moore101

Hi to both of you, I'm in Midsomer Norton which might as well be one with Radstock and have been here all my landrover owning days so know the area pretty well. There are about 10 small sections of byway within about an 8mile radius of radstock, a few of them being parts of the old fosseway but none of them damaging to vehicles. You'll also be relatively close to Salisbury plain so theres all the byways on that to keep you entertained for a few years! As for clubs, i'd join the one im in which is the Somerset and Wiltshire LRC and most of the sites we use are about 45 minutes away apart from Binegar which is 10minutes down the road. When you move in give me a shout on here and pop up for a chat, Alex

looking at getting one made up soon for my lightweight and have found GKN to be very useful with their replies and seem slightly cheaper. but have not got round to saving up for one so am just running a home shortened one.

i was in the lightweight as i didnt think the 101 would fit under the bridge or some of the trees (from what id heard earlier in the day) went round just the once right at the end on the sunday. i barely got into the water before it died, daft me thinking it would look good for the crowd (which was only about 10 people at the time) if we had a bit of a splash on entry. going to make up some ali gaurds to stop water getting under the bottom of the dizzy cap and over the top on all over the leads. i thought the course was good, if a little short for £10, could do with a few axle articulating bits and some deeper water for the crowds (i'll be back with waterproof v8!) but overall i would have been happy to pay and go round again if i hadnt sent all my money on bargains in the autojumble

was a good little show, hopefully it'll run again next year as its nice to have something in the southwest. can one of the marshalls please tell me i wasnt the only one to die in the water (silly v8s )

Just as a comparison: When i started off at the age of 17 with my standard s3 lightweight my insurance was £1300 3rd party fire and theft with NFU. Now its v8 powered the insurance is higher and i havent yet found any other company that will cover anyone under 21 (25 in some cases) with a modified vehicle with engine size as big as a v8 Still, wouldnt get rid of it, too much fun!

i wish i had the cost to do this! looks like a proper job! cant beat a brand new engine, one day i'll be able to afford one

With the weather getting warmer i decided to take to the bonnet with a 24mm hole saw. got 10holes in the middle and with the engine running and fan on there is definetely warm air coming out. im going to put some into the lh side at the back as theres heat trying to come under the bonnet edge. Im going to make up some aluminium plates to screw over the holes to keep the rain out when it comes back (probably end of week bank holiday!) The covers will also serve to return the engine bay to a confined space to pass scrutineering at trials.

been thinking a bit more about possible solutions. how does the following sound? (all thoughts welcome) -big mesh grilles across the back of the bonnet (to let hot air out) how can i avoid water running in all over the engine and air intake when it rains? -small cooling fan (ideally 6inch) mounted in the lh side of bonnet near the back to pull cool air in onto my air filter -would cutting extra holes in the front panel (above the existing ones) help? or would it mean no air would go through the radiator?

would the axle have a unique number on it? which would then enable the vehicle to be identified and the current status (stolen/scrapped) could be worked out?

currently thinking about 3 fine mesh grills in between and either side of the bonnet hinges as i think they'd look ok if painted the same colour. my biggest problem is lack of space. the engine is sat sort of where the original 2.25 was, except its higher. i have about an inch clearance between top of plenum and bonnet, and if i cut the threaded part off the waterpump will just about have an inch between that and the radiator. the radiator is a 4 core series radiator which was bought new just over a year ago. it has a 16inch pacet mounted on the front of the radiator and is as big as i can squeeze in the standard area. as regard to oil cooler, i am currently thinking about this option as i could run it along with a remote filter set up which would give me plenty of clearance between the front diff and what is currently bottom of oil filter. another thought running through my mind is whether i could get a custom radiator made to fit above the steering relay and run full width, mount it further forward and get 2 big puller cooling fans behind it. i would then have room below for a nice oil cooler. i have done a bit of reading about running temperatures of v8s but theres so much contradiction i dont know what the maximum permisable temperature is. last thing i want to do is damage the engine due to it running too hot. also read a bit about drilling a hole in top of thermostat to help prevent steam build up causing thermostat to open and shut and create fluctuation of temperatures. my biggest problem is cost of all of this. fitting a nice new radiator and such, is all very well and good, but when the vehicles stuck up to chassis in a muddy hole powering to try and get out, it doesnt matter what cooling there is if theres no where for the air to go so maybe some massive vents are the only realistic option.

that series is such a nice truck! i will be watching this with interest as i am also having problems with under bonnet temperature. (lightweight with 3.5 efi) in fact im having major issues with temperature all together. i know the temperature gauge i havent isnt the best as a tap on the front will cause it to drop slightly but its still reading at 90 degrees C at a 'normal' running temperature. other problem with engine is hunting at tickover sometimes (could it be hot air in air intake or hot coil (mounted on inside wing lh side)?) i also dont want to alter the look of the vehicle so dont really want any vents in the bonnet but think i may have to. question is what vents can i put in that wont let water in?

having just got my new (decent 2nd hand) engine into my lightweight i have a few minor running issues. -hunting at tickover (not all the time) -sometimes stalls when pulling up at junctions (not all the time) -slight misfire at higher revs (again, only sometimes) im going to replace dizzy cap, arm and leads. its had new plugs (NGK) so that may sort the misfire as i did notice a few leads had minor cracking. but all help welcome! one other thing, what temperature should a v8 run at? i think i may need to sort some better cooling for the summer.

