Matt Wright
Well-Known Member
Hi guys
This post has been highly anticipated by some who have been involved, and to others it'll just be something different.. You'll soon see why..
We left on a London > Cape Town trip almost a year to the day ago in our silver 80 series, we called "Nala". After a great trip, we returned to London to fill the coffers (although it's been a slow process!
). Just before the last Lincomb, I started looking for trucks as I just couldn't take going to another Lincomb without a truck. It's just not right! Much as I love co-piloting with you Gav 
So we plotted and schemed and looked at the rather alarming 80 series prices on eBay which ranged from £4k to £10?!?!
Gav happened across a maroon truck that wasn't formally for sale through the grapevine and I went up to see it the next week. The week AFTER Lincomb
It's hard not to fall in love with them and this one took my breath away. Nala is kitted to literally be an overland racer which is what we needed for the trip. This one was a bit of a monster in comparison!
I checked the truck over and it was obvious it was a good buy £ wise apart from a small issue : a "clanging top end noise in the engine".
Not to be put off, and weighing up the pros and cons, I bought it on the spot and went back to fetch it the following weekend, within very tricky timescales and taking in to account the vast distances. The truck was in Stoke. I'm in London. [still better than Nala who was in Banff in the faaaar north of Scotland!
]
The plan was :
a) Drive the truck with the noise, slowly all the way to Matt Savage in Matlock, Derbyshire who would fix the problem and I'd do the BEB's
b) Drive the truck with the noise and get towed in case things went sough, to Matt Savage who would fix the problem and I'd do the BEB's
c) Stick the the truck on a trailer and take it to Matt Savage who would fix the problem and I'd do the BEB's. All looks really simple when it's typed out but there were many moving parts in this exercise. The good news, the truck starts first time and I headed off slowly after getting a few forum members to listen to the noise which still sounded top end.
I made it 8 miles with the noise before it went quiet - that was great and my ears got a much needed break after the clanging. Alas, things had gone TU!! 
and I was stranded. Many calls to various people including Chris (who was instrumental in helping with everything end to end with all the fixes) and I eventually got on a large truck sized flat bed with the AA. I would now miss the last train back to London and so starts the I owe 99% of the success of this project to Chris. Thank you Chris 
I'll leave it at that for now. "safety word : Great!!"
We got the truck off at Matt's in the dark and as we could see rad fluid and oil, it still looked like it wasn't the BEB's. (insert violent debate
) There were a few mentions on the forum but there were so many things going on trying to find an engine that I've waited to post this..
Options for the fix were weighted up.
Spend money fixing it vs replacing it?
What guarantee of a fix would each deliver?
Costs were looked at and the outcome was a new engine from Mr Webster. Thanks for all your help Karl, you add this to your long list of great street cred on the forum.
Engine delivered to Matt and the swapping process began..
Big thanks to Matt Savage for all his hard work in getting everything swapped over successfully. We've learnt from taking the old engine apart just how many moving parts there are. Paul, I'm sure you'd agree!
The result, in a nutshell is a successful engine transplant and a now working truck.
Given the colour, the truck's name is RUBY
(Not to be confused with another Rubie
)
Getting the name was a critical step as that means she's part of the family now and will be staying with us for years to come * hint * get your wife / sig. other to provide the name. That sealed the deal!
What follows are pictures of Ruby from start to present day. There's so much more to explain than what's above but as always, big thank you's are in order.
CHRIS. Nuff said, I'm one in a long line of people who've learnt so much from you and thank you also for your hoooouuurs of work stripping the engine, salvaging the good parts, the use of your workshop, your skills working on the truck, a bed to sleep in and most importantly, a cracking good time
Gav, thanks for finding the truck, it stated with you.. (next time find one with a workin engine ha ha ha ha
Matt Savage, thanks a lot for all your work in seeing the project through to success
Karl, same to you, thanks a lot for making it all happen..
Ruby is a 1993 4.2l Turbo Diesel auto 80 series
I got her with 153k miles on the clock, boxes of bits / fenders / a rear door / filters / a CV joint and quite a lot of work that needed to be done. On the fun side, she has an intercooler, Goodyear Mud tyres, OME suspension, front and rear winch bumpers and the world's heaviest roof fitted tyre carrier! Oh and I found a Cooper STT on the roof, score
For interest, when Chris took me to fetch the truck, we spent the morning doing the following:
- General look over the truck
- Swapping the injectors ie put in the broken engine's injectors which Chris kindly had tested during the week. This involved ordering and fetching injector washers - definitely something worth having to save you a panic!
