The Rover-Landers of BC

So I picked up a D1 a few months ago with a rotten body and sold off a bunch of parts. Then I wondered what to do with it and decided to look around for a Series body that I could adapt to make a V8 Series coiler. I picked up most of a Series 3 88" body and then a shared purchase of a complete 2A 88" with a rotten frame, banged up body and seized engine. OK, so the project begins....

S3 parts: Series 2A: Gutted Disco: First step, get rid of the Disco body: Then I power washed the frame and engine, and pushed it back into the carport where she will stay for a while. I removed a bunch of lines and parts including the plastic fuel tank, which someone had punched a hole in the bottom to drain the fuel. Oh well, it wouldn't have worked with the series body as I have to shorten the frame anyhow.

Then all the Disco body mounts needed to be cut off. Before: After: Then I was off to pick up a set of series outriggers and doing a lot of measuring.

So last week I brought the S3 bulkhead and seat box home from my long term storage in a friends barn to start the mock up process.
The bulkhead S3 is going to need a lot of work including new footwells and other rust patching. The lower dash panel is fairly buggered. Completely rotten on the inside. I haven't decided yet if I am going to use the S3 bulkhead or the S2 bulkhead from the other truck for the final build. The S2 unit needs even more repair work than the S3 one, but does have a built in steel dash. One less item to have to deal with: However, as the truck is still fully assembled, the S3 unit will suffice for my mockup work.

The other day I received, from a fellow in Oregon who totalled his Disco, a hardly used set of spring mounts, dislocation cones, long shocks, & cranked trailing arms. Woo Hoo!

Last weekend I got busy straightening the bashed in and bent outrigger mount on the left side of the S3 bulkhead. Amazing how easy it is when you have a torch set to soften the metal. Before: and after: I borrowed a set of Series replacement bulkhead outriggers from a friend for my mock up. If I decided to use them, I'd buy him another set: I jacked up the frame and removed one of the springs and let the frame settle onto the front axle. In order for the radius arm to clear the bottom of the outrigger, I would need to raise it about 2" up from what I thought would be the optimal location, and that would make the body sit that much higher. Reading up on UK forums that have hybrid sections (few and far between), that seems to be a common complaint. So I hopped into my Disco (my daily driver one) and drove up to Rocky Mountain Products in N. Van. and picked up a set of D90 bulkhead outriggers from Jeremy. While there I also grabbed a set of footwells and a rear cross member. Jeremy is great to deal with.

The D90 outriggers are from Britpart, and the right hand side one was too long by 1/8". Doesn't seem like much but try forcing the 1/2" mounting bolt through a tube into a 2nd tube that's mis-matched by that much. Doesn't work. At first I thought I would return them, but it was either raise the series ones, cut a notch into the series ones and weld in more metal (so I didn't have to raise them), or clean up the and trim the D90 ones. In the end I decided to use the D90 ones and proceeded to modify them.

Today I got energetic and started grinding, measuring, trial fitting, more grinding, welding in some metal (I love my Mig welder!) and finally fitting with the bulkhead. I decided to move them rearward on the frame and bolt the bulkhead to the front, rather than rear of the outriggers. This should, I hope provide me with more space for tire options in the future. Finally I started welding them to the frame. I got so engrossed I forgot to take pics until after I mocked up the seat box. So then I mocked up the seat box, front fender, hood and breakfast: That brings me up to today. Measuring the distance from the engine to the front, I guess I'm going to have to go with all electric rad fan cooling and S3 wings for lighting, irrespective of whether or not I use the S3 or S2 bulkhead in the end. Oh well. Now I just need to decide what to do for a rear tub....

Neat project. I probably have a well used 109 series tub available.

Hi, I'm also building a series/disco hybrid right now but I am doing it the opposite way by using a series frame and modifying it to fit the disco suspension. My build log on this forum is called "1970 2a upgrades" (although I found out from icbc that it way last registered 30 years ago as a 1971 so previous owner was wrong about the year).

Anyway I just watched this 3 part video series by Britannica Restorations and learned a ton about how the series and defender bodies go together. Really worth the time to watch I would say. I've been following his channel and he's got a lot of good info. Also learned all about installing a new wiper motor today. There is a lot more to these things than you would think.





Just thought this info might help you as you place your outriggers etc. I know its helped me a lot.
Great project! Looking forward to seeing more.

I got busy Sunday afternoon and last night and relocated the 4x4 lever and extended the linkages. Seems to work fine. Next will be making some brackets for mounting the shift lever in front of the 4x4 lever.

Looks like a ton of work, but a lot of fun as well. Looking forward to watching this build come along.

Well it’s been a hectic few weeks, but I managed to squeeze in a few hours on the project. Thanks to a club member I acquired a S2 109 box in fairly decent shape.
(I had to put the dinghy back on the trailer after I brought the box home)

Then this past weekend I enlisted a cousin to help me load the box onto the Disco frame so I could see what needed to be done to make it work.
She lines up better than I had thought she would. Next comes figuring out what to do about the wheel wells, and where to cut off and weld on bits to make it all fit. .

This weekend I welded on the Series (actually military) rear cross member and outriggers.
First I cut off the centre section of the Disco rear cross member. Then I cut and bent the ends of the frame rails horizontal to fit into the new series cross member. Test fitting. New cross member welded on. It clears the frame cross brace (barely) Hard to see, but there is enough space for a rubber insulator above the rear spring perch.

Front of tub outrigger I was originally planning to reuse the plastic Disco fuel tank under the tub, but in order to mount the tub as low as possible there isn’t enough space between the frame rail and bottom of the tub. Sigh.
Oh well. Guess I will have to weld up a metal tank instead.

I also plan to have a 2nd tank in the standard under right hand seat position and started test fitting it. Seemed to slide in ok Hmm going to have some clearance issues getting at the radius arm bolt though. I also started to fit the tailgate so I could weld on hinges to the rear cross member
(Yes, I bought a cheap one that didn’t have them pre welded on. :oops:

The power steering from the Disco still needs to be sorted out, but I don’t think that will be too difficult. Making progress!

Good steps forward, for sure a fun project.....

Looking good Martin!

I hope that Radiator works out!

Thanks,
Don

Well it's a new year, so I guess I should provide some updates of progress since my last post in August..... :bounce:

So I have collected a collage of parts from several years of series vehicles - '62 S2 109 tub, '68 S2 88 parts vehicle, a bunch of '73 S3 88 body bits and the 1996 Disco that forms the basis of this build - to choose my parts from. The only ownerships I have are for the '62 S2 and the disco, so I will be registering the final build as a '62 S2 88. Hopefully the idiots (sorry, I meant helpful staff) at ICBC (the local government insurance we are forced to use) will not notice the 109 box... :oops:

After my last post I tried to decide whether to use the S3 bulkhead and dash or the bulkhead from the '68 S2. Personally I like the S2 style of interior, although there has to be a way to tidy up the demister hoses (more later). I had already mounted the S3 bulkhead before I got the S2 one, but I decided to see how difficult it would be to repair and use the S2 one. This is what it looked like before I started: However, after dismantling it and starting to cut out the rusty bits, it started to look like this: At which point I decided it was scrap and I would need to look for a "Plan B" solution and went back to the S3 bulkhead. At first it seemed like it would be a good solution. And it was not as rotted out as the S2 one, but still did have some rust issues... And after I pulled it apart, the console was completely rotted out. The only thing holding the paper thin or missing metal structure together was the foam insulation and imitation leather wrapping. Only the British would use plain painted sheet metal for a heating/cooling system.... And, S3 dash components appear to be "unobtainium". Sigh. So now I needed a "Plan C".

So onto Plan C - What I decided to do, was to convert my S3 bulkhead with a custom S2 style metal console. The old rotted S2 bulkhead was still good enough to take measurements from and my MIG welder needed some exercise anyhow, so how hard could it be to fab one up. So off to Princess Auto and got myself a cheap sheet metal bender, which of course I then had to reinforce for strength. Oh well. (Apparently my wife thinks I am a glutton for punishment. But what else am I to do In my spare time? :mi5: )

After many trials and tribulations, beer and wasted metal, I ended up with this: Not too bad after all.

