Thread: 1955 86" engine dilemmas

RE early Vic holden conversions.

I have seen holden (registered) conversions with no front crossmember (60's) and have been told that some early conversion kits (50's) suggested that.

Remember that chassis torsional stiffness was not considered important way back. Rover only went to box section chassis for the Land Rover to minimise tooling costs and only realised the value of a rigid chassis with the suspension doing the flexing later.

The later 300tdi defender units have a different timing cover to the 200tdi discovery units, hence they foul on the driver's side chassis engine mount.

compare the pics, 200 tdi cover is higher and will clear chassis mount

Well, that's a "there you go!" Not just the actual mounts.

......................and then I recall the "recall" for the 300tdi timing belt and cam.

Cheers

RF

Nut Tool- FYI I had a chance to look at another 80" to compare to mine over the weekend- it seems I have a custom fabricated front cross member that sits a bit further forward than the original would have. Ie I don't have a 'chop job', but a completely different 'new' [well its now 40y.o] cross member.


A pic is [hopefully] attached, you can also see sump from my red motor, and may also note addition of coil spring suspension.

Thanks QRS40! That seems like quite a nice solution, I have been thinking about moving the cross member forward if I keep the 186. Neater than the chop job.

Appreciate this is a fairly old thread but I'm putting a 300tdi, R380 & LT230 into a 54 86". It's a squeeze and I had to use an Ashcroft stumpy bellhousing, but it will fit!

Granted it would be easier in a 107 / 109 where the chassis rails are deeper. I had to use the Defender mounts and make them fit (passenger side needed to be a bit narrower and drivers side a bit wider).

all the bits that make the tdi200 a 200 will bolt onto a tdi300 block.

a little finessing here and there but doable. There are some parts of a series landy 2.25 that will bolt onto a tdi block.

I hear tell that where a tdi will fit so will one of the rover v8s...

Originally Posted by jcamp

Rover only went to box section chassis for the Land Rover to minimise tooling costs and only realised the value of a rigid chassis with the suspension doing the flexing later.

And also because the bodywork is mostly Aluminium , the rigid chassis lessens the body flexing problem .