects to the battery, it you get a high reading, -1 on my multimeter there is a fault in the connections or fuse here.  I had a fuse issue here it did not connect properly, so I had to un-bolt it and put it back
5. Now lastly a continuity check from the second battery to the fuse

Please remember a car battery can kill you or cause a fire so if you are uncomfortable with electronics get someone else to do the system.

Anyway, assuming you have cables it right and I take no responsibility for what you do at all, you will have a working 2nd battery.  I have done mine as an overland backup battery and feed for my CB radio.

I will fit the dual voltage meters into the system at a later date.

Good luck and have fun.

Fuel filter change Discovery 1 300 TDI

How to change your fuel filter

Quite a short blog this one, but one I keep seeing on forums "how tdo I change my fuel filter".  This is how its done.

Firstly remove the top screw on the filter holder, see below.  Unscrew the old filter and dispose of the fuel in the filter, or poor it into the new filter, whatever you feel is appropriate.

Remove the fuel filter holder top screw.

Fill the new filter to the top with diesel (whats in the old one is never enough so you will need to top it up).  Screw the filter back on the filter holder by hand (do not over tighten) and put the screw back in the fuel filter holder and tighten with a 10mm spanner, do not over tighten it, it will snap.

Fill up new 300tdi fuel filter

Then start your Landy and let it run for 1-2 mins just to ensure you have no air trapped in the fuel system.  If it does not run well, or stalls, its likely you have air in the fuel system, take the filter off, fill it again and prime the system using the lever on the back of the lift pump and start it again.

Simples.

Discovery 1 HD overland suspension

Upgrading my Discovery 1 suspension

When I bought my Discovery, I knew from the start I would be changing the suspension.  The reason why I was thinking this way, was because I knew it was likely that at some point I would be carrying extra load and going off road and over land travelling at the same time.

Also, I felt that as the Discovery 1 was always sold as a hybrid car, 80% on 20% off road bias and therefore there would be some compromise with the suspension.

This little blogg holds my thoughts behind what I ended doing with Larry's suspension.

Which type of suspension to select for you Land Rover

After a lot of reading and looking at other peoples cars, I put the suspension upgrades into two types;

Type 1; 2"+lift for disco owners who are looking to improve the off road capability of their car, and fit much larger tyres than standard.

These set-ups come in standard and heavy duty shocks and springs, with cool stuff like dislocation cones etc for extreme off road action.  However the need to have the caster angle of the steering re-aligned to ensure the stability of the car remains in place is also a requirement with higher lifts. Apparently without caster correction (3 or 6 degree) a 2-4" lift  will make the car go all over the place and not be very stable, and can be dangerous.

Type 2; 1" or no lift and standard or heavy duty shocks and springs.  Big advantage here is there is no need for caster correction.  However, tyre choice is limited.

Also there is an advantage with keeping the height of your Landy as standard as possible.  A lot of people report failing bushes and drive train components after fitting a big lift.  I personally do not now anyone who has had this issue; but there seems to be a lot of people this has happened to on Land Rover forums.


I know I'm over simplifying the suspension choices a bit but that's how I think suspension lifts works.  Type 1 improves off road capability and looks super cool, type 2 improves load carrying capability and is less cool but more functional for overland travel.

Obviously like any car suspension set-up there are hundreds of manufacturers of suspension parts from the top range Old Man Emu to cheaper Britpart kits.  These range from an upgrade of say £100 for just springs to £1,000+ for a really exotic set-up.

What I selected

After a lot of research and also a couple of trips off road I decided that as standard a Discovery 1 is more than capable of tackling anything I would tackle anyway,  I take back the 80/20 bias I said earlier. You would be surprised just how far they can go if you do some free mods, like a bumper cut and learning t drive off road.

But as standard my suspension was a bit low under load and also a bit wobbly (possibly just a bit old like me) in an unladen state.  So I thought would lift it a little and also make it a little stiffer to reduce the wobblebility (is that a word?).

I decided I would fit Bearmach HD Blue Springs with a slight lift of 30mm on the front and 20mm on the back.  This would mean no need for a caster correction kit, also in theory I would be able to carry a heavy load in the back of Larry without the suspension getting low.

I also decided to put some Armstrong Gas HD shocks on Larry as well.  The complete set-up was about £363.00. The fitting process was really simple, I put Larry into a garage to get it done.  I know, but I had just spent all my spare time repairing the front end and I also wanted to get him checked out.  The fitting only cost £45 anyway.  I kept my old shocks as spares for when I go away.