I had already fabbed up a transmission tunnel cover to mount the gear and Hi-Lo shifters, and modified the bulkhead for it. So next was more cutting and welding (and more beer and wasted metal) to add replacement footwells and the custom dash to the S3 bulkhead. The footwells were fairly straight forward, although I encountered a lot more rusted out, thin metal needing replacing. The final product was this: And mounting it back onto the Disco frame it looks like this: The red strap was just to ensure it was vertical while I checked door and fender fittings and to figure out where to mount the footwell to frame braces.
Seems to be OK so far. At least I know no one else's conversion out there will look the same as my conversion.... :bounce:

More updates later.

Nice work 👍🏼 That dash turned out amazing!

Just a reminder, I still need those cab fixing brackets back! ;)

oldgravy wrote: Tue Jan 07, 2020 3:31 pm Just a reminder, I still need those cab fixing brackets back! ;)

They’re waiting for you to come by for a libation like you said you would do. :)

Looking really good Martin, its must be great when you can just make it up as you go along 8)

Does she / he / it have a name yet?

Lets see.... so next I adapter the Disco steering to the S3 Steering column and mounted brake Master Cylinder and booster to the stock brake pedal assembly. then I started work on mounting the Breakfast and radiator. Turns out the Disco frame where these need to mount is about 2-1/2" lower than the Series frames so you can't mount the breakfast directly to the cross member. I mocked it up with some box section steel I had: Looking pretty good, except for mismatched running light holes from the old fender headlight side to the new one. Guess I'll have to do some fancy bodywork to make them match. Unfortunately, aluminum welding is not my forte....
Anyhow, it was pretty level, so I welded up some brackets and tried a test mount with the rad I got by horse trading some Series 1 parts with Don at Rovalution. I was hoping to mount the transmission oil cooler under the rad. You can see it sitting there in the pic. However after remounting the breakfast and fenders, I found I they were too high and the fenders were not square with the bulkhead. I had to cut off the brackets (no I hadn't just tacked them), cut them down and re-weld. (The old adage is not: Measure twice, cut, weld on, mock up bits, swear a lot, cut off, cut down to size and re-weld brackets.) Unfortunately there isn't enough space now for the oil cooler, under the rad, so I will have to figure out something else.

Then I thought I'd try a rusted out Series 2 breakfast I had, to see how much space I had between it and the rad. Actually, there is almost 3 inches at the headlight openings, so off I went to Amazon and eBay looking for LED lights and found these that fit and leave me with almost an inch of clearance.: Now I had to refurbish the S2 breakfast. After much grinding, welding, more grinding, I ended up with: Woo hoo! Guess she's going to be a 4 headlighted beast. :bounce:

Next I decided to see what I could do to fix up the Kodiak Mk 2 heater that was in somewhat sad shape and VERY rusted out.
FIrst I had to cut out the rusted mount section. Sorry, forgot to take a pick before I cut. Then I started forming replacement parts and fitting them: The holes drilled in the mounting plate are for plug welds, to ensure I had a solid connection.

The old motor and and squirrel cage were toast. I found replacement motor and squirrel cage online. The motor is more powerful than the original, sealed, brushless (ie: won't wear out) and variable speed.

One of the complaints I always hear is how useless Land rover Series heaters are. I was quite surprised that the heater didn't have a recirculating mode. It's fresh air or off. As well, heating air below freezing requires a lot more energy that taking warm air and heating it further. So I decided to see if I could figure out a way to create a recirculating air circuit. There is lots of space in the footwell between the hot air opening and the door, so maybe I could ad an air intake there and figure out how to route the air there or to the fresh air intake.

My solution was to cut off the rusted out 4-1/2" air intake tube and create a 5" square box with 2, 4-1/2" holes. One on the end and the other on side facing the footwell. Here are the 3 main heater body parts after sandblasting and a coat of galvanizing primer, but before I sorted out the flap and hose connections. Next I needed to figure out how to make a damper flap. I took a stainless rod and cut a slot and drilled a few holes in it. Then I made a rectangular flap and mounted it on the rod. I'll weld on the bell crank arm once I figure out where the control cable will mount, so I get the angles right.

In the box section of the air intake it looks like: I'll glue 1/8" rubber on both sides of the flap to make a tight seal, in the final product.

So then I formed and welded 4-1/2" tube sections to the two openings in the intake box. I apologize for the shitty looking welds as it turned out I was running out of mig mix gas, so the gas flow was almost nil causing what you see. I should have stopped, but didn't. I have a refilled gas cylinder now but the damage is done. I'll have to grind it down and clean it up before the unit is finished.

The bulkhead currently looks like: and mounting the heater on it: That's as far as I've gotten with the heater. Still need to finish cutting the cabin air intake hole in the footwell. I plan to use a cover grill from a cheap 5" or 6" speaker as the cabin air intake grill and will put some kind of filter material behind the grill as well.

M.

Wow love the heater idea, hate the 4 head light look pick one or the other lol

That's cool. Nice work!

Wait, you're going to have functioning heat and defrost?!!!!

That's sacrilege! Next thing you are going to want functioning wipers that don't fall off. This is a slippery slope you're on Martin.

swamijake wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2020 3:43 pm Wait, you're going to have functioning heat and defrost?!!!!
That's sacrilege! Next thing you are going to want functioning wipers that don't fall off. This is a slippery slope you're on Martin.

Who needs wipers when you can lower the windscreen?? :bounce:

I got a bit of time to work in the garage on Sunday.
I finished the heater box, now modified to both recirculate and supply fresh air.
Welds are cleaned up, I reattached the cable bracket to be in line with the flap actuation lever and tacked on the lever.

Recirculate mode (flap up) Fresh air mode (flap down) It will have to sit in a box on the shelf for now and wait till I have lots more bits to send off to the powder coater for a nice black coating.

Next? Finish right side mud shield, straighten front fender outer panels and re-attach the headlight panels. Then onto finishing the dash (electrical & heating cutouts, and surface finishing. Long ways to go yet!

looks good so far

Well I got busy yesterday and made up an aluminum cowling for the radiator and mounted the 2 12" cooling fans.
The cowl: Cutting the 12" holes in the panel was .... interesting. I decided to modify my 3" fly cutter to make a 6" cutter to mount in my small milling machine. I cut a 7" length of 1/2" dia. steel rod, drilled and squared a hole at one end for the cutting tool, cut a locking groove into the other end and mounted it in the existing cutter arbor (the centre drill holder). Guess I hadn't realized the amount of torque cutting the thin aluminum would exert and the arbor started flexing in the mill, causing the cutter not to stay parallel to the aluminum surface. Made for an interesting few minutes as it kept jamming. Sorry no pics as I needed both hands. I slowed down the rotation speed and very gently cut each hole. Took about 15min each, but I still have both arms and eyes, all fingers and no broken equipment. :mrgreen:

Cowl mounted to the Rad: Rad and Cowl mounted to the frame. Clearance to the engine is enough that I can change the fan belt if needed (barely): I even pieced together a lower Rad hose from two hoses I had. I had to cut out the section with the hose to feed the pressurized coolant reservoir, so I'll add a spigot in the gauge hole in the connector (the small black thingey 1/2 way along the hose) to add another hose to feed the reservoir: And did a trial fit of my replacement transmission oil cooler in front of the rad: It doesn't look like I will have enough space between the breakfast and rad to mount headlights after all. Sigh - a lot of work resurrecting the old rusted out S2 breakfast gone to waste. Guess I'll have to go back to plan B - adapt and use the Series 3 breakfast and just have 2 headlights.

If you have sharp eyes, you might notice that I riveted the fender headlight panels to the fender. My Birmabright welding attempts with scraps I had cut from the fenders to get them to fit, were a disaster. So rather than destroy my good parts, I decided to use solid rivets. Seems to be fine and once all is painted, should not be too, too noticeable. :oops:

One thing I discovered - The oil lines from the engine to the rad use a different connector than in the Defender rad I have. The radiator connector is a male-male NPT/JIC adapter: The end of the oil line pipes & nut use an o-ring to seal and a different thread: I did a bit of investigating and it seems Land Rover switched from the JIC to an ORFS (O-Ring Face Seal) connection between 1995 and 1996 model years. And, of course my Rad is pre 1996 and my engine is 1996. So now I have to look for a couple of male-male ORFS/NPT adapters to make them fit. I just hope they aren't a combination of metric and imperial because that will really be a pain to sort out. Always something.

