series 3, holden 6, nissan 5 spd???

[hoocho]

Very new here & to the landrover world so be gentle.
The 1980 series 3 i have bought has a holden 202 in it. It came with a nissan 5 spd box that was supposedly right to bolt straight in. Having matched it up to the motor - it seems to be about 100mm further back than the stock gearbox so the drive shafts etc dont fit. Not sure what to do with this - do we modify the drive shafts & gearbox mounts? Has anyone come across this?

[clubagreenie]

How far forward is the motor? Has the front cross member been modded to move the rad forward or is it in the std location and the motors moved back?

From memory my old mans we moved forward and much later in life when he fitted the nissan box it was straight in.

[hoocho]

thanks for the tip - the more i think about it the more i think that the motor needs to go forward, even if it means fiddling with the radiator to make it fit. (remove fan and move radiator as far forward as possible). Has to be easier than modifying drive shafts x 2 & the gear sticks which are too far back. Has anyone else had this issue?

[isuzurover]

You can do either (move drivetrain forward or modify shafts).
You may need to move the entire rad support panel forward and lengthen the back of the bonnet (many have donw this).

My preference though is to keep the weight further back if at all possible, as it is better offroad. Added to that, it retains the series look more...

[clubagreenie]

The original, and I'm talking v early 80's or even late 70's conversion kits the mounts placed the engine so the gerabox was in the original location. You needed to cut the front crossmember, referring from the rear upper edge, about half way forward and half way down and then cut at the sides where it meets the chassis rails. Then flip it over and welsd back in so you have a ledge for the radiator to sit on.

The original kits were an adaptor plate, mounts, a flywheel and an A4 sheet with a drawing on it. No info about which clutch/pressure plate it used (diaphragm/sprung). I can remember going with my old man to some guys house in North Rocks and them spending the day watching them paw over a bare front half of a S3 with a 186 on mounts thast sat on some rail welded to the chassis so it could be slid fore/aft.

[hoocho]

I dont have the old girl here to have a look at what you have suggested, so i will see it in the next few days and look at the details of moving the radiator a bit - hopefully if i remove the fan & just use the thermo on it, it may squeeze in without too much major operation....... the optimist in me coming out. :D Thanks for your help - i will let you know on the prgress

[hoocho]

I dont have the old girl here to have a look at what you have suggested, so i will see it in the next few days and look at the details of moving the radiator a bit - hopefully if i remove the fan & just use the thermo on it, the motor may squeeze in without too much major operation....... the optimist in me coming out. :D Thanks for your help - i will let you know on the prgress

[clubagreenie]

People will also tell you (including LR back in the 70's) you can't remove the gearbox through the inside of the car without removing the seatbase. You can and also it's also easier (well was on the kits we used) to remove the bell hsng bolts.

[Dave109]

I installed one of these in the 80's, the kit from Marks 4WD came with mounts to move the engine 100mm more forward. The instructions were cut the original front crossmember out from beside the relay box, and fit a new one made from 75 x 75 rhs with the rear face 1.5" in front of the front face of the old one. Worked ok I drove it for 20 years until I cooked the 186 due to loss of coolant. Its still in the yard may resurrect it if I find a cheap 186.

[hoocho]

So its all coming together pretty well. We bolted the gearbox in the correct place, remade the engine mounts so the engine can sit further forward, and are working out if we have to move the radiator forward a couple of inches. All in all a lot easier than moving the gearbox backward and dealing with those issues! The mechanical fuel pump may have to be blanked off for an electric one to fit the engine mount - all pretty straight forward, thanks again for your help.

[clubagreenie]

Looked for and asked the old man. The original kit was made by "Keep on Truckin".We removed the belt fan and ran an electric fan in front of the radiator. Kept the mechanical pump though.

[hoocho]

Thought i should post a result so those that helped know that their help was not in vain. We moved the motor forward about 4" which was pretty straight forward. There was not enough room for the radiator to be in its proper position or for the fan. so rather than move the crossmember to accommodate the radiator, I made a new radiator that was a bit smaller & put a good thermo fan on it. End result it all bolted back together, without the mechanical fan & without having to modify the body or chassis. Took it on an 8 hr test run over easter with a trailer & a load of camping gear & it ran like a clock. The temp started to creep up on a long & steep hill, so I may have to do a bit more with the cooling situation, but no probs on the open road or crawling traffic. The motor which prior to the operation was doing about 3600 revs at 100k's, is now doing 2700 revs at 100k's with the nissan 5 speed. :) Good thing i took notice of that because about 1 hr into the journey, the speedo needle broke off..... Thanks for your help & advice.

