2.6 swb!?

hi all, i was wondering if anyone with a series landy or that has had one was clued up converting a 88 inch to 2.6. i have done work with alot of landys before and do know alot of parts are different. bulkhead is different, mounting points, bell housing, radiatour, floor pans, seat box, basicly everything a six pot has compared with a 4 pot. i have stripped my 109 six pot thats been down the scrappy and some one has rescued it and wanted to turn it into a camper. why not buy something like a ex ambulance?? hay ho. any ways i saved it and its now in my hands, but i wanted to do something more special than restore it. i have always fancied the 88 inch with a 2.6! I have all the parts apart from the rear axle because the mounts on the 109 are different, and the tanks are different, a little shortening on the wiring, and new fuel lines. but i have engine, box, bulkhead, seat box, floors, and all i need would be a chassis, galvanised! ino it wont be pure, but i want my own car thats not like everyone else's!

Any thoughts or tips would be so appreciated.

thankyou, tom.

They're pretty dam long, longer than 200tdi infact. You may have a few issues fitting the engine and gear box into a 88 inch chassis. Keeping the gear stick in a useable place and the getting the props right could be hard. But like anything on these wagons anything can pretty much be donee with effort and know how.

Landtom said:

They're pretty dam long, longer than 200tdi infact. You may have a few issues fitting the engine and gear box into a 88 inch chassis. Keeping the gear stick in a useable place and the getting the props right could be hard. But like anything on these wagons anything can pretty much be donee with effort and know how.

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I appreciate what you are trying to say, but is the gear stick in a 109 6 cyl in an unusable place?

No good point, might be ok on the length front thinking about it. Possibly just the bell housing and transmission tunnel to mod. The footwells and vent area of the 4cyl and 6cyl bulkheads are pretty much the same. Are the radiators different?

tom1disco.300 said:

hi all, i was wondering if anyone with a series landy or that has had one was clued up converting a 88 inch to 2.6. i have done work with alot of landys before and do know alot of parts are different. bulkhead is different, mounting points, bell housing, radiatour, floor pans, seat box, basicly everything a six pot has compared with a 4 pot. i have stripped my 109 six pot thats been down the scrappy and some one has rescued it and wanted to turn it into a camper. why not buy something like a ex ambulance?? hay ho. any ways i saved it and its now in my hands, but i wanted to do something more special than restore it. i have always fancied the 88 inch with a 2.6! I have all the parts apart from the rear axle because the mounts on the 109 are different, and the tanks are different, a little shortening on the wiring, and new fuel lines. but i have engine, box, bulkhead, seat box, floors, and all i need would be a chassis, galvanised! ino it wont be pure, but i want my own car thats not like everyone else's!

Any thoughts or tips would be so appreciated.

thankyou, tom.

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Think you've answered your own q. really. You know it will be loads of hassle, land rover struggled to get that engine into a series, loads of differences, bulkhead, engine mounts,brakes, clearances pared to a minimum.
And the six pot isn't a well loved engine, although I am fond of them. Juice wasn't so dear when I had mine in the late eighties.
It is possible though, and if you feel youre life would be incomplete without doing it, and you can afford it, why not

The only experience I have was a few years ago we had one which lost all oil pressure so we stripped it and put stella bottles in the bores and hit the starter button, hours of fun and we had to drink lots of Stella.
The engine was removed and a 200 di went in. Parts are very different rear prop length etc etc.
It would make a one off and keep a 6 pot going for people to see.
Please post lots of pictures if you start fitting it.

jacksta said:

I appreciate what you are trying to say, but is the gear stick in a 109 6 cyl in an unusable place?

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Yes, I don't have any issues with mine.

i was working on a 2.6 88" trayback (Diddy, built by the Rumsey brothers) just this sunday (misfires after a weekend playing in Sibbertoft and then refusing to start for a short while), my dad had a 3litre 80" when i was a kid and there's a picture on landytown of a 2.6 88" sitting in a field

they're not quite as rare as you might think

I once drove a 109 6 pot and trailer from Brum to Aberdeen. Can still remember the journey, nice smooth motor only had to fill the tank 14 times to get there............

so ajb403, you have one i assume then? i could live without one, not saying i cant, but when iv finished the restoration i would like to see some change other than a different colour, and the only reason im thinking of doing this is becuase i have no documents, but all of the vin plates, however it needs to go for a V.I.C check,test, so when i have finnished i wont just have a 109 six cylinder like everyone else's, ill have my own build! but i have all the six cylinder parts,so i cant see it being as much of a pig as it would normally, the bulkheads are quite different tho! but i know i will need shorter prop shafts, and modified mountings, but it wont be a bodge, becuase it will be my pride and joy when its done! but thank you for all the tips and opinions, and i think im going to carry on with the idea and when i can order a 88 inch chassis and get on with it! thankyou everyone, and if anyone have any more tips or knows of anything else i may have missed out on, help would be greatly appreciated! a thread will come up at some point and i will post pics! will keep updating on situation of striping 109!

thankyou, tom.

Keep us up to date with how you get on Tom. I'd like to try a 6-pot, been looking at 3.0 ones on ebay recently....I really need to finish this project first tho!

I suspect with a bit of tinkering the fuel situation can be considerably improved from the stock setup without overly compromising smoothness and power. However I do know they are a bit prone to overheating especially at the back of the engine...