M. :mi5:

I've found the people at new line hose in Port Kells (just west of 192nd on 94th) to be very helpful when looking for oddball fittings.

looks like it is coming along nicely

Well.... The 1/2inch tube was some kind of metric tube fitting. The rad fittings turned out to be 3/4" BSP (14tpi) / BSP pipe thread. BSP and NPT are pretty much interchangeable. So, I went to New Line hydraulics (thanks for the suggestion Jake) and based on their advice, ended up cutting off the end of the pipes and mounting 1/2" flare SS compression fittings, with standard 3/4" flare / pipe thread adapters. Works perfectly. Forgot to take pics, Duh..... :albino:

A few days ago I finally got around to doing something definitive for shifting the transmission. I came across a used Lokar hot rod automatic shifter. It looks like a normal series manual shifter, but shifts an auto tranny using a 1/4” pin moving along a quadrant shift plate.

I had already mounted the hi-low/4x4 lock shifter, but decided to move it further forward to make room for the new/used tranny shifter. I then mocked up the mount for it.
Great, now to figure out how to make it correctly shift the ZF tranny. I measured the movement of the original Disco shifter cable, for each gear. Total movement, 2”. Then I measured how much movement the Lokar shifter had. 1.25”. Damn. Ok, I need to make a new shift plate.
First. Made a drawing... then I started fabricating the new shift plate.. ZF is Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, 3,2,1st. I cut hard settings for the park, reverse & neutral locations, and small divots for drive to 1st. the final product.

Then I bolted it into the shifter Park setting: And checked that it would actually shift. Drive setting: Next I remounted on the tranny and measure the actual movement for each gear setting and fabricated a new arm and rod to connect to the original shift cable.
It works !! :bounce:

A few shots of the finished assembly You can see the linkages I made for the relocated hi-low lever to work Seat box back on. The shift lever is in the “parked” setting
The gear shift lever is too long. I’ll have to trim and re-thread the end for the knob, once I mount the defender seats I have. The brown seat is temporary, just to help me figure out ergonomics.

Bed time.

it is coming along nicely Martin,

Here is how the shift lever works.
Park Reverse Neutral Drive To move from one setting to the next you pull the lever to the left to unlatch it, then pull it or push it to the appropriate setting.

I’m planning to cut off the shift lever at the green tape and re-thread the end for a std Series shift knob.

Today I mocked up a transmission tunnel/centre console. This is what I came up with:
I left it wide on the pass side, so I could embed a couple of drink holders (per a request from my better half)

Now to figure out where to put the hand brake lever. :D

Looking good. 8)
Don't forget to put some thought into how to make it easily removable. Once driving, It will likely be on and off a few times until you get it right .
Are you planning a middle seat or a cubby box?

Thank Andy.
Cubby box of some type.

You could use flush paddle latch of some sort, make them permanent for easy access

ANDYD wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2020 6:57 pm Don't forget to put some thought into how to make it easily removable. Once driving, It will likely be on and off a few times until you get it right.

Ah yes... Measure twice; cut once; try to fit; swear; repeat 3 more times; lots of swearing; throw the non-fitting parts away; go out and get beer; go watch TV for the evening. :oops:

Well with the pandemic raging and all this time I'm now spending at home, I decided to see if I could make my own parts de-ruster from odds and ends I had around the house. What I came up with after scouring the internet for ideas, is a DIY "Ball Mill", also known as a rotary tumbler. Basically it is a tube with one fixed and one removable end, filled 1/3rd with sand blasting media and your nuts and bolts and other parts that will fit, and rotated slowly for a number of hours. The tumbling action and parts banging against each other, scrubs off all (well most) of the rust. A construction site across the road provided me with a length of broken 6" PVC watermain pipe and one cap. I had to buy the other cap ($7). The wood, casters, other bits and electric motor I scrounged out of my long term used and extra parts repositories. :bounce: I also bought a 50lb bag of sand blast media for $14. Total cost=$21. These pics are from my 1st version, which rotated too fast to do any tumbling - centrifugal force kept everything stuck to the walls. A short video:
DIY Tumbler
My 2nd version, in order to make it rotate slower, required me cannibalizing the pulleys and 2 speed motor from an old band saw I haven't used in years. Pics of it in my next entry.

Now you just need a plating setup to take all your bolts back to shiny new.

So here is the final setup. I also drilled and mounted two pieces of 1"x2" scrap wood, opposite each other, along the inside the length of the tube, to improve the tumbling action. Works like a charm. Here it is running:
DIY Tumbler V2

Below are some before and after bolts. Even odd shaped bits. For really bad cases like these were, it won't get out the worst of the rust, but does get over 90%. :mrgreen: And Jake - what makes you think I don't have the stuff needed for a small DIY zinc plating setup???? :bounce:

Yesterday I did a trial mount of the fenders, radiator and breakfast.

Here is the backside of the Radiator with the cooling fans mounted: The front side. I decided not to go with a 4 light front end and modified my S3 breakfast to fit. There really wasn't enough room for clearance from the headlights to the rad using the S2 breakfast and it did block a lot of the air from the rad. The military hood is via Matt in Victoria. The grill is from Jeremy in N.Van. I like it way better than the original plastic grill. You can see the replacement tranny oil cooler behind the centre section. I still have to sort out the plumbing to it (something for tonight)

Because my hybrid is a 100", and I am using a 109" box, I moved the bulkhead quite a ways forward. This means the front axle is a about 6" closer to the bulkhead than normal. Yes the wheels (235/85r16) still clear with about 3" of space at full lock and articulation. Not too, too bad (I hope!). However, it also meant I had to cut and reform the fender cutouts. This is how it looks now: More later.
M.

Hey Marty,

Like the nut & bolt tumbler, would the pipe hold liquid if you were to use a de-greaser or such like?
Can you start on the Hot Galvanizing Dip next, that would be great :D

Maybe some Defender Flared arches would help to centralize the wheel in the fender? Then you would need bigger wheels or spacers ummm maybe not!

Well, not much progress over the summer. Camping and day trips, and looking after the granddaughter every Fri/Sat put a damper on my progress. I did manage to get the bulkhead sand blasted a few weeks ago.
Before: After: I had this past week off, and no kids around, so was able to get more hours in. Because I made a custom S2 style console for my S3 bulkhead, none of the standard mounting points existed. So, first I made up and welded on tabs for the vent controls and defroster panel:
Next I remounted the bulkhead (thanks for the assistance Andy D!) and bolted up the steering column. Then I mounted the wiper motor to the left of the steering column and drilled a hole for it to protrude above the console so the wiper assembly can screw into it. Then I mounted the vents and control arms and mounted the rail for the defroster outlets (thanks for the rail Matt M!)

This past weekend I finally built the transmission tunnel. First I mocked up (for the upteenth time) a design using Bristol board.
Then I cut out the panel shapes from 1/16” aluminum.
Then I bent them up, but of course didn’t have my camera handy 😬 needless to say, it was a painful process using my little Princess Auto bender. Then, many trial fits:

Next I drilled mounting screw holes and refit:
The final tunnel looks like:
Then I figured out where and how to mount the hand brake. I decided to use the stock Disco lever and mount it in the standard (left hand drive) location. So I had to make a bracket to hold it, separate from the seat box. I ended up making a bracket from some scrap steel and tacking it to the LH tranny mount. I will drill some bolt holes later and cut the tacks to make it removable for reassembly.
Doesn’t look too bad in the footwell and is out of the way of my leg. Push to engage, pull to release. Then, clean up the mess in the garage, a well deserved beer and Labour Day steak dinner. :bounce:

Now that I’m re-energized, there will be more progress over the next few weeks. Next on the agenda, a heater/air/defroster distribution box.

That tunnel looks pretty great! Not out of character at all.

