The Landblogger

Exceptional progress

Well, at least for me... after fighting with the obtuse fasteners of the pedal assembly for about 4 hours, the transmission went in tonight with no complaints in about an hour and a half. All bolts found appropriate holes in the frame, and went in quite easily with very little persuasion.

A side trip with a few bumps...

Recently on Land Rover Addict there was a post from one of the members wanting to send his regards — and a thump — to the man who designed the fuel gauge sender on a Defender 110 tdi. Well, I'd like to send the same regards to the man who designed the pedal assemblies for the Rangies and Discoveries. I'm installing the 200tdi and 5 speed into what was a 1988 NAS V8 auto model left hand drive truck. However, what was generously supplied with the parts I purchased from the UK was a RHD pedal assembly from a 1994-6 Discovery 5 speed. From looking at it on the bench, both pedal assemblies look to be the same shape and you would say, this should work just fine... Well the first adjustment wasn't a surprise, the pedals were over to the left about 2.5" further than they should be due to the RHD seating position. I expected this and it was duly dealt with by heating the pedal arms to cherry red, and bending them to the right, then allowing them to cool and putting another bend in the arms closer to the pedals themselves. This worked quite successfully and should stand up well now that I've repainted the arms. Can't hardly tell if you didn't know it wasn't stock.
The second hurdle is the throttle cable, which on the rhd diesel only has a short distance to go. On the left hadn drive, I need about 188 more inches. This was fixed by a surplus cable from Princess Auto and 2 large fender washers assembled on the cable end to sandwich the pedal assembly frame and hold it in place. I had to cut a slice into the fender washers the width of the cable to allow it to slip over the cable and stay in place. Hard to describe in words, but a fairly simple fabrication.
Thirdly, there are two thin metal support brackets that exists on the Range Rover but not on the Discovery. Perhaps the Discovery gets its support in another way. One of these one the Range Rover, however, is directly in the way of the pivot arm that the clutch and brake pedal attach to. I tried 3 different ways to mount it while retaining the support bracket, however the bracket is now gone. Before its removal by sawzall, I put some weight into wiggling dashboard components and found that none of the wiggling I did moved the support bracket, so I concluded that it may not be necessary to the structural soundness.
Finally, offering up the new pedal assembly to the hole on the firewall, I was pleased to see that at least 2 of the 8 attaching bolts actually shared the same holes. The other 6 were off anywhere from 1/8" to 3/4" and as a result I had to do some creative trimming, drilling and utilize more fender washers to get a good solid — and good looking — fit.
This is as close to a bodge as I've had to do on this project, but all in all it worked out well. I've now started a photo album of the install which can be found here.

Progress report

Last Sunday night the V8 came out. I can't believe it's now Friday! This week I cleaned the shop and organized the tools on Monday night, pulled the console and shifter and dropped the transmission out on Tuesday night. Installed the motor mounts, block heater and lots of hemming and hawing on Wednesday night. Finished installing the newly arrived skew gear and manifolds on Thursday. Tonight I brought home a bunch of degreaser and did a thorough cleanup of the engine bay, the shop floor and the driveway. Then I fabricated a rear engine lift mount. I'd like to say this was some sort of planned high performance engineering, but the truth of the matter is I forgot to insert the motor lift point when I torqued the head bolts, and since they are stretch torqued and its only two of them, I decided to leave the head bolts torqued and simply create a new lift point. There are two fairly deep M8 threaded holes at the back of the head, so I created a skookum new mount and attached it there.
I've now also taken the engine off the stand and hoisted it up and moved it around in preparation of first fitting. Transmission is on the floor, awaiting its rear cross member to be installed and then it will get slid underneath and jacked into position. Who knows, I may have my first test fit done tonight.
Gonna have to take some time off from it tomorrow as grass needs cutting, not to mention a half dozen other chores that are niggling...

