110 defender rebuild project and v8 conversion

I had an adventure of the Luton-van kind yesterday.... drove oop north in a rental van to collect a rear tub from a 2006 model. It's even in keswick green! £317 on ebay... bargain I though. It's not 100% perfect, but it's a whole load better than my crumbling one.

I've taken the cappings off my old one to get them galved. I can then add them to the build in a few years time if theses 2006 era ones start showing their age.

This weekend promises to be a landy-based one, with lots of time in the garage, so I hope to get back to progress posts soon.

So, progress update and a quick Q at the end:

Last weekend I whipped out the old rear half shafts and replaced them with the new ones I ordered a while back. Also replaced all 4 drive flanges. The leaves only the inner front half shafts which are potentially a bit aged, but they didn't seem too worn. Obviously the CV joints were renewed, so that takes care of the drive-flange end.

Today I finally got that front to rear brake line done (to the bulkhead anyway). Also managed to fit the poxy fuel tanks for a 3rd time! Stupid stupid stupid rear fixings set up!

With the fuel tank now happy, I also fitted the fuel line and return and got then secured down as far as the meeting point of the brake line. I now need to think up a fixing solution for all 3 of them on top of the chassis. I drilled holes (painful!) In the new chassis and used rubber lined stainless p clips everywhere so far... Where the 3 lines are running next to each other on top of the chassis rail, I think the 3 clips would get in the way.

So... Next is to thread the chassis wiring harness. Now on to the Q:

Original loom (engine end):


New loom (engine end):



Obviously the connectors are different because I opted (for speeds sake) for the 200tdi loom, as it was in stock. The one query I have is with the pair of black cables (top right) vs the single black/blue cable (bottom left). The both spur off the main harness about 12 inches below the main connector bundle. Are they both the same function? Why does the 300tdi have 2 wires there?

That's it... Oh... Unless anyway wants to share the foolproof way of threading a new loom into a new chassis.

I ran a length of gardening wire down through the chassis rail, because it's rigid and you can direct it to the hole. Then I tied some very strong PE cord to the wire and pulled the cord through. Then I tied the cord to the loom, electrical taped it to make it smooth. (I taped the connector blocks in a row down the cord so that one would be directed through the chassis rail hole at a time) pulled it through with the cord. Went through very easily.

Save yourself the bother and run the loom externally in some flexi conduit. Then it's accessible if any future problems occur or access is needed.

300Tdi looms are quite different to 200Tdi ones in terms of connectors as you have noted. Those black wires on the old loom with the ring terminals are probably just earths. The black/blue single wire on the new loom will be for something else. I suspect diff lock switch or similar given the position, but the wiring diagram will tell you.

hello
the black and blue wire fits on the transfer box
hi and low lock i think
as for the others i have the same issue, i have no idea

Was there ever a handbrake light switch?

Many thanks Al203 - I like the sound of that threading technique.... I'll try it out soon.

Thanks greyhair - I've not yet dived into the wiring diagram... it'll come, but I'm managing to avoid it at the moment!

I had a very productive saturday this week (in terms of browny points), and managed to chop up the rest of the old chassis and get it scrapped, along with the roof. All that remains on the drive now is the old tub, minus the cappings, floor strips, and underbody support trips. I'll chop the tub up as soon as my new discs arrive in the post and get that scrapped too, then I can finally pressure washer the block paving and see how much the landlady complains at the stains!

Having discussed the cooling investigations earlier in the thread, I have just had something of a curve-ball come my way. I have been agonising slightly over my exhaust options (to make it mot'able) and whether standard 50th anniversary spec exhausts will fit the hedman hedders, and support the lambda sensors required. In the end I managed to find a custom stainless exhaust place near where we're moving too. They're called Z.E.K fabrications, and they're based in Chard. I gave the owner James a call this morning and had a very good chat with him. It turns out that he also does custom rads an oil coolers, and has done some bowler-type racing landy work in the past. I'm going to pop down and have a chat with him face to face, but it may work out quite well if I can trailer the rolling chassis to him to have the cooling and exhausts systems fitted whilst we're moving house. Here's the website in case anyone is interested:

http://www.jekfabrications.co.uk/contact-us/

I'll hopefully get to look around some of his previous jobs, and with any luck he'll be able to take the landy before we move house, and then I can pick it up once the dust has settled after the move. Who in their right mind moves house twice during a landy build!?!?!?! Thankfully this should be the last move... ever.

In other news, the front-to-rear brake line is fitted, and left in a coil in front of the bulkhead, pending fitting of the pedals etc. I also ran the HP fuel hose and LP return pipes, but have since realised I need to install the inner-chassis-rail mounted fuel filter, as per a v8 efi disco 1. This should arrive from LRdirect today, and then I can give Demon Tweeks a bell to get some fuel pipe adapters of the correct thread. After this, I just need to find some neat bracket/clamp solutions to hold the brake line, HP fuel hose, and LP return hose all next to each on top of the chassis rail. The rubber coated stainless P-clips take up too much room - although they're fine up until the lines reach the top of the chassis rail.