So I got busy wth cardboard last night and mocked up the heater/defrost distribution box. A few pics:
I think I might take an inch off the bottom. It seems too deep for my ascetics. You can see the line I drew on it, in the middle picture. I still have to figure out placement for floor vents and a defroster louver on/off control. More to come.

Oh, and the brown seat is just temporary as I don’t want to dirty my nice Ex-Defender seats (the one on the left). It’s from an old Triumph sports car build, if anyone wants it free.

Well after much designing, bending, cutting, drilling, welding, trial fitting; swearing, beer, cutting welds, redesigning; more swearing, more beer, more bending, more cutting, more welding, more trial fittings, lots of grinding, lots of welding, lots more beer, and final test fitting..... here is my version of an air distribution box.
The line of rivets holds a divider plate, separating the defrost and floor airways. The lever at the drivers end turns a flap at the other end, to direct the airflow up, both, or down. I went to my local wreckers and grabbed a selection of air diffusers, rectangular and round. I finally selected a pair of 3-1/2” round diffusers that can rotate, open and seal.

The most difficult part was trying to get all the bends right, given my cheap Princess Auto bender. I never had an original air box. Matt Mepham gave me a very rusted one from a Mk1 Kodiak that I thought I would try to resurrect, but it was too far gone. So I designed one using the basic Mk1 shape, tailored to my needs. I made the box out of stainless steel (as I already had several 22 gauge sheets of it in the garage), so it should never rot out. 😬

I didn’t realize how hard the stainless I had, was. Drilling it was a bitch. I must have broken 15 drill bits and had to keep sharpening them as well. My old high school machine shop instructor (circa 1967) would be amazed I actually remembered how to do it.

Next on my list, assemble and mount the heater box and test the airflow.

M

Very nice, better put a patent on it :wink:

That looks great 👍🏼 Also I may have missed this but what seats are you running?

franko wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 8:49 pm That looks great 👍🏼 Also I may have missed this but what seats are you running?

Thanks. I have a set of grey Britpart Defender seats, but while I’m doing the build, I’m using an old set of brown seats taken from a Triumph sports car rebuild I did years ago, for the mock ups. They are available cheap if anyone wants them.

SO I got busy this past week and finally go around to making up an S2 wiper cover plate. I have a sample one I borrowed from Matt M and tried to make a copy.
To make a very long story short, after a number of attempts at trying to form the recessed shape out of sheet metal, all failures, I gave up and made a number of plain flat ones. Oh well..... :?
And mocked up on the dash: The one on the far right will cover the fuse panel, as I'm going to use a lot of the original Disco wiring (Fuel Injection, ECM, etc.)

I also have a single switch panel borrowed from Andy D and a gauge panel from my parts vehicle to fit beside it, to the right of the steering wheel, but I decided to make a double wide single panel instead. While I was at it I happened to get a call from Andy and as we chatted, we realized his switch panel had an extra hole, taped over. So I said I'd make him a replacement with just the two holes he needed. I had run out of aluminum, so made his from thin sheet metal.
Now that summer is over, I feel like I'm making progress. Who knows, the "Franken-Rover" might even be on the road sometime next year! :bounce:

I've got a finger brake if you need to use one.

Thanks Jake. I might take you up on it and really appreciate the offer. I still have to build an under-drivers-seat, battery box and a few storage boxes for mounting in front of the rear wheels. Will contact you offline once I'm ready to build those.

Thanks again Jake.

Looking good Martin.

This build is unreal. keep up the great work!

So I have the cables with control knobs for my Kodiak heater, and just purchased a Cole-Hersee two speed heater switch. The heater switch has a cheap plastic knob which I intensely dislike. This morning I went out to garage with the intention of sorting out some kind of a replacement knob.

I was out for about 10 min, still cleaning up from previous stuff, when I could hear the wind start to blow. Then my phone rings and the wife says the fence is wobbling in the wind. And at the same time the power goes out. Great.... So I brace the fence with some wood and screws (Yay for battery operated tools!) and close up the garage to wait. Power didn't come back on till just before dinner. Sigh. :roll:

After dinner I went back out to the garage to figure out what to do re the knob. The switch pulls out - off, low speed, high speed. The knob is screwed on a 10-32 threaded shaft. I decided to try to match the other control knobs shape with whatever I could scrounge up in my pile of bits. I have lots of aluminum scraps, a lathe and my high school machine shop training (mind you that was over 50 years ago.... :oops:), so the decision was easy. I mounted the aluminum bar in the lathe and started cutting and shaping it. After about 20 min of careful manual lathe work (no computer controlled CNC stuff in this shop!), I had the shape I was hoping for. So I cut it off from the bar, drilled a hole in the bottom, threaded it and then trial fitted it to the switch. The shape is close to the other knobs and it works like a charm.
Tomorrow I'll buy a set of cheap letter punches to punch "Heater" onto the knob face and paint the letters red to match the other controls.

Hmm. Now what to do about a matching knob for the 2-speed windshield wiper switch? :bounce:

M.

Nice work!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not much progress since the last post. Changed my mind a few times as to what types and how many, gauges and switches to install. I have both series 2 and 3 speedometer and secondary gauges and the various switches.

I refurbished the S2 ignition switch. A spring and small ball bearing popped out when I took it apart. Took about 5 attempts at getting it back together until I had it working correctly. I’ve pulled the series gauges apart to clean them up as best I can and paint the bodies and bezels black. May have to replace the glass due to discolouration and rust pitting. I’m going to use S3 - 90mph speedo (wishful thinking for a Series in the mid 60’s) and the S3 water/fuel and charge light.
Finally settled on five, 2” black face gauges: ammeter, voltmeter, oil temp, oil pressure and a fuel gauge. Here is the first mock up with the wiper switch and aux tank fuel gauge on the left, the other gauges and heater controls on the right.
Tomorrow I hope to sort out the steering shaft mounted turn signal switch and the main panel switches. Nice not having to worry about originality. :D

M

Looking Good!

Been a few weeks since my last update. I guess life and Covid can get in the way of posting regular updates............. :)

I picked up some heavy aluminum checker plate at the start of Dec and cut out some new floor panels.
A while back I had adapted an old Lokar hotrod floor shifter to use as my automatic gear shifter. I also managed to pick up a used Lokar combination, shift indicator and surround trim ring. In order to mount mount the trim ring, I needed to move the entire shift assembly rearwards about 2". While I was at it, I cut down and re-bent the shift lever to look more like a Series shifter.
My wife wondered into the garage while I was admiring my work and asked, what are you going to do about a matching ring for the 4x4 lever? Gotta be one in every crowd... So I said, no worries, I have a milling machine, I'll make one myself! This is what followed:
The Lokar trim ring is cut using CNC. My little mill is completely manual. Milling curves, and getting it right, is ... 'somewhat challenging'. As well, the Lokar ring has a 1/4 round chamfer cut around both the ring outside and inside. Oh joy. But, after careful work and much swearing, I ended up with this: I still have to hand finish the chamfers on the inside curves to smooth them out and then polish the ring. Not a good as CNC, but I'm fairly pleased with what I produced in my garage with my old Taiwanese bench top mill/drill.

Finally, my original seat box had a lot of cuts and holes that needed repair, and the battery box was rusted beyond repair. So I bought a used, military seat box a while back that did not have a battery box under the drivers seat. I decided to make a box with enough room for dual batteries and most of my electrics/fuses, etc. Because it's a Disco1 frame, I figured I could expand the box inwards over the frame rail and downwards with a removable base (in case of damage, rust, etc.) as well. I made up some templates out of heavy cardboard and started cutting. I chose heavy gauge mild steel for the sides and even heavier galvanized plate for the base.

The seatbox:
Fitting up panels:
The almost finished box: The base is riveted in and sealed with seam sealer, so all I need to do is drill out the rivets to remove and replace it. Still to do, drill several holes on the inside and back panels for electrical wiring, and a drain hole in the base. Then I can rivet it onto the seatbox. What else is there to do on a Covid Christmas day... :bounce:

Impressive work!

Thanks for the compliment oldgravy.

