Series 2 More grunt needed!!

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joe29407

joe29407

Member
Posts
21
Location
hereford
Hi all
I have a 1962 series 2a and it all runs smoothly ( touch wood). The only problem is that being an old Land Rover it’s a bit low on grunt. Is there any ways I can improve the power without a full engine conversion. Maybe a straight through exhaust? Any help would be great.
 
Is it diesel or petrol? There are a coup!e of things that helped mine a bit. I swaped the oil bath air filter for a more performance style one, it helped it breath a bit better but there is now more induction noise. I also fitted an electronic dizzy, I dont think it makes it any faster but it certainly helps for better starting and smoother running. You could maybe try different jets in the carb or a different carb altogether. I havent tried this cos carbs are a dark art to me. There is an Australian company that sells four branch manifolds which should help but they aint cheap. Other than that, its a case of making sure the valve gaps are right and maybe a thinner oil. What are your compression figures like and whats the mileage?

Col
 
Colthebrummie said:
Is it diesel or petrol? There are a coup!e of things that helped mine a bit. I swaped the oil bath air filter for a more performance style one, it helped it breath a bit better but there is now more induction noise. I also fitted an electronic dizzy, I dont think it makes it any faster but it certainly helps for better starting and smoother running. You could maybe try different jets in the carb or a different carb altogether. I havent tried this cos carbs are a dark art to me. There is an Australian company that sells four branch manifolds which should help but they aint cheap. Other than that, its a case of making sure the valve gaps are right and maybe a thinner oil. What are your compression figures like and whats the mileage?

Col
Click to expand...


Dont forget the oil bath filter offers little to no resistance to air flow.
I have one on my tdi, great things.
Kept the British army going in Iraq.
 
lynall said:
Dont forget the oil bath filter offers little to no resistance to air flow.
I have one on my tdi, great things.
Kept the British army going in Iraq.
Click to expand...
Yes, I would agree although removing it does reduce the weight by a couple of kilos or so. Its had to make a series landy go faster unless there is summat wrong with it. I drove mine once with no brakes and that made it feel very fast.

Col
 
Assuming it's a petrol and assuming it's an old carb in it, a better (SU) carb along with a tune up and service will work wonders. If the head hasn't been off in many years, reseating/grinding the valves in might well help too
 
Colthebrummie said:
Yes, I would agree although removing it does reduce the weight by a couple of kilos or so. Its had to make a series landy go faster unless there is summat wrong with it. I drove mine once with no brakes and that made it feel very fast.

Col
Click to expand...


But its the only part of the car that does not leak oil:D
 
joe29407 said:
Hi all
I have a 1962 series 2a and it all runs smoothly ( touch wood). The only problem is that being an old Land Rover it’s a bit low on grunt. Is there any ways I can improve the power without a full engine conversion. Maybe a straight through exhaust? Any help would be great.
Click to expand...
Land Cruiser Amazon. Plenty of power. :)
 
Colthebrummie said:
Is it diesel or petrol? There are a coup!e of things that helped mine a bit. I swaped the oil bath air filter for a more performance style one, it helped it breath a bit better but there is now more induction noise. I also fitted an electronic dizzy, I dont think it makes it any faster but it certainly helps for better starting and smoother running. You could maybe try different jets in the carb or a different carb altogether. I havent tried this cos carbs are a dark art to me. There is an Australian company that sells four branch manifolds which should help but they aint cheap. Other than that, its a case of making sure the valve gaps are right and maybe a thinner oil. What are your compression figures like and whats the mileage?

