custom-conversions

Don't suppose you know of any companies that can ship these over to the UK at reasonable expense? I agree they are a great product for the money, they do make sourcing tyres a little tricky though in the UK as 16.5" isn't a commonly used size.

But I guess you have already fitted they by now!

I can't remember which relay is for the main beam, its probably on the drivers side under the dash (the mess of wires around the steering column) but could be anywhere knowing Land Rover! You can probably figure out which relay it is by the click as you switch the main beam on & off, you'll be able to feel which relay it is & then with a multi meter find the wire to tap into to switch your spot lights on. Or it could be traced back. I'd earth them through the roof so you just need a 12v feed from inside the car. I'd probably drill a small hole in the rain gutter on the drivers side & silicone it up after with the wire going through it, then thogh the pillar into the car. I'd also feed the wires though the light bar as its neater but thats just me being fussy. If you buy a 3-way switch you could wire them so they are permenantly on, off or on with the main beam. Covers all options. You might find you get too much of a reflection from the bonnet so might not want them on all the time. They are usefull for flashing people that like driving around with fog lights on all the time! Oh, I may even have a spare relay for ya, some scrap wire so you will just need some spade connectors. They may have come with the lights though, they sometimes do.

Hi, Hope you had a good Christmas. You wire them up on a separate circuit with a fuse & relay. You can have them switching off the main beam circuit if you wanted. Or on a separate switch.I don't know if you are allowed to have them coming on with the main beam for the MOT but just fit a switch so they can be turned off when you don't want them on with the main beam.

One of the clutches within the box have gone, you need a replacement box or a refurb. The boxes are cheap enough to buy second-hand so I'd just replace it.

I think the 2" lift gained from Police Spec (red-white stripe) springs is gained when you fit rear springs to the front. If you then add a spacer under the rear springs to lift the rear a bit to level the vehicle. You gain a 2" lift without buying the stiffer HD lift springs, plus its a really cheap way to lift the vehicle.

In that case I'll be a little bit nervouse when it goes into the tank as I don't want to have just my roll cage & winch mounts returned to me without a chassis attached to them. How rusty can a Land-Rover chassis be? Actually, don't answer that one!

I would of thought the auto box from a 4.6 would be stronger & asafer bet. If your a little bit simpatetic with the way you drive it should last reasonably well. I have a 6.5 GMC v8 Turbo Diesel with a Range Rover Classic ZF 4 speed auto behind it which lasted fine, although you could feel the box slipping if you gave it full throttle from a standing start on tarmac. The 4.6 is a stronger box & I presume the LSx engine won't have much more torque than a big diesel v8. Would be nice if their was a cheapish solution as it would make the P38 great car. I'd be tempted to try & bin as much of the Land-Rover Electronics as possible while doing the conversion, they are only going to get even less reliable as they get older.

Thats fine if its a Defender, Disco, Range Rover Classic etc. But on a P38 you would have the front prop shaft through the middle of the engine sump as the diffs are offset to the opposit side. You would need a different adapter to mate up to the Borge Warner P38 transferbox.

If you have a Series 2 Disco (99-05 ish TD5 Shape) they will. If you don't you need adapters as the wheel stud pattern is different.

I would have though an acid dip would remove more than surface rust, I have seen an old air-cooled VW after it has come back from being dipped & it was very very clean, rust free, well what came back was rust free, but it was rather riddled with holes. Maybe I'm getting the processes mixed up a bit, are they just quickly washing the chassis off to remove surface impurities? If so couldn't they just dip it a little longer? Slight extra cost I'd guess, but worth it for a good long lasting finish. The chassic I've got is in good condition, its from a 100" 1994 Range Rover & it seems solid. Its just I'd like it to stay that way & I hate treating rust. I always end up with more paint on me, the drive & the kitchen sink than I do on the truck! If getting a chassis galvanised was to cost a few hunderd quid I'm thinking its better than coating over rust with fairly expensive paints & woxoyl every few years, it should be easier to clean & work on in the future aswell.

