200tdi into a Series engine conversion

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One of the best things I have done to the 109 is installed a 200TDI engine. It’s gone from being a fuel hungry underpowered old truck to a relatively economical, powerful & useable vehicle. The 200di (fitting the TDI without the turbo) conversion seems to be quite popular at the moment and is a good idea if you just want a little more power and reliability, it’s a simpler job to fit and a lot of the original series parts can be retained such as the radiator and oil bath air filter – however the engine I bought came with all ancillaries, radiator/oil cooler, hoses etc so not to fit everything would have been a waste. I’m glad I kept the turbo and it would now feel underpowered without it – I now think if you are going to the trouble of fitting a new engine you may as well spend a bit more time and fit the full kit.

Whereas most people fit discovery engines as they are more common and cost less, I came across a defender engine and gearbox with low miles for the same price as the disco lumps. There are a couple of differences between the two versions – the manifolds are different – the turbo sits low down on the disco engines with injection pump up high but the turbo is high up on the defender engines with the injection pump lower down. It is the shape of the manifolds that give the difference in BHP between the two engines, with the defender variant being slightly less powerful.  The timing cases are also different shapes.

The engine block is the same for both defender and disco versions and you have two choices of position or the right hand engine mount, the disco engine uses the front engine mount bolts and the defender uses the rear bolts which is the same set up as the 12J (2.5D), so the defender engine requires the right hand engine mount moving on the chassis because the the timing case is in the way  – the disco engine does not have this problem as the timing case is  a different shape so the engine bolts to the standard series chassis engine mount. I decided not to move the engine mount as my chassis is galvanised and I did not want to break the galv, so I decided to swap the defender timing case for a discovery case, the engine was on a stand waiting to go in the vehicle and I had the timing belt to do anyway. It was just a case of removing all the timing gear and fitting the disco timing case in it’s place. I also had to source the disco injection pump bracket as the pump was now sitting much higher, also needed disco injector pipes, all the pulleys had to be changed as the disco ones are different to defenders, disco water pump & disco thermostat housing. I could now bolt the engine straight into the standard series mounts. So now I have what has become a disco engine with defender manifolds! I’ve kept all the defender parts so I can convert it back at a later date.

I wired up the glow plug relay to a switch on the dash, though have I never needed to use them even in -5 temps. I had to relocate the battery as there is no room under the bonnet and I have underseat fuel tanks, I ended up fixing an ammo box between the front dumb irons and the battery has been in there for the last couple of years, however I am going to convert the passenger side fuel tank into a battery box as the tank hasn’t been used for years. I’ll be relocating the battery there in the next few weeks, I’ve already got the tank off to clean up.

I didn’t do any work to the engine as it was low mileage at 85k, just changed the timing belt and gave it a service before starting it – fired up first time, no smoke! Changed the oil and filters again after a few hundred miles and all has been well since. I’ve had no problems with the gearbox taking the extra power either.

3.54 & 4.7 Diffs

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If you ever need to identify the ratio of a Land Rover diff that’s out of the vehicle here’s are a couple of photos showing the difference. I’ve got two spare 3.54 diffs and one standard 4.7 series diff, I’ve sold one of the 3.54’s so had to get all three diffs side by side to identify which ratio was which as I had failed to label them. The pinion (circled in the middle photo) is clearly larger on the 3.54 diffs.


Spin on oil filter for Series 2.25 engines

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The standard oil filter set up on the Series 2.25 engines is a bit fiddly and it can get a bit messy servicing the filter. A good solution is to use the oil filter adaptor from 90/110 (early Defenders) engines. The filter adaptor from a 2.5 petrol (17H) or diesel (12J) engine will bolt straight in place of the series one, very simple job to swap them over – this means you’ll be able to use 2.5 oil filters that will spin on and off like more modern vehicles. These oil filter adaptors are expensive to buy new (ETC5347 over £200!) but they come up on eBay and sell for around £30. You may even find a scrap 2.5 engine nearby, remember the cylinder head from the petrol 2.5 will also fit the 2.25 and besides having a higher compression ratio also has the bonus of hardened valve seats and valves so can be run on unleaded or LPG, so there’s a few useful bits for the series engine on the 2.5 engine if you can find one cheaply.


