Brian,
Im not disputing your qualifications or knowledge but I think you are negating to realise that I am a qualified motor mechanic, I did my time on diesel machinery and tractors as well as golf course equipment and BUSES.......thats right, I still do what you did and my maintained busses was traveling all over the country with elderly people on bourd seeing the back blocks of our country.
The only failure I had was a wheel bearing in a trailer........even the simplest parts can fail.
The main reason for going to belts may have been cost but puting a rubber band on the front does shut them up a bit but to an Isuzu owner I doubt that that would be high on the list of priorities.
My first suggestion was to put an Isuzu in one if you bother going back through my posts and I even backed up that they would more than likely be the easiest to get parts for anywhere in the world but Im pretty sure that D.O.T. has made up his mind and has decided against the conversion.....mainly because he has said it numerous times.
Now getting back to the rubber band, Im not sure how many Km's that they will be doing but if it takes them 2 years or even a year to clock up 60 to 80k then they will have plenty of time to organise and plan to do the little bit of maintenance in changing the belt.
It doesnt have to be done by a mechainc, anyone with half a mechanically sound mind could do it and there are few other than standard tools that would need to be used to do it.
If it is done as part of the trip prep then it is likely they will not have to do it again before they sell the thing.
If it is done right then it shouldnt fail, about as much chance as a 4BD1 spitting a head gasket I suppose or maybe chewing out engine mounts or rattling everything lose so it falls off while driving down the road.
I do agree that the timing belts on the 300Tdi is a PITA and I would prefer not to have it but it is a nessesary evil and that brings me to Psimpson7.
As far as Nessesary evils........there are way too many on a TD5 IMHO for a trip like this.
The more I learn and read about them the more I understand what you guys are on about but even if I were to upgrade the Disco to a TD5 Deefa 130 my self my spares list for everyday driving would be fairly extensive and if I were to plan a trip like this......no matter how much I liked the power etc I still wouldnt have one.
Not only do I not think it is an appropriate engine for the job at hand but I think and I may be wrong but I dont think they run the same diffs as the 300Tdi do they, or was that just in the later Deefa 110's?
As far as low mileage goes, who cares, the vehicle will be trip preped, not just driven off the lot and on to the the world, there will be hundreds of inspections dont on all componants before they go (or I would hope so anyway) so why is the milage so important.
As long as it is in as close to perfect mechanical condition at the time of purchase so the least amount of money has to be spent in that area as possible but no matter what car they get Im petty sure it will be pulled apart and put back together again to make sure they will be needing only the minimum amount of work while on the trip.
I really think some people have lost the plot here a little, No I dont like TD5 Discos but I havnt bagged out a TD5 Deefa that I can remember, as far as an electronic controlled engine goes they made it as simple as possible but the TD5 in the Disco has too many control modules, sensors etc all tied into eachother and if you were clued into how it all worked then with Nanocom (which no one has said how much it costs just that it's not expensive) you can sort out most problems by removing codes........Deefa, the worst Ive heard that happens (other than the standard TD5 crap) is the central locking likes to lock you out sometimes.....which I would imagine would be a PITA in the middle of Pakistan with people shooting at you.
KISS is the key as has been said over and over again but not eveything has to have an Isuzu in it to be good and in this thread at least I havnt put down the TD5 I have just said that it is not the engine for the job........WHICH WAS THE QUESTION.......and I see no reason why I should have been flamed for saying that or for having a veiw that the 300Tdi is the best of a bad bunch so to speak.
Rant over, if you cant read through the whole thread then try not to comment on it, I have tried to put it straight forward and simple but I know that the skimmers will read between the lines as per normal and not bother with the whole thing because it's too long.
So, Im Sorry![]()


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