o_teunico

A very nice SIII Santana with SOA conversion that a friend spotted some months ago.

Bye, bye Discovery, hello 109! Yep, thanks to wife´s Lancia, a disastrous clutch/flywheel failure and a BIG workshop bill, the savings I had for the Disco have been reduced to zero Fortunately, life gives us second oportunities. My bro has bought two 109"s, one from 1974, the other from 1975. Newer one has both a front and a rear halfshafts broken. The older one has a broken gearbox. At 300 eur each, with all the paperwork OK, are a bargain, and bro is happy selling one of them to me (he has not decided yet wich of them). Series vapour builds have started, and a SOA (Spring Over Axle) conversion is one of them. After searching the web for some info, I crawled undrer one of them and discoverded that the crossmember under the flywheel housing has very little clearance with the prop. Will this be a problem with a 10" suspension lift? (wider axles and torque bars are on the list).

Certainly the 12 gauge garage is also tidier than my home! In the past weeks I have started the build of a propper garage at the in laws farm. This project will take me some months and the end result will not be anything near that 12 gauge one!

Oh no, no need to apologise, I´m really learning a lot!

With the new year my brain seems to be even more confused. First abandoned idea, the London Taxi as base vehicle, is again in my mind. It´s bigger than I thought, about the same size as a Range Rover, but 300/400kg lighter and wheelchair frienly (great for grandma). Can be found as cheap as 700 UK pounds, thanks to rulings that say that no vehicle older than 15 years will have a taxi license renewal. Unfortunately the FX4R, the ones fitted with Land Rover engine, are rare today. Las ones were built 1998, the FX4 Fairway, with Nissan 2.7 engine. In Spain it was homologated to be used in Barcelona in 1997, but I have found just one picture and don´t know if it was RHD or LHD. I really like the seat arrangement and the body line, wich will be easy to disguise as a mini Rolls Phantom V/Silver Cloud-Bentley Type S EDIT: In 2002 there were just 10 Carbodies Taxis in service in Spain, already built as LHD. A 11th unit was waiting for a buyer for registering it. Fuel consumption (in city) 12 litres every 100km. Quite high, but guaranteed for 1.000.000km!

What kind of % better fuel consumption can be expected with one of those 4x2/4x4 kits for the LT230?

Looking for overland/expedition Discoveries I have found these road prepared Landies!

More calculations...if the saloon has exactly half the fuel consumption of the Disco I will save about 1100 eur per year, but I will spend 300 in insurance, 150 in tax, 50 in MoT test and 500 in parking space, so the actual save will be, at best, less than 10 eur per month. Better to have just the Disco!

Maintenance is not included because the miles covered with the saloon will be saved in the Discovery. Conversion will be carried at home with a engine from bro, obtained at zero cost. Only extra cost will be MoT aproval, but VM and Tdi engines are so similar in size/weight/power that it shouldn't be a problem. Real life consumption with the Disco will show if the Tdi saloon idea is a good or a bad one. Edit: I have spent in six months 850 eur in petrol and not 550 as I wrote

With the Tipo I use as every day car I Have spent 550 eur in six months, with an average of 6.7 litres of petrol for every 100km. Diesel is 0.05 eur cheaper for every litre.

I have been comparing VM vs Tdi fuel consumption figures on RR. Official figures tend to be too optimistic when compared to real life, but Tdi's worst figures are 15% better than VM's best ones. Alfa 75's 5,5 litres for every 100km (sorry, dont know how many imperial MPG are) will became about 4.5 with the Tdi. Will the conversion pay off? If the Alfa is older than 25 years (was built 1985-1992) it will be tax free, and insurance will be something about 300 eur per year. So, if the fuel saving is greater than those 300 eur per year when comparied with the Disco, it will paid off.

I should then look for a 24 spline conversion

The 75 has some advantages over the SD1: 500kg less, cheaper and easier to obtain, easier to convert...but as said, not as cool!

Alfa Romeo saloons (front wheel drive and also RWD) that used either the VM 2.4 (type HR492OHV) and 2.5 (425OHV) were the 75, 90, Alfetta, 155, and 164, aswell as the Rover 800. The 75 is interesting, because it uses "polar transmission", with engine and box phisically appart and joined by a propshaft. They were RWD, and also AWD variants were available, so a pair of front traction hubs could be used for creating a diesel-electric hybbrid ...but not as cool as the SD1

London taxi is another option, but here in Spain were never sold, just a pair of them for beeing used as promotional purposes. I have already located two SD1, both originally left the factory with the 2.4VM diesel + LT77.

Hi all! Just been thinking about the Discovery I will have in the following months. It will be used mostly on road as daily runner. Any off road advantage given by mods will harm road behaviour and, quite probably, fuel consumption, so... What about converting an old SD1 to Land Rover Tdi? Has been done before? I remeber that when I was a child a neighbour had one and I really liked it. The SD 2400 Turbo used a VM engine and LT77 as the Rangie. Will a RR VM to Tdi repower kit be suitable? It will be a rationalization exercise, as my bro has two 200 Tdi engines and the Disco I will have is also a 200 Tdi. The SD, the last true Rover car, not Honda or BMW based

And how about strength? Is a pegged series diff beefer than a stock 4 pin Wolf type one?

Unfortunately my last landy died back in 2005 after a roll over. If everything goes as planed, in the following months I will have a Disco 200 with rear 10 spline ARB. It will be great if I could fit a 4 pin cheap diff at front just for a while. Later I could upgrade the rear and send the ARB to the front. If the the 4 pin front one is 10 splines then the ARB will be just a bolt on. Are 10 and 24 spline sun gears interchangeable?

As far as I know, ring spacer is needed for fitting a rover carrier to a wolf housing. The grinding of a 200 housing needs mill/lathe ir is something I could do myself in a barn with just a grinder? Only if I were fortunate enough to locate a 10 spline 4 pin Rover diff...but I have heard that these are extreamly rare.

As said, two questions: 1-Will 110 200Tdi rear shaft flanges fit into a Disco 200 front axle? (AEU2522 CVs will be used). 2-Will a 4 pin P38A diff + ring fit directly, without machining, into a Rover diff housing? (Yes, I know I shouldn´t mix ring and pinion from different vehicles, but I think someone in this forum made it succesfully as a method for having a super low budget 4 pin diff)

If I could fit a toyo diff I will try cheating MoT tester and convince him that it is the ARB it has on the paperwork! Buying a Toyota? Errrr...NO!

Complete axle swap will need MoT approval, and that means nearly 1000 eur only in paperwork. Maintaining the Rover housing will avoid that.

As some oy you will know, Rovertracks used to offer a kit for adapting the Toyota hypoid diff + 30 splines shafts to the Rover housing. Shafts were bespoke: Toyota diff end and Rover pattern hub end. And here the (vapour) DIY build cheap version... -Secondhand FJ80 3rd member -Stock Toyota shafts -Since Toyota shafts are longer than Rovers, some kind of wheel spacers will be added to Rover hubs, with Toyota drive flange end stud pattern at the end side. Will that work?

I thought it was going to be slightly more

De Ranged, how much clearance gain with your shaved casings?