Now we're getting somewhere

I took a week off work last week, much needed due to some new stresses, but now I have to go back to work to rest up!
I spent several days putting the finishing touches on the 200 tdi. Waiting for Fedex for the final parts — only to discover that when they were delivered it was actually an order for a guy in Ontario. Don't know where mine went, but Britpart is sending again and the skew gear and clutch fork should be here tomorrow.
Also had to order a couple of glow plugs as 2 were shot. Paddocks had them on sale for £1.95 each so I picked up a half dozen. The block heater should arrive tomorrow too, I hope.
Finally, I took the injectors in to the local fuel shop and they rebuilt them, which was surprisingly inexpensive, only $137 — even better, Pamela paid!
So the engine sits with everything done but putting in the skew gear, glow plugs and block heater. Today I cleaned up the shop, and turned my attention back to the Range Rover. I had loosened a lot of stuff but hadn't actually pulled the V8. So today was the day. And boy, was it a messy bitch of a job. One engine now sits on the shop floor, but I have a lot of cleanup to do again.
The next process will be to remove the tranny, clean out the engine bay, remove all the unneeded junk from the V8, install the pedal assembly, simplify the wiring, then figure out whether the pile of engine mounts from various projects will adapt to this one or if I'm gonna be fabricating engine mounts too.

Getting traction on 200 tdi

I spent about 6 hours last weekend and again last night working on the engine. I got the camshaft back in and the valve train assembled. Everything pretty straightforward right now. Thanks to Bill in Edmonton the skew gear assembly is ordered, along with a clutch release bearing and one of the new heavy duty clutch forks from Britpart. The ones JD was making on the island, found here are pretty cool, but I think it'd be overkill in our stock daily driver. So lots to do until the parts arrive, and the shop is a mess again due to getting both trucks detailed a bit in preparation for the VanDusen ABFM.

200tdi progress

What with long hours and being out of town for work much of the time, the progress on the 200tdi project has been a bit slow. Here I sit in a hotel, while my engine and the Range Rover that is awaiting it is languishing in the shop.
The 200tdi turned into a full rebuild with machining of the head, full valve grind, and honing cylinders. Not badly worn, but when you take it part way down, you may as well do a thorough job.
I did get an chance to make some forward progress last weekend, with the new bearings seated and tested for appropriate nip, and the newly polished crank installed and torqued into position. I also re-ringed all 4 newly cleaned pistons, and checked, then reconnected the rods to the pistons. Unfortunately the progress on the bottom end stopped there and the pistons soaked in oil over the weekend as I didn't have a half inch drive 15 mm 12 point socket, required to torque the rod nuts properly. I picked that up Monday morning and as of 7 PM Monday night the 4 pistons were in place and correctly torqued. I also reassembled the head after its valve grind, along with lapping the valves, checking spring tension, installing new seals and .030 shims to ensure the springs have close to original tension. New head bolts arrived with new piston rings the week before so it should go together easily.
I was impressed at how heavy-duty the bottom end on the 200tdi is. Far more so than the Peugeot 2.5 TD that I have in my series truck. I'm looking forward to this engine lasting a long, long time.
This weekend, I'm hoping to complete the bottom end and get as much as possible finished on the top end as well. I'm currently scrambling to find an oil pump skew gear as the current one I have is a bit worn and the manual recommends replacement if you can't mesh it back to its original position with the camshaft. Since it's well worn this is a non-issue as it needs to be replaced.
I'm itching to get this engine in the truck and see how it does powering along the full-size Range Rover.

Spring Plate Sliders

When re-installing springs earlier in the week it became apparent that the old u-bolt plates on the back were no longer servicable, due to cracks. So, as written in the previous post, I built some sliders. The project worked well, but took nearly a day to build 2 of them, so the fronts will be put off till sometime over the winter when I get time.

The original spring plate. Note the crack at the left.

Assembled parts.

Getting ready for welding.

View of the top (spring) side.

View of the bottom (slider) side.

Mackenzie Trail Preparations

Mostly customizations, but a few repairs along the way. Does it count as a repair if you're fixing a customization? I'm preparing for the Rover-Landers August trip along the Alexander Mackenzie Trail, eastward from Quesnel, BC.
This time (we previously traversed this trail west-east in 2002) we are making this our summer vacation, so in addition to 9 days on the trail, we'll be adding a few days front and back to make it a full 2 weeks. Pamela and Oliver are coming along and 11 other trucks.