- front and rear diff oil. The plug was in TIGHT but with some fancy welding, Chris fashioned up a nice new bolt. The front took 2 Litres of oil!. The front seals need replacing.. Add that to the to do list
- Wheel nuts were on TIGHT so we loosened them. If you know my story where we had 5 nuts sheer off in Ethiopia, this makes me nervous..
- checked hubs
- checked wheel studs
- all fluids
- removed the roof rack which is very strong and made of stainless steel but it's heavy..
- boxed up the spares very solidly. Took pretty much all the boxes and packaging material I could source from 4 huge recycling bins!
- bought a new gps and radio. gotta have the essentials ;p
- bought the usual tapes, cleaning kit, wire brushes and sealant to fix up body rust, some tools for essential jobs
TO DO:
- fit radio
- fit bluetooth hands free
- fit split charge system
- buy fridge at reasonable price..
- fit inverter and plug points
- Fit LED's in the roof dome lights
- Fit side faring
- rebuild axles wit hnew seals
- CLEAN CAR!!!
- the list is endless as you'll know..
- Fit rear door (Any suggestions on how easiest to do this please let me know. I've discussed with a few people but having experience always helps so step up..)
Ruby in Pictures :
It starts. In the dark. On a flat bed. Groan.
The resurrection begins..
Photos of the new engine from Karl
And the old engine, complete with "large hole in the block"
This is the culprit. A shattered piston (I'll post more of thise withthe second piece..
To the winner go the spoils. Well sort of in this case.
Close up of the ding
The old block.. All the stripping is C's handiwork.. I was still 200+ miles away when this was all taking place. Not our of choice but work...
The result : a boot full of parts!!
Ruby in her new glory - just needs a THOROUGH BATH! Full of oil...
A couple snaps of the rather substantial bumpers. They just need winches..
And the rear..
Here she is with new engine fitted..
And to finish off with pose shot. To be replaced by some laning shots asap..
* watch this space for adventures to follow.. *
This post has been highly anticipated by some who have been involved, and to others it'll just be something different.. You'll soon see why..
We left on a London > Cape Town trip almost a year to the day ago in our silver 80 series, we called "Nala". After a great trip, we returned to London to fill the coffers (although it's been a slow process!
). Just before the last Lincomb, I started looking for trucks as I just couldn't take going to another Lincomb without a truck. It's just not right! Much as I love co-piloting with you Gav So we plotted and schemed and looked at the rather alarming 80 series prices on eBay which ranged from £4k to £10?!?!Gav happened across a maroon truck that wasn't formally for sale through the grapevine and I went up to see it the next week. The week AFTER Lincomb
It's hard not to fall in love with them and this one took my breath away. Nala is kitted to literally be an overland racer which is what we needed for the trip. This one was a bit of a monster in comparison!I checked the truck over and it was obvious it was a good buy £ wise apart from a small issue : a "clanging top end noise in the engine".
Not to be put off, and weighing up the pros and cons, I bought it on the spot and went back to fetch it the following weekend, within very tricky timescales and taking in to account the vast distances. The truck was in Stoke. I'm in London. [still better than Nala who was in Banff in the faaaar north of Scotland!
]The plan was :
a) Drive the truck with the noise, slowly all the way to Matt Savage in Matlock, Derbyshire who would fix the problem and I'd do the BEB's
b) Drive the truck with the noise and get towed in case things went sough, to Matt Savage who would fix the problem and I'd do the BEB's
c) Stick the the truck on a trailer and take it to Matt Savage who would fix the problem and I'd do the BEB's. All looks really simple when it's typed out but there were many moving parts in this exercise. The good news, the truck starts first time and I headed off slowly after getting a few forum members to listen to the noise which still sounded top end.
I made it 8 miles with the noise before it went quiet - that was great and my ears got a much needed break after the clanging.
