Thread: Oldest Coil Sprung Land Rover

Originally Posted by dickyjoe

I wonder how these would have lasted. The petrol version wears fairly hard in my opinion. I would think if the compression was 22:1 it probably would have needed to be recast in iron.

They were indeed block crackers.. The first engines were higher compression n/a's and didn't work. Then the block was upgraded with thicker webs (what later became the base for 3.9 and 4.2's I believe) and it was also turboed with what they called an 'interim' manafold which was suppose to help support the top of the Vee. They'd got the 3.5 V8 turbo diesel running well by all accounts, and then the 80's oil crisis arrived and it was shelved, never to resurface. Pity really. I'd have loved one!