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Series 3 109: 3.9 V8, LT85 + LT230 write-up


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You're very welcome, I'll look forward to hearing about it.

Interesting about the air box, maybe I made the right call. I'd like to swap to enclosed types though, so at least I can intake some cool air!

I read a whole lot of stuff about Strombergs not working with low resistance filters and feeling flat or unresponsive compared to stock setups.. it doesn't surprise me that they might run a bit leaner, so this is probably the cause. I found that my V8 runs surprisingly well at 16:1 at full throttle, so without the wideband lambda sensor I would have had little clue otherwise. So glad I've got my wideband, it really takes the guessing out.

Off topic, but I'm pondering doing an LT230 PTO build as I want to mount a generator and compressor to her. Might beg a favour back for some dimensions and bolt pattern info at some point :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, I got gold of a set of B1FN needles, just out of interest. Little lean off idle, improving as revs build. Probably fine for, and maybe slight over fuel on 3.5

On either set of needles, with everything set up and running properly, there is a small firework display on over-run. She seems to think she's a Group B car! I hate to tell her otherwise - it's hugely entertaining with the side exit exhaust! I see why there were poppet valves on the throttle plates originally...

More write up to follow; life has rather got in the way recently! Running great, still making me grin like a Cheshire cat. Eberspacher and DIY arctic heater will be fitted over the weekend with cunning use of a couple of Ford KA heater valves. Watch this space.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, back to it after a mad few weeks:

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You can see here how close the pulley is to the front crossmember, meaning a standard radiator is out. I realised the only solution would be to fit it inside, rather than behind the front panel, but the only solution turned out to be a custom job. I found European Radiator Services on ebay, having been round quite a few and was feeling a little worried I wasn't going to be able to get what I wanted. Most people wanted to sell me some allow thing based on fixed core size for the price of a second hand car.... My conversation with ERS changed all then when the helpful chap on the end of the phone said "Yeah, do you brass tanks as well?" after I explained what I was after. £300 delivered bought me a gorgeous copper core radiator with brass tanks, to my exact dimensions which arrived in the post three days later. Worth speaking to the for custom radiator if you have a requirement for your project - I highly recommend. You can see the mounting brackets on top of the chassis in the pic, as well as the bottom hose which has the tee for the bottom connection to the expansion tank. The heater return also tees into this.

This is what arrived:

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And here's how it sits:

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Radiator sitting neatly inside a slightly modified front panel;

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And you can see what I had to trim away:

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And another shot to show the bottom hose installed:

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A little more plumbing. I installed a bleed valve from an MR2 to get the air out of the heater rad.

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Making up a little blanking plate for where the otter switch use to go:

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I've used the switch on the thermostat housiing from the injection manifold, which fit better with my radiator hose placement.

On to the seat box! Because I fitted the whole engine and gearbox higher than normal, and the LT85 is twice the size of the LT76, I had a bit of an issue. Even a Stage One seat box didn't clear it, so some chopping and a custom tunnel would be required:

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Some large chunks being taken off:

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Still tight, but it fits:

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This left the problem is the tunnel. I actually ended up slitting the bulkhead and moving the while tunnel section up two inches. Much cardboard template making later, I was able to cut the tunnel out of some 1mm ali:

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You can see the litte plate in the side giving away how high I had to take it bulkhead side:

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The lips on either side of the tunnel actually fit under the floors, keeping it all together. The top of the tunnel is the same height as the front of the seat box! A standard defender rubber completes the job.

The prop, of course, needed modifying. The front needs to be 32", the rear 36". Both are made from chopped down 109 rears. I wish I'd take more pics, but all you need to do is mark the orientation of the UJusing some angle iron layed against the shaft, then slit right into the weld to a depth of about 3/8 or so. There is a spiggot which locates the UJ inside the shaft which is about 3/4" long - doesn't matter if you cut into it a little. Once you're confident you've got through the weld and thickness of the tube, take a copper mallet and smack the thing a few times. It'll edge out. Cut the shaft to the required length, making sure the alignment mark is long enough to remain after the cut, stuff the UJ back in (it'll be a tight fit), then do NOT weld it at this stage. Stick it on the vehicle, fir it up, remove a rear half shaft, unlock the front freewheeling hubs, and spin it up in low range first. Make sure the vehicle is chocked! You'll see any radial misalignment - just whack it with a copper mallet softly where you see runout. it's surprising how true you can get it this way! This is, of course, assuming you don't have a lathe big enough.... Once true, tack it, then weld it back up. I'd recommend a decent run with 3.25mm arc welding rod here. Seems to get a "factory" looking weld. The arc welder always seems to penetrate better than the mig on heavy stuff...

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Making up the throttle linkage:

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The V8 uses a cable (think I used a defender diesel cable of some kind), so the rod had to be modified, a hole cut in the bulkhead and a few pin made. Nothing difficult here.

After two useless Lucas coils, I finally got around to researching a decent Bosch ignition coil suitable for the V8:

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Plumbing in the VDO oil pressure sender was interesting. The V8 uses 1/2 UNC, the gauge uses 1/8 npt. Lucking I found an adaptor on ebay! This has a 1/8 hole in the side for the VDO sender, so getting at the right angle requires installing it, then calculating how much to turn off the shoulder to get the correct angle when tightened up:

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it looks like this installed:

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Clearance between the oil filter and diff housing is bigger than that photo suggests!

A sump plug modified to take an oil temp sender:

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Gauges installed:

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Top left to bottom right: Smiths oil temp, VDO oil pressure, VDO coolant temp, Smiths fuel, Smiths battery voltage. The smiths fuel gauge works fine with a standard land rover sender with a little calibration buy turning the two screws in the back.

At this point it drives! Sadly, as the radiator had to take its space, there was no room for the bonnet catch. I considered military type external catches, but didn't like that idea. I had about 3/4" of room to play with, so I made my own slmline version of the stock series bonnet catch:

Original:

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My version:

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It works just like the original :)

I did have to turn down the pin so it didn't foul the radiator - that's how close it all is!

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