Motor Transplant

[gelveigh]

My Series 11 Landie with the petrol motor is quite frankly a death trap!
Living on a major road, the pick-up speed of the landie is slower than a snail. The day will come when I`ll be squashed like one by a Mack Truck.
As for hills, you could walk up them faster than the Landie.
So, if I`m to keep her, she will have to have an engine transplant. Who has done it? What motor fits? Any problems to be aware of? Thanking in advance!!! Gavs.

[Johnno1969]

Why don't you move house?

[dick180641]

I was going down to Cairns in the S11 the other day, I stopped and offered an old swaggy walking near Mt Carbine, a lift to Cairns but he said, "Thanks mate, but I'm in a hurry!"

[67hardtop]

:Rolling::Rolling::Rolling:

Cheers Rod:wasntme:

[Phil B]

My S3 is the same
Does 0 to 60 sometimes
Phil

[chazza]

Living on a major road, the pick-up speed of the landie is slower than a snail.

...she will have to have an engine transplant. Who has done it? What motor fits? Any problems to be aware of? Thanking in advance!!! Gavs.

Scroll down the forum lists a little bit further and you will find "Other Powered Land Rovers". Have a good read and you will see what others have done.

Some thoughts on trying to make a Series go faster:

1. Is your current engine in good condition and in good tune? Check compression; valve clearances; spark advance and use the best petrol, which is Premium Unleaded. It should not be that slow off the mark, if it is in good condition.
2. How much weight is the vehicle carrying? I can notice the difference in my Disco with just one passenger. Get rid of everything you can do without.
3. Check the brake drag by raising all wheels and adjusting the shoes so that there is no drag.
4. A more powerful engine is all very well, but top speed will be limited by the differential ratio; so higher ratio diffs; or an over-drive; or higher ratio transfer box gears will need to be fitted.
5. Inflate the tyres to the highest recommended pressure to decrease rolling resistance.
6. A more powerful engine will severely test the Rover gearbox, especially in 2nd and 3rd with the throttle wide open and can ultimately lead to main-shaft failure. Alternative gearboxes really need to be considered.
7. Fitting a supercharger to the original engine, strikes me as a very good way to increase the horses without changing much at all.

Most of the above will improve fuel economy as well,

Cheers Charlie

[ezyrama]

My S3 is the same
Does 0 to 60 sometimes
Phil

My ears are still ringing from the last time Ralph did 60mph:eek:

[Lotz-A-Landies]

There is a lot you can do to the original series engines both 4 cyl and 6 cyl.
Having the car properly tuned is always first.
Fitting extractors is a good second step.
re-timing the camshaft to the equivalent car engine is another.
then you start getting creative.

The worry about going fast is the question: "are you going to be able to stop"?

[harry]

I suspect there may be something wrong with the engine or tuning, sure they are a bit slow off the mark, but it should get up to speed quicker than what you describe.
I have a standard engine petrol 2a with 3.5 diffs and quite easily jump off at the lights with most modern manual cars, the taller diffs give longer legs for gear changes and quite frequently I am ahead of the mix without trying.
I do not rev the car hard, and change gears when it feels right, I don't want to blow it up!
it will sit on 110 happily and probably does 120kph, if pushed, wind resistance is a killer when driving a box!
my engine has valve seats to suit unleaded, nothing else, but it is timed correctly and looked after, just did another oil change and the engine might have done 2000 kms if that.

[mick88]

I suspect there may be something wrong with the engine or tuning, sure they are a bit slow off the mark, but it should get up to speed quicker than what you describe.
I have a standard engine petrol 2a with 3.5 diffs and quite easily jump off at the lights with most modern manual cars, the taller diffs give longer legs for gear changes and quite frequently I am ahead of the mix without trying.
I do not rev the car hard, and change gears when it feels right, I don't want to blow it up!
it will sit on 110 happily and probably does 120kph, if pushed, wind resistance is a killer when driving a box!
my engine has valve seats to suit unleaded, nothing else, but it is timed correctly and looked after, just did another oil change and the engine might have done 2000 kms if that.




Harry sounds like a good fix. No doubt it would be a lot quieter to ride in with less transmission and engine noise.
What size tires are you running and what fuel economy do you get?


Cheers, Mick.

[ezyrama]

I suspect there may be something wrong with the engine or tuning, sure they are a bit slow off the mark, but it should get up to speed quicker than what you describe.
I have a standard engine petrol 2a with 3.5 diffs and quite easily jump off at the lights with most modern manual cars, the taller diffs give longer legs for gear changes and quite frequently I am ahead of the mix without trying.
I do not rev the car hard, and change gears when it feels right, I don't want to blow it up!
it will sit on 110 happily and probably does 120kph, if pushed, wind resistance is a killer when driving a box!
my engine has valve seats to suit unleaded, nothing else, but it is timed correctly and looked after, just did another oil change and the engine might have done 2000 kms if that.

Harry, I tried to follow you when you had the camper trailer on the back of HJM:eek:. Ralph wouldn't go that fast over a
cliff with a tail wind!:p and yes, there about as aerodynamic as a core filled besser block!