I started my preparation with picking up a roof rack from Gregg Porter. Then went out and purchased 5 plastic military surplus jerry cans. Then decided that 250 lbs. of fuel was too much for the roof. So I spent last weekend manufacturing a jerry can holder to fit in place of where the spare tire usually goes on the back. Of course, the spare tire will now have to ride on the bonnet. And 3 jerry cans will still go on the roof rack. I figure my total weight on the roof rack, including 5 various size tote boxes, lawn chairs and table, and 3 cans of fuel will be about 400 lbs. And, since fuel will be consumed at a frightening rate on this trip, it wont be long till we're down to 250 lbs on top.
I spent some time last month creating some A-frames to replace the normal sides of the hard top. As most of you know, I am an addict of the soft top with its sides rolled up and lots of fresh air flowing through. However, its really tough to put a roof rack up above a canvas top. So my plan was to fabricate some supports at the back and put the hard top in place, suspended by the windshield — as normal, then a reinforcement on the roll bar, and two a-frames at the rear. See the pics. It worked very well. I am awaiting canvas so I can make side curtains, which will normally stay rolled up, but will provide a little bit of protection if the weather turns on us.
I had a bit of time last night, so I reinstalled the hitch mount/recovery bracket at the rear — now heavily reinforced. And put the grab handles back on that had been sitting on the bench since April. Speaking of sitting on the bench, the metal for the rock sliders has been sitting on the bench for way too long. So I cut everything to size, and was able to finish one side last night. Too bad I had recently scraped the crap out of that side. Should have done the sliders sooner! Later this week I'll finish the other side.
Defender hinges and mirrors happened somewhere along the line. Only my wallet knows for sure when it was.
My springs had been doing a fair bit of creaking of late, Wise Owl Parabolics with some pretty extreme use on them, so I ordered new bushings, which arrived today. Ripped out the springs during dinner hour, and they're off to the spring shop in the morning. The guy is going to rebush, re-curve and install teflon shims to stop the constant squeaking that is characteristic of thes springs. I will remount tomorrow evening. Of course, I don't expect these new bushings to outlast the old, so if I get 3 years out of them I'll be happy. I do stress the springs to the max articulation quite often, which is kind of hard on bushings. The neoprene ones I installed in the frame are holding up well, though.
I'm now down to a short list of things to do, but as usual, the time will catch up with me real fast and I'll be wondering why I didn't get everything done.
Last thing on the agenda of fabrications it to make som spring plate sliders for the rear. I would have put this job off, except that one of my rear spring issues was that the spring/ubolt plate on the left side was cracking, and getting worse. So on the drawing board is a simple desing of a spring slide, which you'll see photos of when its done. I'll only do the back two for now as time is creeping in on me.

Topping it off

Sealing the floor with MONO Ultra. This stuff works great, 'cept I ran out. Funny enough, when ripping apart the truck a couple of weeks back, the toughest job of the entire chassis swap, in terms of energy expended, was pulling out the 1" thick rubber mat I had cut to fit in the rear tub. It's carefully cut to go around the roll bar, and I'll definitely be putting it back in as not only is it a sound deadener, but the dogs like it as they can claw in a bit and don't slide around. But when I built the roll bar, I sealed it the same way with the little rubber pads, and MONO Ultra, followed by putting in the big rubber mat — before the sealant dried. And boy was it stuck! The rubber itself is tough stuff, but the sealannt is almost as tough and it was a sweaty job to get the mat out. This time, hindsight being what it is, I think I'll wait until the sealant cures for a few days before putting the big mat back in.

I also had fun with the hoops for the roof. Seems that my lift resulted in me not being able to get into the carport anymore. So, out with the angle grinder and I lopped off an inch. Then, of course had to drill out the rivets holding the door frame pieces together and redrivll and rivet them back in place. Round, round we go, but by 10 PM Sunday evening it was ready to roll.

The Rover Two Step

This weekend it felt like I was dancing — one step forward, two steps back. The Roverdrive went in, but the handbrake linkage needed to come out and have the crossbar space out by about 2 cm. That only took a couple of hours. Then, in all my excitement to bolt the wings on back on Thursday, I neglected to drill the necessary holes for the front bumper. The frame had had new metal welded into the top of the frame horns, so no holes had yet been drilled. So, off with the bolts between the wings and the breakfast, and plug in sume pieces of 2x4 to pry them back and drill away... Pretty straight forward, except its always annoying to remove the bolts on the left side, as they are so tight between the rad and the inner fenderwell.
I guess a few backwards steps are to be expected, but it is coming along.