Thread: Ideas for improved economy from Holden 186 in SIII

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

If you are chasing fuel economy and don't want to spend much, pretty well the only effective thing you can do other than keeping the engine in tune is to change to 3.54:1 diffs.

There a quite a few modifications that should be done to make the Holden more suited to a radically different application. Unfortunately almost no-one ever did. The usual approach being to buy a worn second hand engine and bung it in as is.

Fuel consumption of a Land Rover is always going to be high. You are battling the enemies, mass, revs, wind resistance, rolling resistance.

I believe when mine was done back in 2004 the conundrum was a choice between a very expensive full rebuild of the original 6 which had seized after sitting in a shed for 20 years or a conversion to a 186. The motor was reconditioned prior to installing it because even a recon 186 conversion was cheaper than rebuilding the original 6 by about half apparently. It was supposedly converted to unleaded as well because the previous owner was told he wouldn't have to use an upper cylinder lubricant, so I'm guessing they put hardened valves and seats in it. Seems to run pretty well except when it idles all the loose moving parts on the car rattle around (ie bonnet, toolbox lids etc) but with the throttle on a fraction or the choke on the car is as quiet and as smooth as you'd expect a kingswood to be, it feels pretty good for a 1960's motor (186A series engine so I think about 1966 or so).

It does seem as though you are driving a brick into the wind in a storm but isn't that half the fun of driving a landrover?

I have only ever half filled the tank on mine but with a $40 fill I'm finding I can go 3 and a half days of commuting to and from work which is about 250km roughly - $40 in a barina was 700km!

Originally Posted by pfillery

From what I've been told a 186 with an overdrive will shred the overdrive or the gearbox pretty quickly because it has too much power for it. I figure that I have to outlay about $1100 for gas after the rebate, I ruin the originality of the car and lose some cargo space. I will consider rebuilding or kitting the carby, tuning a bit and see where it goes from there. I'm not sure if changin the archaic oil bath filter for the standard holden type air filter for city driving.

Not much evidence to say that hiclones really work!!!

Individual experience only here, with a 2a and a 186 with fairy o/drive was that it wasnt going to die easily. The old girl was given a hiding and always dropped out nice oil without metal. An axle and a rear diff were lost but that was due to very agressive driving behaviour (ie 2 x 20 year old boys in the bush with mud rocks and creeks)
How much were you hoping to gain and how much did you hope to spend.
the 2a used to do around 17l/100 without o/drive (90km/h max) and about 14l/100 with the o/drive (100km max, it was still a brick as you say)

cheers

This may not be really helpful but here goes.
Tune fuel a little leaner and colder plugs.
I find that driving by a tacho and not revving
over 3200 helps.
The fun thing in a series 3 is that you get to see a lot
more of the country because your'e going slower.

Cheers

Don

RRC diff centres are a straight bolt in fit.Very easy job. Pat

Originally Posted by PAT303

RRC diff centres are a straight bolt in fit.Very easy job. Pat

I suspect the Series 3 6cyls came out with Salisbury diffs. I had the exact problem with a SWB 186 Holden powered vehicle. PIA & very frustrating on the Hwy.
I found the most sensible & economical conversion was to advertise it & convert it to cash.
I put that towards a stage 1 - then a County.

Originally Posted by PAT303

I had a 186 with yella terra heads,twin barrel stromy with a power cam and 3'' sports system and I drove it like I stole it and never broke anything.The series gearbox's are allot stronger than people give them credit for.I'd get higher diffs. Pat

I too had a 186S (192) in my series 3 and the standard box handled it OK.Never broke anything too.But I had 3.54 diffs in it , which IMHO were a bit high.I think a 4.1 which were once available would be a better option.

I managed to score a new (still in timber crate) salisbury 3.54 centre for a paltry $50- many years ago. Biggest debate was whether to fit it or sell it for a what was at the time a huge profit

I had a 186 in a 2A for twelve years which was used daily as a work truck towing a large trailer with scaffold etc, as well as being used to drag a 15ft tinny up the beach to Double Island point on a regular basis.
Motor was 60 thou oversize, mild cam, bit of head work, extractors and a holley carb. After I went from one end of the vehicle to the other to take out any slop in the 30 year old drivetrain in the first year, I didn't break a single axle, diff etc for the next eleven, so strength is no issue in my book.
An offset intermediate shaft and bigger high range gear in the transfer case kept the revs under control whilst on the highway and also maintaining original low range gearing for offroad.
This certainly aided in keeping fuel usage acceptable as well as being particular with service intervals, tuning and overall maintenance of the vehicle including tyre pressures.
It'll never match current day fuel figures, but by the same token I always enjoyed the power that was on tap when required, provided I had my wallet with me. A 45 litre tank doesn't go far when the secondaries of a holley are wide open!