Today's little instalment...

As the original vehicle was a 3.5 V8 on carb's I wanted to give it a little more poke.
I did not want to make any modifications to the chassis to keep the DVLA/VOSA happy.
So I opted to fit a 3.9 V8 from a late Discovery 1.
This was going to be the engine of choice as it was a serpentine engine that utilises just the one drive belt but still uses a distributor.

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However over the last few weeks whilst hunting on eBay. I managed to pick up a 4.2 from an LSE :)

I have had a few of these engines in my previous projects before and have loved them!

It was scruffy to look at and there is a few bits missing but I can rob stuff from the 3.9 engine to put it back together. Including the front cover and ancillary items to convert the 4.2 to the serpentine arrangement instead of multiple belts. To do this I am going to extend the key way in the crank nose so it can drive the oil pump.

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First thing was to give it a bit of a wash off so It's not too dirty to work with.

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Then during the strip down and clean process I was absolutely ecstatic to find its a Genuine Land Rover recon long engine :)

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And am very happy with the overall condition of the internals. But will still give it a full build including new cam and lifters to make sure it's 100%.

I am thinking I might go for a piper fast road cam to give it a little bit more without affecting the idle and smoothness too much.

Next on the eBay purchases was a GKN electric switching Overdrive. I aim to be driving this thing for tens of thousands of miles touring so this will be a god send on long journeys let alone the fuel cost saving.

So just had a mock up tonight before its cleaned and painted as I will have to modify my x-brake bracket to clear the overdrive unit.

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An original LR crate engine; your build is turning out to have all the goodies.... Keep up the good work mate.
 
probably comes down the old adage 'there aint no replacement, for displacement'

:-D

you know you would if you could :-D
 
probably comes down the old adage 'there aint no replacement, for displacement'

:-D

you know you would if you could :-D

Honestly for expidition if have diesel for range and being able to run it on ****e grades or veg oil although petrol is probably quite avalable in the developing world the lower range would annoy me

My plan is a 101 or 110 300 tdi or td5 even with endless funds I'd still go diesel
 
Money is always an issue! Lol

I wish I had an endless pot I could have lots more toys :)

The reason for v8 is not just through choice but the fact I did not want to make any chassis modifications.

I have always been biased towards V8 but have also run diesels 200, 300, TD5 and TD6 over the past 6 years and they don't float my boat anymore.

I could have gone the TD5 route with mods and a map to get a similar power level which would give me the economy but as we all know tuned diesels can be just as thirsty.

So a V8 getting 14 to 17mpg on petrol will give me an equivalent mpg cost off 25 to 30mpg on LPG.

And lets face it you can't knock the smooth refinement and the distinct noise of a sweet V8.

Which brings me to the bit that's not so sweet.

I opened up the 4.2 tonight to inspect its components and unfortunately even though its a genuine exchange it's had a hard life.

The cam bearings are toast and its picked up on 2 journals.

So off to the engine centre in the morning for new bearings and line boring....

Crank has already been done 10thou so should get away with a light polish.

Will keep you posted
 
Also I have done all the measurements regarding fitting the puma TDCi bulkhead and dash and the mods are minimal to get everything to clear.

So as that was not enough of an engineering challenge the decision has been made to stretch the width of the front end of the body work to bring it closer to the width of the intended rear end.

This will mean stretching the width of the bulkhead by 10" overall.

Pictures of progress will be uploaded as I go.
 
Money is always an issue! Lol

I wish I had an endless pot I could have lots more toys :)

The reason for v8 is not just through choice but the fact I did not want to make any chassis modifications.

I have always been biased towards V8 but have also run diesels 200, 300, TD5 and TD6 over the past 6 years and they don't float my boat anymore.

I could have gone the TD5 route with mods and a map to get a similar power level which would give me the economy but as we all know tuned diesels can be just as thirsty.

So a V8 getting 14 to 17mpg on petrol will give me an equivalent mpg cost off 25 to 30mpg on LPG.

And lets face it you can't knock the smooth refinement and the distinct noise of a sweet V8.

Which brings me to the bit that's not so sweet.

I opened up the 4.2 tonight to inspect its components and unfortunately even though its a genuine exchange it's had a hard life.

The cam bearings are toast and its picked up on 2 journals.

So off to the engine centre in the morning for new bearings and line boring....

Crank has already been done 10thou so should get away with a light polish.

Will keep you posted

How avalable is LPG abroad ? Won't the tanks take up valuable storage space ?
 
How avalable is LPG abroad ? Won't the tanks take up valuable storage space ?

LPG is pretty available throughout Europe when I have travelled before and is much cheaper. And then further afield petrol becomes cheaper too. With regards to space. I would have to fit an LPG bottle for cooking so instead will run from the main LPG fuel tank. So I will loose some space but gain in others
 
LPG is pretty available throughout Europe when I have travelled before and is much cheaper. And then further afield petrol becomes cheaper too. With regards to space. I would have to fit an LPG bottle for cooking so instead will run from the main LPG fuel tank. So I will loose some space but gain in others

Aahhh never thought of the cooking option aswell, yes that would be a bonus, I knew further afield petrol was cheaper my only thought was that because of the reduced mpg the range decreases even if the price stays the same. More fuel for more range is extra weight and space but the extra power would be a bonus with such a heavy vehicle

Conundrum indeed
 
Wow! This will be an amazing machine when done....


F%(k it anyway...
After seeing the start of this build, a 6x6 expedition is another addition to the list of landrovers I want to build :(:p
 
So first task was to rebuild the rear axles and convert them to disk brakes....

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Next on the list was to have the chassis blasted and dipped to remove any rust and organic material.

Once this had been done a few repairs had to be made where the metal was thin and some holes had appeared.

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Next it was off to galvanising


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Tonks4x4 - The Land Rover Specialist[/qwell first of all what a great job ,it looks great,great finish on the axles and chassis ,i realy like the idea of 12.50 tyres on a 6x6
i am starting rebuilding my 170 6x6 defender(ex elictricity board) and i wondered if you had any problems with galvanizing the double plated chassis,like distortion or anything ,as i am going to have my chassis galved aswell as the bulkhead and anything steel​
 
well first of all what a great job ,it looks great,great finish on the axles and chassis ,i realy like the idea of 12.50 tyres on a 6x6
i am starting rebuilding my 170 6x6 defender(ex elictricity board) and i wondered if you had any problems with galvanizing the double plated chassis,like distortion or anything ,as i am going to have my chassis galved aswell as the bulkhead and anything steel

The only issue I had with reference to the chassis being dipped was that they did not rotate it once it was lifted from the tank so I ended up with a rather large pool of galv setting on the side of the chassis in the bracket for the rear axle trailing arm mount.
 

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