Thanks, Thats good to know, I always thought it was expensive to get things galvanised. £500 ish & with the hassle of removing everything from the chassis I haven't even looked into it in the past, always have other jobs to do to keep it on the road. I would have thought that acid dipping the chassis prior to galvanising would remove the rust on the inside of the chassis & then galv would prevent it from coming back in a long time. Is the concern that when an old chassis gets dipped it comes out with holes everywhere & thin sections that are weaker? Or is it that you just cant remove all the rust & it'll just come straight back within a few years? I might be lifting the body off soon, what a fun job that will be!

That sounds like a good price, almost too good to be true. Don't you nead a really clean chassis, acid dipped & washed before plating. I just can't see all this being done for £100. I'd definently pay £100 if it means that I don'thave to pick up a paintbrush ever again though! Galv is so much better than paints. What firms will galvanising a chassis for that sort of price? Oh, I'd say galvanise as you have probably gathered by now!

Yes the figures do seem to favour the TDi lower down the rev range with the maximum torque being available earlier. 2.5 DSE MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT: 134 bhp (100 kW) @ 4400 rpm MAXIMUM TORQUE: 199 lb ft (270 N.m) @ 2300 rpm 200 Tdi (Couldn't find the 300's spec but its fairly close I'd imagine) 111bhp @4000rpm, 195 lb-ft @1,800 rpm If the BMW 2.5 is happier to cruise at higher rev's you would get away with changing the transfer box to the defender 1.4 or even the 1.67 wouldn't you? The 200 & 300 tdi's are quite flat higher up the rev range. I don't think they would be happy at 100mph. 100mph on 35" mud tyres is around 25mph over their speed rating & wouldn't be safe. I'm not a big fan of either engine & not an expert. But in my opinion the BMW 2.5 is the better of the 2 engines, only marginally though, & I doubt it'll be worth the extra hassle in standard form. The TDi's are simple to maintain & easy to fit. Just lacking in power in my opinion, but I prefer larger diesels & v8's. The isuzu diesel has been the only small diesel engine I have been reasonably impressed with, I find the 200/300tdi's just are a little slow on road. The TD5's & other modern diesels are great but expensive & complex to fit into a classic range rover. If you can do most of the work yourself its still worth going ahead & fitting the BMW diesel. It should be nicer to drive with a BMW engine, I imagine the perkins is great off road but really slow on road, it doesn't rev very freely does it?

Thanks for that link, I can't believe how cheap they are! $25 each ( approx. £15) they even include the bolts if you buy a pair. I though they would be at least 10x that price which is why I hadn't given discs + bells much thought. I don't doubt that AP are better quality but I'm not building a high performace racer. These will be more than capable for stopping a slow 2-ton off-roader, well it might get a little heavier but I hope not. They are perfect, I am considering buying them & paying the shipping. The weight is stated as 8.7 each which I guess is in lb's as its an american site. So I would be looking at a package weight of around 20kgs which isn't too bad. We always seem to get ripped off buying items like this in the UK. It'll probably still work out cheaper buying these from the US even after paying all the fees. I have found this web site selling the discs/rotors in the uk but they are around £100 per corner. & just found these on eBay of all places. £75 a pair & they are probably the same disc's I should now be able to carry out a disc conversion which adds very little to the track width. Thank-you very much, a really helpful link. You have saved me loads of hassle.

:lol: I'm glad I didn't buy anything from him in that case!

Yes that sounds like a good solution, just like they use in motor racing. Helps stop the discs warping too but doubt I'll have those issues on an off-roader. I thought that it would be really expensive for the discs but I may be wrong. I'm going to be looking for some discs around 300mm diameter with a largeish centre & minimal offset. I 'll look for a 2 part disc at the same time, I don't mind making the centres up. My current solution might mean that in order to change the discs the whole hub would have to come off which needs a press I believe. The range rover hub would be bolted on from behind though the mog hub & the brake disc. That would be a pain!

I think the idea is fine it is more down to the way it was carried out by Straight forward Supplies & their customer service. I have heard a few people complain about them in the past. It does look like a simple & smart solution, it just adds too much width for my application. Your right, 401 / 411 axles would be ideal but finding them in the UK isn't easy, well I couldn't find any. They are 7 inches narrower I think & they use all the same parts. If I had known I would have planned a trip to Denmark to purchase some 411 Mog axles. Its too late now though, I'll work with what I've got.

