Thread: And ANOTHER County Isuzu conversion

Finally got the engine fired up yesterday, and it now moves under its own power. Still quite a few fiddly little bits to tidy up, but nice that its running

Couple of piccy's:






Have a couple of coolant leak issues. First one is the water pump has decided to leak out the shaft seal, and the other is the Stage1 expansion tank has a crack in it
Haven't decided yet whether to repair the tank or use the 200tdi one I've got...

Now that I can move it in and out of the garage I can get it on the driveway to open the doors properly and do the floor panels.

Provent is only connected temporarily. Still have to make a mounting bracket and plumb in properly.

Steve

Looking good Steve...

Made up the bracket for the Provent and installed it..





Steve

Hi Steve wow it is looking great, very envious, my Defenders gearbox is dying a slow a painful death as we speak. As you know it is to come off the road to get a new heart and various other organs. Murray came with me about 6 weeks ago and I bought a 120 isuzu it's in the shed hopefully the box goes back in this Tuesday so I can register it then the defender can be started.
Speek soon
Garry

Thanks Garry. Long time no talk.
Thought it might have been you that picked up that 120. Is the Isuzu all back together yet?

Steve

Major milestone today - the County completed its first real Isuzu powered test drive today. Only about 10mins as I didn't want to get too far from home

I didn't realise until tonight, but its exactly 9 months since I started pulling the 200tdi out for the conversion. A lot longer than I expected, but then I ended up doing a lot more work than planned.

SWMBO ended up in the drivers seat first as I needed to push it out of the shed for a jump start, so she actually got the first drive
Was wondering why she was being so tentative until I realised that the speedo is over-reading by about 40%. I expected it would be out a bit due to originally being a Stage1 box with 1.3 gears and now having .996 in it, but hadn't really expected that much error. 100k's on the GPS is 140k on the speedo. Perhaps now is the time to make an impressive acceleration video
Currently running 31's but have some 33's sitting in the shed to fit - wont make enough of a difference to fix that much error though.
I've found an old post showing that the Stage1 speedo drive gear on the shaft has 12 teeth compared to 10 on the rangie LT95's. Might have to find a rangie rear output shaft to fit.

The box seems quite stiff to shift. Not sure if they are usually like that after a rebuild, or whether it was just cold (or driver issue ). SWMBO managed to find all the gears OK so isn't too bad.
Hopefully it will free up a bit.

It seems to build boost reasonably quickly, but haven't got a tacho so cant tell what RPM it starts at. Boost maxes out at 10psi and it takes a bit to get to 100k's. Currently have the wastegate wired closed and haven't made any fuelling changes. Won't play with that until the EGT gauge is working. The probe is fitted, but haven't got the gauge fitted yet.
It actually felt quite flat to drive, but I'm not too fussed about that at this stage. Its running, all the fluids seem to be staying inside their respective systems, so we're off to a good start.

Still have to mount up the CDL vacuum switch, modify and refit the seatbox center panel, and have a growing list of other small jobs to complete.
Then its the bigger ones like sorting out the springs/suspension, but I'm stoked that its finally back on the road.

Idle is currently set at just below 800rpm when warm (checked with an optical tacho). What do others have theirs set at?

Was interesting to notice a slight thrashing noise from the gearbox when idling with the clutch out. I'm assuming that's the sound of the dreaded torque impulse trying to beat the box to death, and why its a bad idea to leave it idling.....

Sorry no photos from today. If my daughter brings the camera home tomorrow I'll try and get a few.

Steve

800 sounds good for idle Steve, that should stop it shaking itself to bits. Also the gearbox idle noise is normal for an Isuzu and the shift will be a little stiff until everything beds in. Looks good.

Got the tacho working and calibrated tonight. Still have to fit it to the dash.
Its a 4000RPM VDO unit, and I fitted a "W" wire to the alternator while I had it apart to replace the bearings.
I'm still running the original 40A alternator so YMMV if you are running a different one.

Calibration wise, there are 3 range settings possible according to the instructions. I started with all 3 dip switches off, but ran out of range trying to adjust the tacho RPM down to the actual engine revs.
The middle range (switches 1&2 off, and 3 on) allowed me to adjust it correctly.
I only checked idle, 1000 and 2000 RPM points as it was 8.30pm and figured that 3000RPM might be a bit anti-social

The other thing that I did with the tacho, was to add a 820 Ohm resistor into the W wire near the alternator. According to my very basic calcs - this limits the dead-short current to about 15mA which wont do any damage.
I've previously had a disconnected tacho wire short out on me - unfused, and no resistor - straight off the alternator.
Its pretty scary seeing a red hot loop of wire inside your dash and smoke pouring out so wanted to make sure it couldn't happen again.

CDL vacuum switch is connected and working well (thanks Vern) - just have to pick up some grommets for the vacuum tubes before I can do the final install.

After careful consideration, and a chat to JC about shocks and springs I've decided to take his advice and give DeCarbon shocks a try.
Also have a pair of LRA orange springs for the front on their way as the Dobinsons that I've currently got fitted are just a bit tall for my liking. With extended bump stops I still have 95mm clearance - so about 65mm over standard height. They feel OK on the road so might end up going back in at a later date, but for now I want to keep it close to original height so I'm not chasing wandering/vibes etc first up.

I've got hold of a rangie speedo drive gear to hopefully fix the over-reading problem. By my calcs with that and the 255/85's fitted the speedo should be pretty close.
Looks like this weekend will be a disassemble/reassemble one doing the speedo drive gear and front springs.

Getting pretty close to daily drive status now (and the end of this thread)

Steve