We've been looking after our granddaughter this weekend so not much progress. I did manage to get out for a few hours this aft while she was napping.

The other day I redid the top of the tranny cover as I didn't like the way it mounted to the sides. Now it curves over and screws into the sides, rather than from the top with an exposed seam. Much nicer. Today I cut out a plywood frame that matched the overall shape of the shifter trim rings, to mount the faux leather shifter shrouds to. It fits on the underside of the tunnel cover and the trim rings screw through the cover and into the plywood. I did a few trial fits, then glued and stapled the shrouds to the wood, screwed it together and refitted the cover over the shift levers. This is what I ended up with:

The black bar to the left of the gear shift lever is a gear indicator that will light up to show which gear is selected, once I figure out how to trigger it, that is. (It's an auto, but the lever makes it look like a standard. :twisted: )
Levers in park & low range Levers in park and high range. There is space between the two levers - the angle of the photo makes it look like they are touching. Levers in drive and low range Just as I finished and took these pics, the wife and granddaughter came out to see what I was doing.
My granddaughter is Land Rover crazy at 3 yrs old (I'm so proud). She insisted on testing out the truck, so I remounted the steering wheel and hoisted her into the seat.... :lol: FYI - The cubby box in the pic will be recovered in black eventually. Shift lever in the pic is in the 1st gear position. Lots of clearance.

M.

Well, its been a while since my last post. I got distracted by holidays and grandkids for a while and then got a killer deal on an old Warn 8274 winch. For those that don't know, these are the hardiest, and in many peoples opinions, the best winches ever made. Been in production since 1974 and are still made today. There are tons of upgrades and modifications available for DIY and purchase (if so inclined) This is what an old one (not mine) looks like. Mine came in several pieces. And after I removed the cable and motor it looked like: There was over 120ft of heavy duty cable on it and it was a tangled mess in my yard, so what does one do? Why make and wind it onto a home made spool... The winch likely hadn't ever been serviced, had a bit of grease but no oil inside. It was rusted both outside and in some places on the gears inside. And there was strange scoring on some of the gear faces. :cry:
So, I cleaned up as much as I could by wire brush, ID'd and ordered all new bearings and seals, went to a fellow club member's place and cleaned the spool on a big lathe (thanks Jake!!) and the next day cleaned the cases in another member's sand blaster (Thanks Terry!!).
Because these winches have been around so long, there is a wealth of knowledge on the web. Common upgrades include drilling and tapping oil filler and drains in the main case halves, adding a bolt to secure the brake plates (instead of a wimpy circlip), adding a lock pin to the free-spool lever, swapping out the old 4 relays for a modern winch contactor unit and upgrading from the stock 4.5hp to a 9hp electric motor. There are even some companies that provide a replacement double motor upper case (2x 9hp = waaay too much for me :bounce: ).

So I decided the next thing I'd do was add a bolt to the end of the brake shaft to hold a sleeve and nut to replace the stock circlip retainer. The shaft is hardened steel. Most drill bits just get dull and don't even leave a mark on it. More reading on the web and I ordered a set of carbide tipped bits from Amazon. Very similar looking to concrete drill bits. So this morning I drilled the end of the brake shaft with the new bits. Like going through warm butter. Wow!. I tried tapping the hole for a bolt, but it just dulled my tap, so option number two was to counter sync the hole and flush weld in a stud. Then I cleaned up the end of the weld on the lathe to re-flush the edge. Next step is to machine up the retainer ring and test out the new brake retaining unit. Something for tomorrow. :bounce:

Glad you managed to find something to cut it!

Here is my first trial assembly of the brake unit. The washers are temporary as I will machine a collar tomorrow to replace them. Once fitted and a assembled with a locknut, I’ll trim off the end of the threaded shaft.

The pawl/shaft of the free spool mechanism was horribly rusted and really not worth repairing. Warn only sells the complete replacement assembly and for big $$. So, I have lots of 3/8” steel rod scraps, I’ll make my own replacement. First machine a new shaft... Next, cutout the gear lever... Verify the size and shape... And assemble. Next was to drill the case the lever slides in and then the shaft, to accept a pin that will prevent any accidental disengagement while winching. The finished bits.. And reassembled. There are a few mars on the shaft where i held it in a vice and idiot me forgot to use soft jaws. Couldn’t quite polish them out, but the shouldn’t affect its operation. :oops:

Today’s plan is to add oil fill and drain holes to the gear case and make the brake retaining collar. More later.

Here is the finished brake shaft retaining collar mounted on the shaft
Next oil fill and drain holes were drilled and tapped with a 1/4" NPT tap and 2 brass plugs. Here is the top case: I repeated this for the drain in the main gear case, but forgot to take pics.... :oops:
Next will be welding tabs to add two strengthening bars across the back of the winch drive and support cases. Apparently the support case tends to flex under heavy load resulting in uneven wear on the bearings. I have it all prepped, but need to get someone to TIG weld the aluminum tabs to the cases. Once that is done I can paint the cases and then once my new spool bearings arrive, I can re-assemble the winch. :bounce:

A few weeks ago I picked up a set of used galvanized Defender wheel arches and modified them to work with my bulkhead placement (about 6" forward of stock) and to line up correctly under the Series 3 fenders I have. This required me sectioning and adding 6" of metal at the middle of the arches. Seems I am always making more work for myself then I need to. Sigh.... Here is the arch attached to the assembled LH fender. The fender arch opening is cut to clear the 265/75-16" tires, based on my revised bulkhead position. Anyhow, after getting it all to fit, I then realized that their was no way to access the top of the shock tower. More needless work I caused myself.... So I modified my Series 3 inner fenders to sort of mimic Defender ones. In hindsight I should have done this from the start. It's going to to make mounting parts, routing electrics and a raised snorkel much easier. As well, I added bracing to the cut and bent edges, which eliminated some existing sagging along the tops and making the fenders much stronger. :bounce:

Almost ready to pull the motor to see what shape it is in.....

Good progress Martin 8) Its amazing how much you can get done in retirement!

Nice panel work, maybe I will drop off my S1 panels with a bottle of whiskey :drunken:

So I got back to finishing the Warn winch. Last week a club member welded the four tabs for mounting the rear bracing to the aluminum housings (sorry no pics of the actual welding). I can weld steel fine, but aluminum requires a finesse I don't possess (not to mention a lack of TIG equipment). This past weekend I painted the cases.
Then I pressed in new needle bearings and put the gears back in the upper case. Warn says not to remove these gears because the shaft they ride on is pressed in using a special tool that prevent it from "walking out" under load. They want you to buy a whole new upper unit for big $$$$$. My solution was to machine up a slightly longer shaft with groves at each end for circlips. Works like a charm.
Next I decided to try out my hand at DIY Zinc plating to refinish the cleaned up brake plates and various nuts, bolts and other rusted metal. I had a bit of trepidation getting started, but it turned out quite simple and easy to do. The plating solution consists of vinegar, Zinc Sulfate Monohydrate powder ($12 from Amazon), sugar and tap water. The sugar is used as a "brightener" - almost gives the plating a chrome like look. Otherwise it comes out very dull, or so I'm told. Here is my little Zinc plating setup. There are two zinc strips hanging on opposite sides of the bucket and attached to the positive of my power source. Parts to plate are hung from the copper pipe which is connected to the negative power. The power is supplied by an old 12v adapter I had lying around. It produces 12v at .2amp. I cut off the old socket end and attached alligator clips and used a meter to verify which end was positive and negative. :lol: I also heated the solution to 120F with a little immersion heater I found in the same box that the 12v adapter was in. Seemed to improve the plating process.

To plate, the first thing you do is degrease the bits, then soak them in muriatic acid (available from Cdn Tire) to remove all rust, rinse in water, attach a hook made from solid copper wire and lower into the plating solution. After a few minutes the zinc strips and parts usually start bubbling a bit. Reading online, they say you have to be careful to calculate the right amount of current for the size of part. I didn't have any way to vary it, so I just watched and guessed when the bits had enough plating. The longer you leave the bits in, the heavier the plating. Small bits I left in for 5-10 min. The large brake disks closer to an hour each. The bits come out a dull grey colour with a bit of a brownish sheen (from the sugar I used - all I had in the house was brown sugar :bounce: ). You rinse them in water and then polish. Below are two of the brake disks, left side right out of the bucket, right side after polishing with a wire wheel.
I re-plated every rusted part I could find and then went about re-assembling the winch. Here it is:
Tomorrow I'll start refurbishing the relays and wire it to the motor. Then I'll use jumper cables and a spare car battery to test it out.

