Hello all members.
My son, Andrew, has just bought a 1982 Serias 3 and we plan to put it back in good condition and try to make it a little more economical - well a LOT more economical if that is possible. Andrew will be doing most of the work with me doing what I physically can (83 in May) I shall probably be doing a great deal of grunting for him It has a 2.25 petrol engine , hard top and we believe it is ex military. I look forward to asking questions and to, hopefully, receiving answers. Initiallt we thought of getting a TD2 (ish) diesel and running it cheaply on new or used vegitable oil, chipshop oil or used engine oil BUT having looked on this and some other similar sites there are as many variation and contradictions as there are stars and not knowing what out idiotic, twofaced government will do re' diesel engines in the next few years we may stick with petrol and put LPG on it. Gawd knows. T&C :- If I have offended anyone by what I have written so far . . . . Tough !
P.S. I don't really know what I am a doing of with all the selections etc on the site, so if I get it wrong please forgive me and put me right. Phanx

Running on waste engine oil, unless completely off road is illegal and anti social and doesn't work for long.
Veg is only suitable really for the 200-300 TDI.
LPG is the way to go if you're in it for the long term.
Ask on the series sub forum for best advice.

Welcome. Stick with the petrol engine. They are reliable and faster than a diesel. Good luck with the project. If you need advice post it in the Series section of the forum. If it’s military it should have a military plate inside on the bulkhead. It’s definitely military if the rear crossmember has no round PTO access hole.

John S said:

Welcome. Stick with the petrol engine. They are reliable and faster than a diesel. Good luck with the project. If you need advice post it in the Series section of the forum. If it’s military it should have a military plate inside on the bulkhead. It’s definitely military if the rear crossmember has no round PTO access hole.

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Hi John S and thanks for the info. There is a plate under the bonnet on the bulkhead but also a bigger, similar plate by the looks of it, in the cab on the bulkhead right slap bang in the hey-diddle-diddle. Now that the cold weather is gone and this old sod can get going again, hopefully, I shall attempt to get details from both plates which should also give me paint info. Like I said, I'm not too good on these forums (plus having to keep an eye on the blasted 'predictive text') could you give me a pointer as to how to put a photo or icon against my name. Thank you
Brian

John S said:

Welcome. Stick with the petrol engine. They are reliable and faster than a diesel. Good luck with the project. If you need advice post it in the Series section of the forum. If it’s military it should have a military plate inside on the bulkhead. It’s definitely military if the rear crossmember has no round PTO access hole.

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Hi John S. Found how to do the Avatar. Think I'll mosey on over to the 'Series' area this argo sometime.
Enjoy your weekend.
Brian

Hi Folks. I know it has been a long time but here I am at long last and I have a tale to tell. Firstly, we were going to put a diesel into the Series 3 because a friend of my son who has 3 Landy's said it iwas fairly simple straight out with the 2.25 and in with the 2.0 diesel gearbox and all. Well, we picked up an old disco with the required engine and with great difficulty extracted the engine and gearbox and then we realised that it would NEVER fit into the series 3 so sold off the engine/gearbox and the remainder of the Disco - Never listen to a knowledgable friend who says it is easy. BS. We trusted him but should really have checked - lesson learned.
Secondly, the 2.25 petrol engine is to remain and, after a long period of unforseen personal problems, my son is now working on it again. It has the Weber 34 ICH so that is good.
Here is the latest problem. It concerns the VIN Number on the Log book thingy you know, that piece of paper with all the vehicle information on it. We knew that it was a 1982 Series 3 but were told that it was 'Military', so I elected to check it all out via the Vin No. Thereby hangs a tale. The number is GALLBCA41AA158869 but the 1st digit G does not appear on any check list that I have seen so far. The 8th digit is not a 4 but an 'H' despite the DVLA. After the 9th digit it all seem to be 'elevated spherical objects' (I'm not allowed to say balls up) and the digits dont match the lists published. Additionally, the engine number quoted by DVLA is 33114275 but once again, in the listings, I cannot find the first 2 digits. If you have got this far through my burbling and have some information or site suggestions to impart, I will be very pleased and grateful. I imagine that the 4 and H mix up came about with the transition from hand to computer written documents owing to bad handwriting or other means of legibility. Thank you very much. Brian

Welcome to the forum

The vin should start SAL which means land rover

Try using this:

http://www.clifton.nl/index.html?calvin.html

has the vin been tampered with? It's not unusual for old tratters to have had their engine changed.

Thanks Hippo. Went to the site and all is fine. DVLA had changed an S to a G and an H to a 4. God bless computers and their inputters.