Well, fortunately the wall removal has building regs sign off, so we have at least a small hope it was done to a reasonable standard. Although, they did decide to leave it exposed, and when we asked how it passed without being boxed in with fire resistant plaster board, we were told it wasn't needed as they used "special" (intumescent?) paint... The surveyor was mostly concerned that the landing balustrade (with horizontal bars) could be a hazard for children, as well as the fact that some of the coving is polystyrene. Similarly, our conveyancer was more concerned about the solar farm under construction 3km away, instead of the planning status of the extension - they said that was me being pedantic. We're siding on going with underfloor heating to overcome the issue, but need to financially recover from the house purchase first. But the remaining radiators will eventually get updated, I agree that the route to better efficiency seems to be to start with lowering flow temps.

This is what happens when you drop a progressing cavity pump, cracking the gearbox flange, but don’t notice. Then the flange fails completely after 6 weeks of run time and you do notice but leave it running for another two weeks anyway (getting lucky thst the motor doesn’t just spin and yank the wires out) until the shaft seal leak becomes a flood too large to ignore. Then you shout for warranty 🙄 Won’t be re-using this shaft!

First time this has happened since mid October…… ….. only the second time it’s broken 70% in that time too.

So…..  ….. seems to have done the trick. No more barfing fuel.  It’s not the end of the running issues though. Cannot get a decent idle. It has a marked lope, whatever I do.  Possibly it has “a cam”….  Pulls well from just off idle,  but soon runs out of puff, having gone lean enough to actually misfire. Pull out the choke and it takes off briskly. It’s still running the std ADN needles. At present it’s got a 4-2-1 manifold and GT6 exhaust but standard air filters/box.  So I’m surprised it’s affected as it is. Perhaps another indication the cam isn’t standard. Will have to have a rummage through the needle collection. Although… it’s the original distributor, on points (good quality ones!) and , other than a few degrees of random slop, there doesn’t seem to be any mechanical advance working. Vac advance does work.  Potentially this could be a contributor to it’s going flat as the revs rise. Will be investigating this! In other news  Old spring button. The rest were much worse New spring buttons…. Fitted fairly easily without removing the spring (no chance of getting the top pair in though). This has lifted the rear end enough to be useful. Towbar (!) removed. Wasn’t well attached. Front suspension roughly set up. It drives nicely. Passenger door adjusted up a little so it opens and shuts easily. Easy win. Bella officially has attitude. Test drive was initially firmly rebuffed with a well stuck clutch - rusted to the flywheel. Start in gear trick failed several times. Had to jack the rear end up and batter it in gear against the brakes and eventually it let go. Brakes are rubbish. No bite. Might just need bedding in but they seem a bit too bad for that. Possibly I should not have assumed that the fresh looking calipers were ok…. Driving again is definitely a big win though!

Nice Hamish Pity it's so bloody far away or I'd drag the Scimitar out

Thank you Roger, I'll add it to the list

Hello          I think this is the one I fitted as it is a common one Jaguar/Land Rover EAC3927, SNB802 LAND ROVER DEFENDER DISCOVERY COOLANT TEMP SENSOR EAC3927- FREE UK P&P | eBay Roger ps you may find one cheaper if you trawl Fleabay?

That makes life so much more straightforward than having to deal with blue clay compacted over 30,000 years to rock like consistency by a mile of ice. Hope that car appreciates its new home

It’s as much as the pic. With a bit of a retaining structure. Hard core and concrete with fibres tomorrow then wooden stud structure extension. its Cheshire so you can see quite sandy and a tipper truck with grabber takes it away. i can’t claim the credit for the work tho.

Nice. How far back into the slope are you digging back? It's quite amazing how much soil actually comes out of a relatively small area. I'm guessing you have to have it taken away as well? That's one advantage my house has, what comes out one place always has a home somewhere else!