Thread: Engine Upgrades?

G'day, yep, you certainly do need a modification plate, in QLD at any rate. Not sure as to engineers cert., but someone else will be more knowlegible than me.

cheers
Evelyn

G'day Staminus

Yes, you do need a Vehicle modification plate to get registration in both Qld and other States,this plate has to be certified and fixed by a Qld Transport approved engineers, it is not a cheap exercise, NOTE that Holden or Falcon motors WILL destroy series gearboxes over time, but one can fit a 200TDI Diesel motor to the existing engine mounts and series gearbox, this will give the ability to fit 3.54:1 diffs which will give improved road speed, more torque and a better power band


cheers

In the 70s when most of these conversions were done - no engineer's certificates or plates were required in most states. This was because there was a regime where common modifications were given blanket approvals so a holden in a landie which was quite common did not require engineering but other engines such as a V8 would have.

However, since then (and I do not know when) these rules changed and now engineering and a plate is required. So if a landie had one of these mods done back then and has remained in registration, it may not have an engineering certificate or plate.

I pulled a 2 litre engine out of a 55 series 1 in 1978 and put in a holden 161 and all I had to do was present the vehicle at the motor registry office so that the new engine number could be verified. The car was registered in Vic and the conversion was done in NSW and I just took it to the Charlestown Motor registry office in Newcastle to have the engine number verified - that satisfied Vic registration authorities. No roadworthy or anything else was required.

Garry

Many of the Holden upgrades were the result of owners faced with expensive overhauls or repairs to their Landrover engines and with Holden engines cheap and available, or to get an engine for which parts are more readily available. (Since the Holden engines we are talking about are getting pretty old now, it is perhaps unclear how much these apply today!)

If you have a four cylinder petrol engine in good condition, your money would probably be better spent on upgrading this - after all you have the only engine ever specifically designed for a four wheel drive! Unless used purely on the road, there are drawbacks to the Holden engine, such as lack of oil capacity and the sensitivity of the lubrication system and carburetter to steep angles.

If your existing engine is a six, then staying with the Landrover engine is more problematical. It takes unkindly to bad treatment, and parts are not as readily available, plus it is thirsty. And not much more powerful than the four anyway.

The four takes to some simple mods well.
My late uncle dumped the exhaust manifold and entire exhaust system for a set of Perry headers and less restrictive exhaust plus an overdrive and it transformed his Series III 88.
I think he may have made a small carby mod too, but I was still in short pants back then. (late seventies I think)
I do remember him pulling away from Dad one night on the Hume Hwy near Goulburn. Dad was up past 130km/h in one of the Holdens we had at the time and the Series III pulled away
Even the truckies were gobsmacked according to the CB chatter.

He later replaced it with a modified 186 Holden as he was very much a petrol head, but even he admitted that it wasn't that much quicker than the old four.
All that was required at the time (approx 1980) was to take it to an inspection station to verify the new engine number.