The Range Rover Classic thread:
Discussion
T-J-C said:
Here is a picture of my soft dash LSE taken yesterday. It’s almost ready to return to the road for the first time since 2003!
Ok so I'm biased but I think that's a great profile. Well done on getting it up and running. I've finally capitulated and bought a set of rear quarter window seals for mine. They are a lot for what they are but it did need doing.
Need to get the badges back on and maybe a respray (so not in that order) but the old girl is going quite well.
Oh and don't polybush them. I'm still ironing out body flex and wobble and all that is left is that the whole thing was PBed a good while before I got it and I think the stiffness is where the problem lies.
Concur re polybushes. They are awful. Firstly most of the kits are junk so they simply don’t fit well from go, they then go squidgy and bits start squeezing out and the ride is terrible. Stock LR rubber bushes just soak up so many of the little bits of road movement. I’ve spent a lot having them removed to get the car back to being as smooth as they were from the factory.
I guess they may have an advantage off-road? I don’t know but on road it’s not a race car and it needs rubber bushes.
I guess they may have an advantage off-road? I don’t know but on road it’s not a race car and it needs rubber bushes.
jon-yprpe said:
DA - as yours is a suffix A, any reason you went for the later rear light cluster?
I’m doing the opposite and backdating my ‘86 2 door to the late 70s look but was wavering between the early and later clusters. Partly dependent on the colour I choose.
LOL., DA,s looks like a new suffix A to me. DA what engine is in that ?I’m doing the opposite and backdating my ‘86 2 door to the late 70s look but was wavering between the early and later clusters. Partly dependent on the colour I choose.
cayman-black said:
jon-yprpe said:
DA - as yours is a suffix A, any reason you went for the later rear light cluster?
I’m doing the opposite and backdating my ‘86 2 door to the late 70s look but was wavering between the early and later clusters. Partly dependent on the colour I choose.
LOL., DA,s looks like a new suffix A to me. DA what engine is in that ?I’m doing the opposite and backdating my ‘86 2 door to the late 70s look but was wavering between the early and later clusters. Partly dependent on the colour I choose.
I want to use this car whenever I want and with my family onboard. The original front lamps aren’t bright enough to be safe at modern road speeds so I removed the correct era ones and upgraded them. In rain on a motorway you simply cannot see the rear lights from a safe distance so it had to have rear fogs and other road users simply don’t notice the brake lights coming in quickly enough. I’ve had these cars for over twenty years and a very common scenario is the late braking by cars behind, which the tailgate lamp has totally eradicated. If I had retained the correct rear lights then I would have had to fit a set of auxiliary fogs and aesthetically I thought they looked worse than fitting the late spec cluster with the integral fog. At the same time the late spec clusters have internal plastic reflectors which make the lights more visible anyway.
The very observant will note that the front indicators and side lights are mixed at the moment, one early, one late. That’s down to me not yet being arsed to match them. The hesitation there is that I have just one original set whereas there is an endless supply of later ones so I will probably opt for later purely for the ease of replacement.
Re what engine?
. The original engine, gearbox, trans tunnel, fuel tank etc are with all the original interior and other parts in storage. It currently has a 4L serpentine, cross bolted engine and an updated zF4 box all awaiting the addition of the Rotrex supercharger that will deliver 400 bhp of ‘push to pass’ capability to counter the turbo diesel weaponisation of elderly tourists who are a bugger to pass as their cars now respond to their tiny minded acceleration when they notice they are about to be overtaken. cayman-black said:
Ha, i knew it had something special in there.
It was originally going to be an LS3 but back when I started the project there was no way to get a modern auto box in there and tuned to change nicely. Plus, the torque of that engine was simply more than any of the Ashcroft updated drivetrain parts could prudently handle and retaining the axles was key to retaining 8 points for the DVLA. I then explored the AMG 5.5 SOHC engine which is smaller than the RV8 and there was a programmable TCU for the auto box but that plan fell apart when I tried to talk to every Merc engine specialist in the UK about a rebuild and it transpired that their core specialist subjects were in fact chipping, chrominance and calling me ‘brother’. Plus the Rakeway guys who had the TCU warned it was quite simple so would be hard to program for smooth road use.
That brought me back to the RV8. The 5L wasn’t on because it was a real world 300bhp plus right at its limits for reliable, endless running. The 4.0 is a rock solid unit when looked after. The one in this car was extremely clean and unworn because the one lady owner of the Disco it came from had changed the oil every 6 months of its life. The normal supercharger options weren’t ideal. I didn’t want boost from standstill as that is what chews up the drivetrain and not did I want 10mpg permanently for pottering. The Rotrex is ideal as it works more like a turbo but without lag. At low rpm it’s not there so it’s like driving a normal Rangie but above 2500rpm it comes in so it is ideal for motorway and overtaking, the only places I want extra power and where it will do the least amount of wear.
I have a turbo diesel Disco rad that we have record toDakar rally spec with deeper cooling fins and the integrated inter cooler will allow the boost to be maximised. So, it’s all been built, drivetrain and engine, ready for the supercharger to be bolted on and the ECU replaced with an OMEX system to govern it all on and off boost well.
That’s good to know - I hadn’t considered the visibility point with the original clusters. I’ll also look at better visibility at the front end....although none of the options are that great given how headlights have moved on.
I’m going with the 4.6 GEMs, running Megasquirt and an Ashcroft R380 box.
I’m going with the 4.6 GEMs, running Megasquirt and an Ashcroft R380 box.
jon-yprpe said:
That’s good to know - I hadn’t considered the visibility point with the original clusters. I’ll also look at better visibility at the front end....although none of the options are that great given how headlights have moved on.
I’m going with the 4.6 GEMs, running Megasquirt and an Ashcroft R380 box.
That’ll be a really nice set up. Just about perfect without going silly. I spent a few years at the beginning of my project trying to decide on the gearbox, part of which was whether to go manual or auto. The real problem for me was that in the auto world the transition from 4 to 5 speed was defined by the industry change to electronic and the need for a TCU and almost none of them are programable in aftermarket terms and the stuff that was in the US were too long or offset to the left. I’m going with the 4.6 GEMs, running Megasquirt and an Ashcroft R380 box.
What I have done is used an LT230 transfer case instead of the better for road, Borg Warner. My reasoning for this is that you can change the ratio from 1.2 to 1.0 which wouldn’t be very good on a stock 4.0 but might just be a way of achieving a higher final drive when supercharged. I think the increase will be too much but I’ll test it out.
It would have been ideal for me if the ZF6 had had an aftermarket controller developed for it.
|https://thumbsnap.com/46tSJWbA[/url]
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