Watertight a V8i engine

[Thijs]

How to get a '91 Disco better watertight? When offroading the slightist bit of water makes it stop. I've spayed all parts in with WD40 and installed a snorkel but this doesn't seem to do the trick.

Heard about replacing standard fan for electric one to de turned of under water. Does this help a lot? Quite a bit of work and money to just try it out.

Anyway what's the most fragile component? pulse giver?, coil?, ground conn.?, wiring ?

What to do to keep on going

Thanks in advance

[onslow]

Firstly the common myth about swapping the fan for a leccy one doesnt work!! as it aint the fan that causes the problem its the bottom pulley it touches the water and flings the stuff straight on to the dizzy causing nasty problems. However my cure was in the form of a 2 litre coke bottlecut the bottom of it then drill 9 holes in it to correspond with the HT leads on the dizzy cap thread the leads through the drilled holes and the bottle bottom keeps the water of the dizzy and the leads well spaced. You can also put the other leccy stuff (coil etc) in a waterproof box some mods to the wiring may be required a tupperware box is ideal!
Cheers ONz

[PTSchram]

Isn't it embarrassing when you're proudly splashing through a puddle when your truck dies and barely rolls through the puddle.

After having it happen far too often and not willing to learn to enjoy the embarrassment, I set out to improve the wet weather operation of my Disco.

So far, a good cleaning and silicone to the cap and each wire has been very effective. I had all these grandiose ideas of how to waterproof the distributor and found this to be pretty effective and very cheap. I do still have the three distributors I bought to try to perfect the waterproofing-yet another project for "Someday".

PT

[Thijs]

Thanks for the tips.

Sure is enberessing.. all TD5 riders start bragging about their diesels, but hell the don't have the V8 thrill!!. Will try the sylicone trick first, the thing with the coke bottle... I don't quite understand. is it to be put upside down? You say the water is comming from bottom-up how will it help? How to get the High Voltage cables trough the holes? Got a foto please?

Do the sparkplugs 'carrot'-like-'caps' help?

Thijs

[PTSchram]

TDi trucks suffer from water ingress as well-they have an ECU too

I removed each plug wire, cleaned around the cap and wire and then smeared silicone into each plug wire and insterted the plug wire into the cap.

On the coil, I again cleaned the connections and then smeared silicone not only on the wire to the coil, but also to the wires on the primary side.

Also, there are a few opening on the bottom of the distributor body-in the old days, this was to vent ionized air so it would become conductive, but without breaker points, I'm not sure why this is necessary without the points opening and closing-er, now that I think about it, there is this arcing when the rotor turns. Maybe we do need some venting.

Peace,
PT

[Ryan Johnson]

onslow can you please post a picture of your coke bottle.