6-Wheel Drive Discovery II - Am I totally mad ?

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Knew there's be a good reason for it, and had no idea about these later transfer boxes having different output axes! And glad it's not just me saying 'I'll need to make another adaptor then' on a regular basis.
 
Well, it's been a productive weekend, I transferred the con-rods from the old pistons to the new, ringed 'em up. Honed the cylinders and fitted my shiny new pistons

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So now I have a block with 8 shiny pistons and no heads yet. Hopefully they'll be back from the machine shop in the next week or so, then I can really get the engine built up.

I will change a few things before I finally bolt it up, like timing chains and tensioners etc. May also change a few sensors where it makes sense. Not sure about the camshaft modulators - no-one seems to know what their lifetime is like, if they're not too expensive, I may just change them too - It just makes sense while everything is this accessible.

Will need some cleaning, polishing and detailing before it gets bolted in, but the excitement is building !
 
What a build !
Some really nice work there, with plenty of forethought.

Just an idea for you, as you're competent with ECU's and will have airbags all round, how about making it so the rear axel can be lifted (or at least all the load on it removed) to improve what is going to be a very large turning circle as it will then pivot on the centre axel instead of somewhere between both rear axels.
Yes it means you'll have to be running the engine for drive, but that's just a small (for you) ECU issue.
 
markSX said:
What a build !
Some really nice work there, with plenty of forethought.

Just an idea for you, as you're competent with ECU's and will have airbags all round, how about making it so the rear axel can be lifted (or at least all the load on it removed) to improve what is going to be a very large turning circle as it will then pivot on the centre axel instead of somewhere between both rear axels.
Yes it means you'll have to be running the engine for drive, but that's just a small (for you) ECU issue.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting idea. I did look at the possibility of doing an axle lift previously, but I was looking at lifting the centre axle, and only to lower wear, the same reason trucks do it, but decided it wasn't worth the effort as wear will be low anyway, this being a low mileage vehicle, and I kind of like the way it looks on the 6 wheels.

That said, the idea of lifting the rear axle to reduce the turning circle is interesting. I will have to do some calculations to determine how different the turning circle would be, but ultimately, I'm not sure how feasible an axle lift would be with the current setup. I don't want to change the setup I have now, and whilst I could fully extend the airbags on axle 2, and fully deflate those on axle 3, I don't think that would result in a lift, it would (as you say) remove all the load from it, but probably not lift it, and the result would almost certainly be a turn centred on the 2nd axle but with major tyre scrub on the 3rd axle.

Still a really interesting idea though, and I'm going to run some numbers, thanks for the input.
 
Your going to get tyre scrub on both the rear axles with the load distributed evenly between them, it will also ware the front tyres quicker as they will have to overcome the resistance to turn that's produced by the rear axles.
Taking the load off the rear axle will reduce tyre ware across all axles.
It'll only be to aid low speed manoeuvrability, so no major gains/losses in tyre ware, but big gains in tight spaces.
 
Hmmm interesting... yes Id say your totally mad, I'm not right keen on the picture after the paint shop although this project of yours is growing on me and I cant wait to see it finished. Good luck with it!!
 
joshremlin said:
Hmmm interesting... yes Id say your totally mad, I'm not right keen on the picture after the paint shop although this project of yours is growing on me and I cant wait to see it finished. Good luck with it!!
Click to expand...

Oh absolutely, colour is a very personal choice, you will never get a colour and trim combination that works for everyone. For me, it was always going to be black and chrome, and I love the Santorini Black

When she's done, the bumper trim and headlight trims will also be black, the door handles will be chrome, the arches will have their proper trim and the coach line with chrome accents will be fitted, try to imagine it also with 20" diamond cut wheels and it think it will look mean, but that's just me ;)
 
markSX said:
Your going to get tyre scrub on both the rear axles with the load distributed evenly between them, it will also ware the front tyres quicker as they will have to overcome the resistance to turn that's produced by the rear axles.
Taking the load off the rear axle will reduce tyre ware across all axles.
It'll only be to aid low speed manoeuvrability, so no major gains/losses in tyre ware, but big gains in tight spaces.
Click to expand...

OK, so a little maths with regard to turning circles :
dr3.gif



  • sin a = W/R
    Where
    R is the turning radius or half the turning circle
    W is the distance between axles
    a is the maximum angle of the steering wheels

    I was going to get out in all this lovely rain and measure a, but as we already know the turning circle of a D2 (with standard steering locks) is 11m, we can calculate a as 27.5 degrees,
    Now, assuming that I don't change the steering geometry (and to be fair, I probably will), this means that we can calculate the turning circle centred on the 3rd axle and the mean of the two

    3rd axle turning circle = 15.5m
    mean axle turning circle = 13.3m

    Clearly this is a huge difference, and shows just how significant tyre scrub will be on full lock, not to mention the problems of doing a 3-point turn on a vehicle that is already poor when I've just added 2.3m to the turning circle !

    I will definitely look into axle lift more and report back, thanks for the heads up !
 
dave658 said:
Well I've ot about 9' of boot space with all the chairs folded up, but coffins weren't really part of my design consideration ! o_O
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I want to be buried in it. Love it. What a way to go........................:D


What............ no rear wheel steer?
and I thought you where and engineer :rolleyes:
 
Bobsticle said:
What............ no rear wheel steer?
and I thought you were and engineer :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yeah, good point - where is your sense of adventure man ?!??!? it's not like its gonna be complicated or anything ... or ....

No, wait...:confused::eek:o_O:D:D:D:D

Go on, make it rear wheel steer - you know you want to :D
 
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