Here are some pictures:

Day it came off the boat from the UK:


Finished motor:








In California:

That is a pretty awesome project vehicle. Props 

love the VA antique tags.  working on something like for my 67 lotus, also RHD.

Should be a fun project http://www.syncrogearboxes.com/fitting- … -series-3/

Update ?

Not sure how active the forum is, but figured I'd post an update as we are starting to consider a lot of new things for the Land Rover. I will be going to San Diego to visit in November and hope to come up with a solid plan by then as I will be moving to San Diego in May and would like to eventually get the truck to a dailyable state. First off we are considering getting a bikini top like this one

Seems like a good solution as it never rains in San Diego and the stock soft top takes half an hour plus to reinstall.
Secondly we need new tires since the good year wranglers we have now have been on for nearly 10 years  Probably want to get these MICHELIN XZLs


Thirdly we are starting to look at options for an engine swap and a disc brake conversion to make the truck drivable on the freeway. We are still in the very early stages of research for engine swaps, but are thinking of potentially going either the Cummins 4BT route or maybe a V8 not sure wether we'd go LS or Rover v8. This is something we want to plan for before we replace the bulkhead as this requires removing the front fenders, bonnet, roof, windshield, and doors which we are now planning to do ourselves. This would be a good time to potentially do the swap. This is also the time we plan to move forward with painting the truck as we can get the panels painted while they are off. At this point we've purchased all of the parts needed to replace the full bulkhead and door posts and also have replacement rear fenders, rear panels, and will be removing all of the galvanized "trim" pieces to get regalvanized so it seems like most of the body panels will be coming off the truck.

This is all in the very early stages of planning. I may just leave it how it is now for a little while as all of this could take years to complete and it would be nice to enjoy driving the truck for a little while before we have it all apart again. Also have plans to trailer it out to the dessert and have some fun offroading a bit. Anyway will be posting more pictures and updates in November hope everyone is well.

Last edited by sohlman (2018-10-19 14:54:33)

ikbrown wrote:

sohlman wrote:

Not sure how active the forum is

it's mostly crickets up in here. But here I am still 

Is there a common favorite engine/tranny swap in the rover community? How fast can it get up to now? Just sounds like its full out when you're going 55 or what? ha. Sounds like exciting plans in the works.

There aren't too many swaps done in America, but lots of British people do Defender diesel swaps or Rover V8 swaps. These options are pretty expensive to do in the US though as it generally involves shipping a motor from the UK. These are also not the most reliable engines out there and maintenance/ parts are expensive. I really really would like to do a Cummins 4BT as I think this is probably the best suited engine for the platform and is super reliable. Keeping it diesel would be really nice. Not to mention finding shops/ parts for Cummins engines is easy in the US, but these engines are quite expensive as well. An LS would probably be the cheapest option, but not sure how well a petrol V8 would fit the character of the truck.

The current Diesel 2.25 liter makes a massive 60 hp@ 4000 RPM and 133lbft @1800 RPM this is at the crank, so doesn't include the massive drivetrain loss that happens when you have essentially a 16 speed gearbox with high, mid, and low range as well as locking diffs. 55mph is about the highest speed I feel comfortable taking it up to, but realistically you don't want to cruise at speeds higher than 50mph. The biggest concern in San Diego is how much that speed drops when climbing the large hills that lead up to my parents house where speed can drop to a crawl. A overdrive unit would help with this quite a bit, because you could use overdrive in 3rd gear as 4th is too high for climbing hills and 3rd is too low for keeping speed up. Apparently an overdrive will also drop the revs by 28% in 4th gear so would increase the top speed quite a bit. Finding a Fairy overdrive unit which was a period mod in the 60s and is no longer produced is very difficult as they are very popular with the FJ40 crowd. So that leaves the option of newly manufactured Roamer drives which run nearly $3,000 with shipping. This could also be a consideration, but is expensive enough that it would pay for a significant portion of a swap  which is why we cancelled our order.

So there are lots of options to consider. 

Last edited by sohlman (2018-10-20 12:36:27)

How about the predecessor to the Landy V8? The Buick/Olds 215?

sohlman wrote:

saabroo wrote:

How about the predecessor to the Landy V8? The Buick/Olds 215?

Still not sure I like the idea of a V8. I'm just not sure it would fit the character of the truck.

I see your point - there's a guy I saw on the instagrams a while back who put a Cummins in a 70 'Cuda and as you can imagine it suffers immensely from the same problem but in reverse.

saabroo wrote:

If it is going to be a daily(ish), a small (Not LS) v8 might make the vehicle easier to live with. Adequate power, will be smoother and it make less of a racket than a 4 cylinder or diesel.

Besides, Rover used the 215 a basis for their V8, so the swap won't be too much of a sacrilege.

Something to consider for sure. I still need to do so much more research into diff upgrades and transmissions etc that anything is a possibility. This is still all at the man that would be cool to do stage of thought.