Defender LT77 Gearbox & LT230 Transfer Box

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This is the gearbox that came with the 200tdi engine I bought to replace the 2.25 petrol lump in the Series. I decided to fit the new engine to my standard Series box rather than this LT77 as the transfer box does not have selectable 4 wheel drive so would be running the front axle full time – the series axles have UJs rather than the Defenders CV joints and so are not designed to run on tarmac – as a result running a Series on tarmac in 4×4 can result in transmission ‘wind up’. You could get round it by fitting a Series 3  Stage 1 V8 front axle (which had CV joints), but these can be hard to get hold of. I’m also keen to get the best MPG possible from the Series and full time four wheel drive will not help.

However it was a nice low mileage box and I sold it to a guy who needed the short Defender LT77 bellhousing to go in his trialler.

 

Series Gearbox PTO

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Here are some images of a Power Take Off (PTO) taken from a Series IIA gearbox that I’ve just sold. PTO’s are used to power winches, hydraulic pumps, useful tools like log splitters and table saws etc. This unit takes power from the rear of the gearbox and can supply power to the rear of the vehicle via a separate propshaft (if you have ever wondered what the holes are for in the chassis cross members then they are for the PTO shaft). There are also units to supply power to the front of the truck too for winches etc.

It’s a very simple job to install a PTO, simply remove the PTO cover ( also known as Rear Bearing Housing – 533731) on the back of the gearbox, slip the PTO sleeve over the rear gear, remove the PTO inspection plate and bolt on the selector unit in its place, making sure the forks slide into the groove on the sleeve. Slide the the PTO into the sleeve and bolt the unit up using a new PTO gasket.

 

Series 3 Land Rover Heater/Dashboard

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Everybody moans about the the lack of effective heating in a Series Land Rover, but there are some simple things you can do to make it better. I’ve only ever had a minimal amount of air coming up through the demisters, but a healthy amount coming from the dash vents and for a while I stuffed a sock in both dash vents to improve the demisting! The heater controls at the end of the dash have never made any difference to air flow.

When I finally got round to investigating all became clear once I removed the dash and removed the vinyl cover (see photos below). There are 15 or so tiny screws holding the top cover onto the tin dash and these tend to rust badly along with the rest of the dash so may have to be drilled out. Once i opened it up I could see the mechanism that directs the airflow to the dash vents or demisters was rusted solid. Also the cables that are supposed to control it were  rusted into their sleeves. This is a very common problem on the S3 dash and if your heater controls aren’t working then this is why. If you don’t get much in the way of airflow then check the corrugated pipe from the blower to the matrix as these split easily, there is also a foam seal between the matrix and bulkhead that could be missing or leaking, also a seal between the bulkhead and heater box in the dash. If they’re all ok then your dash is probably a rusty mess behind the vinyl cover!! when all these are in good order then the series heater fan should actually suffice.

Series 3 Dashboardseries 3 dashboard3 dashboard

Removing the dash is a simple process of unscrewing the screws around the outer edges but there are also 2 bolts at the back that are easy to miss. These screw into a captive nut in the bulkhead and can be difficult to remove as the nut tends to corrode and spin, have circled where they are in this photo:

Series 3 Dashboard rear bolts

I managed to source a dashboard that was in better condition (tatty but no serious rust!). I stripped it down, wirebrushed as much surface rust off as possible and painted it in black hammerite. It’s not an amazing paint job but then nobody will see it anyway. I decided to remove the air diverter controls altogether as I’m not bothered about dash vents, only the demisters,so have blanked off the dash vents with some ally sheet that I had lying around. I’ll replace the covers so it looks correct.