[harry]

fuel economy is a bad question, as I have no way of calculating it, the speedo is in miles per hour, and bears no resemblance to what is really happening, so I haven't tried to work it out.
not having a large tank also makes thinking about fuel use important, but I carry spare fuel anyway.
running lt225/75r16 road tyres, as they came cheap on a set of widies, but these are really too small in diameter, making the car too close to the ground with clearance issues, but no tyre noise and good comfortable ride considering the rest of the suspension needs a restoration, sagged springs etc. will fix that once I get it all back to a station wagon and know the real ride height.

[mick88]

fuel economy is a bad question, as I have no way of calculating it, the speedo is in miles per hour, and bears no resemblance to what is really happening, so I haven't tried to work it out.
not having a large tank also makes thinking about fuel use important, but I carry spare fuel anyway.
running lt225/75r16 road tyres, as they came cheap on a set of widies, but these are really too small in diameter, making the car too close to the ground with clearance issues, but no tyre noise and good comfortable ride considering the rest of the suspension needs a restoration, sagged springs etc. will fix that once I get it all back to a station wagon and know the real ride height.



With those tyres (approx 700mm dia) and the 3.54's if you multiply your odometer reading by 1.3 it will give you a close idea of distance travelled.
I have 3.54's in my series 3 and have similar profile tyres.


Cheers, Mick.

[Seriestwo]

fuel economy is a bad question, as I have no way of calculating it, the speedo is in miles per hour, and bears no resemblance to what is really happening, so I haven't tried to work it out.
not having a large tank also makes thinking about fuel use important, but I carry spare fuel anyway.
running lt225/75r16 road tyres, as they came cheap on a set of widies, but these are really too small in diameter, making the car too close to the ground with clearance issues, but no tyre noise and good comfortable ride considering the rest of the suspension needs a restoration, sagged springs etc. will fix that once I get it all back to a station wagon and know the real ride height.

I found an easy way work out fuel consumption, all you need is a "smart" phone with GPS software on it, this will tell you the distance travelled. So all you need to do is fill the tank and start the GPS software, go for a drive and note the distance travelled and then go back and fill up and note the amount of fuel used and distance travelled. I used this on a few old cars with dubious odometer readings.

[chopper]

I found an easy way work out fuel consumption, all you need is a "smart" phone with GPS software on it, this will tell you the distance travelled. So all you need to do is fill the tank and start the GPS software, go for a drive and note the distance travelled and then go back and fill up and note the amount of fuel used and distance travelled. I used this on a few old cars with dubious odometer readings.

sign posts between towns have been doing this for years

[debruiser]

Very good points already bought up.

My experience is with a Holden 186 in a LWB, standard diffs, on 32" and 31" tyres. 32" tyres are way better IMO, much more relaxed driving. The old 186 will pull the car along with the traffic at the lights and if I want I can ever put a scare in some cars if I thrash a bit. 4x4ing though, the 186 leave a lot to be desired, not enough bottom end torque and my engine gets hot quick if the air flow is reduced for too long.

I'm currently building up a SWB with standard diffs, ashcroft high speed transfer and a 200tdi. Google 200tdi engine swaps over in england, they quote 30-40mpg which is like 10 L/100kms i think - sounds a little too good to be true really but I'm hoping I can get close to that.

[lowmion]

Our series 2a was fitted with r16 7.0 road tyres because we couldnt purchase 7.5's in time for our trip from Melb to Perth.

Our series 2a is all original, has a fairely o/d fitted, and has a rebuilt engine, new carb etc.

Our highway consumption was 200 to 220 miles per 11 gallon tank, twin tanks kept full, vehicle also had 4 22 litre jerry cans, two 100 kilo humans and 3 sut cases.

The catch was we traveled at 50 mph.

Standard highway consumption here in Perth at 65 MPH is about 140 miles per 11 gallon tank

:eek:

[Johnno1969]

Very good points already bought up.

My experience is with a Holden 186 in a LWB, standard diffs, on 32" and 31" tyres. 32" tyres are way better IMO, much more relaxed driving. The old 186 will pull the car along with the traffic at the lights and if I want I can ever put a scare in some cars if I thrash a bit. 4x4ing though, the 186 leave a lot to be desired, not enough bottom end torque and my engine gets hot quick if the air flow is reduced for too long.

I'm currently building up a SWB with standard diffs, ashcroft high speed transfer and a 200tdi. Google 200tdi engine swaps over in england, they quote 30-40mpg which is like 10 L/100kms i think - sounds a little too good to be true really but I'm hoping I can get close to that.

I had a 186 in my IIA and turfed it for a 2.25D. Best thing I ever did.

That sort of consumption sounds reasonable for a 200Tdi if the vehicle and gearing (and the way it's driven) is right. I have a 200Tdi Defender which gets consumption figures similar to that. Just under 30mpg usually (my 2.25D IIA gets 30mpg rain, hail or shine) - and on one particular run she came in just under 39mpg. I must have been holding my mouth right that day.

[Wolfman_TWP]

Also make sure your wheel alignment is done right.. I had mine done, and my landy seemed to have troubles hitting 80K's.. I did a little tweaking myself, and I can now get to 80+K's no trouble at all, with little effort.. :o

Plus engine timing & tuning as other mentioned can be a factor too.

Wolf