It does indeed look great.

Well I got the winch wired up yesterday. So, I went and grabbed a battery I had at the side of the garage, connected the leads to it, crossed my fingers and tried the remote. Success! In button spins the drum the correct way. Out button does the opposite. I even hooked up and tested a wireless remote. Works great.
Now to build a winch bumper :bounce:

What wireless remote did you use?

swamijake wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:07 pm What wireless remote did you use?

Harbour Freight. Bought new off Craigslist. Cut off the plug and wired the transmitter direct to the contactor. Will eventually hard mount it under the Frankenrover hood.

I got started on my winch bumper late yesterday. I want to make one like this (pic stolen from web): I ran off to Metals Supermarket and bought a length of 3x4 x .125 rectangular tube. After some measuring I started cutting the lengths and angles. Next was cutting and welding the curved closed ends of the raised bumper sections.
Then I started on the centre cutout on the main section, where the winch will mount and the cable will go through.
The opening on the backside is 1” wider then the front. For the cable to not bind on the bumper when spooling and winching, the front, hawse side, is 1.5” wide, the back, winch side is 2.5” wide. I added reinforcing tubes for the bolts, to prevent the bumper collapsing when winching.

I then did a quick mock up on the bench before calling it quits for the night.
Still have to box and weld in the cable opening to seal out cable crap and water from the rest of the bumper, weld on the raised ends, close off the 45^ cuts, weld on mounting tabs and upper winch mounts. Still lots to do.

More later.

That looks great... Exactly what i want for my bumper as well. Settling for something more standard thoughas funds are getting tight

Today I boxed in the winch bumper cable tunnel and made and welded on the upper winch mounts.
Tomorrow I’ll work on frame mounts, make a set of D rings as part of the upper mounts, and possibly even weld on land close off the upper bumper sections. :bounce:

Today I almost finished the new winch bumper.
I made a set of integrated, shackle D-ring, upper bumper mounts and lower mounts. Bolted them to the frame and slid in the centre section of the bumper in between them. A little bit of fiddling to get it all to line up and centre, and then tack welded it together.
I took it off and completed the welding on the bench, then tacked on the upper wing sections. A trial fit, perfect!. I left the rest of the welding (4 blanking plates) for tomorrow.
I'm pretty happy with the results, so far.

Very nice booumper young lad! 8)

Maybe put "something" into the bumper cavity before you weld the blanks into place... kind of Time Capsule for someone to find in 200 yrs :wink:

Hi Andy. Only thing going inside will be air. Hopefully my welds are air tight so I can use it as an air reservoir. I drilled holes between the centre and end sections before I welded it. I’ll know once I put in a shrader valve and pressurize it, because aside from that ....... it’s DONE!! :bounce:

Well, last week I figured it was about time to do some more work on my coiler project, after ignoring it all summer. The front end and bulkhead bodywork is fairly well in hand, so time to see whether or not I need another motor. (The truck wasn’t running when I bought it) So, several weeks ago, off came the bodywork, borrowed an engine hoist and out came the engine and tranny. Actually, after much swearing, scraped knuckles, broken bolts and torn engine/tranny mounts, out they came. Then I cleaned up the frame, mounted a tow bar and prepped it to sit out on the driveway for the winter while the engine/tranny are gone over.
Yesterday I started the motor tear down. The good news is the block looks solid with no slipped liners or obvious cracks. The head gaskets actually looked like new. The bad news is the previous owner didn’t like oil changes….. :evil:
Lots of cleanup to do.

But, there are virtually no ring ridges or slop in the pistons. And, it doesn’t look like it was burning oil or coolant. Cam is most likely shot, and the lifters I’d replace anyway. I already have a set of those and cam bearings. Depending on the the crank wear, I may be lucky. It will come apart this weekend.

So, at a minimum I’ll still need to get headbolts, a timing chain, frost plugs, water pump, and gaskets. I have another set of rockers in fairly good shape, if needed. Depending on the crankshaft condition it may need a regrind or just a new set of bearings.
More to follow.

Well..... The 1996 4.0L Gems motor rebuild is likely not worth it. Worn out are the oil pump (scored), cam & cam bearings, lifters, cam chain and gears (badly scored), rockers and rocker shaft, main and con rod bearings, water pump and injectors. However, for some strange reason the block itself isn't cracked and the bores look good. The heads, pistons and con rods are also good. I haven't checked the rings or bore yet, but likely new rings at a minimum or else a rebore oversize and new pistons/rings. Lots of $$$$$$$$$ to redo this motor.

I do have a good set of rockers and shafts and a new cam and cam bearings left over from a previous build, which is good. But, I just checked and the cam is for a 3.9 with a Dizzy, not a 4.0. Typical..... :oops:

Might be cheaper to pick up some kind of mid 2000's GM LS engine and buy an adapter to bolt it to my tranny.

Anyone looking for a new stock 3.9L cam and/or good rockers and 4L block? :bounce:

Sorry to hear that Martin.

Well seeing as you didn't ask: I do like the LS engines, but if you go that route, there are a couple minor mods recommended to make sure it doesn't starve itself of oil on off camber driving. I think the main bits are the "dumb - bell" a little piece of plastic in the rear of the block that should be swapped for an aluminum one, A larger baffled oil pan and pickup which you'll probably need for a swap anyway, and replacing the the seal on the cam retention plate.

Also if you stay before 2006 you don't have to deal with displacement on demand nonsense. I think the best option is 04-05 gmc envoy's came with an aluminum 5.3 that has the lower profile intake manifold. I think it might even be lighter than your 4.0.

So after asking around for quite a while, I scored a 2nd 4.0L for free from a good friend.
It had a new cam, lifters, timing gear and rebuild heads, but apparently, even after the upper end work and with great compression, it still blew lovely clouds of blue smoke every time you backed off the throttle. Rather than do more work to it, it was swapped out for a diesel and the v8 had been sitting for 6 years outside, under wraps. I figured it can't be any worse than the 4.0L that I have and may just be stuck oil rings and a relatively simple fix (hope springs eternal.... :roll: ), so I brought it home. You can see the rust and corrosion from the backside of the motor, but that shouldn't affect what is inside (fingers crossed). First I pulled the exhaust manifolds and rocker covers. Nice! Then off came the intake manifold. Seemed someone went a bit crazy with the silicone sealant.... I wonder if it had been overheating? Anyhow, I pulled the heads. One side was definitely crudded up with major oil. And it appeared that some water had gotten inside and there was quite a bit of surface rust on the pushrods and a few of the rocker tower bolts.

Oh well, time to pull the oil pan then pistons and crank. For some reason, I neglected to take pictures while doing this and cleaning up, but aside from some minor surface rust on the exposed surfaces of the con rods and crankshaft, it all looked good. All bearing surfaces were immaculate.
The pistons crowns had a fair bit of oil and carbon build up, but it easily came off. There was very little build up of crud on the sides of the pistons and it too came off easily. However, the oil control rings in most of the pistons were completed jammed up with burnt on oil, wouldn't budge and I believe were the cause of the blue smoke. The amount of crud in the ring grooves after I got the rings out was ridiculous. I did remember to take a pic after I had cleaned up the pistons: The pistons have almost no wear so I was hoping to just hone the cylinders and reuse them. And then, then Murphy's Law came into play.

On close inspection, the rear two cylinders, 7 and 8 of, had slightly slipped liners. One was about 3/4mm down and the other about 1/2mm. Not a lot, but it might have been why there was moisture in the crankcase. If you look close, you can see that the liner is not flush with the surface. Now what to do...... I know! I have another block.

More to follow.

