How to Tell a 6cyl Chassis from a 4cyl

[Series3 GT]

Hi all, I've been looking at my IIA and looking at the engine bay. It has a 4cyl engine but there's a couple of inches of clearance between the back of the engine and the bulkhead and the front crossmember is miles away from the engine and it has a lot of room between the sides of the engine.
If anyone has some way of telling the difference between the two that'd be great.

[d@rk51d3]

Straight(ish) gearstick, or kinked?

Gearboxes on the 6 had straight levers, the 4's were kinked.
Firewall was different too.

Doesn't directly answer your question about the chassis, but could point in a direction.

Edit to add - Other than engine mounts, I didn't think there were any differences between the chassis.

[langy]

In the absence of others -

this is a photo of my series III 6 cyl. I had started to convert it to v8 by cutting the 6 engine mounts and I was about to weld in v8 mounts.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=50332&d=1346064698

You can see where the 6 cyl mounts were on the right - about the same spot on the chassis as the shock mount. I was going to weld in the v8 mounts behind them - the flat area I hit with the grinder. The 4 cyl has mounts roughly in the same place ( you can drop a v8 into a 4cyl without having to mod the chassis)

[Series3 GT]

Straight(ish) gearstick, or kinked?

Gearboxes on the 6 had straight levers, the 4's were kinked.
Firewall was different too.

Doesn't directly answer your question about the chassis, but could point in a direction.

Edit to add - Other than engine mounts, I didn't think there were any differences between the chassis.
Unfortunately my IIA didn't have a gearstick when I bought it so I got one of a 4cyl, can you describe what the firewall looks like.

[JDNSW]

On the four, the gearbox crossmember is about 42" behind the centreline of the front axle, on the six it is about four inches further back (but the manual I have in front of me does not have the dimensions for the six).

Thebulkhead for the four has the "engine bulge" about six inches forward of the instrument panel, the six has it only about two.

Hope this helps.

John

[Jeff]

Edit: Post deleted. JDNSW said the same before I hit go.

Jeff

:rocket:

[Lotz-A-Landies]

A 6cyl SIII chassis will have a (943 or 948 SIII) prefix!

A six cyl SIIa will have a 345, 346, 347, 348 or 349 prefix

[Series3 GT]

Thanks for all the replies, I'll check the "engine bulge" tomorrow and let you know. I might also measure the distance between the gearbox crossmember and the centre line of the axle. The IIA's came in a 6cyl didn't they?

[JDNSW]

.... The IIA's came in a 6cyl didn't they?

From 1967.

John

[Series3 GT]

Well my ones a 1970 any way so it could be, I didn't get time to check. Just read something interesting, someone said that a IIA six had a different grille. The grille they described as on that runs side to side. My IIA has this and it's been played around with before I bought it as in a different gearbox and a few other bits and pieces.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

There were several grills over the years, in Australia we had different welded wire grills to the square woven mesh of the UK build and army variants. Many people believe the welded wire were fitted only to the 6 cyl, however I know they were also fitted to 88" which discounts 6 cyl belief.

Irrespective of the truth, what is fitted today 42 years after being built may have no bearing on what it had when it rolled off the end of the assembly line.

[tailslide]

This is a picture of a 65 4cyl transmission tunnel:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/09/1227.jpg

There are a few more photos of the old girl here: Family Land Rover 1965 S2a pictures by rschipp - Photobucket (http://s797.photobucket.com/albums/yy251/rschipp/AULRO/Family%20Land%20Rover%201965%20S2a/)

I know this one now has a 186 in it, we were the ones that pulled out the 4cyl and put it in.:angel:

I hope this helps.

Cheers
Ron

[Series3 GT]

I still can't tell, the engine bulge is about 4 inches infront of the instrument panel so I guess it's ment to be a 4cyl.

[30t of coolness]

If you go by the photo provided(by RSCHIPP) you can see all the trans tunnel you can remove, if it was a 6cyl the firewall cut out is much larger (To about 1/2 way up the vinyl covered section)

[Lotz-A-Landies]

This is a picture of a 65 4cyl transmission tunnel:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/09/1227.jpg

There are a few more photos of the old girl here: Family Land Rover 1965 S2a pictures by rschipp - Photobucket (http://s797.photobucket.com/albums/yy251/rschipp/AULRO/Family%20Land%20Rover%201965%20S2a/)

I know this one now has a 186 in it, we were the ones that pulled out the 4cyl and put it in.:angel:

I hope this helps.

Cheers
RonIt has a push button starter also the models with the push putton start also had twin wiper motors fitted through the windscreen frame and (apart from the SIIa Forward Control,) none were Six cylinder.

All six cylinder were key start.

[Series3 GT]

Ok, mines a push button start and single windscreen wiper motor. I had a look at the bulkhead and crossmember and it was originally a 4cyl. Thanks everyone for the help.