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As ECR handles more 90s and 110s that anyone else in the USA we wanted to share some common threads with you.
The NAS Defenders are wonderful vehicles, but there are a few things you should know.
Oil line fires:
As The NAS Defenders were built from the Fall of 1992 to the Fall of 1997, they are all getting up there in years. The oil cooler lines in these Defenders are getting old and suffering from dry rot and cracking. This is normal wear, but you need to periodically replace these lines to prevent an engine fire. Running rubber hoses that close the exhaust manifold and for going on two decades is not a wise move.
So unless you want your Defender to look like the ones on this page, replace your lines with new ones. The fires start in the RH front area of the engine bay and spread backwards and down the RH side. We have sadly seen the results of this many times. These engine fires, that a number of 110s and 90s have succumb to across the country, are the fault of an oil cooler line that has burst, misting oil onto the RH exhaust manifold, then igniting and causing a fire.
Here you can see the trail of oil this Defender 90 left as it rolled to a stop on fire! Luckily no one was hurt in this fire and the owner of the Defender caught these pictures with his phone.
Here is the spot where a Defender 110 caught fire. You can clearly see the oil trail that was coming from near the RH side of the vehicle before it came to rest on the side of the highway on fire!
Afterwards that 110 looked like this and it is still at our shop awaiting full restoration to repair the fire damage. Defender 110s and Defender 90s suffer from this issue.
Here is a Defender 90 that was caught in the act, luckily no one was hurt.
This image shows the aftermath of yet another Defender 90 oil line fire.
We have even seen 110s that had perfect condition oil cooler lines, with low miles, fall victim to an engine fire, so a good set of factory lines are no safe bet. As you would expect, Land Rover North America offers no explanation of why this happens and they put it down to "operator error". New lines, or better yet, updated parts are cheap insurance to try and prevent against this, so be sure to have your 110 or 90 checked out.
The ECR ROX oil line solution for all NAS Defenders 1993-1997:
Our solution is to replace the factory rubber oil cooler lines completely with new performance lines that are designed for greater pressures and temperatures than the Land Rover puts out.
We do not believe in just replacing the factory lines, that might get you by for a time, but down the road those lines will fail and your truck may end up in a ball of flames.
We also do not suggest rebuilding you current oil lines. If the system is supposed to "cool" the oil, there is no point in running it right next to one of the hottest things in the engine bay (the exhaust manifold).
Our solution replaces the weak rubber and relocates the lines away from the hot exhaust manifolds, therefore keeping the oil cooler.
The image above shows just how close the factory ran the "oil cooler" lines to the super hot right hand exhaust manifold. Remember this is a system that is designed to cool the engine oil. There is no good reason why they should run right next to the exhaust manifold, and our lines do not run anywhere near the exhaust manifold.
If you want to purchase a complete set up, built by ECR, to replace your oil lines with new stainless steel performance lines we can help you with that easily. We call that, Option 1.
OPTION 1:
Call or email us with your needs and we will help you out. We will either install a set of upgraded oil cooler lines for you here at ECR, or we can mail you a set for you or your local shop to install.
The ECR part # is ROXoillines.
ROXoillines $225.00 The lines consist of two #8AN stainless steel braided hoses with 4 #8AN performance fittings installed.
Shipping additional. In shop install additional.
You may need additional adapters in order to install the ROXoillines into your Defender.
To make sure we send you the right stuff we need to know the following:
-Year and model of your Defender.
-Type of radiator in your Rover.
-Type of oil cooler sandwich plate in your truck.
To get those answers see this page for how to identify the various items in your Defender.
Click on the Defender image below for an example install of the ECR ROX oil line update kit on a 1993 NAS Defender 110:
Below is an image of what the adapters and the lines and ECR radiator adapters look like installed in a 1995 NAS Defender 90:
OPTION 2:
If you have your own ideas about oil cooler lines, but just want to buy the oddball adapters that make install easy from us, we can help you with that as well.
We call that Option 2.
OPTION 3:
If you want to make up your own performance oil cooler lines you can check out Option 3 on this page, where we help you out with identification and parts lists.
We don't feel any need to charge for this information, or try to keep it secret, and we do not mark up the parts in these kits that we sell. These items are sold in order to reduce the number of potential Defender engine bay fires in NAS Defenders. We much rather see people upgrade their Defenders so that they don't burn, that is the important thing.
East Coast Rover Co.
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