Lewis

Cheers Al, thanks for your kind words. The last time I wielded a grinder I managed to almost mince through my finger, so because I cant Fab it means I get to live through you guys Ahh the miracle of t'internet Jez, i'm not sure what format the file would be in - I'm not so highly placed within the company to see the magic happen, I only get to make the parts fit. I'll do my best to find out before end of play tomorrow (lunchtime).

Well I only managed to find one engineer who didnt say "dont you mean diesel?" when I asked about the petrol V6. He hasnt a clue whether it retains the colognes bolt pattern but sees no reason why it shouldnt. He did have some use though - he said that he could get the drawing of the bell housing off CAD plotted in 1:1 scale and you could hold it up against the back of the block to compare. Is that any good to you? [fight mode/on] Jez, you call that a Competition car? I wouldnt take that boring Series wanna be shopping car to the Scrapiron Novice challenge let alone the Lagoda. Give me a bog standard 68 Series 2 with a thirst for oil and a non-functioning speedo any day!!

Glad to help Jez, its what they pay me for and I've got feck all else to do I'll see if I can find an engineer around here that knows anything (not likely) and ask the question re cologne bolt pattern.

Lion is the term designated by Land Rover for the PSA/Ford designed V engines, you probably know them as TDV6 and TDV8. So a Lion auto is fitted to L322 07MY, L320 and L319. These are Land Rover project numbers, i'm not trying to geek you, its just that they are quicker to type . L322 is new Range Rover, 320 is Sport, 319 is Disco. However if you wanted auto cologne then the best option would be the box from a foreign market petrol V6 auto, and if you wanted to add more go (in a big way) and were concerned about the box internals then you could use the bellhousing from a foreign market petrol V6 auto and mate it to an auto from a Lion V8. The above assumes several things: 1) that the Lion V8 uses stronger internals (if any engine necessitates stronger box internals then surely Lion V8 would be it judging by the figures quoted above for output). 2) that the petrol V6 is cologne stud pattern. 3) that you could source the parts for reasonable money to make it worthwhile (PM me on this if you are truely contemplating this - I may know a man who can) 4) that you could change the shift points in the g/box ecu to suit your engine (I assume this can be done but wouldnt know how to go about it). Sounds like a nice engine/box combo tho, i especially like the cosworth bit. Sorry to go slightly OT here but is there any aftermarket equivilent to MegaSquirt etc for diseasels? If so would it not be far easier and bling-worthy to go for Lion V8? then you would have no box mating issues etc Sorry for the long post and probably undoubtedly poor spelling Lewis

Yes Jez, working here does mean theres a few lying around I have no means to weigh it but I know that the crane creaks more when you lift it than when lifting a Lion V8 and thats made of horrible compacted graphite iron. So using the Ocean Liner/Rubber Princess scale I would say a solid 6. (1 being the entire yearly output of Ann Summers rubberware factory, 10 being the total tonnage of the Russian navys baltic fleet) Sorry I cant be of more accurate help

From its weight in the workshop I would guess an unholy alloy of concrete/cast iron/tungsten/dark matter

Damn! I took too long to reply and mark90 beat me

In the uk the petrol V6 is unavailable, but it is available elsewhere with either manual or auto. It is worth noting that this engine is a development of the original ford cologne V6 and not much in the way of power or refinement is to be expected. I guess (dont know for sure) that this means a cosworth V6 (sharing the cologne's bellhousing bolt pattern) would mate to either the auto or manual Land Rover gearbox. Petrol V6 has 269lbs/ft For quick reference the same auto is used with success on the AJV8 SC and Lion V6 and V8, so I imagine it can cope with good amounts of torque. Equally if the manual can cope with the Lion V6 then I guess it too can cope with plenty of torque. You could assume that since Land Rover sells neither AJV8 SC (420lbs/ft) or Lion V8 (472lbs/ft) with manual boxes then the torque figures that the manual can withstand will be somewhere between the output of the Lion V6 (324lbs/ft) and the AJV8 NA (325lbs/ft). But that is only an assumption, it may be that Land Rover does not sell these engine/box combinations because there is little or no market for them. Hope this helps Lewis

I paid £350 for a 150k mile K-reg 5 door earlier this year, boot floor had holes you could climb through, inner wing crusty beneath the battery and sills almost dead. I only wanted it for the engine and rear axle so the bodywork didnt matter to me. I thought it was a good price at the time but having heard the prices some are trading at lately (friend almost paid £900 for a similar car) I think I did quite well. Lewis

According to the Defender Micro-Fiscche at work the bolt is M12 x 180mm long, high-tensile grade 10.9, sorry i cant remember the part number. A longer bolt would be better - the standard one doesnt give you much length to space the bulkhead back or add rocksliders etc. Lewis

My friend runs a set of these alloys on his drum rear 110, the backs of the wheels have been seriously shaved by the previous owner. Depends how much you want them, seems like a good excuse to go rear disc though. Also as someone else said - they really dont have much offset. Lewis

Just been out in the cold to measure two cars, both had sticky-out TD5 air-con grill panels, the first was 795mm, the second was 800mm. It was cold and my tape measure is stretchy though

Ok, thanks for your help, back to the drawing board Lewis

As the title says really, I have an '87 90 and the splines on the steering column have disintegrated, does anyone know whether the column from my '93 scrapper tdi disco will fit? I have a spare defender column but its not in great condition and i wanted to use the ignition barrel from the disco as i have keys to fit that but not the 90 (its stolen/recovered) Many thanks Lewis