Keith1984

Thanks all.. that’s given me a good selection to choose from. The pickup itself is really just going to be used for light work, mostly ferrying garden junk and various bits and pieces to the recycling centre. I guess it would be nice to have it in original 2.5na format with the upgrade head that Turner can offer .. but it’s not cheap as well as potentially not powerful enough. So I shall think on..

I guess that’s fair enough. I was hoping to be as authentic as possible, and so, in theory, trying to source a 2.5D engine would make most sense, but apart from being a bit weak, a competent engine may be tricky to find. Otherwise I guess it’s a matter of what fits in without having to do too much to the chassis (which is kinda ok but not perfect). Anyone else with a view on what would fit in well? (Given that it’ll only be carrying light loads mostly) thanks

Hi, Not been on for a while as I’m been feeling glum about my 1986 110 Hcap (2.5D) It already has had a replacement engine before I bought it, so I got it with a Disco 200tdi engine. Sadly the block is indeed cracked on the Disco 200Tdi engine (I was hoping that it was the head and someone had just put sealant in to hide it, sadly not). So my question is, given that I want to keep the vehicle, what next replacement engine do folk recommend I put in it please? Another ex-Disco 200Tdi or something else? Many thanks Keith

Thanks ... I guess the better garages (who are therefore busy) always prefer to minimise man hours on a job (so they can do more jobs with the same manpower and keep more customers happy)..while if I do it myself I can simply choose whatever suits me. Hopefully it’ll be a sunny spring and summer for me to start to get to grips with stuff (including learning to weld!) cheers Keith

My 110 Hcap (1984) has a seemingly original Salisbury rear axle and rather poor condition drum brakes (leaking and barely effective) I reckon being able to stop is a handy feature in a vehicle ...so I want to improve the rear brakes. I was told (by someone who should know) that you can’t put disc brakes on a Salisbury axle ..so just replacing the drum brakes is the easiest plan (front brakes, pads, callipers are all new) Can anyone confirm that you can’t (/realistically shouldn’t) put discs on a Salisbury rear axle and, assuming not, give me an idea of whether it’s ok to have most of the braking undertaken at the front (engine & discs) given that I won’t be putting anything especially heavy in the back. thanks Keith

I bought a rear pair of 30mm wide arches (265mm tyres) for my 1984 defender 110 Hcap for about £80. They came with plenty of the nice little clips to attach them. What I hadn’t appreciated was that they would turn up in a nice box with ‘Britpart’ written on it. After some investigation there were two issues.. 1. The lovely clips were less useful than hoped.. so I went to my main dealer to buy oem ones.. much more robust. 2. The oval holes in the arches didn’t come very close to lining up with the studs in my vehicle bodywork arches. New holes to be drilled... ho hum To be fair though they look fine and seem sturdy enough so I won’t be sending them back. Method for putting them on.. a) remove dirt etc from studs inside vehicle bodywork arches b) drill holes in new extended arches to marry up with studs on vehicle bodywork arches (if they don’t fit) c) clip into place using good quality clips Hope that helps

Thank you again to everyone who’s helped me on this thread (and to those who posted threads on their process). This really is an excellent forum.. it’s given me a lot of help and perspective to start making decisions about an action plan (once I get the leakdown / compression test results for the engine... need to take potential costs for that work into account too). (Seems like it isn’t economically rational to expect LR specialist garages to strip down and rebuild old engines and turbos these days, sadly... but that may be another thread) cheers Keith

Thanks again FarmerFred and FridgeFreezer (excellent video!) ..very useful in helping me to understand. I think it’s now clear to me from both of you that it’s not just 30 man hours of work to replace a chassis and associated bits and pieces (not least welding a bulkhead to a chassis). Assuming that a Marsland galv chassis via LRparts (Britpart) is £2.5k ish and a bulkhead is £1k ish, plus a few hundred for tank, battery box, brake lines etc, then parts look like a £4.5-5k including vat. Even if I can get away with 60hours labour only, I doubt I’ll get a rate of less than £40-50 per hour (plus vat) from an LR specialist (local steel welders/fabricators with fewer overheads and a community minded approach are still £30/hr)... so that’s £3-3.5k .. and at 80 hours labour it’s £4-5k. This is how I was getting to an £8k-£10k cost figure in my rather naive mind... but that’s me theorising .. if I’m a long way out please do let me know where I’ve misunderstood. Thanks again to everyone who’s helped.. it’s much appreciated.

