David Leech

Well-Known Member
Got myself a 1979 Series 88". Most of the parts seem to be there, bar the.....engine!

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The 'Good Bits' are that it's almost all there, nothing had been robbed from it over the years. The 'Bad Bits' are the usual stuff, the front and back crossmembers are rotted beyond repair. The two main chassis rails are in surprisingly good order. The two front outriggers are scrap. Footwells need attention, and top hinge area of bulkhead.

Bonnet skin is good but the framework is dust, can lengths of this be bought or do I have to try 'fabricate' something myself?
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A bad gash at the rear.....
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And this piece, on passenger side, behind front spring hanger is bad. I don't know if anything needs to attach to it though, is it needed for the engine?.....
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I'm hoping to source a 200Tdi and squeeze it in, but am in no rush to do so, there's enough to be doing to try and get the chassis back to usable condition. I'll just plod along and keep on the lookout for a 'handy' engine.....

Always a good (if noisy) option if you can find one that's in a good condition. 200tdi are all quite old now and it's probably worth overhauling it before you put it in the car.

Was the car petrol or diesel originally? If petrol, a Defender 2.5 petrol with a few modifications would be a good swap. They are fairly detuned to run on poor-quality fuel as standard.
 
Registered as Diesel.....
Easier to stick with diesel then, though converting to petrol isn't that difficult to do. Nowadays I don't think it's worth going from petrol to diesel anymore.

If you're doing chassis repairs anyway, it wouldn't be much extra work to move/modify engine mounts if you needed to. Then your options increase to whatever will physically fit. If you can find one and get it working, 2.0mpi from a Discovery would be a great engine for it.
 

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