So I presume you wouldn't have trusted Straight Forward Supplies to cut'n'shut your axles to get them to fit a Land-Rover

Thanks for the link. Am I correct in thinking those mog hubs are reversed so the original mounting flange is used with the disc bolted behind it? if so is that the Straigh Forward Supplies Way? I have never seen how they do the conversion, just heard that it adds quite a lot to the track width. Looks like a nice build, it looks really wide though with those wheels & tyres.

The straight forward supplies setup used discovery discs & calipers, portal rover bought the company & I presume they still offer the same conversion. Straight forward supplies used to charge around £550 per axle for the disc conversion, I am not sure about portal rovers price or products. The problem with using land rover discs is that they will increase the axle width too much. It is going to be wide as it is, I don't want to make it any wider. I'm not going to be narrow the axle case. I'll engineer my own solution to save some money, I can't justify spending £1000 odd on the brakes! The suspension links, joints & shocks are going to be expensive so I've got to save some cash by doing the brakes & pinion conversion myself. Although you have just given me the idea of using the hub that bolts onto a range rover brake disc with a more suitable disc from a large road car of some description. Basically I want the brake discs to be as close the the portal box as possible. I need to take some measurements & find something suitable. I'll post up what I use in the end. Thanks for your reply.

Hi again, This might be quite a long shot but does anyone know of any brake discs with a 5 x 165mm PCD (The Land Rover Stud pattern) (5x6.5"). I have decided that i'll be machining my portal hubs & making a flange to mount the discs & converting to the Land-Rover 5 stud pattern at the same time. Ideally I'd like to source an off the shelf disc so that I have very minimal if any machining work when the discs need changing. The land rover discs/hubs will increase the track too much & aren't that easy to fit. I have found the picture below which seems like a neat solution to mount the discs, just got to either find some suitable discs now, if I can't I'll get some made up out of steel plate. They have got to be reasonably priced so nothing too exotic please Looking for something in the region of 300-330mm diameter as I want to run 16" rims. Prefereably vented but don't have to be. Anything bigger could be machined down but the size of the centre section must not limit the pad contact area too much. I am considering re-drilling some american 8x6.5" PCD rotors (oops I mean discs!). Hopefully the 5 studs would fall into the right positions but knowing my luck they wouldn't. Only issue is the availability in the uk, I haven't looked into it as of yet. Just thought I'd ask some of you guys as someone has probably looked into it previously, These axles better be worth the hassle in the end!

The 6 cylinder BMW engine has got to be better than a TDi hasn't it? It will be a in a lighter vehicle so should be reasonable IMO, just because its not great in a P38a doesn't mean it won't do the job in a lighter classic. You have to work the 200/300 TDi's hard to get them to go. Even harder if they fitted them to the P38's.I'd be surprised if the DSE Range Rover is slower than a 200/300TDi & I think its probably heavier. I imagine that with a larger intercooler, & a few tweaks a BMW diesel should perform quite well. Have you considered the Isuzu 2.8 or 3.1TD's ? I have been quite impressed with them & they are dirt cheap. They perform well & return good fuel consumption. They rev much better than a TDi aswell. Easy to get a little more power out of them with a large front mount intercooler & an adjustment to the fuel screw on the pump. They are much better than a TDi in my opinion. The conversion kit is around £300 new but you can often pickup the bits used on eBay. The Isuzu is also quite compact, much shorter than the 6 cylinder BMW engine. Its also a cross-flow engine which makes it easy to fit the pipework to a cheap intercooler infront of the radiator.

Thanks for the offer but I just can't spend that sort of money at the moment. Buying the engine is only part of the expence, lots of extra costs to get it fitted & running also put me off. I might upgrade to a proper engine at a later date. I have suspension joints to buy to make the links up next & then some coil-overs or air-shox (not sure which yet). The build cost is adding up without adding the cost of an LS1, Gearbox, ECU's & X-fer box adapter into the equation. I haven't set a budget, probably best if I don't as it'll only go over it anyway but buying an LS1 or any other LS engine will put me in the red so can't be done yet! I've already got my winches, Superwinch H14 front & rear running of a PTO hydraulic pump so not too many more expensive items to purchases just the suspension & lots of little bits which soon add up.

I totally agree, its hard to beat a good v8. They are relatively light aswell which is a bonus as the rest of my truck is going to get a bit heavy!