Finally got round to sorting out the SIII

Forget when I got the SIII SSW - but probably best part of a year ago now. Its unroadworthy and have never even heard it running or tried to start it yet. When I got it I was still completing earthquake repairs to the house, then the Freelander trashed its transmission, then Christmas, then Salmon season blah blah. Everyone's got their reasons for not starting or completing their projects!

But this weekend, I finally got round to start sorting the old girl out. There's 2 main reasons why I haven't tried starting it, the exhaust manifold is completely fractured - snapped where it bends up. I need to get a replacement or this one welded up. The other reason is that there are a lot of wires in the engine bay that have either burnt out or had the insulation burnt off them. So that's my first job - sort the wiring.

I suspect someone has rewired the glow plugs at some time and underestimated the current. Their wiring is trashed - and various other 'miscelaneous' wires. The main harness looks like it might be OK - but I can't be sure yet. I spent the afternoon finding out what all these 'miscelaneous' wires are/were and clearing them out of the way. There's an old winch, various lights, additional fuel tank (pump/level guage) and wires going to things that aren't on the car any more. The job is a probably a bit more complicated by the fact it was originally a 2.6 petrol before conversion to 2.25 diesel.

Any way, got the instrument panel out and stripped everything back to "what's necessary". Will get some correct load wire/relay etc in the week and hopefully have the electrics and glow plugs sorted next weekend.

I don't know if the engine can be started with a broken exhaust manifold, or whether I should wait till that's fixed before starting it.

you can start it the worst it will be is noisy

Ta, I'll warn the neighbours - or at least the ones that don't have dogs that bark all the time or start their 2 stroke outboards at silly o'clock in the morning.