To say that progress has slowed would be something of an understatement, but it's just the way it has to be until my house-move-dictated-spending-ban is lifted. At least it seams like I might have a way forward now with the cooling & exhaust stuff. I think I'll now prioritise getting the rear-end stuff finished (fueling, electrics), and get the rear tub sprayed and fitted. The new rear tub is in Keswick green, but it's modern 2k paint I think and the shade certainly doesn't match my coach enamel. I'll just give it a coat of primer and a coat of enamel to get the shades matching, and then it should be good. I've already bought the galv outer-body-mounting brackets from YRM, along with the high tensile (A4-80) stainless fixings. I also need to source the 4 diagonal bracing strips which brace the outer-tub against the load area of the tub. The mouting of the rear tub, and anything else I get done, is now focused on having a tidy mass to be able to trailer safely between places. I guess pedals, electrics, and dash board would be next after the tub.

Well this is what the garage looks like at the moment:



And this is what I need to figure out a way of fitting:



I also realised I hadn't fitted the handbrake drum yet, so that's next to build up.

Whats that for then?

mikeh501 said:

Whats that for then?

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It's the inline fuel filter for the HP fuel set up. Exactly the same as a 3.9 v8 disco 1.

Is your rear brake line long enough for full axle droop?

Retroanaconda said:

Is your rear brake line long enough for full axle droop?

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The simple answer is I don't know. I see why you asked though... It does look short in that photo.

I forget where I bought it from, but it was a Goodrich kit for this model. 2 front lines and the 1 rear.

With no weight on the backend currently, I suppose this should represent maximum travel shouldn't it? There's no lifting or dislocation stuff here!

Maximum travel is both shocks topped out. Lift the rear of the chassis with a crane/jack until the wheels come off the floor.

It will only ever happen if you hit a hump-back bridge a bit fast (or similar) but with brakes it needs to be right.

Fair point, I should be able to test that. Thanks.

farmershort said:

And this is what I need to figure out a way of fitting:

View attachment 101033

Click to expand...

Can you not fab a bracket to mount it using the end of some of the three top dampener mount bolts?

what cooling setup did you go for in the end?

being having a look at some of the options inc allisport. are you going for a rad with oil cooler? have you figured out what hoses you will need yet? another set of options a mile long!

Jam 1 -Yes that's one option, but that does involve changing the routing of the hose - I'm a bit concerned about it following the brake line, as this runs very close to the a-frame upper mount.

mikeh501 said:

what cooling setup did you go for in the end?

being having a look at some of the options inc allisport. are you going for a rad with oil cooler? have you figured out what hoses you will need yet? another set of options a mile long!

Click to expand...

I've not committed to anything yet, but I'm probably going to give it to JEK fabrications to get both the cooling and the exhaust done. It'll be quite helpful if I can give it to them during the house move, and then pick it up some time after we've moved. I've discussed various config arrangements over the time I've been looking at this, and they all seem to be roughly equal in cooling ability. John Eales specified a 19 row oil cooler, but he's talking about the side-by-side config. a full-length under-slung oil cooler would give the same performance, and allow for a bigger rad. The only other spec considerations I have is that the pipe work must be -10 or -12 jic... which is 16mm or 24mm I think. I read that as "a decent sized oil cooler and very free flowing pipe work".

I'm struggling to find time to go down and meet face to face with JEK, so I may just have to take the plunge and commit. I just want to get the rolling chassis tidied up a bit first.

make sure you mount external fuel pump or filter via rubber , they make a right din if hard bolted .
Its much quieter in a V8 than a diesel

Re oil cooler if you take up rad space and have to make rad smaller to get oil cooler in a bit of a pointless pursuit . JMHO

tacr2man said:

make sure you mount external fuel pump or filter via rubber , they make a right din if hard bolted .
Its much quieter in a V8 than a diesel

Re oil cooler if you take up rad space and have to make rad smaller to get oil cooler in a bit of a pointless pursuit . JMHO

Click to expand...

yes noted on both points - tbh the size of the fuel filter plus attachments is now making me thing that a "standard" off-the-shelf aftermarket solution might be the better way to go. but yes, mounted through some rubber bush washers - I have some left from the fuel-tank fitting, so thought I might be able to use those.

The rad v oil coiler debate basically boils down to how much extra under-slung room there is. If there's enough to get a decent oil coiler down there, below the rad, then grand. Otherwise we're then into a trade-off between space-sharing and/or having the oil-cooler in front of a section of the rad, which will pre-warm the air hitting the rad. I'm no cooling expert, but hopefully between the fitter and myself we'll be able to find a decent compromise.

i think im going to go for the NAS spec allisport rad. twin oil coolers, twin fans. thoughts?