Congratulations Niblik... great stuff
I'm writing this from a camp ground pc in Nelson... my weekend is still going... and going... and $$$$$going$$$$$...
I spend most of friday afternoon trying to get my truck back together to nip up to nelson overnight for a quick parts dropoff/pickup... a small job that required fitting the new rear axles and new brakes - somethingthat due to misfitting brake adaptor plates and me forgetting to buy diff oil took until around 2.30am... including having to put a metalset patch on the tank where its been leaking for a we while now.
The tank patch stuff came with a picture of it holding up an elephant, kind of like superglue... well that should have been a warning... I cured it with a 100W light bulb for afew hours and it was rock hard and lookedpretty good when I was done... so dumped 20l of diesel in and it was all good... no leaks... whew! Off to the servo and fill the tank ready to go first thing.
Home and into bed at around 3am... up at 9ish, outside when Rik arrived to find a steady stream of diesel pissing all over the lawn
threw a bucket under that for the time being...
After everything going wrong the day before I burst into tears and threw a big tantrum... well, thats what I wanted to do anyway... sat down and had another coffee then went out and measured up the tank in the bighorn... mounts looked the same, but of course all my tools were at the shed, 1/2 an hour away.
Managed to borrow some tools and used the basic ones I had in the truck to get the tank out of the bighorn, then drained the petrol and put that in the wifes car (must remember to invoice her for the top-up
)
Then my uncle arrived with some 20l drums and I drained most of the near-80l of diesel (or what was left) out of the MU, and dropped that tank.
From there I was hoping the hose lines would beon a removable plate... no such luck. The V6 tank was, which meant I could take the plate out to find a submersed pump, which I dismantled and replaced witha length of fuel hose so it would pick up from the bottom of the tank, and then re-fitted it. The fuel level senders were both the same, in the same place and removable so I swapped them.
With the exception of a slightly different shape and the filler being slightly further forward it looked like it would fit... so I test fitted it and it all looked good. I did up a few bolts and put some diesel in, pumped the pump a few times, turned it over and it ran on for 5 minutes... fully filled the tank and finally ready to go... 7pm! Whata day, I was shattered. I had a shower, loaded the daughter into the carseat and off we went.
Stayed the night with Tony near Blenheim (Pajfan on here - your friendly local Repco store manager) - about midnight I think we pulled in there - then up in the morning and on to Nelson. Dropped off the parts I had bought up, picked up the parts I came to get and then back on the road into nelson for diesel before heading home...
As I pulled into the servo, noticed the temp gauge in the red... hmmm... checked the rad cap, seemed cold - odd..., so unlatched it 1/2 a turn to the locked but open position and whooosh! hoooot water everywhere... flooding out for around 2 or 3 minutes... also oil very low... wierder... topped the oil, started the engine and slowly filled the rad (engine running stops the massive thermal shock of dumping several litres of cold water into the system from cracking the head). seemed ok, so put the cap on and put it down to low water - ignored the obvious for the time being because it was convenient for my brain to just believe the unlikely instead
Off into town to get some dinner before leaving and noticed the temp fully hot again within 5 minutes of the station... oh shit.
Cob and co for a nice dinner... give it time to cool down. Out and check, water gone in rad... top up and drive back to servo... water gone again... temp fully hot. Top up again, drive to camp ground, get a room
So, here I am in Nelson... with my daughter and a truck full of bits I needed for a job I'm doing today at the shed... not!... Pretty sure I have a blown head gasket as water is errupting in sporadic bursts from the radiator...
So this weekends achievements?
fixing the truck: 2 days, much swearing
driving to nelson: $60 diesel
buying parts: $500
getting to the other end of the country and blowing up your motor?: Priceless!
Thats a big boy too 
to chop 12 inches out of disco chassis and swap body and engine from the zuk to the disco. Will be a bit more weight than intended but it is low weight and the whole idea for this was stability on side slops, so may have to give the motor a wee extra bit of air to help things along 
