Thread: The Banana. 300tdi soft-dash.

Yesterday I picked up a project I didn't really need.

Here is why I didn't really need it:
"The Banana" on the left. 300tdi soft-dash auto.
The Rover towing it. 4BD1T with Isuzu 5 speed.
"New Brian" (family guy reference) on the right, 3.9 V8 with EAS.


This is a base spec NZ new 300tdi automatic. Coil springs (with load leveller), sway bars, no abs, no airbags, mechanical injection pump and no sun-roof. The rear diff has the rotoflex coupling and these wheels are from a disco. The interior is brown velour cloth.

Check out the window sticker.


Factory 300tdi:


Why is it bent like a banana?
It belonged to someone who used it as an offroad toy. It was fitted with a body lift, spring lift and guards were chopped to fit bigger tyres. For reasons that will become perfectly clear it kept overheating and went through about 4 head gaskets (so those bolts should come out easy).

So the owner bought a disco, paid a local guy to swap the lift kits, suspension and wheels over then deregistered it and left it with him. Things didn't go well removing the body lift and the front remained propped up when the body dropping. Crunching up the nose as you can see.

Some reasons it bent are obvious. Those spacer blocks under the radiator for example. Circled in red:


The yellow circles show just how far away the body mounts are. Here is the damage from the nose being pushed up:


The rest of the optical illusion is caused by the discovery suspension. Soft coils in the front (v8 disco I think) and much longer/firmer disco coils in the back give it the dragster stance from the 1980's.
The body has no structural rust and offroad damage appears confined to the four guards. It's never going to be pretty but with a bit of panel bashing and suspension levelling it'll look decent enough.

Plans from here? No idea. I'm still working out what I have and haven't got.

Why did it keep overheating? Well just some wild guesses.
1. Bigger tyres mean the engine needs more torque at lower rpm and the gearbox runs hotter. Both putting more heat into the radiators.
2. 300,000km worth of gunge in the intercooler making the boost hotter.
3. They cut the radiator shroud for the body lift.
4. They cut the tips off the radiator fan for the body lift.
5. Driven without a bung in the radiator for at least 2000km. Owner didn't even pretend to have mechanical aptitude.

So, is there anyone with experience of a cracked/blown head/gasket on a 300tdi who can help with the symptoms?

So far the cooling system is holding fine, but it's only tootled around the patch of dirt I live on. Do they normally spit when warm, just spit under load or something different?