Thread: Pete's 101

It's only when ya c all the pics like these that it puts into perspective how much you've done!! Not sure if I have the energy to do the same to mine!!!

It has been nearly two years and whilst I've had a few breaks from it, it still has a long way to go.
However, a lot of the major headaches seem to be sorted.

I should really put up, what my intended engine, gearbox etc are and how that's all going.
I think that's probably my next lot of pics, so I reckon I'll explain as I go.

Great work! Looking forward to seeing the engine stuff...

Dropped in to see Pete today, while he was briefly in work, and wow!!! Love his work. Axles looking great. Can't wait to c it on its wheels!

So..

Next I guess, I should detail my power plant choice etc.
I've always loved the V8 engine the 101 came with, but my eventual aim is to build my 101 into a tourer, with hard roof, most conveniences, the a ability to still off road, sensibly.
Diesel is therefore a must, preferably something from the Land Rover stable, old school, like the 101, ideally something with a fair amount of grunt.
This left only one option for me, an engine I first spent time with in the uk many years ago.
Isuzu 4bd1t, I've seen and driven a few in more recent times that go really nicely, with sensible mods.
The plan was to use the factory turbo engine and gear box, with an adaptor to an Lt 230 transfer case, global roamer overdrive, standard diff ratios and already purchased, 315/75/16 tyres.
The transfer case will start off with 122:1 gear set, giving the option to go up or down a ratio, if my calculation prove to be less than perfect.

Some friends of mine tried this engine into a 101 years ago, in the uk, the only major drama being the turbo which collided with the passenger seat, last I saw that one, the conversion didn't get any further because of this.
Just another little challenge....

Having knocked up an adaptor to bolt the transfer case to the rear of the Isuzu box(more credit to a great friend of mine here, can't, once again, begin to tell how much time it soaked up) I made a frame to suspend the entire engine and gear box assembly into the 101 chassis, allowing adjustments to be made to its hanging stance to enable the creation of the engine/gear box mounts.

Here is a pic of it all hanging on the frame.

I'll be watching with interest Pete - I want to put a 4BD1T into mine at some stage too.

To be honest Gavin, it's created a few headaches, but, I think I've sorted most of them now and whilst there is still a fair bit to do, it's looking like it'll work out ok.
Fingers crossed it performs as well as I'm hoping!

The major problems;
The factory truck air con compressor was to close to the passenger chassis rail, I re-made the engine bracket for this and positioned it lower, still plenty of clearance over axle.
None of the factory manifolds work well, especially with an even larger turbo.
I got a fabricated one from KLR, which I modified slightly, to allow my compressor housing to clear. This manifold positions the turbo rear wards enough to clear the seat panels on the passenger side.

Anyway, continuing on with the story so far, I've forgotten how much I've done, even though there seems to be so much left to do.

Having balanced the engine and trans assembly into the chassis and shuffled it around somewhat, checking and double checking measurements, I finally had it in position.

The rear face of the handbrake drum where the rear prop bolts up is approximately 40mm rear wards of it original position, which also moves the front one back by the same amount, I was conscious of trying to eliminate the legendary front prop rumble.
When making the adaptor to fit up the transfer box, we canted it round by ten degrees, the pumas run with the transfer case like this and I figured it would be helpful, allowing me to position the engine more to the drivers side but leave the transfer outputs on their original line and also slightly lower, I did also mount the the entire thing slightly tail down by a few degrees, not really enough to notice, but every bit helps.

I'll put some pics up now.

The passenger side gearbox mount, I initially removed every bracket from the chassis, thinking they would be unusable and to enable better cleaning of the main rails of the chassis.
However, the two original gearbox mountings were re welded into the same position on the chassis rails.

The transfer case at this point was a bare case, made life a lot easier, I had it on and off several times before we got the adaptor finished off.

The drivers side gearbox mount, unfitted.