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Firstly I would like to thank @Gaurav bhai for making the change of venue and to all participants to make it to the new meeting point and making this trip happen. The briefing was comprehensive and there was a surprise in it for all. The once banned Rav4 was not only joining us for the drive, it was going to lead us all for a while. How exciting!!! So we started cautiously, but tried to build up some difficulty level, unfortunately one of the dips meant we has a broken radiator again. Saleem was quick to the rescue and MSeal was once again our savior although Gaurav bhai had a few tricks in his bags other than our regular MSeal. So the bar was open for service and some tasty treats from Gaurav bhai kept us full while some snoozed away at the opportunity. Surprisingly, although the city was hot, but the spot we got had a nice cool breeze to keep us all comfortable. Stories were also exchanged and it was total fun. By the time the radiotor was fixed the sun had also made its way to spread its light without making a full fledge appearance.As Saleem continued to lead the drive he was extra careful in selecting the route and took us to the spot where we love to do some side sloping. We had plenty of fun taking turns and although Asif bhai was a bit hesitant in the beginning, but eventually got his monster to growl, Saleem who was making rounds as if he wanted to reach somewhere yesterday and Gaurav Bhai showing us exactly how it should be done. We than drove to the top of Fossil Rock where we stopped for a BBQ breakfast which has been the highlight now for 2 drives. This is how health conscious we are. After that we came down on the other side and just before heading out we decided to play for a while. This too gave us a lot of thrills and some show-off time. Once again all I will say is brilliant time with amazing people. Gaurav Bhai treated us to some ice cream before heading back and it was another one for the books. Thank you from the bottom of the heart to all participants for being flexible enough for the venue due to my situation and well done Saleem for keeping everyone excited and well fed. I will be missing in action for a couple of weeks as I will be taking on a trip to the wild wild west and I will see you all on the other side of my vacation.

Alf Mabrook @BENNY THOMAS as @shadow79 put it, may this car bring you luck and happiness. You are most welcome to join us for a newbie trip and once your confidence level is up and you know you red dragon better we will teach you how to make it breath fire.

After completing the first 1k kms not b4 that Bhai till then keep your feet light on the race paddle....and enjoy the ride...may this car bring you luck and happiness

We were waiting for whole week since Gaurav Bhai posted a adventurous trip to Sweihan. I was excited as we were going to notch this area with our most trusted marshals. Sweihan is one of the difficult terrain in UAE and known as "Little Liwa" due to its big dunes and soft sand... And the other excitement for me was the convey is coming to my place 😊Abu Dhabi... And that day came, 6th July and my plan was to meet the convoy at sweihan city which is 45mins drive from my home. At 10pm I got a call from unknown number and that was gaurav bhai, this is his second number which I had not stored in my device. And heard him saying "Asif Bai small changes" I thought the plan is cancelled. But he said we had changed the plan due to some unforeseen situation and we had switched the plan to Maliha area.. without any questions, I rushed to my truck with my stuffs and started to our new meeting point which is almost 2hrs drive for me and I was 30min late.. Thanks to Gaurav Bhai to keep this drive on.. We all headed to our deflating point and Rahim Bhai was suppose to join us late because he had some work to finish. As usual practice Gaurav Bhai was suppose to start briefing and we saw a pathfinder staring at us.. & that was "Rahim Bhai" and for first time I saw him without superman on his chest.. After a short briefing we all headed towards fossil rock and Saleem bhai was leading us with his once banned RAV4... "bro you performed superb" After driving for few minutes one small sharp dip hit my metal skid plate (5mm thick) which bent from its place and hit the radiator below and we ended up with broken radiator.. With all experts and equipments we carry with us we were able to fix that at spot which took our valuable 3hrs.. After fixing the radiator and examining that we were confident that we can continue the drive with repaired radiator.. We continued our drive... by then it was almost dawn, the light started appearing from east... and RAV4 continued its momentum with some exciting dunes and drops and took us to huge dune were we did side sloping for few minutes. First Gaurav Bhai showed us his skill with his little beast and he did it almost at the top edge of the dunes...Then one by one everyone did side sloping and were playing around. But I was hesitating to do it because of radiator, thinking that it will break at the repaired joint.. but gaurav bhai came to me and gave me the confidence.. and finally I did it..!!! not once many times... Then we left that place and reached to the top of fossil rock and had our BBQ breakfast there... by the time sun rays hit straight to us we came down to the other side of fossil rock and played around again climbing the dunes for few minutes and exited from there to Adnoc.. After inflating we left to Abu Dhabi and reached by noon.. The drive would have been even more adventurous if there wasn't a mishap with my truck.. sorry everyone.

