Thread: 1980 ex army f head motor

Originally Posted by crowey

.........
So to save me the stress of having to read through eleventy nine hundred irrelivent posts i was wondering if you kind folk could answer a few quick questions for me .

A search on "six" is likely to give the desired results.

Q1 Did this modeltruck come out with the F head motor?

It was optional on the Series 3 and was fitted (I believe) to all Australian army Series 3 Landrovers. So the answer is, yes.

Q2 Is this motor any good?

Depends what you call "good". It provides (a little) more power and driveability (smooth and even more flexible) than does the four, but is less tolerant of neglect and abuse. The bottom line is probably that the four was designed from a clean sheet as a motor for a four wheel drive utility vehicle, where the six was designed as a saloon car motor, and adapted for use in a utility vehicle. Fuel consumption is pretty heavy, but they run well on LPG.

Q3 how hard is it to get hold of parts for a F head motor?

Not as easy as the four, but most parts are available, usually from the non-dealer specialists.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Hope this helps, and welcome to Aulro - others will no doubt add to my comments. (And this is the right section for a query like this - as is the Series 3 section, or REMLR, although this is perhaps the most appropriate, as this engine was used in the Series 2a, Series 3, Forward Control, and civilian as well as military models!)

John

Thanks John.
Could you explain a little more about what a search on "six" means? Sorry for my ineptitude at navigating these forums.

Originally Posted by crowey

.........
So to save me the stress of having to read through eleventy nine hundred irrelivent posts i was wondering if you kind folk could answer a few quick questions for me .

A search on "six" is likely to give the desired results.

Q1 Did this modeltruck come out with the F head motor?

It was optional on the Series 3 and was fitted (I believe) to all Australian army Series 3 Landrovers. So the answer is, yes.

Q2 Is this motor any good?

Depends what you call "good". It provides (a little) more power and driveability (smooth and even more flexible) than does the four, but is less tolerant of neglect and abuse. The bottom line is probably that the four was designed from a clean sheet as a motor for a four wheel drive utility vehicle, where the six was designed as a saloon car motor, and adapted for use in a utility vehicle. Fuel consumption is pretty heavy, but they run well on LPG.

Q3 how hard is it to get hold of parts for a F head motor?

Not as easy as the four, but most parts are available, usually from the non-dealer specialists.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Hope this helps, and welcome to Aulro - others will no doubt add to my comments. (And this is the right section for a query like this - as is the Series 3 section, or REMLR, although this is perhaps the most appropriate, as this engine was used in the Series 2a, Series 3, Forward Control, and civilian as well as military models!)

John

six as in 6 cylinder. From the depths of my cavernous brain it is the only six cylinder motor fitted to 'real' land rovers.

Originally Posted by Mick-Kelly

six as in 6 cylinder. From the depths of my cavernous brain it is the only six cylinder motor fitted to 'real' land rovers.

AHA Now it all makes sense. I was thinking along the lines of some sort of search filter setting.

Ok, the 6 cylinder motor in series land rovers is commonly referred to as the six or as the 2.6 motor, a search on 2.6 should show up a lot of threads!

The reason it was fitted to Land Rovers was that the marketing people had a need for a "six cylinder engine" to be more competitive against you know who. Not as good an engine as the purpose built four cylinder.

Likewise Holden's marketing people needed a "four cylinder engine" because of the customers perception that fours were more economical. The red Holden six cylinder was more economical, reliable, and longer lasting than virtually any other engine of 2-3 litres made anywhere but the customers wanted four pots so they got them, inferior as they were.