Have got a new dash heater box to bulkhead seal gasket to fit (MTC6871) so there shouldn’t be any more air leaks. I’ve also bought 2 x new rubber gromits that the demister pipes fit into as the old ones were split (346785)

Land rover Series 3 DashboardLand rover Series 3 DashboardLand rover Series 3 Dashboard

Series 3 Dashboard

Series 3 Dashboard

The dash end wiper motor cover was also badly corroded so found another on eBay cheaply, it’s the same part from the Series 3 dashboards right up to the TD5 Defenders so there are plenty about. I got a TD5 cover and it fits perfectly.

Series 3 Wiper Motor Cover

Series 3 Wiper Motor Cover – same part used up to Td5 Defenders

series 3 wiper motor cover

The dash is now back on the vehicle and the movement of air is more than enough, it’s not that far from my Octavia Estate so goes to show when the system is in good shape the standard heater system is ok.


Pertronix electronic ignition

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The Land Rover came to me with a Lucas 25D distributor that was quite well worn and I suspect was causing some of the erratic running problems. I’d heard good things about ‘fit and forget’ electronic dizzys so I bought one of the cheap chinese Lucas copies from ‘simonbbc’ but I couldn’t get it to run right at all, in the end I put the 25D back on and it ran ok again so I sent the dizzy back as faulty. I’ve heard others have had no problems with these chinese dizzys, but I decided to spend a bit more and get a Pertronix kit that I bought from a US supplier through eBay. I also managed to pick up a new genuine Lucas 45D on eBay for £50. Very simple job to install the Pertronix kit into the dizzy. I set the timing using the static timing method with a test bulb and it fired up straight away. Never had a another problem with the ignition again till I changed to a diesel engine 20k later – well worth the cost.

There are Powerspark Electronic Ignition kits for 25D/45D distributors in my Amazon store – click here


My ex MOD 109

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It’s a 1982 ex MOD 109. I have the military plate with the military registration on but haven’t got round to tracing it’s military history through Gaydon, I will get on to it some time.

The truck left service with it’s chassis in pristine condition and a previous owner had it galvanised. It’s very unusual to find an original MOD chassis that has been galvanised and it  benefits from the removable gearbox cross member, this means the gearbox can be dropped to the floor rather then up through the cab, which is a pain the arse as the floor needs to come up and the seat box has to come out..

When I bought the landy in Jan 2007 it had a petrol 2.25 engine that also had a single point LPG system with a 100 litre tank behind the rear bulkhead. With this set up it averaged 14 mpg. It ran very well on LPG and I would recommend the conversion to anyone. I found that LPG preferred the timing to be slightly advanced so I set the timing for optimum running on LPG, as a result it ran a bit rough on petrol.  Some people set the timing somewhere between the two but in my opinion going it that way you’re are getting the best of neither fuel. As a result I never used petrol, only in an emergency when I ran out of LPG and this was rarely. The truck started on LPG in all weathers with out any problems, the engine oil remained clean, and after another 20k miles when I split the engine to sell the cylinder head, it was in still in perfect condition.

A couple of years ago I picked up a low mileage (85k) Defender 200TDI engine with LT77 gearbox for the bargain price of £500 so decided to drop the TDI into the 109 with the standard series gearbox. This has been the set up until now and it gets 30mpg round town and up to 36mpg on a run but with the added bonus of LOADS more power!!


About this site

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Welcome to my Series Land Rover site, it covers a broad range of ongoing work to my 1982 ex MOD 109 that I have owned since 2006.

The site is in Blog form but you can choose from categories on the right hand side >>>>

If would like to contact me for whatever reason please use the ‘Contact Me’ tab above.

I’m situated in West Yorkshire, UK.

Series 3 Land Rover


Late Series IIa all Syncro gearbox S-Prefix

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Here’s a late Series IIA all syncro gearbox, installed in the very late SIIAs and identified by the S-prefix. Nothing special really, they were exactly the same as the first Series 3 boxes.