110 defender rebuild project and v8 conversion

Well, this is strange - 20mm difference - I thought these things were all jig built - not much of a jig!!

I would like to put a galv chassis under mine at some point, not cos it's rusty, but simply to say to Mr Rust

You might be able to assist the bolt going in by using a taper punch from the other side, to assist alignment, which might allow the bolt, slathered in copper slip to find " its new home" as it were. That and JM's ratchet strap should sort the job out....

Oh right... Is this a combo of Solihull build quality and my lack of knowing when to deploy landy tool number 1?

I thought this was LR special tool number 1:-



but I have been wrong before

but, yeah, deploy away. ( you know you want too !)

Mine is original chassis, new outriggers welded on, perfect fit. Not anew galv chassis. My bulkhead has had a new drivers footwell, pillars are original. The differences in people's chassis and bulkheads is remarkable.

Aaron - spot on - I also get 1497mm on my bulkhead. Centre to centre.

Guess what.... The original and the new chassis holes are both 1507mm !!!

I take it back Richards.... It seems the bulkhead has shrunk 10mm during the galving.

I did give the ratchet strap a go, but with the gearbox fitted and xmember in, there's nowhere for the chassis to go really.

big hammer it is then !!

farmershort said:

I did give the ratchet strap a go, but with the gearbox fitted and xmember in, there's nowhere for the chassis to go really.

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its the pillars your pulling in ,a good few times ive had to use jack or strap to fit bulkheads

That's the way to do it.....

Oh yeah baby - as they said in the sixties

Bet that's a relief it's gone on.

I told my mate who's into his classic cars (but normal sized ones)... He just couldn't wrap his head around a 10mm gap being OK.... Hahaha. Solihull engineering eh!

Got a load of things tidied up today... Steering arms bolts and radius arm bolts tightened up. Fuel tank bottom and cradle got a coating of the black dinitrol stuff ready for fitting tomorrow.

Progress has been much slower than imagined as we've been viewing (and 2nd viewing) small holdings a lot recently. Anyway, I think a deal has been done now, so I guess we've got 6 to 10 weeks of purchasing ahead of us.... So that's the timeframe to try and finish the landy!

Discokids said:

Think @Al203 has also had issues.

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Yes I did. Good memory Discokids.
My passenger side tubular outrigger was 1/2 inch out. Fortunately it meant I could put a packing piece in. If it was out the other way the tub wouldn't have sat in place (it would have sat on the outrigger) and I reckon the chassis would have had to go back.
I hope you don't have to adjust the bulkhead position when you are setting the doors.

i had the same issue mate although it was only 10-15 mm out
its all due to the bulkhead head being galved

have a look at this 1.39 mins in

apologies for the slow progress of late. Much of our free time had been taken up with smallholding viewings and that sort of thing. My other half and I managed to get the fuel tank fitted yesterday... that's a pig of a job -not aided by the dinitrol I put on the bottom of the tank and top of thetank cradle.

I'm hoping that the exploded diagram in the parts catalogue shows the rear bolt arrangements upside down. It seemed to me that the thread bar plates *must* go inside the rear cross member, with the threaded bar hanging down through the hole. I'm pretty sure I made a mistake with the square plate nut though... I used this to secure the whole assembly (tank and cradle) onto the threaded bars. in hind sight, I wonder if they're actually supposed to be a spacer to space the tank away from the cross member mounting. With a little luck I can change this one at a time. Once the rear was mounted, the front was easy enough. I had to do without the metal spacer collets, as they were just slightly too big to fit though the holes in the chassi mount. m10 x 50mm bolts were used here, plus 2 of those rubber washers per bolt.

I had to re-make my fuel sender and fuel pump mods. I did a bit more reading on fuel pipe spec. the numpy on ebay selling "HP fuel hose" is actually selling R6 grade - for carb engines. I needed R9 for EFI...... *PLUS* niether R9 nor R6 will aparently last very long when submerged in fuel. There is a seperate standard for submersible pipe, and it's hard to find on ebay. I managed to find some that's only available to buy in 1ft lengths.... luckily that was ok for my use. I bought 5m or R9 for the pump-to-engine run, and 5m of standard LP fuel hose for the return. Fitments of those, and the front-to-back brake line is the next job after tidying up the fuel tank.

Glad that you're still making progress. I've just moved house - not too far from you - and nothing got done on the landy.

bluehaze said:

Glad that you're still making progress. I've just moved house - not too far from you - and nothing got done on the landy.

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yeah I really struggled to get stuck in to begin with, especially with both the house and garage still partially in moving boxes. We're had some very very good news in the last week, but it's less good for the landy! Offer accepted, valuation agreed, mortgage approved!!!!! Looks like we will be moving house again soon! :S

we estimate we have about 10 weeks, starting today. Sadly I'm also on a major purchases ban! Well, sort of. I managed to find a keswick green 110 rear tub from a 2006 defender on ebay over the weekend, and won it! The bad new is that it's in Newark, so I've got to hire a drop-side or flat bed transit to go and collect it this week. Still, target colour, and right age.... can't be bad.

The other major item which is outstanding is really the rad & oil cooler set up. Allisport estimated a 3 week turnaround time...... that was about 10 weeks ago. At the moment it suits me that I haven't had to shell out for it yet, but I really do want to get the thing running before we move. Negotiations with both Allisport and my other half are required I feel!

I think that having the tub will spur me on a bit again to be honest. I now have the 200tdi chassis wiring harness, so need to get my arse in gear and get that plumbed in, and some connectors ordered.

I use these guys for any radiators and oil coolers - IME, very fast service.

http://www.alutec.co.uk/?page=main

No affiliation - just a satisfied customer.

Disco1BFG said:

I use these guys for any radiators and oil coolers - IME, very fast service.

http://www.alutec.co.uk/?page=main

No affiliation - just a satisfied customer.

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Thanks, yeah I think you mentioned them to me before (this thread or another one.. I forget).. I'll give them a call. thanks!

In a slight odd turn of events, Alutec told me that they can help me with the oil cooler, but that I should speak to rad-tech about the radiator. I dutifully spoke with radtech, who can actually manage the whole thing, and will just buy in the core for the oil cooler from alutec. Here's the radtech site:

http://radtec.co.uk/products/587/Landrover-V8-cooling-kit.htm

The product pictured there is someway toward the suggested design from speaking with radtech. I gave them the information from JE regarding the engine cooling requirements, and he seemed to have a lot more to say about it than allisport did... which was nice. He's happy he can match the performance requirements, in a neater configuration than the suggested 19 row cooler. I'm happy to take a punt on it at the stage.

obviously I'm now cooling with Viscous fan, not those electrical jobbies... just hope I can find a cowel to fit.