Thanks again. I think the advice / opinion is both very clear and very sensible. Even if I used Foleys I doubt the overall cost for a full replacement Marsland. chassis and associated parts that come to light would be much more than £10k.. and in rural Somerset where I live likely considerably less (and even I can do some of it myself!). Then I’d have as good a vehicle as I’d need. Looking at what can be bought for £10-15k I think it’s unlikely I’d get anything like as good a 110 hcap as I could get by replacing the chassis & bulkhead. Thanks all again cheers Keith

Thanks everyone for the replies.. very helpful indeed. Landroversforever .. thanks for the heads up on Hammerite.. I guess it’s hardly surprising. I wonder what folk use instead? (I guess we try to avoid ‘red lead’ paint these days!) Retroanaconda .. thanks for the advice... makes a lot of sense.. particularly the 1/4 vs whole chassis thing. I realise that decisions about vehicles can often be more emotional than economic but, despite having the spare cash to go for a seemingly sensible full new chassis and bulkhead replacement, from my POV I’m trying to assess whether selling this one for spares/restore and buying a newer hcap for £10-12k is a better plan than repairing (..if only mine wasn’t from my wife’s family’s farm!). I hadn’t realised that Britpart and Bearmach were retailers for chassis or that you seem to be able to buy direct from LRparts (after appropriate mark-ups) (and, no doubt, others) and haven’t heard back from KDlandrovers yet (they’re supposed to be the Marsland distributors now?, I saw) so that’s very handy to know when chatting to my local specialist. Lightning.. thank you .. It hadn’t occurred to me that they would rot from the inside (though it’s now obvious!) and how to mitigate that. It’s particularly relevant as it’s spent the last 3+ years driving through farmland mud and the underside is particularly caked in the stuff. Reb78.. I only mentioned those two suppliers (obviously others are available) based on my online reading where the hearsay appeared (as I interpreted it) that they were perhaps the two overall best for a mixture of reasons. I obviously know almost nothing about it myself! I’ve no problem with your comment potentially ‘hijacking’ the thread .. I wouldn’t take any discussion of defender chassis relative merits as a hijack! thanks again Keith

Hi, I’m still getting my head round the ways to approach making safe/robust my recent (last month) purchase of a 1984 110 Hcap. The only modification to it over time seems to be the Disco 200tdi engine. In relation to the chassis (original) I was hoping you might be able to help with /offer opinions on a 4 points. 1. The front 3/4 of so of the chassis seem reasonably sound but the rear suspension area is truly poor (obvious MOT fail). Anyone know why the rear end should deteriorate so much more than the rest /is this relatively normal? 2. Assuming I don’t go for a new 3mm galv chassis (Q plate concerns) and 2mm bulkhead, I was thinking of just rubbing everything back (little by little) with a brass wire brush, then applying hammerite with a brush, then generously coating with dinitrol? Is this a good approach (very low skill level here indeed and no tools / equip for fancy stuff!) or would folk recommend something better (that a novice can do in his garage) 3. For the rear end of the chassis someone suggested a new galv 1/4 chassis. I can’t weld and I hear it’s something like 8 hours welding.. so paying a local LR specialist won’t be cheap (but still may be sensible).Three questions here : a) is cutting out and welding in a new rear 1/4 chassis relatively ‘normal’ practice; b) realistically, versus a whole chassis replacement, how safe is a chassis which has had this kinda work done to it ; and c) will a hybridised chassis (old bit attached to new bit) like this be a possible issue from a Q plate point scoring system ?.. I’d really rather avoid losing the 5 points, but if I have to lose them then I’d rather have a whole new (Richards/Marslands?) galv 3mm chassis! 4. In relation to Q plate risk, is there anything from the UK authorities that would help define what a ‘like for like’ chassis replacement might be that would allow a new 3mm galv chassis to be used (or is it simply obvious that a new 3mm can never be ‘like for like’ if the original chassis was 2mm and not galvanised) many thanks in advance for help / opinions Cheers Keith

With apologies .. one last question on engine spec... I'm now very comfy that my engine is a Disco 200tdi. I read that you can't tell a Disco 200tdi engine year from the engine number (unclear if this is true). Engine number starts 12L090... (just confirmed by Red90.. ty) I've also read about (and now found) a circle stamped on the side of the cylinder head just past injector 4 which has a code. My code is 12 and 90 stamped on it (12 above the 90) which is supposed to be a date code (presumably therefore 1990) but also don't know if this is true ( this obviously this ignores the maybe small but real possibility that the cylinder head has been replaced) Can anyone confirm please ?

Thanks both..you can even see most of it in the pic! Am I right in thinking that the three digits after the 12L are the year code for the engine?

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