Thread: Stuee's 101 Rebuild

Originally Posted by lardy

Hey Stuee,
No worries mate, I am going for a newly built 3.9 injected version of the v8, as mentioned previously I was looking at putting a disco lump in and it just becomes too hard living up here.
So this should give me some semblance of an eeking of any economy to be found driving a petrol powered house brick.
Your panels are looking the dogs knackers good effort!
How you going on it, still enthusiastic?
Regards Andy


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Be interesting to hear how it goes with the efi 3.9. Are you going to use the land rover ecu or go an aftermarket system like motec/haltech/megasquirt?

Seeing some painted panels come together has been a real morale boost. Its hard to keep motivated just looking at a chassis with wheels and an engine. Hopefully when things like the steering, brakes and clutch all start coming together and I can sneak small drives in around the block, then the build should really take off.

I presumed ACR would use a rover management system as its a bus, any benefits using the other ones? I think we are looking to maximise any economy to be gleaned whilst retain performance or am I wrong?

Yeah from memories of doing my 130 it's kind of disappointing having parts all over the drive awaiting the rebuild.

I was going to lift the body on the ambulance and take that crud off the chassis, but I am not inclined too living in a cyclone area, it could turn into a disaster once it's been over the pits I will take it to the garage in town ( he said i could use his ramps) to give it a going over with the air chisel hopefully that moves that stuff on!
Though after reading your previous articles I am doubtful. Andy.


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Originally Posted by lardy

I presumed ACR would use a rover management system as its a bus, any benefits using the other ones? I think we are looking to maximise any economy to be gleaned whilst retain performance or am I wrong?

I have no problem with the 14CUX (standard rover) system apart from the cost of the MAF. From memory the cost of a genuine MAF was around $1300-1400 (not a typo). I tried 3 Chinese aftermarket MAF's when my disco one died and all were crap. I was saved by another forum member when they sold me their second hand MAF after converting to a wolf EFI system. I couldn't justify the cost when it was close to 20% of the cars value. If you go that way just don't use an oil type air filter (i.e K&N) as the oil can land on the hotwire and ruin it.

Otherwise I thought it was a pretty basic system to trouble shoot and work with once you've been shown around it or read up on it.

If my second hand MAF had died I was going to fit a DIY Megasquirt EFI system (at a cost of around $700) but that would have been a lot of work.

Originally Posted by lardy

I was going to lift the body on the ambulance and take that crud off the chassis, but I am not inclined too living in a cyclone area, it could turn into a disaster once it's been over the pits I will take it to the garage in town ( he said i could use his ramps) to give it a going over with the air chisel hopefully that moves that stuff on!
Though after reading your previous articles I am doubtful.

I think you would only need to take the bitumen coat off the chassis if you have rust problems (either existing or starting). The previous owner stripped back my 101 due to rotten sections of the chassis failing the rego inspection so it was all stripped back and sandblasted to be repaired. If you don't have rust you may be able to keep it on and just keep on top of it by checking on it regularly and filling the chassis with cavity wax or fish-oil (I'll be doing this closer to the finish as a preventative).

It has been a royal bugger of a job stripping back the ally panels but its been worth it on the cab now I see the results. I just dont know if I will be able to repeat the effort for the tray. Its a bit easier getting it off the steel items like the diff housings and chassis as they can be hit with a coarse wire brush wheel (messy but reasonably effective) or a low powered air chisel.

One thing I'd like to try is dry-ice blasting. I don't know how much it is but I'm told once you get the bitumen cold enough it cracks off quite easily. Either that or dry ice and chiselling by hand again. It might be an enjoyable exercise with the dry ice up where you are

Watched a movie called Killer Elite last night. It has a sand coloured 101 in a very similar colour scheme to what I'm doing, even shows me what an olive drab tilt might look like on it:


A link to screenshots of 101's used in movies (quite a few sand coloured ones):
IMCDb.org: Land-Rover 101 FC in movies and TV series

In reverse order doesn't killer elite have half of solihull's early productions 2b's scene at the airport, 101's, range rover classic, I think even 110's.
I watched a film in recent months (and it may have been that film) where a landy gets blown up !
No warning at all during the titles, very distressing,something like' this film may show images of land rovers that are deceased, also the soundtrack may contain the engine noise of a deceased land rovers' that would have helped lol.

The chassis looks good, rear crossmember is solid, there is some light surface rust where the bitch has come away on the edge of the out riggers, to my mind wire brush and waxoyl is my friend, I don't believe in fish oil it's unscientific, just cos fish don't rust don't prove anything lol!

The ecu sounds a joy!!
I wouldn't knowingly touch anything Chinese, they tend to make you pay now and pay again later, with their cheap quickly turned out junk.
Like my LED's -speaker is a notable company in the states to buy LED's from, you can buy Chinese gear but you might buy it twice.


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Didn't get a great deal done today but got the remaining parts of the chassis painted and ready to start mounting the cab on:


Forgot to put a picture up of the seat box with the frames added last week:


I'll try and finish the second seat box tomorrow and hopefully at least rest them in position on the chassis.

Finally I got bored this evening so I fitted my three gauges to the dash board to see what they look like. Don't know why I left the test points in for painting but oh well. May pull them out, apply some touch up paint underneath and give them a clean. Plenty of time to do that though.

Spent most of today cleaning the threads on the cab mounting nuts and bolts, also got pulled aside to help with the gardening.

Bolts in much better shape than they were. Rust and crud all gone from the threads:


Seat box in place:


What I can only assume the cab shims are for:



Other than these spots I don't know how you determine where they go. The whole lots still a bit flexible and its very difficult to tell if its all squared up.

Finally, my first time sitting in a 101 :

Thread cleaning good effort, worth it in the long run.
Spoke to Roland@ACR regarding the ECU on this engine def not a flapper he said they sucked more than a popular lady at one of those houses of I'll repute?!
You sat in your very own 101 go you, ya legend.
Obviously work safe have inspected your PPE and deemed it safe for example the steel toe cap thongs lol, you must be freezing down there in Perth aren't ya?
Order for the engine going in tomorrow night hopefully yay!!!
Regards Andy