Thread: Just want to keep up with traffic

The big secret to better performance in these vehicles is breathing. Ultimately a free flowing air intake, port matching, and a tuned exhaust manifold with decent exhaust pipe will make a difference but the beasts are not built for speed. The gearing is to low for road car performance. Solution is to fit 3.54 diff centers or a high ratio transfer box. Either is expensive. I wouldnt bugger around with an overdrive, to fiddly and noisy and prone to go pear shaped.

Originally Posted by Mick-Kelly

The big secret to better performance in these vehicles is breathing. Ultimately a free flowing air intake, port matching, and a tuned exhaust manifold with decent exhaust pipe will make a difference but the beasts are not built for speed. The gearing is to low for road car performance. Solution is to fit 3.54 diff centers or a high ratio transfer box. Either is expensive. I wouldnt bugger around with an overdrive, to fiddly and noisy and prone to go pear shaped.

Ta, there seems to be some options but maybe no complete solutions. May be a case of "if I want a quicker Rover, I buy a quicker Rover" but I'm having to much fun with this one. The cost of improving the breath could be near on as expensive as an engine conversion especially since I have a good Falcon cross flow alreay. As Mentioned I just want to be able to cruise on the speed limit but I don't realy need to be able to pull out and pass at the speed limit.

i could be wrong, (and often am) but isnt a 3.54 diff whats in a rangie classic?
if so you could pick up a front and rear axel/diff cheap as chips.

I know your aim is all about on-road performance, but how do you expect this will affect your off-road ability?

We've chatted on my thread and as you can see I'm trying to work out which way to go but I'm not making much headway.

I love the idea of cheap and reliable performance, but will sorely miss the low-range crawling of the 2.25. Do you see this as a problem or a worthwhile sacrifice? Or can it all be fixed with some work on the transfer case?

If you go to 3.54:1 diffs the engine wont pull it so its not really going to help that much.
The Ford engine and 3.54:1 diffs will be a good thing but this =$
Maybe a set of extractors and a webber carb would give it a bit more but I think you will still be disappointed.
You can turbo a 2.25 petrol and they go really well but its probably troublesome and expensive
Maybe sell the old girl off and buy a Stage 1 they are not that popular and relatively cheap. Same thing different running gear

Originally Posted by jc109

I know your aim is all about on-road performance, but how do you expect this will affect your off-road ability?

We've chatted on my thread and as you can see I'm trying to work out which way to go but I'm not making much headway.

I love the idea of cheap and reliable performance, but will sorely miss the low-range crawling of the 2.25. Do you see this as a problem or a worthwhile sacrifice? Or can it all be fixed with some work on the transfer case?

A high ratio transfer case will give you faster on road speeds while leaving your low range untouched.

Originally Posted by Mick-Kelly

The big secret to better performance in these vehicles is breathing.
<snip>
Either is expensive. I wouldnt bugger around with an overdrive, to fiddly and noisy and prone to go pear shaped.

Not all overdrives have the same reliability issues, yes the comment when related noise and reliability with Fairey and Toro is true. However a third contender in the market, RockyMountain Overdrives are much quieter epicyclic boxes and I have not heard of one fail. But they are quite expensive, around a couple of thousand dollars.

Going at 100 to 110 KPH is possible but can you stop safely at those speeds more important. So until you have well sorted brakes, don't look for too much speed.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Going at 100 to 110 KPH is possible but can you stop safely at those speeds more important. So until you have well sorted brakes, don't look for too much speed.

You know what they say, "brakes only slow you down". So far I have been impressed by the four wheel power assisted drums on my beast. Comparing them, from memory, with my Disco 1 re-enforces that opinion. then again a Series 3 is somewhat lighter than a Disco 1.