186 mods

[Newy]

Hi guys, I'm looking at refreshing up the 186 in my 88.
What mods would you guys recommend to make the motor run a little more economical, much cooler, but more importantly, series 3 gearbox friendly?

I'm about to get a 16in thermo fan from a mate for starters and I'm looking into getting an electronic dizzy as well.

[debruiser]

i just did the dizzy and coil myself. Seems to start and run much better.

Still not convinced that I've got the carbi tuned right though. :(

[Vern]

Yella terra head, extractors, electronic dizzy are good starters. I had one which also had a WB spec cam and 2 barrel stromberg. It ran quite well, very smooth and torquey..
Then I had another that had a fully worked twelve port head, big solid cam, triple SU's blah blah blah, had nothing at all under 3000 rpm, span all the way to 8000rpm:cool:

[ian4002000]

Yep, Do the distributor up or get a new one Scorcher or similar. Keep it tuned
Make sure the carby is good and adjusted correctly and make sure the fuel pump is working ok.
OR put it on gas with a gas dissy !

[mick88]

Electronic distributor makes a big difference, mainly starting, a touch better fuel economy and they seem to pull away better from low revs in a high gear. Crow towing cam to give low to mid range power is a good option too. There is an almost equivalent cam available on ebay...."powerboss cams" I think they are called and the price cheaper but I am not sure of their quality. If you ask the question on the oldholden.com forum you should get some answers.Stromberg carbies a good, simple and reliable but they can warp a bit which causes a flutter in low revs. Back in the day some of the Holden workshops used to run the faces over a piece of fine wet and dry sitting on a pane of glass. It doesn't take much to do, just a few thou off to even them up and it makes a big difference.
I also modified my throttle linkages so that I have a lot of pedal travel from idle to flat so it's a bit harder to give it a big boot full, thus being kinder on the gearbox.

Cheers, Mick.

[Bigbjorn]

Depends on how much you have available to spend. To install a Holden in a Land Rover from scratch and do it properly costs far more than the Land Rover is worth.

As yours is already in, much expense has already been incurred. What condition is your engine in? Compression? oil pressure? Blow-by? Needs rebuilding? If a rebuild is required, consider getting the crank and rods from a blue engine and having the crank modified to fit the red block.

Mods? Assume engine is in tip top condition. Start with a high volume oil pump, baffled sump, port job including removing the cast iron pillars in the middle of the ports and maybe big valves, GM-H split headers with twin 2 1/4" pipes all the way back. I like 2 x 1 3/4" SU's on these engines. Appropriate broad rev band camshaft. How many miles is it going to do? Maybe you need to get hardened valve seats installed. Fit a thermo fan. Add an engine oil cooler. Donaldson air cleaner and a pre-cleaner.

Change the diff centres to the 3.54:1 centres. A strong 186 is twice the power of the LR engine and will pull the faster ratios effortlessly and be a much better highway car.

[33chinacars]

The first & easiest mod is to fit an electronic distributor from a Commodore blue motor along with matching coil & leads. That's all I ever used on my race motors. Good for 8000 rpm. Just had to have it re graphed.
The cast iron split headers from the factory are excellent for everything except a full house race motor.
For your needs a Holley 350 carby should suffice.
Then if money permits & dependent on what the rest of your motor is like you can add a torque cam & a Yella terra head. If your motor needs a real good going over it may be better to get an exchange engine for someone like HM engines. They have options or they did ?? ie cams / heads etc. Do the sums.
Don't go silly with your mods. Mild is best unless your building a race engine.

Gary

[Newy]

Thanks guys
Yes I'm only planning on mild mods and adding as much cooling as possible.
I haven't played with old Holden motors much, mainly L20 4cyl for my old bluebird or my bro's 200B rally cars, so all your suggestions have helped me greatly :)

Newy

[Designosaur]

As previously stated, The Number One mod to any red holden six is the electronic distributor off a blue motor. You need to get the leads and the coil as well and you will need to do a little bit of wiring to give it a full 12 volts as the points distributor only gets about 9 volts.

The full step by step tutorial is here Blue Electronic Ignition Installation (http://gallery.oldholden.com/ReaperHR/HRWorkguides/EngineIgnition/Blue_Electronic_Ignition/) not for a landie but it will give you the idea.

[Newy]

Thanks, that was great :)

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Hi Newy

It has been said in other threads before, but I will re-state them here:
Oil volume cooling, once the oil gets hot no amount of electric fans will get it back down easily. Recommend fitting an external oil cooler (spin on adapters available) these both increase oil volume and cool the oil that is circulating.
Centre bulge sump (+ matching oil pickup pipe) - HT models. This reduces the risk of oil starvation on steep inclines or steep decents, depending where the sump buldge is located. (Some people have increased the size of the sump for the same reason)
If using vacuum advance, use a carby buterfly housing off a manual gearbox car as they pick up the vacuum on different sides of the butterfly.
Lower the level of the fuel float to reduce flooding on steep inclines.Diana