Col
Click to expand...
Sorry I should have said at the start. It’s a 2.25 petrol. I think I’ll keep an electronic start in my mind but the engine starts and runs fine at the moment. I might try an SU carb as they have been recommmended to me before. Seeing as I’m not exactly a dab hand when it comes to carbs either how much hassle is that likely to involve? I’m sorry but I have no idea about the compression figures but the mileage is just over 50 000
 
joe29407 said:
Sorry I should have said at the start. It’s a 2.25 petrol. I think I’ll keep an electronic start in my mind but the engine starts and runs fine at the moment. I might try an SU carb as they have been recommmended to me before. Seeing as I’m not exactly a dab hand when it comes to carbs either how much hassle is that likely to involve? I’m sorry but I have no idea about the compression figures but the mileage is just over 50 000
Click to expand...
You may get a marginal difference with those things, but it won't make much difference, due to the gearing.
You can only get the factor of the max revs, times the gearing through the drive train, will equal the max revs of the wheels, which is your top speed.

So if you want to go faster, you need to add extra gearing, either by an overdrive, or bigger tyres, or a higher range transfer box, or higher ratio diffs.

We have a petrol Series 2a, and to be honest, performance is fine, except maybe on a motorway.

Speedo indicates about 55mph cruising, and because the standard tyres would be 6x16s, and it actually has 7.50x16s, the actual speed is probably more than 60mph.
Quite adequate for country lanes, round town, and A road cruising.
 
kermit_rr said:
Assuming it's a petrol and assuming it's an old carb in it, a better (SU) carb along with a tune up and service will work wonders. If the head hasn't been off in many years, reseating/grinding the valves in might well help too
Click to expand...
Its my dads old one been sitting in a field for years. Probably safe to say the cylinder head hasn’t been off for a while. I think I will look into upgrading to an SU carb. Its been recommended a lot and seems to be within my skill set.
 
joe29407 said:
Its my dads old one been sitting in a field for years. Probably safe to say the cylinder head hasn’t been off for a while. I think I will look into upgrading to an SU carb. Its been recommended a lot and seems to be within my skill set.
Click to expand...
Try setting the tappets first. If the valves don't open very much, there won't be much power.
 
Turboman said:
You may get a marginal difference with those things, but it won't make much difference, due to the gearing.
You can only get the factor of the max revs, times the gearing through the drive train, will equal the max revs of the wheels, which is your top speed.

So if you want to go faster, you need to add extra gearing, either by an overdrive, or bigger tyres, or a higher range transfer box, or higher ratio diffs.

We have a petrol Series 2a, and to be honest, performance is fine, except maybe on a motorway.

Speedo indicates about 55mph cruising, and because the standard tyres would be 6x16s, and it actually has 7.50x16s, the actual speed is probably more than 60mph.
Quite adequate for country lanes, round town, and A road cruising.
Click to expand...
I fitted an overdrive a few years ago and that’s been great. As u say it’s perfectly fine around lanes and back roads I was just wondering if there were any ways to give it a little more power for those hills and motorways?
 
joe29407 said:
I fitted an overdrive a few years ago and that’s been great. As u say it’s perfectly fine around lanes and back roads I was just wondering if there were any ways to give it a little more power for those hills and motorways?
Click to expand...
There are, as above, and other things.

But it seems a shame to reduce the originality, and for long journeys probably easier to spend the money on a car.
 
Turboman said:
There are, as above, and other things.

But it seems a shame to reduce the originality, and for long journeys probably easier to spend the money on a car.
Click to expand...
You make a very good point. If I’m honest I don’t do many long journeys in it and I live in Herefordshire so a lot of the roads are small lanes where it’s perfectly fine. I was just wondering if there were some small tweaks that could give it some more power but it seems not.
 
I think, to fit an SU carb, you need an adapter plate between the carb and manifold and you may have to convert to a cable throttle but Im not sure it will provide any noticable difference on power. 60mph is about top whack on a straight road for a 2.25 petrol engined landy. A 1962 engine will be 7:1 compression ratio, you could get the head skimmed to give you 8:1 or even a little higher but it all costs money and for the effort involved, you may as well get the tuned Turner head.

Col
 
As Col says likely a 7|1 compression so without spending the dosh you can only make sure what you have is tip top.
What tyres do you run ? Knobbly one's take more power which they usualy convert into noise.
And often I see landy's used as mobile store sheds with a heap of stuff [ weight ] that does not need to be there and things like roof bars that add extra drag. If not being used take them off.
 
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