I know this blog seems dead as I haven't posted in close to 6 months. I've been very busy over the past few months and haven't had much time to do anything on the landy apart from the occasional drive through the off road course I've made on our property. But progress is coming!
I've had a major change of plan for the car that I thought I may as well share. I originally just wanted to get it back on the road doing the least work as possible and doing it on the cheap. I now realise I should spend more time and money making it what I really want. This means a complete strip down and probably many years of the land rover in bits.
The basic plan is to pull out the holden straight 6 and series gear box and put what I have always wanted in it: a Rover V8. I will also be swapping the front axle for a stage one model with cv joints as I will be using the LT95 with a 101 bell housing and input shaft. The LT95 is a strong box and hopefully will be able to handle what I have planned. I will probably use a 3.9 out of a discovery as they are quite easy to come by and convert it to twin carbs. The series box would easily hold this power but in the future when I have enough money I really want a 4.6 efi in it. I don't think the series box would like 225hp going through it. Full time 4wd will also reduce the power going through each axle so hopefully with a couple of mods they can stand up to the abuse. I think that I can fit this behind the standard radiator panel without having a tiny rear propshaft but that remains to be seen. Other mods will be parabolics, bigger tyres, and rear locker.
I have already got everything needed to recondition the existing series front axle. The problem is that I may not be using it once it has a V8. I plan to recondition this axle and then sell it on. This will make me a bit of cash and also give me a bit of practice reconditioning big mechanical bits.
I want the end result to be a very capable off roader while being unique. This will be my play toy and with a bit of camping set up in the back be ready for any adventure this country has to throw at it.
It is a very grand plan and I have no idea how i'm going to be able to afford it but you have dream right?
Stay tuned for a full documentation of the axle rebuild hopefully before the end of the year. If you have any information on V8 conversions (or any other info on rebuilding axles etc) into series landies i'd love to hear from you. Pop a comment down below.
