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bloody hell Brian, a 6-354 Perkins is a fair lump of a thing !
The FIL's White tractor had a 6-354T in it, and that was a reasonble lump of a tractor for these parts.
A couple of the blokes on the Pirate board (US based) have or are fitting small Cummins (4BT, 6BT ?) to some Landy's, but it appears things are a lot more relaxed regarding vehicle mods in most states there.
i drove a mates G60 many years ago he had a perkins 6-354 in it and a 5 speed crash box out of a studebaker 6x6 man that was a beast
i had to tow his tipper with bobcat in that back and all his acc around the back of doncaster if any one knows that area its up and down (hilly)
well it worked out i towed 16 tons with that G60 what afeat it was oh it was none tubo aswell :D
A little back on topic, I read an article about the upgraded defender which is intended to be produced untill at least 2010, and one of the changes being made would be updated engines
We know about one, I wonder what No2 will be? maybe the TDV6 or TDV8, just to give that hump a good reason to be there?
Maybe even that tasty V10 :cool:
Like I said - the Landrover-TVR V8 hybrid which is used in the Bowler Wildcat would be a good start.
Sure would be, except that it's based on an engine land rover no longer make, but it would be nice, heck, a bowler would be nice :cool:
Old Polly Perkins is not really all that big which is quite unusual for Pommy engines of any era. Perkins always seemed to have a better grasp of reality compared with most of the rest of the British Motor Industry. SeriesIII were easy to fit longer engines to, as there was a good bit of space between the front guards in front of the grille so Polly was stuck a bit further forward than Soilihull's design crew envisaged for an engine position. There were a couple of Perk 4-236's, and a 4-154 running around Qld in LR's also. The 4-53 engined 2A was a home job done on the property some time after the vehicle was de-registered. It had been derelict for some time when a front end loader died and someone decided the little Jimmy would fit the old LR. A very agricultural ( maybe pastoral?) conversion with no attention to sound deadening and an exhaust pipe that ran straight up in the air, no muffler or bonnet. It did keep working for some years though, humping men and gear around the bores and windmills.Quote:
Originally Posted by rick130
[QUOTE=JDNSW]I don't think I go along with lengthening and widening the current Defender - I could agree to widening it to the mudguard spats, but the main problem with width in the current Defender is the thickness of the doors - it should be possible to reduce the thickness of these to those of the early 110s or even the sliding window doors - which are all that is really needed anyway in this type of vehicle anyway. Lengthening it raise parking problems, although you could live with a few inches.
Really, A LR Station Wagon is not a very big car. Shorter in wheelbase and overall length than a Holden/Falcon/Valiant, which our American cousins called "compact cars". Say, an extra 8-10 inches in the wheelbase, 6" in width, would give the necessary room for a decent sized engine, plus some leg & hip room. Then lift the body 2-3 inches off the rails so the transmission hump can be narrowed, move the handbrake to a central position, and the foot room problem is solved.
[QUOTE=Brian Hjelm]One of the attractions of the Defender is that it IS slightly smaller than its direct competitors - and copying the competitors is not always a good idea, particularly with fuel prices increasing and unlikely to come down very much in the near future, if ever. I agree with you that Landrover has over the last thirty or more years lost a lot of their market because of lack of engine power, I don't think that increasing the overall size of the vehicle to allow fitting of a BIGGER engine is either a) a good idea, or b) at all likely to happen. Certainly I agree that increased power is probably a good idea, but this does not necessarily mean a bigger engine. Unless the ownership changes remarkably I can't see another engine being designed specifically for Landrover, and I can't see the sort of engine you envision being designed for any vehicle in the future - sorry.Quote:
Originally Posted by JDNSW
John
[QUOTE=JDNSW]Who knows what the next change of ownership (of LR) will bring. Ford are rumoured to be seeking a sale or sales of Volvo-Jaguar-Land Rover. I do think making them bigger is a bloody good idea. I am 6'1", big frame (xxxl shirts, 105 kilos.), size 12 shoes, and sick of cars I have to put on like an overcoat, and, once in, have no room to move. I have modified the drivers seat of my 86 County -Isuzu to be 1 1/4" higher and 2" further back. If my current workhorse, a late model Falcon ute, had any less room at the drivers seat, I couldn't drive it. My wife had a Ford Escort auto. which had simply nowhere for my left foot to go if I drove it. I had to sit with my left knee bent and my left foot under my right leg.This explains my comments re cars designed to fit Mediterranean & Asian dwarfs. Having come from a family that ran mail contracts around theWinton district for three generations I am a great fan of simplicity and reliability, not to mention fixability. My uncles would regularly say that the American cars with their big slow-revving engines made the mail contracts viable, and that anyone who used British or European cars in the outback soon went broke.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm
[QUOTE=Brian Hjelm]I'm not quite as big, but still not small. But to improve the space in a vehicle does not mean you have to make it bigger - I am struck every time I go from my County into the 2a how much roomier the 2a is, largely due to the smaller transmission tunnel and thinner doors. And the big slow revving engines of a generation ago produced a power weight ratio that would be simply unacceptable today, together with fuel consumption that would also be unacceptable. And the major reason for the economics of American rather European cars for mail contracts was that they were designed for the sort of conditions they experienced - which the European cars were not. The engine was only a small part of this. I am afraid that we will not see big, slow revving engines again, but there is no inherent reason why modern light weight engines cannot be both reliable and fixable, even if not big or slow revving, or even simple (for example, there is NO reason why a test book cannot be incorporated in every vehicle together with a display that tells you exactly what is wrong).Quote:
Originally Posted by JDNSW
As to what will happen if the ownership changes - as you say - nobody knows, but it is a reasonable guess that any new engines will not be specifically designed for Landrovers, and that their design will be dictated by the same factors that influence the current engines - emissions rules, EU requirements for an ECU, fuel economy requirements, competition with other engines for size, weight, vibration, noise, driveability and manufacturing cost. But a return to the style of engine of a generation ago is not going to happen.
John