yep, got the same problem here. range rover axles on parabolics and ive experienced bad spring wrap under braking and offroad with the v8. unfortunately i had it with standard springs so have just decided to live with it as theres no easy way to fix it.

not a massive offset on my rims, 1 ton on the front and 2b forward control on the back. all with 235/85 bfg all terains and ive just had 1 front wheel bearing collapse and the other 1 is noisey. not sure whether this is directly related to the offset as the bearings did come out slightly watery where the vehicle gets used offroad a lot. backs have been fine and they have the bigger offset so maybe the bearings are fine if kept dry the vehicle holds the road much better with the wider track! no issues around the bolted areas but maybe its because the bolts have rusty ends!

again not wanting to start any arguements but having seen quite a lot of home modified suzuki 'offroaders' it wouldnt surprise me that they wouldnt be asking questions about quality as they seem to hold everything together with duct tape

not wanting to stir things up but is there really anything wrong with checking? if it says on the product decription that they're swaged then there would be no need to ask?

1 & 2 can both be blocked off each with a short length of pipe and a bolt all jubilee clipped together. have heard that connected the 2 together can help with balancing but i blocked mine up and they ran fine. you can get propper blockage caps but i dont know where from. 3 is one im not familiar with, does it suck air when running? where have you got it connected to? 4 is the one that needs to go to the vacuum unit on the side of the distributor (the small flying saucer object, has a place on the side for it to attach) 5 i blocked up with a machine screw and a bit of gasket sealer, cant remember what its use is for, another vacuum controlled device maybe. can get some pics of some plumbed in carbs if your still stuck but my strombergs are in the shed somewhere

is this not the pipe for the vacuum advance on the distributor? could you get a picture of said pipe as as far as i know the only air that should be sucked in is through filters

right then, will a 130 clutch cover fit? (is it more heavy duty?) part number URB100760 from paddocks does it have the same fixing hole spacing as series? and then can i use a FTC1994 plate with the short bellhousing gearbox i have? spigot bush im probably going to get an adaptor made up to hold a diesel spigot bush in front of the crankshaft which will end up shorter than standard, but the input shaft on the lt77 i have doesnt seem to want to wander away from centre as much as the input shaft of the series box i have anyway. trying to make a list of parts to order so that i can do the swap in as little time as possible.

if all goes well with MOT friday and trial at weekend my lightweight will be getting a new engine and gearbox next week. its getting treated to a nice running 3.5v8 on efi and an lt77 and 230 box out of a defender (so short bellhousing) now ive got the clutch pressure plate off the diesel out of a rangerover and it seems like the fixing holes may have the same spacing as my series pressure plate? would i be correct in thinking the diesel pressure plate will have stronger springing? if not (or if the mounting holes are spaced differently) would my 2a pressure plate work with a series 3 style release mechanism that the lt77 has. is there a heavy duty version of a diesel clutch (9.5"?) as a v8 size clutch wont fit in my adaptor plate. (and before anyone says; the reason im using the adaptor plate and short bellhousing is because i dont want to modify bits to move my engine forwards, and i dont want to end up with a really short rear prop or gearlevers in the wrong place) also im slightly confused on spigot bush size. i have a measurement of 24.85mm for the inside of a v8 crank which is as near as 31/32" does this sound right? and i have a measurement of 22.22mm for the diameter of the lt77 short bellhousing input shaft of 22.22mm which is near enough 7/8". do these diameters sound about right? and if so is there a spigot bush that size? how big is a v8 input shaft on an lt95? cheers, alex

back to the topic of gearboxes. when fitting lt77 into series using adaptor plate (v8 style) what clutch can be used? ive just got the clutch off the rangie diesel i have and its no bigger than a series clutch. can i use series cover plate (for which i already have a drilled v8 flywheel) with the diesel clutch plate to get the splines? and because im puttin an lt77 behind a v8 i either cut off the end of the crank or end up with a wafer thin spigot bush (think i will end up going the route of the latter which is not ideal )

mine are like how you have redone yours and i had no problems bleeding my old twin leading shoe brakes. it seems a more logical route. only thing to watch out for is the inner wing trapping the pipe between itself and the chassis, will vary with each vehicle (landrover tolerances!)

will soon be doing this in my series to get rid of the worn out carbs, throttle cable doesnt look much longer but putting the high pressure fuel line onto the rail with just a clip is worrying me a bit

im 18 so no parent! and i personally think the series look is better than a defender. the old series look is cooler. putting a defender front on it isnt going to take away the fact its on leafs, has a poor performance engine and goes slowly. its still an old landrover! try and talk him out of it

Why?! as previously mentioned, you buy a series because its a series, why make it look like a defender? the only reason i can think of is to aid with room when fitting a different engine (such as v8) but unless you have an autobox to go with it there are ways to get around it and keep it reasonably unnoticeable but if you really do want to do it, i believe it is near enough nuts and bolts, even if its new brackets jobbie that wont be that much work to weld on some tabs.