The Welsh Wizard

The Welsh Wizard

Member
I am rebuilding me series 3 at the moment (ain't started a thread yet as i'm not allowed back into me shed until after AS's) but I thought I may as well start to fabricate part of the dash. (That's in me bedroom at the mo)

I noticed it has 3 spare holes in it and currently I have a Ammeter, Clock, Voltmeter and Oil Pressure gauge lying around.

As it has an alternator I have been advised an ammeter may not be the best idea and although it reads +/-60 amps it probably isn't as useful as a voltmeter but who sais you can't have both :D. Does anyone have any experience with either of these as regards to fitting and usefulness?

As for the clock that's a no brainer. So its just a case of whether it runs on 12 volts or whether I have to put a resistor or somin else between it and the feed

Finally I bought a original Oil Pressure gauge for series 3 land rovers (I think it was an optional extra) but I don't know whether its electric or capillary as it hasn't arrived yet so any advice on other bits I need to get it working and where I get em?

Suspect i done somin stupid and am gonna have it ripped out of me but thats LZ

WW

oh yeah and there smiths gauges not some modern ****e
 
Always forget something :doh: I think I might want a tachometer, I know I need a 4 cylinder electric one but what revs, max and red line should i be looking at?
 
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I would suggest that you fit the clock, volt meter and oil pressure gauge. The clock should run off of 12 volts fine. The original landrover oil pressure was electrical. As for the tacho, I would recommend a max of 5000 rpm for petrol and 4500 rpm for diesel. The petrol makes peak power at 4500 and the diesel at 4250.
 
martin1512 said:
As for the tacho, I would recommend a max of 5000 rpm for petrol and 4500 rpm for diesel. The petrol makes peak power at 4500 and the diesel at 4250.
Click to expand...

thanks for your advice

Its petrol and i'm thinking about getting a turner head, fitting a pair of SUs me dad has lying around by fabricating a manifold similar to the boxer one as well as possibly a tubular manifold so i guess it may rev slightly higher.

All the ones on fleabay seem to go up to 7K so i guess i'll try for one of them but if anyones got one they don't want i'll happily take it off your hands for some beer money :)

As the pressure gauge is likely to be electric is there a place where i can get a sender unit


ww
 
Why are you trying to get more power out of the petrol engine? Even with the Turner head and SU's the horsepower gain will not be very much, and not really worth the expense. If you want more power, go for a TDi or even a V8 upgrade. As for the oil pressure sender, they often appear on ebay, if not, try craddocks.
 
martin1512 said:
Why are you trying to get more power out of the petrol engine? Even with the Turner head and SU's the horsepower gain will not be very much, and not really worth the expense. If you want more power, go for a TDi or even a V8 upgrade. As for the oil pressure sender, they often appear on ebay, if not, try craddocks.
Click to expand...

I'm 17 and insurance is a killer :( also i want to stay fairly original

Not so concerned about power more about reliability and relative fuel economy.

SU carbs won't cost and manifolds will be just materials and time

turner head I thought was cost effective and well thought of?
 
Couple more things is the sender ever described as an oil pressure switch or is that just for a warning light?

and I have heard you can do a lot to tidy up and improve the head with a dremmel?
 
The Welsh Wizard said:
I'm 17 and insurance is a killer :( also i want to stay fairly original

Not so concerned about power more about reliability and relative fuel economy.

SU carbs won't cost and manifolds will be just materials and time

turner head I thought was cost effective and well thought of?
Click to expand...
Just fitting the new head and SU's will put your insurance through the roof, as this is a mod to increase power.
 
You might be at it some time with a Dremmel, a die grinder would be better. There are loads of good books around on modding heads, with Dave Vizard top of the list. Used to often mod the heads on my cars. Start gentle, looking to get rid of casting faults and matching the ports and manifolds. Many exhaust manifolds have huge restrictions in them, one 'O' series I did had an extra 3/8"s of metal clogging up joint with exhaust. Once I'd removed that, added twin SU's and changed the final drive ratio it used to blow away my bosses Corrolla TwinCam.
 
The Welsh Wizard said:
Couple more things is the sender ever described as an oil pressure switch or is that just for a warning light?

and I have heard you can do a lot to tidy up and improve the head with a dremmel?
Click to expand...
It should say oil pressure sender, but craddocks will know what you are talking about if you speak to them. I would not reccomend going anywhere near the head witha dremel. If I were you, I would leave the engine stock. The engine is fine the way it is. Even if you get more power out of it, you won't get much benefit from it due to the fairly low gearing. If you want a higher cruising speed, then you are better off fitting an overdrive, this will increase the realistic cruising speed to about 70, whilst improving fuel economy by lowering RPM. If you still want more power and speed than this, then you should really uprate the brakes before doing so, and buy ear plugs!! landrovers were never designed for high speed cruising.
 
martin1512 said:
Just fitting the new head and SU's will put your insurance through the roof, as this is a mod to increase power.
Click to expand...

I am gonna see them tommorrow to have a chat. I may just end up cleaning up the manifolds and leaving it as standard.

My insurance cost's £1000 at the moment but me dad on me car is only £50 :mad:
 
I got an overdrive and fwhs factory fitted :) got to 70 mph with a tail wind, downhill on motorway but it feels much better at 60 and who care you just set out a little earlier
 
martin1512 said:
Just fitting the new head and SU's will put your insurance through the roof, as this is a mod to increase power.
Click to expand...

If you mention it to them, but, lets face it, even if you did have a crash and they looked under the bonnet they would see a 2 1/4 petrol engine. The Turner head doesn't look that different to a normal head and although igrinence (sp?) isn't everything the grand old claim of 'it was like that when i got it' goes a long way.

and 70 in a Series, although possible, is scary as f**k - i doubt its any less scarry with a tdi / V8.
 
MikeDowson said:
If you mention it to them, but, lets face it, even if you did have a crash and they looked under the bonnet they would see a 2 1/4 petrol engine. The Turner head doesn't look that different to a normal head and although igrinence (sp?) isn't everything the grand old claim of 'it was like that when i got it' goes a long way.
Click to expand...


I kinda thought that but i will probably declare everything with me dad lookin over me shoulder :rolleyes:
 
ha :)

Well, when you do, post back the response from the ins. company wrt price increase - i'd be interested to know if things like new heads do increase it or not
 
sure :)

I think i'm gonna go to the NFU with me dad as they seem to be quite landy and young person friendly but i will call up some others tommorrow, as i'm only 17 its gonna have a much greater effect on my insurance than older peeps. I've looked a a few tuner/ modified forums to see who they suggest and adrian flux popped up a couple of times so i'll call them to.
 
Try Lancaster too, they are also very Landie friendly and as a youngish person myself they do my insurance for around £200 - that's with points and other stuff against me too :)
(ok, so i'm not 17, but young enough to still get hampered by excessively expensive insurance!)

The NFU are good though, I had my 90 insured with them when I was 17.
 
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