Alas, things had gone TU!! and I was stranded. Many calls to various people including Chris (who was instrumental in helping with everything end to end with all the fixes) and I eventually got on a large truck sized flat bed with the AA. I would now miss the last train back to London and so starts the I owe 99% of the success of this project to Chris. Thank you Chris I'll leave it at that for now. "safety word : Great!!"We got the truck off at Matt's in the dark and as we could see rad fluid and oil, it still looked like it wasn't the BEB's. (insert violent debate
) There were a few mentions on the forum but there were so many things going on trying to find an engine that I've waited to post this..Options for the fix were weighted up.
Spend money fixing it vs replacing it?
What guarantee of a fix would each deliver?
Costs were looked at and the outcome was a new engine from Mr Webster. Thanks for all your help Karl, you add this to your long list of great street cred on the forum.
Engine delivered to Matt and the swapping process began..
Big thanks to Matt Savage for all his hard work in getting everything swapped over successfully. We've learnt from taking the old engine apart just how many moving parts there are. Paul, I'm sure you'd agree!
The result, in a nutshell is a successful engine transplant and a now working truck.
Given the colour, the truck's name is RUBY
(Not to be confused with another Rubie
)Getting the name was a critical step as that means she's part of the family now and will be staying with us for years to come
* hint * get your wife / sig. other to provide the name. That sealed the deal!What follows are pictures of Ruby from start to present day. There's so much more to explain than what's above but as always, big thank you's are in order.
CHRIS. Nuff said, I'm one in a long line of people who've learnt so much from you and thank you also for your hoooouuurs of work stripping the engine, salvaging the good parts, the use of your workshop, your skills working on the truck, a bed to sleep in and most importantly, a cracking good time
Gav, thanks for finding the truck, it stated with you.. (next time find one with a workin engine ha ha ha ha
Matt Savage, thanks a lot for all your work in seeing the project through to success
Karl, same to you, thanks a lot for making it all happen..
Ruby is a 1993 4.2l Turbo Diesel auto 80 series
I got her with 153k miles on the clock, boxes of bits / fenders / a rear door / filters / a CV joint and quite a lot of work that needed to be done. On the fun side, she has an intercooler, Goodyear Mud tyres, OME suspension, front and rear winch bumpers and the world's heaviest roof fitted tyre carrier! Oh and I found a Cooper STT on the roof, score
For interest, when Chris took me to fetch the truck, we spent the morning doing the following:
- General look over the truck
- Swapping the injectors ie put in the broken engine's injectors which Chris kindly had tested during the week. This involved ordering and fetching injector washers - definitely something worth having to save you a panic!
- front and rear diff oil. The plug was in TIGHT but with some fancy welding, Chris fashioned up a nice new bolt. The front took 2 Litres of oil!. The front seals need replacing.. Add that to the to do list
- Wheel nuts were on TIGHT so we loosened them. If you know my story where we had 5 nuts sheer off in Ethiopia, this makes me nervous..
- checked hubs
- checked wheel studs
- all fluids
- removed the roof rack which is very strong and made of stainless steel but it's heavy..
- boxed up the spares very solidly. Took pretty much all the boxes and packaging material I could source from 4 huge recycling bins!
- bought a new gps and radio. gotta have the essentials ;p
- bought the usual tapes, cleaning kit, wire brushes and sealant to fix up body rust, some tools for essential jobs
TO DO:
- fit radio
- fit bluetooth hands free
- fit split charge system
- buy fridge at reasonable price..
- fit inverter and plug points
- Fit LED's in the roof dome lights
- Fit side faring
- rebuild axles wit hnew seals
- CLEAN CAR!!!
- the list is endless as you'll know..
- Fit rear door (Any suggestions on how easiest to do this please let me know. I've discussed with a few people but having experience always helps so step up..)
Ruby in Pictures :
It starts. In the dark. On a flat bed. Groan.
The resurrection begins..
Photos of the new engine from Karl
And the old engine, complete with "large hole in the block"
This is the culprit. A shattered piston (I'll post more of thise withthe second piece..
To the winner go the spoils. Well sort of in this case.
Close up of the ding
The old block.. All the stripping is C's handiwork.. I was still 200+ miles away when this was all taking place. Not our of choice but work...
The result : a boot full of parts!!
Ruby in her new glory - just needs a THOROUGH BATH! Full of oil...
A couple snaps of the rather substantial bumpers. They just need winches..
And the rear..
Here she is with new engine fitted..
And to finish off with pose shot. To be replaced by some laning shots asap..
* watch this space for adventures to follow.. *
