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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 is not a wise move, and there is a better solution than anything to do with the factory lines.
So unless you want your Defender to look like the ones on this page, replace your lines with ECR's performance units. 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 at all. As you would expect, Land Rover North America offers no explanation of why this happens and they put it down to "operator error". Updated parts are cheap insurance to try and prevent against this, so be sure to have your 110 or 90 lines replaced with upgraded units.
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.
A complete set up, built by ECR, is available to replace your old oil lines with new stainless steel performance lines when your NAS Defender is here at ECR..
ROX OIL COOLER LINES ARE AVAILABLE FOR IN SHOP INSTALL ONLY: