Thread: series III - with 300tdi's

Originally Posted by medic455

I found the website of a company in the US that restores series Landrovers, one of the items that they have for sale is an adaptor kit that allows the standard series transfer box to be mated to the R380 gear box...... It is not cheap but have alook at East Coast Rover Co. it is quite a big site but the item is easy to find

I am not sure about this but I looked into this type of conversion a while back from what I understood some conversions use a 90" Defender bell housing and input shaft. You end up either putting the motor 4" forward or the box 4" back. Does anyone know about this conversion. Am going to pull the 300 Tdi out of my 130 for a isuzu so it could end up in the shorty. Umm that sounds good and the economy sounds even better.
regards
Garry

i have been looking for a detailed retro fit for ages. I want to put it into a SWB.

Hi there

I will get some pictures next Thursday - as the guys form Tassy will be staying overnight at our place.......

Any particular pictures your after.....

Wayne

Pictures would be cool Wayne but just the basic parts list would be handy e.g. does the 300tdi match to a series gearbox?

I have been thinking of converting one of my series 3's to a 200tdi but I suspect the 300 tdi might be more readily available. I was going to use 3.54 diffs but I don't know if Discovery ones will do. I have a Salisbury axle but I am not sure if the diff centre can be bought in 3.54.

So many questions

Cheers Charlie

Originally Posted by Jimmy

Thought I would revive this thread.

If you transfered the 300tdi and gearbox (into a series 3 6cly), could you remove the full-time 4WD component and run manual locking hubs and therefore have a two wheel drive run about?

Maybe since this thread was begun a few more conversions have been completed??

My thoughts are that swaping the 200tdi or 300tdi with gearbox completely over would be the best. Particularly when you are starting with a series 3 186 holden.

cheers
Jim

Jim

The easiest way of doing the conversion is to use the complete Disco 5 speed transmission and 1970s/80s Range Rover classic or similar diffs front and rear for a SWB. If you have a LWB SIII then use the rear Salisbury out of a Stage 1 or use the 3.54:1 crown-wheel and pinion (From Stage1/County/Defender) in place of the standard 4.7:1 crown-wheel and pinion.

The big problem that you have is that the front swivels have spicer joints and not CVs. Spricer joints don't like constant 4WD.

There are two solutions. Either you use CVs out of a Stage 1 (Stage 1 front end) or you fit the Santana selectable 4WD gear set inside the LT230. (No constant 4WD though.)

All very simple, sort of. You would be best to have the entire Disco which will donor the bits you didn't think of when you bought the engine and transmission assemblies.

The last issue you may want to consider is the LT230 ratio, the Disco Hi ratio is slightly taller than the Defender/County version because of the smaller diameter tyres on the Disco. Try it and if it's a problem then change the gear-set in the LT230.

Diana

Haha good read......
I had the pleasure of camping next to the tassie fellas at Cooma it was great.
And the trumpet....yea that was fun.
as for a 300tdi in a 88, i had a drive and was blown away.
But they still have series3 steering & brakes.
i still want one thou,

Well for the brake issue mentioned below, why not use a 300TDi Discovery put a series body on the chaasie. Chop the chassie move the tank foward. Like people have done with Range Rovers.

This way you would get the series land rover image with the comfort of coil springs the 300TDi and better gearbox and decent brakes

Originally Posted by Grover-98

Well for the brake issue mentioned below, why not use a 300TDi Discovery put a series body on the chaasie. Chop the chassie move the tank foward. Like people have done with Range Rovers.

This way you would get the series land rover image with the comfort of coil springs the 300TDi and better gearbox and decent brakes

If he wanted the comfort of a coils then he'd have a Defender or County.

As for the braking issue. (My understanding is that) the 300Tdi is a 2.5 litre engine, based on the 2.28/2.5 litre engine of the series Landies. The SIII Stage 1 was fitted with a 3.9 litre Isuzu on what are effectively are the 6cyl Series brakes with the late series 3 dual circuit master cylinder.

So as far as the legalities go the combination should be acceptable as there were production vehicles with the same brakes and larger capacity engines.

However if you are concerned about stopping, you can tune up the braking on the Land Rover by using the master cylinder and Vacuum booster off a drum brake LC Torana (the same as the drum brake Ford F100 with the 351 CID V8 which had narrower brake shoes).

Personally I like the look of the Series 3 over the County Defender.

Diana