So I have the block from my original motor and it doesn't have any slipped liners. A quick check on the wear in this block's cylinders and then a check on the piston diameters from the new (to me) motor, told me that I likely could just get away with a hone and rings. The piston to cylinder gap would be right at the max tolerance, but hey, this is a budget build for a "franken-rover" that I'm doing on the cheap. The cam bearings in the block were shot, but I knew that I had a set of new cam bushes left over from a previous build many years ago. And when I went to dig them out of my parts stash, I also had a full set of rings. Bonus!

So the plan was to send the block out to be boiled clean, honed and the cam shells replaced then swap all the parts over to the old block. I took the old block, cam shells and the virtually new cam from the 2nd block, to Heads Unlimited in Surrey in lat December and got it back before Christmas. Sweet. I highly recommend their work.

I cleaned up the good crank and mounted it in the now clean block. Next in went the pistons. Then in went the new cam and lifters. Of course I forgot to take pics of that process...... :oops:
Then on to cleaning up the recently rebuilt heads from the 2nd block. Minor grunge build up on the chamber, exhaust valves and port. You can easily see that one side was way oilier than the other. I popped out the valves and proceeded to clean it all up. Everything went fine until the last intake valve. I have no idea what the yellow crud was. It wasn't rust and the intake port was full of it. Yuck.
Anyhow, I cleaned it up, reassembled the heads, cleaned the bolt holes in the block and started to mount the heads on the motor.

Of course it was going way too smooth at this stage so Murphy had to show up again. :roll:

For those not in the know, Rover 4.0 and 4.6 motors require the use of TTY stretch bolts (Torque To Yield). These can only be used once, then thrown away (or melted down and recast if you have a forge :alien: ). The tightening procedure specifies the following predefined pattern, torque them in all in order to 14lbs (just over finger tight), then mark with a white marker and rotate clockwise 90 degrees, rest a few minutes then repeat another 90 degrees. If you are like me, you will need a pry bar on the wrench to get enough leverage for the final 90s.

So, back to Murphy... The RH head torqued up fine and I moved over to the LH one. First set of 90s, perfect. Then I started on the first bolt of the 2nd set of 90 turns. As I wrenched, suddenly it came loose. OH NO! Yup. Aluminum is softer than steel so I stripped the threads in the block. :oops: I have no idea how many times the heads had been on this block and who knows how they were torqued previously. Ok, pulled up google and did a search. Success. A quick trip to Crappy Tire (Canadian Tire to non-Canadians) and I had this repair kit: Shortly the hole was rethreaded and the repair coil fitted. Whew! Saved. However, now I have to get a one half set of TTY head bolts as the ones I've already partially torqued can't be reused. Typical.

So why haven't I gone to ARP studs? Well given the unknown history of the block the hole may still have stripped; TTY bolts are cheap, a few bucks each; but a set of Rover ARP studs are over $300 up here in Canada.

Next installment in a few days, once I have new bolts. Time to see if I can strip any other holes. :twisted:

So . . . I have not had good luck with helicoils for head bolts. Haven't done it on a rover block but scrapped a motorcycle block trying. By all means try it out, but if if pulls out there are Time-serts and Huhn inserts:

http://www.timesert.com/html/LR.html

https://www.huhnsolutions.com/

I like the Huhn kit better and would buy the tools off you after your done.

Thanks for the info Jake, ..... but my thread repair worked!! The bolts easily torqued to the desired rating, this time around. And nothing stripped! Hard to believe. :bounce:
Pushrods fitted and rockers bolted on with no issue. Oil pump cleaned up and packed with vasoline to help with oil priming (no pics, my hands were to greasy :roll: )
Then the Timing Cover bolted on.
And then the valley pan and intake manifold bolted on. That's enough for a Friday evening. The hard work is done. Finishing of the motor now is just bolting on the sensors, intake and rocker covers. Simple

Then its onto the ZF tranny and LT230 transfer case. Always something else. :spinning:

Yay! looking good!

Well the engine is now complete and ready to go back into the frame when it’s painted. I only had to remove the intake cover, plenums and alternator bracket 3 times before I sorted out all my incorrect “assembly sequences”. :(
I had a “minor” detour 2 weeks ago. The transfer case whine in my ‘96 Disco daily driver had gotten to the point where earplugs weren’t enough, so I decided to rebuild the transfer case from the hybrid build, swap it into the truck, then deal with the case I removed. Turned out the donor case was in great shape and didn’t need a rebuild. Yay! Well…. It only took 2.5 days on my back on the garage floor under the damn truck, getting greasy and bruised, to complete the swap. “Murphy” must have rolled over in his grave laughing, what with all the f-ups along the way.
After much swearing, I got the donor case back in and all hooked up. Whoever in the UK that designed the plug connection locations for the front O2 sensors (top of bell housing behind the coil pack) was a bloody masochist. The scrapes on my hands won’t heal for weeks….

Then I tore into the removed case. The intermediate gears shaft was loose in the housing (a common issue) so the case was going to need repair. The various gears showed some signs of misalignment wear, but no serious damage. After a bit of searching, I found a case from a 200TDI that had already had the steel sleeve repair for the intermediate shaft holes and after some $$ and my old case, I set about the reassembly. New bearings, seals and intermediate shaft went in. Preloads set. All good. Ready for the hybrid install.
Idiot that I am, I didn’t realize until I was virtually done assembling it, that there are some variations in LT230 cases. The replacement case doesn’t have the casting bits for the auto tranny 4x4 shift-interlock. Oh well. Just means less wiring needed later in the build. :bounce:

Engine is looking fancy!

Next, with space in the garage, onto the wiring harness. GEMS rewiring apparently is not for the light hearted. The amount of interconnected bits feeding inputs the the Disco 1 ECM is simply ridiculous. Online, most people throw it away and go with an aftermarket setup. Well that is big bucks and I’m a cheap SOB. One way or another I will sort this out. The only nice piece is that the engine sub harness does not need to be touched, just everything else :roll: .

It begins….. I will have another update in a few weeks (or after I give up!).

I think I'm put on this planet to fix stuff .....

• - 8 or so weeks ago I took apart the motor for my Rover hybrid build and realized it was junk.
  - 6 or so weeks ago I got a 2nd Rover v8 motor from a friend, which turned out had 2 slipped liners (.... I was pre-warned). So I sent out my old block for tanking and honing, and over the next few weeks pieced together one (relatively) good motor using my old block and bits from both motors. I'll see if she blows oil later this spring when I put it in the series/coiler hybrid I'm building.
  - 4 weeks ago I replaced the muffler (that had sat at a Canada Post depot 15min from my house since mid Oct and was only delivered at the end of Jan!) on my wife's car.
  - 3 weeks ago I had to remove my daily driver Disco transfer box that was howling like a screeching cat, and take it apart only to find the dreaded intermediate shaft hole ovalling; So I took apart and rebuilt the box from my Rover hybrid build and put it into my truck, and then bought a good case and using the old gears rebuilt that box for use in the hybrid build
  - 2 weeks ago replaced the exhaust flex pipe on my wife's car (a Nissan Rogue)
  - Last week, every once in a while, my Disco would lose power for a second or two, then be fine. A bit of research indicated that it usually a dirty speed sensor assembly (which is painful to get at on the transfer box when in the truck. Idiot that I am, I didn't clean it when I replaced the box - typical....

This past weekend -

• - On Friday my Discovery suddenly started overheating on the highway; pulled off the road - no coolant in the overflow tank. Great... made it to a gas station and bought a jug of coolant ($$$) - it took the entire jug and was still low. By the time I got home it was running hot again. Next morning there was a big puddle under the rad. The original rad (clogged beyond repair) was replaced, by me, with a cheap Chinese knockoff 4 yrs ago.... Sigh.
  - The wife's car suddenly got "really" loud. The exhaust gasket at the flex pipe rear joint had blown apart, even though the bolts were still tight.

So....