After the suspension was fitted

So how is Larry now with his HD Springs and new shocks?  To be honest I was worried the springs would be so hard Larry would become uncomfortable to be in, but this is not the case.  He was wallowing before I got the suspension replaced, when I picked him up and drove home he felt a lot more stable and also higher, a lot higher, as in I could not put my foot flat on the floor when I got out.  What I found out was the old suspension was in fact tired and was sagging and Larry was now a good 2" higher than when I started.  Part of the lift will also be due to the HD springs not compressing much as the original springs.

I have now done about 800 miles since fitting and I must say I prefer this suspension than standard anyway.  Only time will tell how good it will be in Morocco later this year under load and off road.  I assume I will lose some articulation with the HD setup, but gain load capabilities.

Here's the suspension, sorry its not a good photo.

Bearmach Blue HD rear

And a wheel sitting in the rear arch, notice the big gap between the top of the tyre and the wheel.

Bearmach Blue, is it now time for bigger tyres?

That's it, the easiest upgrade so far.


Update !
3000 miles in a I'm used to the harder suspension now, on a smooth road there not a lot in it from the standard soft springs, on very bumpy roads it is noticeably harder.  The lift definitely has remained and is good.

Further Update !
Having now completed several motorway trips I will say that the HD suspension really adds to the noise in the cabin, this is most noticable when there's no load in the car, I'll see what happens when it is fully loaded for Morocco, 

Final update!
 I might have to change this setup, after 6,000 mile overland the setup is not right, to hard at the front and to low at the back.

Land Rover Discovery major bodywork repairs.

Repairing bodywork on my Land Rover Discovery 300 TDI

Well I may or may not have said this before, but when you have an old Land Rover they become part of the family, this is the position we found ourselves in with Larry.

However, like all family members they are not always well or doing what you want them to do. With Larry it was not the latter but the former.  It all happened in September 2013, we were travelling home from a meal when my girl friend who I will not name, so lets call her Rachel, she got a little indecisive about a turn slid on gravel and then parked Larry at about 15-25 mph into an Oak tree.

I would like to say at this point a Discovery 1 300TDI is no match for a 400 year old Oak tree.  The Oak tree is OK and is still growing well.

This mishap resulted in the following damage to Larry's nose;

Discovery 1 front end damage

Now the one thing I will say is that we were all fine in the car and apart from my left leg shin which took a whack on the glove compartment, yes everyone was OK.  We also had a 8 year old girl and an American in the back of Larry and when we crashed one of them was screaming badly, a real little girl scream, I'm still not sure if it was the 8 year old or the American,  I'll let you choose.

The following day we got Larry towed back to my drive and we started to think what to do next.

So what next?  Rachel thought I should call the insurance company and get them to assess the damage and get it repaired.  Now knowing that a) they would write him off based on repair costs and b) the car looked a mess but chassis looked OK, I decided to repair him myself hopefully saving the cost of a garage repair and also my no claims bonus.

Firstly I needed to strip Larry back to a point where there was no bent or damaged panels.  Fortunately it seemed the tree trunk aimed its Karate chop between the wheel and the chassis leg and although the bodywork, bull bars, bonnet lights etc were a complete mess the car was straight, amazing considering how far back the bonnet had moved.  When stripped Larry back he went from this.

Larry at home feeling ill :-(

To this.

Stripped back Discovery 1

Now for the replacement parts I decided to get some second hand parts, specifically the slam panel, which is not made any more and nearside headlamp unit and top wing rail.  And also buy come new panels for the inner wing.

Working in software development I really do not to do a lot of welding on a day to day bases, but I had some practise when I was a kid and decided to take on the welding myself.  Welding is not difficult if you think about what you are doing and check out some of the forums for advice.  The only issue I had when practising was when my gas ran out, look at the difference in welds below.

Mig with gas on the left, gas ran out on the right.

I had to clear up the second hands land rover parts I had bought.  Which now looked like this after some angle grinding to remove it from the dona car, more grinding and spot weld drilling (oh that's not fun, I hate drilling spot welds) to get it to this.

Second hand slam panel and light box

I needed to remove and treat any old spot welds and rust on the 2nd hand parts; again this was done with and angle grinder using a flap disk or cutting disk.  I

f your going to do this be careful you can cut through the metal very easily.  I treated the rust with Crust and primed the panel with weld through primer (mistake, it works but clean panels are easier to weld, especially if your not a welder as a profession).

