300bhp/ton

300bhp/ton

Well-Known Member
Some of you may remember I had a fairly standard 2.25 Series III 88.

Only real changes where some unknown branded parabolic springs (sourced from Paddocks 12-14 years ago), with Procomp shocks.

I acquired the vehicle in 2012, but had known it for many years prior and was owned by two friends before I took ownership of it, dating back the best part of 14 years plus.


It didn't go too badly. The rear flexed "ok", but the front didn't. And while it handled well it seemed to ride quite harshly and hard at the rear unless you had 2 or 3 people in the back.


Some "before" pics:







Rear end flex ok for a mostly stock leafer:


But front way too stiff:







Sadly I did experience some running issues, traced to several bug bears. I replaced the ignition system twice over, sadly with 2 new defective coils!!!! Eventually opting for an electronic ignition kit (which I should have done from the off).

It also burnt a valve out, so I swapped on a 2nd hand head. But sadly this didn't stem it's oil drinking problem. A shame, as the 2.25 is quite a nice refined engine.

I also had issues with the carb and simply got sick of it being unreliable and not running right. I'm not sure what was up with it. It was fine one day and then not the next. We must have stripped it down a 100 times. But it just wouldn't run like it did and was far too variable.


I opted to fit an SU setup. The SU wouldn't seem to run with the mechanic fuel pump very well, even after getting a new pump and lots of people saying it should. An electric pump solved this.

With the SU on it was dependable, although I think the jetting wasn't quite right and it did run a bit rich. It also drank fuel. Has to one of the worst vehicles on fuel I've ever owned, and I've owned a V12 Jaguar in the past!!


The final decider that it needed some work, was while setting up an RTV trial, I bent the rear cross member recovering my brother. You can see it bent here:





I'd already replaced the front chassis legs. So it looked like the rear was next...
 
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The first plan was to simply lop off the old rear cross-member and fit a new one:



Sounds easy. Until we found out the rear legs where rotten also. So we fabbed up some new legs, only to find out there wasn't really anything to attach them too.


So off came the body:



Which left a more manageable bit to work on:



With the engine out too, there was not a whole amount left too look at:
 
To address some of the suspension issues with the standard Series setup. I opted for a nice long 2 leaf parabolic at the rear. This is a Rocky Mountain Spares spring, which I believe follows the Heystee design very well. I specifically wanted a 2 leaf rear, as it previously had a 3 leaf, which was way too firm in my opinion.

And 2 leaf springs seem somewhat hard to come by.




 
For the front I conceived an idea based on one or two other builds I've seen. Although none that have done exactly this.

What I did was fit a long rear spring to the front, and modded the mounting points to suit. So it is still an 88" wheelbase.


For cost reasons I opted to use the old 3 leaf spring from the rear. Although time will tell if this is too stiff, if so I'll get some more Rocky Mountain Spares 2 leaf ones. Although my rational was, the rear used to flex "ok" and the front has the weight of the engine to cater for.








And eventually back to a rolling chassis....



 
Next was to fit the new shocks I'd selected.


Initially I was going to opt for some Bilstein 5125 shocks, as I'd heard good things from two members on here. But they seemed just a little pricey and needed importing from America, which has time implications and more potential cost with VAT, delivery and import duty. And as I needed to account for every penny being spent, I gave David at Llama4x4 a shout to see what he could offer.

He sent me 4 of these:



For what I considered to be a very good price. As you can see, the new shocks, Rough Country N2.0's, are substantially longer than either the front or rear standard shocks. And also significantly longer than the Procomps that were on the vehicle (sorry no pic of those, but the Procomps where 1-2" longer than stock shocks). He also sent me a set of super long extended stainless brake lines.
 
To the body we fitted complete new footwells and posts to the bulkhead.







You can also see one of the front shock towers, although we adapter this design later on.



I must apologise here, as I have lots more pics of the inter-meaning steps and progress, but they need uploading. So I'll have to upload them at a later date.


Here are some pics of citing the Defender steering column however:







 
Here's a teaser shot of it all back together!!!




I will post up the pics of the build between getting the shocks and then getting to this point.


As of now it runs and drives!! And has been taxed since the 1st March. Although it's MoT is due on Friday (which it is booked in for).


Other changes have included a 200Tdi, p38a PAS, Rocky Mountain Spares door tops and lots of little things, which I'll go into detail on when I post the pics of it.


I've not had chance to off road it yet, as I still want to treat the chassis before it goes and gets muddy. I have flexed the suspension and I think it is improved. But by how much I'll not know until it's used in anger off road.


The Tdi seems to go well and suit the nature of the vehicle, although it's certainly a lot less refined than the 2.25 petrol. One thing that has really been evident so far is how well it rides and handles. I've been in a lot of coil sprung 90's and I think this rides as well or better than almost any of them. It also seems to have very little roll and handles nicely.
 
Fitting the shocks.

First major hurdle was the bushes supplied fitted in the shocks were too small.



Being US shocks they came with 5/8th or something bushes. A quick call to David at Llama and he said there should have been some 3/4 bushes in with them. He sent a set out to me. Top service and no complaints.



Next came to fitting the shock. My aim here was to retain the full up travel, i.e. have enough upstroke for the axle to still hit the standard bump stop, but while increasing the amount of down travel. Most aftermarket kits for a Series gain droop using a longer shock, but reduce the up travel. I considered several options such as moving the shocks in board, a bit like some guys do in the USA or Gon2Far did. However if you are doing this on a 109 there is loads of room, but less so on an 88 and I wanted to avoid having to custom cut an exhaust around them.

