Engine/gearbox cross angle??

[navigation2000]

Can somebody please explain why Land Rover (series 3) made the engine mounting points, drivers side/passenger side, at different heights?

I mean, the rear cross member(gearbox) itself sits square, but the small brackets you bolt the gearbox rubber mounts to, are also slanted differently, and appear to match the height difference imposed by the engine mount points. This sees the passenger side engine mount located several millimetres below the one on the drivers side.

Is this something to do with the Land Rover petrol engine's(original) design?

Or is it gearbox related?

My Holden 202 sits on a decided lean in the engine bay, and I don't know why it should.....

Also, I bought a new set of engine and gearbox mounts(rubber), and the kit I received has 2x large diameter mounts, and 2x somewhat smaller diameter mounts. The dilemma now is in which mounts go where?

I was naturally thinking the 2x large go under the engine, and the 2 x smalls go under the box, but now when I look at this slanted engine bizzo, I'm not sure. On a slanted engine, I'd say the 2 x big ones go on the low side, and the 2 x smalls go on the drivers side, but even that doesn't really make me feel too confident....

If there is no valid reason to slant the gearbox, can I simply engineer the mounts to make the engine/gearbox sit straight?

[Blknight.aus]

the 4 pots sit vertically the reason for the difference in heights is clearance for the top of the diff when at full compression.

while the chassis mounts are at different heights you'll find that the engine-mount adaptors are different shapes to compensate for it. the gearbox mounts are different shapes to allow for the different locations on the box for the adaptor mounts.

[JDNSW]

I have never noted a difference, and certainly the standard engine and gearbox sit exactly upright on all Series Landrovers. I would expect any difference in height to reflect the fact that the engine is offset to the left rather than a lean, but attachment points on both engine and gearbox are likely to be at different heights to avoid various fittings.

John

[B.S.F.]

It seems like you're describing series 1 engine and gearbox mounting rubbers.. ( 2 piece) wich cannot be fitted to later models unless you've got the correct mounting brackets with the big holes. Small rubber on top.

[navigation2000]

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated.

I've attached an image of my engine, so you can see the slant I'm talking about.

Yes, the gearbox cross-member sits level, and the little brackets which the rubber mounts bolt up to, are angled differently and are also of different heights. I can also see that the gearbox to mount plates are of different angles and heights too.

When I look at the chassis area where the engine mounts attach, I see that the passenger side mounting point is lower.

I'm now starting to think that whoever made the Holden to Land Rover engine mount adaptors, may not have gotten their measurements right, or may have overlooked something.

Ok then, so if the gearbox doesn't need to be slanted, I can just go ahead and remake the engine mount adaptors to situate the engine in a straight up and down fashion, as per how I think it should be.

Hmm, I noticed when removing the gearbox mount rubbers, that one had been pulled out of shape a little, and the other had been greatly pulled out of shape, almost to the point of it tearing in half.

The engine mount rubbers appear to be ok, not pulled out of shape.

Wondering if the passenger side engine mount adaptor, if made wrong (too low), effecting the lean of the engine, is where the problems all lie??

If I simply straighten the angle, it shouldn't affect anything. Extractors will still be clear of the footwell, chassis etc....hmm.

Best we look at this a bit closer.

Always wondered why the carby and intake manifold sat so close to the heater matrix and passenger side footwell....hmm

[navigation2000]

Went over the measurements again and it appears that the passenger side engine mount adaptor has either sagged, or was made wrong.

Was hoping to be able to just re-drill the old adaptors to suit the new forward engine position, just in case I ever want to slide it backwards again, but it's looking too hard to do with these mount adaptors.

Just going to have to make up new ones.

Will do all that once the Nissan Box is finally attached and sitting in its correct position.

It's going to be a tight fit by the looks of it, with the water pump pully being too close to the radiator to allow the running of a mechanical fan.

[4x4_bugsy]

The large ones go on the engine and the small ones to the gearbox end. My holden conversion sits not only on an angle but slightly off centre too. I figured it was to do with getting the whole thing sitting at a happy medium to make it clear the various bits like the holden fuel pump which is in a pretty tight spot near the RH mounting bracket.
I guess it also could be down to the person who made the engine mounts on the truck you have. I have never seen 2 sets of identical set of mounts on a holden converted rover.
Its like they were all knocked up on the spot when the vehicles were converted, out of whatever material was laying under the bench, with no thought to standardising them.
I found that my passenger side bracket had broken bolts in and had sagged down so the alternator was resting on the chassis...

[navigation2000]

The large ones go on the engine and the small ones to the gearbox end. My holden conversion sits not only on an angle but slightly off centre too. I figured it was to do with getting the whole thing sitting at a happy medium to make it clear the various bits like the holden fuel pump which is in a pretty tight spot near the RH mounting bracket.
I guess it also could be down to the person who made the engine mounts on the truck you have. I have never seen 2 sets of identical set of mounts on a holden converted rover.
Its like they were all knocked up on the spot when the vehicles were converted, out of whatever material was laying under the bench, with no thought to standardising them.
I found that my passenger side bracket had broken bolts in and had sagged down so the alternator was resting on the chassis...

Thanks for the info.

Yep, what you're saying is pretty much how we're finding things to be here too.

Closer inspection of the passenger side mount adaptor revealed a long crack in the gusset seam weld, and the rubber mount had sheared as well, though you'd never have known just from looking at it.

We've looked at the current engine position several times over the last few days, just in case we somehow overlooked something, and we're not seeing any negative aspects involved, so we'll now proceed to mount the engine in this new low and level position.

The new position just "looks" right from every aspect, with the engine sitting level and straight and crazy as it sounds, everything else just falls right into place when it's mounted in this fashion, the gearbox lines up on the cross-member, the gear sticks come through the holes in the trans cover precisely, etc, etc, just like it was meant to be.

The way the engine was mounted before, nothing at all lined up. We simply can't figure out why it was mounted that way, and nothing logical seems to support it, but we still had to keep looking back at it, just in case it was for a reason.

It's also difficult to analyse the reasoning behind the old mounting method when whoever did it, took steps to address the missmatching gearstick holes etc, by hand fabricating little metal tabs to secure the boot rubbers in the offset position.

Oh well, things are going ahead as they now are, so it's going to be interesting to see how it turns out. The vehicle might even handle better too.

Thanks for the rubber mount info, I'll do it the way you suggest. It's only logical to do it that way.

My confusion regarding the rubber mounts was in that if the engine had to be sitting all askew, up in the air at the front, and leaned over sideways, it may well have required the big and small rubbers in different positions.

Thanks again.

[JayBoRover]

Now you've got me thinking. I have never noticed whether my engine is slanted or not, but I have noticed that the gearshift lever boot does not fit correctly as the lever comes through the tunnel hole slightly off-centre. Now I'm going to have to have a look at whether it might be a case similar to yours. (Although my conversion has retained the Series gearbox).
Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts and knowledge.

[JDNSW]

I think the answer may lie in "there are some good conversions, some bad and some awful".

John