Bottom of the rusty battery holder before.

Battery holder cleaned up

The cleaning technique is simple, angle grinder and disk to remove the rust and old welds, you have to be very careful not to take to much metal off, or you will end up with junk panels.  After grinding the crap off I then rust treated the panel with Crust.



So, after cleaning up all the parts I then had to start and re assemble Larry and weld the key parts on, I must admit the weather was not on my side.  Due to work commitments I did not really start the larger welds till the week before xMas 2013 just as the high winds and storms started.  I did have a portable tent type garage over Larry but this was completely destroyed, fortunately after I fitted the bonnet.

So 1st thing was to cut and fit the replacement 2nd had parts.

Firstly the slam panel was aligned and cut.

Cutting the slam panel.

 Then I had to align the top of the inner wing where the wing screws on, I measured the gaps with string.

Top of inner wing cut to size.

I then took the 2nd hand parts off and welded the new replacement panels to the old panels, this is a right pain in the arse because the new panels were thicker than the old ones and being out doors in the wind welding new against old panels is not fun.  But it gave me a complete front end and inner wing to align to the remaining good parts of the car.

Anyway, job done, I then refitted the complete panel and cut and aligned the inner wing, as follows.

Inner wing new panel cut and part welded in place.

The alignment of the panels is by far the most important part, I really tried to make everything square with the side which was not damaged, I got everything to line up pretty good, the test was going to be when the bonnet went on.


The slam panel was then spot welded and primed with Zinc Rich primer, and then painted with more primer and then painted.  Where I had drilled through both the panels I backed the hole with copper clamped to the back using welding and G clamps, then I plug welded the holes and ground down any high points, this works really well filled any holes and attached the panel.

Slam panel welded

I then seam welded the top inner wing and the inner wing panels together.  When I aligned the panels I tried to keep the gap to less than 1mm, again using the copper backed welding technique.

Top wing seam welded.

Fiddly bit done as well

All the main seam welds worked really well, then I needed to do what turned out to be the harder bit and weld the old battery tray onto the inner wing and also the internals and reinforcement bar.  It actually came out OK.

Spot weld not fab

I completed the wing reinforcement, however I got a bit paranoid about the spot welds onto the old metal, so I put some M6 bolts through to pull the reinforcement tight to the new and old inner wing parts, also I needed somewhere to put the EDC pump and earths for the parts inside the wing.  Then I spot and seam welded the reinforcement bar, this time I could not copper back it, so I had to do small spot welds, you quickly do spot after spot, to build up the gaps between the plates then grind them flat.

To finish the panels, treated any rust, I primed them, used seam sealer on all seams I could, re primed several times and also painted 3 times, undersealed and then spray waxoiled the light boxes and battery shelves as well.  Hopefully this will hold any rust off for a while.  The reinforcing bar had loads of everything sprayed into it as well.

Then the easy bit, I bolted him back together again.

Part complete

 And then after one more session.

I have since fitted the lights, aligned the bonnet properly (it has the same gaps both side so I must have aligned the replacement panels well) and now I'm on the lookout for a colour matched front end.

Anyway, I now feel like I'm a real disco owner after taking on my own body repair.  These cars are really easy to work on so I feel confident enough to tackle any job really.

Oh and I kept the aircon off, I think I may put a 2nd alternator where it used to be.  With the second belt missing the engine is quieter.

List of replace parts;

Entire inner wing upto the ABS unit
Entire front panels to about 4 inches from the drivers side wing (kept the light box drivers side on)
Loads of new nuts and bolts
Bumper
Bull Bar, to be fitted
Bonnet and hinges
Lights and indicators
Some trim and Glove compartment
Wing

I also cleaned the inter cooler whilst it was easy to get to, well lets face it the front of the car was missing.

What I would say is if you are reasonably handy with spanners and have basic welding skills this was an easy repair and would have been a lot easier if I had a garage or good summer weather.  Larry is back on the road, I only need to do the glove compartment and fix a door handle broken by one of the passengers in the back.

Ignoring the tools I bought (I'm restoring an MGB next year so I need them anyway) the repair cost was as follows;

2nd hands parts £150
New parts £79
Paints, I have loads left which will be used on the MGB £80
New aux belt £12
New Bull Bar £70

So thats £391 I think my insurance excess is about £250 so I think I won this one.


Lastly I took him to the local Land Rover specialist and I quote he said "not a bad repair" I love garages ;-) not sure if this is positive of negative?  I think the former.