Ed Poore

In my instance I was able to pick up a complete running LS400 for £550. Gave the shell to a mate's boyfriend and he gave me £200 for it so for £350 I got the engine, autobox and all the necessary bits to run it. Compared to finding a donor P38 and then selling various bits to recoup money and then having to fork out for a Megasquirt kit or something similar to run it it's a positive bargain. They've gone up a bit in price since then but you can still find bargains once in a while and I'd say they're still cheaper than going a P38 donor route.

Okay let's assume everyone wants a V8. So the classic choice is Rover V8 or something else. The 1UZ-FE (which was usually fitted to the Lexus LS400 in this country) basically produces Tdi levels of torque from just above idle to 7000rpm and 265ish horsepower in stock form. So basically towards the upper end of the Rover V8 territory, however with a few minor upgrades (turbos, superchargers etc which are available bolt on) then you can get them up to say 500hp and beyond comfortably on stock internals. Beyond that there are internal upgrades to take them to quadruple digit hp figures. The biggest advantage over the EFI Rover V8s is that you can use the stock ECU to run the engine out of the donor vehicle with a few simple wire mods (basically rewiring some relays to the ignition switch). Thereby saving you the cost of a Megasquirt or something else to run the Rover V8. They also have a hell of a reputation for reliability and are a nice lightweight engine As to what they'll fit in, people have put them in carp loads of vehicles including a variety of Land Rovers. There is a turbo charged version of it in the 3UZ which was a LS430 (more modern), I don't know where it stands with using the stock ecu. The 1UZ is also semi fly by wire in that the throttle pot is actually mounted on top of the engine and you use a cable to drive it so with minor mods any normal cable driven pedal will work meaning you don't need to faff fitting other accelerator pedals. The more you look into it it's a well thought out and very well designed engine. You can even use a standard Defender V8 rad with the standard Lexus hoses because they just fit together. It is a tight fit, will it fit in a lightweight - well Stephen will make it fit. This is the first lightweight I've heard of one going in. Another reason it's attractive for Sid is the 7k rpm factory redline which gives him a much more usable gearing ratio, it can be higher using an after market ecu.

Hey I didn't let him drive a V8 Land Rover and get him hooked on having one...

I had no hand in this at all...

So just how excited are you now? Do you think it'll fit? Note: I said do you think it'll fit not will you make it fit (we know that's going to be the case)! Looking at that photo you appear to be missing the MAF sensor on the intake or did you get it in a box? The bit circled in green

Put the 200 in the boot ala top gear to power the winches? Then you have 10.

I've heard of a few conversions to vehicles down this way like that for foxing at night. Think the first I'd heard was someone extending a Discovery 1s pedals and steering column through the back of a bobtail / pickup conversion so the farmer could drive and shoot at the same time.

I had one, still have one somewhere, for the RR because a normal single extension jack has no where near enough travel to come close to lifting the wheels off. Looking at Stephens photo I think the Sprinter bottle jack would extend to just above the body of the big jack he's got. If I can find it I'll take a piccy comparing the two because I've got a Disco jack in the 110.

Time for an upgrade to facilitate spring changes mid event?

On a semi serious note I have an LD28 sitting around which is a pure mechanical diesel. Revs high for a diesel (about 5000rpm if I recall). Quite a compact engine despite being a straight 6. Didn't really work in the Sandringham but in a lighter vehicle might work well. Had a turbo bolted on the side and a DIY adapter plate to take it to a V8 bell housing (LT95). To you @Stellaghost I'd be happy to donate it to the Sid project. Could bung it on a pallet up to you if you want.

What engines did the Mogs have then? Isn't there someone on here who has an OM606 that's sitting around unloved?

I know a bloke who has a couple (of containers) of those... Just saying...

Just attach a motor to the arse of the gearbox. Put it in gear and fabricate a tool holder to bolt onto the bell housing. Simples...

Well okay I was being a bit facetious, you probably can make a lot of 300 components fit and vice versa but from my research a few years ago if you got two "new" engines of either they wouldn't share many common part numbers.

But we're all agreed that 8 cylinders are better than 4...

TGV and 300 are nominally the same but share no components. Think the block (by the end) had more waterways (or rather disused ones opened up). I knew the bore was bigger but it turns out the crank is a longer stroke as well. When I snapped the first crank I thought about converting the old block but there were so many differences it wasn't worth it.

To date my "conversion" (gathering of bits and thinking) has been - £400 for the whole Lexus (cost £550 but chap who wanted the shell gave me £150 for it and it was simple that way to get rid of it). - £900 for the adapter plate and flywheel, at the time I didn't have the equipment to do it myself, now I sort of do and I regret paying for it considering it didn't fit. - Probably about £100 in an EFI fuel pump, oil filter relocation kit and relays. So about £500 if Stephen made his own adapter plates. That's with the factory ecu running the engine outside of the donor car. Going to have to do some work on the headers to make them clear the clutch if I keep it manual but that's just a bit of cutting and welding.