D

dominicbeesley said:

I suspect with a bit of tinkering the fuel situation can be considerably improved from the stock setup without overly compromising smoothness and power. However I do know they are a bit prone to overheating especially at the back of the engine...

D

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I get 16-17 mpg from mine so not too far off of V8 'economy', I've heard of some people getting 10-12 mpg though.

Fortunately I've not had any problems with mine overheating. Getting to the exhaust tappets is a pig though (inlet over exhaust engine) which is where they got their reputation for burning valves and warping heads.

divie said:

I once drove a 109 6 pot and trailer from Brum to Aberdeen. Can still remember the journey, nice smooth motor only had to fill the tank 14 times to get there............

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It's smiles per gallon that count though, right?

I'm going to have to do a good bit of research and will be following this with interest. I'd quite like to stick in a 3.0 litre 6-pot from a rover and then try and retime the cams for torque instead of power but no idea how feasible it is.

Higher compression and swapping to a DMTL or similar progressive, or tuning the SU should be possible to get a lot more mileage without losing too much pull...

when i looked under Diddys bonnet the original 2.25p mounts were attached to the chassis with a second set of mounts fitted forwards of them that the engine sat on, the back of the radiator panel had been cut off to allow the fitment of a 200tdi rad right behind the grille plus the bulkhead i'm certain is a standard four pot item

this leaves me to conclude the gearbox was fitted in the usual 88" position with standard 88" propshafts

i didn't go mad on looking for details as all we were really concerned with was losing the misfire and getting it running again

oh, and the engine is a saloon car version, no idea of the source of the exhaust manifold

well i will keep updating as much as i can over these few months, i still need to save for a chassis tho, but its cheaper for an 88 one so shouldent be too long! but i have stripped the 109 down to gearbox, took the engine out Sunday and it has got head gasket gone as i got her running before i stripped it, but i have all the six parts to put back on so im hoping this will make my life easier! iv always wanted to do this and now i have the chance,i will try to put some pics on here, but i seem to have trouble all the time and cant seem to,maby ill create an album on my profile and have it there and keep it updated on here if i cant put pics up on here! i think i will take dimensions and measurements of all the mounts before i cut the original chassis up, and then go from there! i cant wait to see what its like tho, long way to get tho!

tom1disco.300 said:

well i will keep updating as much as i can over these few months, i still need to save for a chassis tho, but its cheaper for an 88 one so shouldent be too long! but i have stripped the 109 down to gearbox, took the engine out Sunday and it has got head gasket gone as i got her running before i stripped it, but i have all the six parts to put back on so im hoping this will make my life easier! iv always wanted to do this and now i have the chance,i will try to put some pics on here, but i seem to have trouble all the time and cant seem to,maby ill create an album on my profile and have it there and keep it updated on here if i cant put pics up on here! i think i will take dimensions and measurements of all the mounts before i cut the original chassis up, and then go from there! i cant wait to see what its like tho, long way to get tho!

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get yourself a photobucket account (free) you can then create albums to put photos in of different aspects of your life or events which makes them easy to find/share, i use the IMG tag as given to share my pictures

you can take all the measurements you like from the sixpot chassis, they won't correspond to a fourpot chassis, cross members i'm certain are in different places so you'll end up needing/wanting to shift them as well as the engine mounts not to mention a 109 chassis is deeper than an 88" chassis, to me you're looking at doing it the hard way

i'd just bolt the engine to the gearbox, lift it up and attach the gearbox to the crossmember and then tack the engine mounts to the chassis, cut the back off the rad' panel and move the rad' forwards

this way you buy a dead standard 88" complete but drop in the sixpot and gearbox with minimal fuss, no odd length props, no sixpot bulkhead required or matching tunnel and floor plates (they're different from fourpot ones)

all you have to watch is axle to engine clearance (my dad used to clonk the corner of the block on his front axle/diff over rough ground in the 80") 109 shackles "may" help a little there (1/2" longer)

the only thing with doing it this way is you may find you have a bit more weight over the front axle so don't fit a big heavy winch on the front and tyre on the bonnet

i'll be looking at a genuine sixpot 1ton next month and comparing it to my 109 fourpot to see what the cab internal differences definitely are, i may even check out what the chassis differences are apart from the spring hangers being as i have future plans myself

p.s.
remember 109 sixpots are getting rarer and slightly more desirable in good condition

Looking at the 6cyl engine the mounting arrangements look very similar - I'm guessing its just the position - would it be feasible to make longer replacement brackets rather than cutting/welding the chassis? I'd prefer that option, it might put a bit more strain on the engine bolts but not a ridiculous amount...

from memory the offside mount was four inches or so (maybe more) further forward of the original mount, for me it'd either be scratch build a mount that bolts to the engine or weld new mounts to the chassis

i don't recall for sure the nearside engine mount but i suspect i'd have a similar problem there

i didn't look for oil filter positions or anything else, i think you now know as much as i do regarding this kind of conversion, i've no photos of Diddy so can't help with those either

i did this once in a series 1, engine bolted right up to the bell housing, made new mounts, and moved the rad forward. if i remember, i had to weld a pipe through the front crossmember, to fit the bottom hose. It pulled like a train.