• - Two days ago pulled the rad from the Disco (requires pulling the fan assembly - which only took me 3hrs, and a new very large wrench to get the damn thing off...sigh. The bottom spigot and rad side tank on the Chinese knock off are both made of heavy plastic. The bottom spigot bolts to the rad with 2-10mm bolts. The bolts screw into threaded inserts that look like they are PRESSED into the plastic tank wall. They look like the kind that you would press into wood.... Both had very slightly (a millimeter) pulled outwards, meaning the spigot was a bit loose and leaking like a sieve.... more sighs. I tried to pull the inserts out (screwed in the bolt with an oversized nut), but they are still very tight in the plastic and didn't pull any further outwards. I can only assume that given all the heat thaw cycles, the plastic softened enough to let them move a bit. So.... I roughed up the connection surfaces, added a thin o-ring and then epoxied (with plastic epoxy) and bolted the spigot back onto the side tank. After the epoxy set I put everything back together, filled the rad, got the motor hot and watched for leaks (none) and went for a shower.
  - Yesterday I pulled and cleaned the speed sensor from the hybrid's transfer box. Then I fought to pull out the old and swap in the cleaned sensor. It is in a tight space above the exhaust pipe and behind the parking brake. Several hours and multiple scrapes, contusions on my hands and wrists, and a lot of foul language later it was changed. A long test drive showed me: a) no rad leaks and b) no intermittent power losses. Hopefully she is now good for another 4 years or so (and yes, I can live with noisy lifters/rockers).
  - While out for the drive I bought new exhaust gaskets for the wife's car and a tube of muffler cement. Back home I jacked up her car, pulled apart the connections and re-sealed them with gaskets and cement. Let the cement set up for 3hrs and then took it for a drive. Nice and quiet again (for now anyhow).

So I ask you, was I really put on this planet just to fix stuff ? :rolly:

Wow busy few weeks!

Look on the good side, at least your not paying someone to do all these repairs ..... think of the savings $$$$$$$
Plus better that these things happen in town rather than on top of a mountain :wink:

The universe is out to get you

Not much progress the past month or so. Sent my custom winch bumper for my build out for galvanizing. And decided to get my Koenig winch bumper on my 80" galvanized at the same time. Well when dismounting it, I found out that my old Koenig winch had sucked in some water during one of my off road adventures with it several years ago and I didn't notice at the time. It was seized solid. (Stupid me.....) So, $$ later, I now have a fully rebuilt winch on my 80" with a number of parts on it newly galvanized, as well as the galvanized bumper. I was hoping to try to make the bumper for my hybrid into an air reservoir and it was air tight after welding. Before I dropped it off, I had pre-drilled holes at each end for drainage and that I was going to tap and mount fittings in them after I got it back. Well the galvanizing firm had drilled a bunch more drainage holes in the bumper before galvanizing. When I picked it up I wasn't happy at all and complained. They said they had to, to ensure complete inside coverage, but they then gave me zinc plugs to hammer into the holes to plug them. I hammered them in and filed them flush so they are almost invisible, but I seriously doubt that the bumper will be air tight now. Oh well. Always something.... :(

Aug 14 and she isn’t on the road yet, but I have been whittling away at bits, in between fixing and keeping running the wife’s car and my Disco 1 daily driver. Always something to take me away from my “project”. ☹️

So. Engine, tranny, transfer box, suspension are done. Wheel brake bits are done. Breakfast and bulkhead are painted. Breakfast, radiator, front bumper and winch are mounted. About1/2 of the wiring is done (the GEMS engine components, unless I really messed up. Will mount the bulkhead and steering tomorrow and then finish plumbing the brakes and m/c. So I am getting close….. (I know, I know - hope springs eternal :shock: )

Looking great!

Ok, I’ve likely lost 10-20 lbs in sweat over the last few days as it’s hot enough to cook eggs in the garage, but the bulkhead and steering are now mounted and the brakes are plumbed.

Brakes are done and bled. Accelerator cable made and installed. Wiper motor and wiper assembly in. Time to start fitting the fuel tanks then i’ll finish the wiring. Hopefully I haven’t messed up the GEMS wiring. 😳
Making progress! Yay! 🤗

Functioning wipers? Luxurious!

Looking good Marty, wont be long until the road test is here! keep it going :bounce:

Been making a fair bit of progress the past 2 weeks.

Got he seat box painted and mounted. Started figuring out the dual battery wiring. Re-welded the custom exhaust the previous owner mickey-moused. Every weld was porous and leaked. The arch over the rear axle was in the wrong place and needed to be moved back 2”, and I added a quiet resonator as well. My version is ugly, but she don’t leak or hit anything anymore. Then I insulated the bulkhead. Even did the brake tower. 🤗


Then I did the heater unit and got started figuring out where and how to mount the various bits needed to make her run. The GEMS cpu is now mounted on the bulkhead, behind the engine. I still have to make an insulated cover for it. All in all I’m quite pleased how she is coming together.

Ah yes, two steps forward and one back…. My daily driver, a ‘96 Disco 1, decided to start consuming copious amounts of coolant a few weeks back. I had most of the bits to do the head gaskets, but I’ve been waiting on a new oil pump before I pulled it apart. Pump arrived yesterday so today I began the disassembly. Oy. Dirty and greasy. Yuck. Once she cooled off, it took the rest of the day to get it down to bare heads. They’ll come off in the morning.

I’m not sure if this motor has ever been apart before as it has relatively low mileage (kilometerage?). Regardless, I don’t know it’s history before I bought it a few years ago. I’ve always done regular oil changes, Castrol 20/50, so expected the insides not to be too bad. Alas it was not to be. This is what the insides of the rocker covers look like:
The brown guck in the passenger side cover is scary. Yuck.

And this is inside the motor…. Surprisingly the cam looks ok at first glance. Once I’ve got the heads of I’ll know more.
Guess I’ll pull the oil pan while I’m at it and flush the entire block with brake cleaner to try to clear out as much of the crud as I can. Always something to slow down my series-hybrid build…. 😳😵‍💫

Well it took all day, a trip to Princess Auto and 3 to Cdn Tire, but the heads are off. Amazing what frozen bolts you can undo with a 40” breaker bar! 🤗 They don’t look bad at all.

Actually the cylinders also look good. No ring ridge at all. Cylinder 5 looks like it may be washed, but the matching head section isn’t, so I’m not sure about that. All sleeves are flush with the top of the block, so I may be lucky with this motor. M

Well my truck challenged me ….. and it won. It started losing coolant a few weeks ago and kept getting worse, so Sunday i took it apart. I thought I could do the head gaskets, lifters, oil pump and timing chain in two days. That is, until I opened it up and saw the crud build up. Ok, an extra day for cleaning and degreasing the parts and inside of the motor, so three days for sure. Yah, right…. Well today was day four and I ran out of steam with the exhaust to re-mount and fluids to fill. At least it will be on the road tomorrow. Sigh. 😵‍💫

M

Well the Disco is back on the road. Engine sparkling clean inside. Lifters, oil pump, head gaskets, valley pan and injectors replaced. I pulled the oil pan and checked the main and rod bearings while I was at it. All good. New rad hoses. Fresh oil and coolant. Running like new again. Now back to work on the Disco/Series hybrid build. :bounce:

Damn. I hate modern (well 1990’s) wiring. Specifically GEMS wiring. For the past several weeks I’ve been trying to work out what I can and shouldn’t delete. I sure hope I got it right now. Still need to hook up the dash wiring before I can’t really test it out. 🤞 I mounted the GEMS cpu on the bulkhead, so I’ll have to make up a cover to block some heat and the weather. That’s easy though.

Made a fair bit of progress the past few weeks. Finally sorted out wiring of the GEMS/Alarm unit and am able to connect to the cpu via the ODBII connection, wired up the seat box for dual batteries, painted and wired up the dash. Only took several dozen times of tearing the harness apart, 2nd guessing myself, to sort out “did I do that right?” type issues. Even repaired and sealed the Series 2 side tank. Going to use it until I get a replacement for the plastic Disco tank built. Then it will be used as an auxiliary tank feeding to the rear tank when I turn on it’s pump. Will mount the tank and pumps this week and then 🤞 fill the fluids and try starting her! :bounce:

Oh, and I bought a black 05 LR3 HSE last week as well. Glutton for punishment, I guess…😎

Looking good!

huuummmm the BIG RED switch is very intriguing ..... ejector seat maybe? :smilebox: