Thread: series 3, holden 6, nissan 5 spd???

Thought i should post a result so those that helped know that their help was not in vain. We moved the motor forward about 4" which was pretty straight forward. There was not enough room for the radiator to be in its proper position or for the fan. so rather than move the crossmember to accommodate the radiator, I made a new radiator that was a bit smaller & put a good thermo fan on it. End result it all bolted back together, without the mechanical fan & without having to modify the body or chassis. Took it on an 8 hr test run over easter with a trailer & a load of camping gear & it ran like a clock. The temp started to creep up on a long & steep hill, so I may have to do a bit more with the cooling situation, but no probs on the open road or crawling traffic. The motor which prior to the operation was doing about 3600 revs at 100k's, is now doing 2700 revs at 100k's with the nissan 5 speed. Good thing i took notice of that because about 1 hr into the journey, the speedo needle broke off..... Thanks for your help & advice.

I ran a SWB 11A with a 186 for about 15 years. I used a S11A bellhousing in front of a S111 gearbox and a Fairy Overdrive. The 186 had the Nitrided crank, alloy timing gears and Holden's 'Caravan / touring' Camshaft for more torque. The adaptor was (from memory) from Zenith engineering. The flywheel was 5kg heavier and I used the 6 cly LR clutch. The Sump was off an EH which put the pan at the rear which was where you want it for steep climbs and it had a trapdoor arrangement to help on steep descents. This setup gave good Torque and average fuel economy 15MpG(ish). Despite shoehorning a Salisbury into the rear (don't do it!) I still managed to break halfshafts! If I were you I'd look at using the Black motor for the EFI and use Haltech or similar to sort out the delivery. Have fun.

I was hoping not to do too much more to the old girl now apart from keep it going - not planing on climbing any mountains with it. I have a 202 in it - would have preferred a 186 as i gather they are the better motor, but found a reco 202 for $600 so couldnt go past it. The nissan gearbox in it is strong so shouldnt give the hassles the landrover ones seem to. There is a lot of slack in the whole drive train though. the uni's dont seem to be too bad, but the transfer box, drive shafts & the diffs seem to have a lot of play in them - not sure how much is normal in these old girls.
Actually you may know - coming home from easter it seems it was stuck in 4wd - i had the hubs freewheeling, so it wasnt actually driving, but it was a 4 hr drive. When i got home it had splashed a bit of oil about underneath - i havent had a chance to crawl under to have a look where it has come from. I have managed to free up the 4wd gear lever so i can change it to & from 4wd after reading up on here. Would the long trip in 4wd have caused any damage to it or maybe cause the oil leak?

Originally Posted by Red October

I ran a SWB 11A with a 186 for about 15 years. I used a S11A bellhousing in front of a S111 gearbox and a Fairy Overdrive. The 186 had the Nitrided crank, alloy timing gears and Holden's 'Caravan / touring' Camshaft for more torque. The adaptor was (from memory) from Zenith engineering. The flywheel was 5kg heavier and I used the 6 cly LR clutch. The Sump was off an EH which put the pan at the rear which was where you want it for steep climbs and it had a trapdoor arrangement to help on steep descents. This setup gave good Torque and average fuel economy 15MpG(ish). Despite shoehorning a Salisbury into the rear (don't do it!) I still managed to break halfshafts! If I were you I'd look at using the Black motor for the EFI and use Haltech or similar to sort out the delivery. Have fun.

I am interested to know more about this Caravan cam shaft and the 5kg heavier flywheel. Did the flywheel come with the Holden conversion or was it something you got elsewhere? As for the cam do you have any information on it too please?

Cheers, Mick