Series 3 ACR Powerplus cylinder head & cam -anyone done this?

I'm considering doing this in the spring, has anyone else here done this and if so how hard was it and what to look out for.

Thanks

Simon

sounds like a lot of cost for not a huge gain.. unless you need a new head and cam anyways
just put a decent SU carb on.. makes a big difference in my opinion
if you've never had the existing head off.. do it.. clean it up and reseat the valves

kermit_rr said:

sounds like a lot of cost for not a huge gain.. unless you need a new head and cam anyways
just put a decent SU carb on.. makes a big difference in my opinion
if you've never had the existing head off.. do it.. clean it up and reseat the valves

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I did the carb already and reading the blurb from ACR seems like doing the whole set should bring it up quite a lot. The back story being in Switzerland is it's an almost impossible to get a series 3 with a TD engine upgrade through the Helvetian version of an MOT, you have to virtually have the vehicle tested like it was new and the cost is.. well very swiss.

ah, you're from one of my favourite parts of the world! hoping to get back there very soon.
i suppose if depends what you're after. while my 2.25 isn't fast by modern standards, i never felt it was lacking.. i rebuilt the engine and put new valve seats in, with the new carb, it was enough for me

West Sussexian refugee actually
My thing up here is hills and more hills followed by rather steep mountain passes and I have a trailer so i'm after a bit more pulling power like a steady 70 or 80kmh would be nice as this is the speed limit on such roads.
I am also assuming that i'll have to look at an overdrive too.

Overdrive won't give you more power at the wheels, nor a speed increase, but allows you to drive at lower revs.
It's it an 88 or 109? Some folks put bigger tyres on the 88, which drags power down a bit

Simon Perks said:

West Sussexian refugee actually
My thing up here is hills and more hills followed by rather steep mountain passes and I have a trailer so i'm after a bit more pulling power like a steady 70 or 80kmh would be nice as this is the speed limit on such roads.
I am also assuming that i'll have to look at an overdrive too.

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Yep fit overdrive. It will help top end & make a few extra 1/2 gears

kermit_rr said:

Overdrive won't give you more power at the wheels, nor a speed increase, but allows you to drive at lower revs.
It's it an 88 or 109? Some folks put bigger tyres on the 88, which drags power down a bit

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It's an 88, yes I have bigger tires on it (general grabbers)

You could remove all the parts down to the chassis and rebuild with a hilux chassis and all new Toyota parts.

hope this helps

Bobsticle said:

You could remove all the parts down to the chassis and rebuild with a hilux chassis and all new Toyota parts.

hope this helps

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Shhh don't tell anyone but i got rid of the Disco2 money pit and replaced it with a Pathfinder but the hounds of hell couldn't get me to lose the SIII mate

ACR conversions are good- head, cam and SU carburettor on mine- Which is for sale.

Simon Perks said:

I did the carb already and reading the blurb from ACR seems like doing the whole set should bring it up quite a lot. The back story being in Switzerland is it's an almost impossible to get a series 3 with a TD engine upgrade through the Helvetian version of an MOT, you have to virtually have the vehicle tested like it was new and the cost is.. well very swiss.

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I suppose it depends on what your end goals are and how much you want to spend.

The mods will improve performance for sure. But if they are worth the cost value is much more of a personal decision. At the end of the day the Land Rover engine responds exactly the same as any other to such tuning methods.

What restrictions do you have in what you can do?

Just thinking of some other options. If you want to build up the petrol engine for more power, you might want to try and find a 2.5 litre version. More displacement is always better.

Can you fit things like power adders? I've heard of a couple of people building a 2.5 petrol turbo using mostly off the shelf bits from the 2.5 TD.

Are any engine swaps allowed? The Rover 2.0 T-Series as used in the Discovery 1 and some Defenders (plus Rover cars) is a very nice engine. 136bhp and more torque at 1500rpm than the 2.25 makes at its Peak.

And how does it drive now compared to before, like does this make it a viable daily driver?

300bhp/ton said:

I suppose it depends on what your end goals are and how much you want to spend.

The mods will improve performance for sure. But if they are worth the cost value is much more of a personal decision. At the end of the day the Land Rover engine responds exactly the same as any other to such tuning methods.

What restrictions do you have in what you can do?

Just thinking of some other options. If you want to build up the petrol engine for more power, you might want to try and find a 2.5 litre version. More displacement is always better.

Can you fit things like power adders? I've heard of a couple of people building a 2.5 petrol turbo using mostly off the shelf bits from the 2.5 TD.

Are any engine swaps allowed? The Rover 2.0 T-Series as used in the Discovery 1 and some Defenders (plus Rover cars) is a very nice engine. 136bhp and more torque at 1500rpm than the 2.25 makes at its Peak.

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Switzerland is a red tape by the book nightmare.
any mods that are visible are a no go, so when the MOT tester sees the turbo your in trouble and like your vehicle gets put off the road and in extreme cases can be seized if they consider the mod to be dangerous.
So the SU carb is fine as its listed as an option here back then with the zenith and the weber.
An engine swap required buying the technical alterations guide from landrover importers, this contains step by step engineering specs that have to be followed to letter and the testing station uses this guide to proof what you did, then the original documants get suspended and you have to re register and test the vehicle like a new import, just the cost of the book and the testing is in the 1000's like 4 to 5K.
This is why any series landrover that has been uped to a TD4 or what ever sells for upwards of 20K here.

SO we figured that doing the head is not so visible and if one were to restrict the carb (throttle stop) that when they do the circuit drive brake test - yes here they do the brake test by driving on a track that has a straight section with a speed indicator, they get it up to 60kmh and do a real emergency stop, the handbrake test also involves parking on a real slope.
Anyhow last time the tester couldn't even get my truck over 55 on the straight - point here i wil likely get away with it.

Our goal is to get the SIII up to a daily drive, like more that 40kmh up hill would be nice.
We did the whole electronic dizzy thing to no effect, running was significantly improved with the distributor doctor version.

Oh what fun .. eh

Simon

Does the ARC set have a larger diameter exhaust? I found when running my 2a petrol even with a pretty standard engine the exhaust as is restricts power output when working hard like up hill towing.
Take it you have done all to ensure your engine is top notch regards compression, ignition timing ect.
Had an SU on mine for a while that went well but went back to Zenith as SU not good in extreme off road angles

tottot said:

Does the ARC set have a larger diameter exhaust? I found when running my 2a petrol even with a pretty standard engine the exhaust as is restricts power output when working hard like up hill towing.
Take it you have done all to ensure your engine is top notch regards compression, ignition timing ect.
Had an SU on mine for a while that went well but went back to Zenith as SU not good in extreme off road angles

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There is probably no reason to change the SU as Switzerland is pretty flat and doesn’t have many steep hills .

I have an exchange ACR engine in my Series One 107” that I bought in 1999, making it one of their first off the production line . It certainly makes my 107” more lively and it can easily keep up with modern traffic . At the moment it has a crappy standard exhaust on it which I want to change sometime . Hopefully that will improve it further .

Never had a problem with the SU on mine, done plenty of RTV trials which meant lots of tippy uppy

same here

Was not doing RTV, CCV where side slopes were often extreme, anyway SU just did not suit mine. Fine on the road.

Remora107 said:

There is probably no reason to change the SU as Switzerland is pretty flat and doesn’t have many steep hills .

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Sure about that?

tottot said:

Was not doing RTV, CCV where side slopes were often extreme, anyway SU just did not suit mine. Fine on the road.

Sure about that?

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Yup, positively definitely 100% sure . I think .