In the end we decided to go for shock towers. A side advantage of this, is it keeps the shock upright, which makes the shock the most affective.

Rear shocks test fitted:



NOTE: the shocks are upside down. I spoke directly with Rough Country using their live chat. So easy and took about 2 mins in total to get hold of them, ask a question and get the answer. These shocks should have the main body at the bottom.



A similar shock tower design was devised for the front.








All four shocks now fitted (and the correct way up). You can also see the super long brake line too.
 
This is what we were left with once the old foot wells had been removed.




Now we had a rolling chassis and the shocks and springs fitted, we re-fitted the body, and hoping it all lined up. Which is mostly did, well nothing a drill and a hammer couldn't solve at any rate.










 
Next was setting to work on the footwells, a fair bit of work, but well worth it, and so much easier to do without the engine in the way.












 
The next job was to fab up the power steering.

Part of me didn't want to with PAS, it sort of goes against Series tradition. But my hands aren't what they used to be, and anyone who has done any serious off roading in a Series will know how viscous the steering wheel can be. In addition the standard steering had gone from good, to worse, to terrible to dangerous. I hadn't managed to trace where the slop was, but it had gone from being really nice, to wondering all over the road and gone very heavy. Pricing up to sort the Series setup out was no cheaper (maybe more expensive) than going the PAS route.

I opted for a Defender column, I believe this one came from a Td5. And p38a box. All curtsey of ebay. I forget how much, but think all the bits set me back £100 or less.


First mock up:






You may have noticed that the shock tower has changed slightly. Of course being upright they were in the way for the steering. A simple solution was to cut and cant them over slightly.

And bolted in place.














The Series steering wheel no longer fit, which I think was 48 spline. I had a nice aftermarket wheel. Luckily I had an old 200Tdi steering wheel from my 3 door Disco, that fitted right on. It's arguably the wrong colour and a little big, but it fits and works for now.

 
Deciding on what to do with the engine took some time. Part of me wanted to stick with the 2.25, but mine had oil consumption issues and I just hadn't got it running how I wanted.

I did look at rebuilding and modding it, or going 2.5P. And more exotic options like a T-Series from an Mpi Discovery. But ultimately I really fancied just getting it running again, and as I already have three V8's in my life, a 3.9, a 4.6 and a 5.7, something that could reliably and regularly return mid 20's or more mpg sounded appealing.

I opted for a 200Tdi off ebay for 300 notes. As it should in theory be a basic bolt in replacement.


Using Steve Parkers kit to bolt up the Tdi to standard Series gearbox, much swearing and working by torch light and the power train was assembled ready to be put in the vehicle.

Big thanks to my brother who went out of his way to help on this one.






At last the engine was in.





 
Now anyone who tells you fitting a Tdi in a Series is a 5 min job and requires only bolting in, is well, a liar!!

Sure it bolts up. But even that required shaving a bit off one of the engine mounts in order to fit it to the block. The bigger hurdle is the fab work for the rad, cooling pipes and turbo setup.


After much debate I decided to use the Discovery rad that came with the engine. As per the guidance on Steve Parkers website, cutting down the original Discovery rad shroud to fit where the Series rad used to be. My original hope was to fit the entire rad and intercooler assembly as you would in a Defender, but the p38a steering pump really meant there wasn't enough room.

This left the question on what to do about the intercooler. I'm fully aware of the advantages one offers. But in order to get the vehicle running I opted to forgo an intercooler for now. I may in the future see about mounting one in front of the rad as per Steve Parkers guide, but to buy a modded intercooler from them is a bit pricey. Or I may try something else. But I want to run it for a bit first and see how it goes.





To aid plumbing of the turbo, we "clocked" it. Essentially rotated it, which requires the drilling of some holes. But you end up with the outlet point up, instead of straight into the wing.




I had to get a high pressure hose made up for the PAS pump to box. And to address the issue of the steering arm, I had a solid one cut down and re-tapped. It's essentially a lower steering arm (as they are longer). ALRC regs won't allowed welded steering parts, so this seemed the best option.

 
For the exhaust I opted for Steve Parkers conversion one. The standard 2 1/4 exhaust is way too small for a Tdi. And while I'm sure we could have fabbed something up out of Ninety TD and TDI parts, this seemed the easiest option. A little pricey, but it's all aluminiumised steel, so should last the distance.

Another important factor of this decision, was Steve Parkers kit includes the downpipe to snake it's way around the chassis rail. And I can report it was mostly an easy fit and required no modification at all.

Sorry don't have a pic to hand of the down pipe. But here is the rest of the system fitted.







Fitting the Tdi resulted in re-locating the battery. I found a seller online selling a battery tray conversion section. You essentially cut a hole in the seat box under the passenger seat. And rivet or bolt this tray in place. And you have a similar battery location as a Defender. We had to patch up the seat box a little, but overall quite a good thing. And ideally located for the wiring.

 
So to date the final/current spec is:

88" wheel base Series III
Series gearbox
Series transfer box
Series axles
4.75:1 diffs
Defender Steering column & P38a steering box
200Tdi non intercooled


There are still a few things to do. The lower dash is currently out and needs patching up. And I need to make up a few panels to cover the PAS box and other gaps in the inner wings. As well as get and fit some mud shields in the wings.

I have an X-Brake hand brake to fit.

And I need to sort the recovery points out front and read.

Intake filter is only temporarily attached too at the moment.















 
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