What engine to put in a Series 3

Please feel free to shout, call me mad, insane or a criminal but hear goes.

I have bought this....



This will be my next project once I have finished my RRC

I am taking the easy way out and going for new galv chassis, bulkhead, doors etc.

It has been stood for years so would guess the 2 1/4 diesel will be seized. As I am re chassising and wanting to do trialling with it thinking of getting a rotten disco with either a 200tdi or 300tdi and fitting the entire drive train and axles, but keep it on cart springs, maybe parabolic?

Has anybody done this? I did a search but nothing stood out.

Is there a preference between the two engines for fitting all of the ancillary bits into the engine bay?

I am asking now so I can keep a look out for a donor disco or RRC at the right price.

Please be nice

i think you can use the existing mounts for a 200 but you have to weld on different ones for the 300

The engine mounts are not a problem as I will have the chassis made to fit the engine and gearbox, it's the rest of rebuild I am worried about.

V8 all the way.
Simpler than a 300tdi and diesels sound crap (bar the range rover tdv8)

Couldn't you put the v8 and bits out of the rrc u got that was sat in a field???

Don't want to V8 it as I will still need to get another LT77 and fly wheel etc. Don't like autos and sold both auto boxes anyway. Diesel all the way with this one, want it on the road and not extortionate to run. Putting the EFI engine in the rebuild RRC if I can get it running as have some top spec bits for it. Unsure what to do with the carb V8 atm but not thinking of s3 for that.

I has a flywheel for a series V8 if wanted

It's a rangy V8. Still need a gear box....

Discovery one and convert it second hand lt77 isn't much

Stu FFS 200 tdi and run a std gearbox forget LT77 it will turn it into a bitsa wreck. 200 Tdi with either an ashcroft high ratio transfer box or an overdrive. Lt77 isnt stronger than a series box they're about the same. the problems you will get with fitting an LT77 is the extra length of the gearbox meaning everything is non std and a right pita.

200 TDi and a rebuilt series box will be purrrfect 3.54 diffs Cheap "upgrade" instead of an overdrive. Means it will be pants in low box offroad at anything remotly worth driving and the handbrake isn't as effective. std 4.7 if you plan on using it offroad at all.

There are sooo many bodges involving wedging in lt77's I believe Dr Evil had a disco one to fit. Others have fitted disco gearboxes with its mahoosive bellhousing its never going to be nice.

lt77 is more capable of dealing with a tdi than a series box ,series boxes have weak gears

jai_landrover said:

There are sooo many bodges involving wedging in lt77's I believe Dr Evil had a disco one to fit. Others have fitted disco gearboxes with its mahoosive bellhousing its never going to be nice.

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R380 in my case mate but yeah same problems, long bellhousing as with all the V8 boxes unless an ashcroft stumpy special

made up adaptor to turn disco box into fender spec as it simply moves the gear stick to a nicer place and then king cabbing the bugger as theres not much space in mine anyway, found the pedals to be way too close to me and the steering wheel too due to the rangie seats so moving back a few inches gives me the position back for driving and some extra room

going to take a while longer to fabricate body internals but worth it in the end to make sure it feels "right" as it were, problem is getting the gear lever back into normal position, I have a stumpy lt77 but thats for a 200 instead of a V8

But have you seen any nice installations of LT77's in 88's without moving the 200 engine forward??

Still wouldn't you have been better to have used the short bellhousing with a V8-series-lt77 adaptor?? its only what 2 inches longer that stock and then you have the longer box to deal with and the longer transfer box you must have a really short rear propshaft?

never seen one tbh, I know I'm ####ed for mine as I'm using original position for engine so box is further back meaning I need custom length prop on the rear, front ones ok but rear needs to be wide angle, probably gather some GKN pieces and a short tractor prop and mate them together in workshop

problem is then if you move it forward you lose the series front end so you may as well have just bought a fender to start with, mines going to look nice but only because I'm king cabbing it! If I wasn't doing the cab mod it would be horrid inside

jai_landrover said:

Still wouldn't you have been better to have used the short bellhousing with a V8-series-lt77 adaptor?? its only what 2 inches longer that stock and then you have the longer box to deal with and the longer transfer box you must have a really short rear propshaft?

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didn't have a V8 lt77 box so input would have been wrong size for crank and without modding the crank its not worth it

rear prop hasn't been made yet as per my previous post, need to wait til the 230 is in then measure up properly

just a different spigot bush

take an SD1 thick walled one and machine it to the input shaft spigot

lt77 if its the same input as series is 7/8th or 22.25mm iirc and the crank is 24mm so you have #### all wall thickness left once done, very hard to fit then without damaging when you knock it in as obviously the bush into crank is a push fit

jai_landrover said:

But have you seen any nice installations of LT77's in 88's without moving the 200 engine forward??

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yes ive done a few , but mostly i leave series box in and swap diffs,because of cost