[Red October]

I ran a SWB 11A with a 186 for about 15 years. I used a S11A bellhousing in front of a S111 gearbox and a Fairy Overdrive. The 186 had the Nitrided crank, alloy timing gears and Holden's 'Caravan / touring' Camshaft for more torque. The adaptor was (from memory) from Zenith engineering. The flywheel was 5kg heavier and I used the 6 cly LR clutch. The Sump was off an EH which put the pan at the rear which was where you want it for steep climbs and it had a trapdoor arrangement to help on steep descents. This setup gave good Torque and average fuel economy 15MpG(ish). Despite shoehorning a Salisbury into the rear (don't do it!) I still managed to break halfshafts! If I were you I'd look at using the Black motor for the EFI and use Haltech or similar to sort out the delivery. Have fun.

[hoocho]

I was hoping not to do too much more to the old girl now apart from keep it going - not planing on climbing any mountains with it. I have a 202 in it - would have preferred a 186 as i gather they are the better motor, but found a reco 202 for $600 so couldnt go past it. The nissan gearbox in it is strong so shouldnt give the hassles the landrover ones seem to. There is a lot of slack in the whole drive train though. the uni's dont seem to be too bad, but the transfer box, drive shafts & the diffs seem to have a lot of play in them - not sure how much is normal in these old girls.
Actually you may know - coming home from easter it seems it was stuck in 4wd - i had the hubs freewheeling, so it wasnt actually driving, but it was a 4 hr drive. When i got home it had splashed a bit of oil about underneath - i havent had a chance to crawl under to have a look where it has come from. I have managed to free up the 4wd gear lever so i can change it to & from 4wd after reading up on here. Would the long trip in 4wd have caused any damage to it or maybe cause the oil leak?

[mick88]

I ran a SWB 11A with a 186 for about 15 years. I used a S11A bellhousing in front of a S111 gearbox and a Fairy Overdrive. The 186 had the Nitrided crank, alloy timing gears and Holden's 'Caravan / touring' Camshaft for more torque. The adaptor was (from memory) from Zenith engineering. The flywheel was 5kg heavier and I used the 6 cly LR clutch. The Sump was off an EH which put the pan at the rear which was where you want it for steep climbs and it had a trapdoor arrangement to help on steep descents. This setup gave good Torque and average fuel economy 15MpG(ish). Despite shoehorning a Salisbury into the rear (don't do it!) I still managed to break halfshafts! If I were you I'd look at using the Black motor for the EFI and use Haltech or similar to sort out the delivery. Have fun.

I am interested to know more about this Caravan cam shaft and the 5kg heavier flywheel. Did the flywheel come with the Holden conversion or was it something you got elsewhere? As for the cam do you have any information on it too please?

Cheers, Mick :)

[jerryd]

The original, and I'm talking v early 80's or even late 70's conversion kits the mounts placed the engine so the gerabox was in the original location. You needed to cut the front crossmember, referring from the rear upper edge, about half way forward and half way down and then cut at the sides where it meets the chassis rails. Then flip it over and welsd back in so you have a ledge for the radiator to sit on.

The original kits were an adaptor plate, mounts, a flywheel and an A4 sheet with a drawing on it. No info about which clutch/pressure plate it used (diaphragm/sprung). I can remember going with my old man to some guys house in North Rocks and them spending the day watching them paw over a bare front half of a S3 with a 186 on mounts thast sat on some rail welded to the chassis so it could be slid fore/aft.

This is how my Series III has been done, a very neat job too which was converted in 1984. It has no mod plate fitted though :confused: and I'm told that in '84 it didn't need one. Could anyone confirm this ?? It has no compliance plate either, again I was told in '79 when the vehicle arrived from overseas that it didn't need one. But our local transport office says it did have one issued and that it should have a mod plate :confused::confused: I'm not sure how I get it registered in my name without lots of hassle