I must point out that power-to-weight ratio is only one aspect of how well (or otherwise) a particular vehicle performs in a any given circumstance. While engine displacement is important, other factors like gearing is arguably more important, because while a vehicle with high displacement engine may have a favorable power to weight ratio, its gearing might make it unsuitable for some applications. I also want to clear up a myth: overhead camshafts have never done anything on any engine to improve power. All they do is make some engines run quieter, but in most cases, OHC's only serve to reduce manufacturing costs.

Comparing a proper 4x4 with a 3.5 V6 with a gay 4 cyl FWD shopping trolley!

Guys, I rolled out my new JGC limited cherry red (colour is awesome) yesterday from Sharjah showroom, enjoyed the soothing ride back to fujairah, will need sometime to get used to the vehicle and then I hope I can take part in rides with you guys to the extend that all of you advice me. What do you suggest, when is the best time I can try my red dragon on the sands..

All the best guys safe driving and do post pics once you get time. Looking forward to joining you guys once I sought out my car. Cheers!!!

Due to some unforeseen situation we like to switch the drive to Maliha area instead of Sweihan. Rest everything as usual. Apologies for last minute change and will definitely do the sweihan route next week IA. Meeting time: 11:30 PM, convoy will move sharp at 11:45 PM Where: Adnoc Petrol Station Maleha Road GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/mzb26kxzte72

beep beep boop i am not a bot beep boop Paranoid no, but I will freely admit to being extremely cynical and with good reason. I have a few trusted suppliers, people that have been introduced and recommended to me etc. but if I was to walk into a shop randomly off the street, I'm not just going to trust the guy. I know from experience, he'll sell me an engine and tell me it's good. If it's not good, he'll give me another no questions asked and again tell me it's good. He doesn't care about my lost time fitting and removing it, he's just happy he got a sale. If I put an engine together myself and it's wrong, then I know it's my fault but I have 100% faith in my own work.

Totally agree with adil and desertdude, that you can get half cut cars with engine intact. I have seen many afghani scrappy keeping those intact to prove the engine worth. Also desertdude rightly mention to stay away from local (khaleeji) engines as 99% they are cooked already. Japan imports is awesome. BTW my Pajero is running Japan import engine, which barry rebuilt from top head for replacing the leaking valve and now it's almost as good as new climbing iftar bowl and faya from front.

Yes I know those shops. But we were talking only about the names mentioned earlier and Nissan wasn't among those, Skylines don't come in LHD to they do get converted but you can't register them anymore, earlier you could get conversions registered only in Umm Al Quain. Back then a lot of RHD Land cruisers were also stacked in those shops. But now UAQ also has stopped. proof is many Skyline R34s do you see on the roads here ? And why only Skylines how man LHD popular JDMs conversions driving around ? So anything getting converted is either being re-exported or for people who have some special connections, if you know what I mean.

How do I know its a real person who wrote this and not some bot !!!! Sometimes to you got to put some faith in some people or you'll go through life a paranoid basket case. I know what I'm talking about because I know someone like that and he doesn't trust anybody with anything. I have a great scrappie. He gets whole cars from Japan, and break them right there in his shop. Plus I know he wont buy local cars for breaking and he refuses to buy them. And sometimes you have to do have to take some people for their word. if you are going to be so paranoid in one's life, probably end up in the cuckoo house! Its a good idea to build up a good relation with your parts supplier and scrappy.

Here's another problem. If the engine is in a front cut and you can verify the kms, how do you know that's the original engine that came in the car? It could still be a higher km engine fitted because the original blew up. You have to remove the engine and clean it so you can read the serial number then ensure it corresponds with the vin. How many breakers will let you do that? It's not always easy to get an engine in a front cut either. Front cuts take up space and space is at a premium for the breakers. Engines are ripped out and stacked as soon as possible. Then the breaker can tell you however many kms you want to hear. I worked in a breakers yard for 5 years and every engine we sold had done 70k.

If you put a battery and some fresh fuel in them they'll drive fine. The problem is they are contaminated with radioactive fallout and you might start growing extra limbs. That's if you don't die of radiation sickness first. Read about radiation sickness, it's probably in the top 5 most horrible ways to die.

Bad fuel mileage, difficult start, missing, idle hesistation or fluctuation, loss of power etc. Read this interesting article that someone forwarded me http://www.aa1car.com/library/cm1196.htm

Buy earlpugs Drive Safely.