Hi all,
We live in France and have had Land Rovers since, ahhh, well, about 40 years. Really. And yes, it means we're getting on a bit. It started off with a second-hand RR Classic (VM Diesel). A string of RRs followed, up to our current P38 4.6. Our true love, however, are the boxy ones. My wife owns a 109 Series III (more about this one later) and I drive a Defender Td5. As we live in a (very) rural area, it's these wheels that never let us down, comes rain (a lot), mud, rocks or shine (a lot too). I'm not a mechanic but simply an enthusiast with tools and no real in-depth knowledge. I'm able to do relatively simple stuff myself, but sometimes my head can't get around some of the problems I'm faced with due to lack of experience - and fear of ruining a perfectly good part.
Now, the good-old ex-military S3 has developed a bit of a problem over the years. It's smoking, rattling under the bonnet (engine low end) and leaking left, right and centre. We've been lucky enough, years back I must add, to be able to buy a fully refurb'ed 2.25 engine for only a minor dent in our pockets. Thus my intention is to swap the engines so the wifie can continue truckin'.
I've done some research on the 'new' engine and it turns out to be a military 8:1 unit, with a 237 prefix and an A suffix. It has the older mushroom engine breather in stead of the anti-pollution stuff that's on any regular S3 engine, it has a S2a head (with the 'sloping' thermostat housing) and a 9" clutch pressure plate (the one without the slats) so we're guessing it's a S2a unit but we do not have a clue in which year it was manufactured. Anyone got any ideas about this mistery?
But my real question to you is whether I can fit this engine to the current S3 gearbox, which still is in excellent condition.
As far as I can see there are two pins sticking into the pressure plate of the recon engine now, where I think the S3 has three pins to hold it in place. Can I take the pins on the recon engine out and simply (...) put a 9.5" clutch plate, pressure plate and bearing on, or do I need some sort of adaptor for this?
I know there are S2a's with half-synchro boxes around, which probably have 9.5 clutch plates, so it should somehow be possible, I guess. Or am I (very) wrong?
We're on a shoestring budget, so I would hate to have to buy a half-synchro 'box, especially since the current S3 full-synchro with a Fairey overdrive is working perfectly fine.
Anyone with any experience who might wish to share it?
Anyway, so far this forum has been of great help solving a number of other issues for us so, after 40 years, I thought it was about time time to join.
Thanks in advance - hope I'm not boring you too much with an issue that's no doubt been discussed before somewhere!
Greetings from a rather quiet France at the moment,
Roel
We live in France and have had Land Rovers since, ahhh, well, about 40 years. Really. And yes, it means we're getting on a bit. It started off with a second-hand RR Classic (VM Diesel). A string of RRs followed, up to our current P38 4.6. Our true love, however, are the boxy ones. My wife owns a 109 Series III (more about this one later) and I drive a Defender Td5. As we live in a (very) rural area, it's these wheels that never let us down, comes rain (a lot), mud, rocks or shine (a lot too). I'm not a mechanic but simply an enthusiast with tools and no real in-depth knowledge. I'm able to do relatively simple stuff myself, but sometimes my head can't get around some of the problems I'm faced with due to lack of experience - and fear of ruining a perfectly good part.
Now, the good-old ex-military S3 has developed a bit of a problem over the years. It's smoking, rattling under the bonnet (engine low end) and leaking left, right and centre. We've been lucky enough, years back I must add, to be able to buy a fully refurb'ed 2.25 engine for only a minor dent in our pockets. Thus my intention is to swap the engines so the wifie can continue truckin'.
I've done some research on the 'new' engine and it turns out to be a military 8:1 unit, with a 237 prefix and an A suffix. It has the older mushroom engine breather in stead of the anti-pollution stuff that's on any regular S3 engine, it has a S2a head (with the 'sloping' thermostat housing) and a 9" clutch pressure plate (the one without the slats) so we're guessing it's a S2a unit but we do not have a clue in which year it was manufactured. Anyone got any ideas about this mistery?
But my real question to you is whether I can fit this engine to the current S3 gearbox, which still is in excellent condition.
As far as I can see there are two pins sticking into the pressure plate of the recon engine now, where I think the S3 has three pins to hold it in place. Can I take the pins on the recon engine out and simply (...) put a 9.5" clutch plate, pressure plate and bearing on, or do I need some sort of adaptor for this?
I know there are S2a's with half-synchro boxes around, which probably have 9.5 clutch plates, so it should somehow be possible, I guess. Or am I (very) wrong?
We're on a shoestring budget, so I would hate to have to buy a half-synchro 'box, especially since the current S3 full-synchro with a Fairey overdrive is working perfectly fine.
Anyone with any experience who might wish to share it?
Anyway, so far this forum has been of great help solving a number of other issues for us so, after 40 years, I thought it was about time time to join.
Thanks in advance - hope I'm not boring you too much with an issue that's no doubt been discussed before somewhere!
Greetings from a rather quiet France at the moment,
Roel