One downside of them is that they don't have quite the levels of torque that say the 4.6 Rover V8 does. I think 210lbft vs 280lbft but it's not a million miles away (think 265hp in stock form) but the nice thing about it is that it builds that torque pretty much from idle all the way up the rev range. I've got a blank casting from a mate who did various adapters years ago to mate stuff up to an LT230 and a ZF spline adapter thingy. Throwing a tape measure over it a couple of years back when I acquired the LS400 it looked like with some basic machining of that casting you could get the A340 box from the LS400 to mate up to the LT230 without having to clock the boxes like ZF did for the various LR fitments. It was going to be tight though. Would have resulted in a combination that was the same length as a 300Tdi, R380 and LT230 because the box is so compact for an auto.

They seem to have gone up in price (or maybe I got a bargain) but I'd strongly consider the 1UZ out of a Lexus LS400 (and so would @Bowie69). If you get a complete car then you don't need any aftermarket ECUs to run it just a few relays to direct power to the various pins. I've done this and have some simple to follow wiring diagrams should you want them. There is an off the shelf adapter to an R380 but to be honest someone with your skills would knock one up faster than it could be delivered. They are wide but you have to spend quite a bit of dosh to get a Rover V8 to match the power they are outputting as standard. They've also got a factory redline of 6750 rpm which would help with your gearing issues. I've got one mocked up in a chassis if you want any measurements from it. It's a tight fit in some spots to a Defender body but all workable, that's keeping everything in the factory location. Quite a few people switch the alternator, PAS pump and aircon pump around to free up a lot of space. As things stand the PAS pump is on the drivers side right next to the PAS box and has the reservoir built in. No need to fiddle around with relief pressures like other engines (Cummins spring to mind). The water hoses come out centrally in the engine and using a Defender V8 radiator all the original Lexus hoses are the right diameter and length. Throttle is cable driven rather than electronic (cable drive to the throttle body on top) so you can use the factory pedal. At least in a 110 I've so far found factory LR or Lexus parts that work. The only custom bit so far is engine mounts (annoyingly they are 1" off dropping in the factory 300Tdi chassis mounts). I knew a bit about the Thor vs Gems but I'll let more authorative figures such as @Bowie69 and @FridgeFreezer speak about those.

Personally I think you're over complicating things a bit because you want it to be usable in multiple situations (whilst laudable it may make it more difficult etc). Your first problem of extracting the milling machine I'd just be looking at scaffold poles and a little garden winch or something similar. I moved by 2 tonne G Dufour mill across my workshop like this, just a crow bar under it to lift it piece by piece onto strips of plywood then 2x4 and then slid the poles underneath. Then my difficult was in something to anchor it but my hydraulic press and workbench provided enough weight with a rope between to put a little garden winch into to control it across the workshop. Just winch a little, reset rollers, winch, reset etc. It was actually very little effort and went quite quickly. Quicker than all the shunting required to get the JCB in. A friend of mine used the same technique to move a 5t lathe that he acquired and once on the scaffold poles took almost no effort to move on a flat floor.

You just need to find a local fabricator and get on friendly terms with them. A quick Google shows there are a few around you. Ironically in Surrey I had very little use for such heavy duty stuff but now I don't live there I use it a lot. A lot of the people who use the thicker wall stuff down here order it in precut lengths so they don't have the problem of scrap storage. They'll even precut the angles required. For example I thought I'd get lots of bits of I beam from a neighbour but after 10 years he's hardly filled a skip with scrap, he's going through about 100 tonnes a month in structural steel but they're all precut and all he does is weld them together and take them to site to erect the barns.

The only two things I really miss from Surrey were easy access to Bob's yard and the offcut skip at Pyramid Steel. All bar the angle came from there and in 8-10ft lengths, that's a useful length of offcut!

Since I didn't trust the chinesium engine stand on a 240kg aluminium V8 there was no way in hell I was letting it near the half tonne Perkins monster. Bits of scrap I had lying around, "carefully" designed so that the sump could come out down the bottom. What I didn't foresee was quite how heavy the sump was not how big the oil pickup was. Slowly lowering it on bits of 2x4 meant I could wiggle it out.

It looks like Sid might actually be able to climb up an overhang...

Aren't you going to suffer even worse than most because of the gearing in the portals if you want to drive assist? The gearing needs to be even higher than most. Funnily enough as both the 110 and the 6x6 have PTO hydraulic pumps on I was thinking ultimately I'd go hydraulic winches on both. After 7 Sisters I can see the benefits of decoupling the winching from the drive train, at least for the 110. The 6x6 will always be a work horse.