My New Car...

[sotal]

Ok it's not quite "new" and it's not quite a "car" but still

For those of you who don't know the story behind it - we bought it at christmas. It was sold as having a good engine but it was an MOT failure because the chassis was too far gone. We sourced a replacement chassis and stripped the old one down and rebuilt the full vehicle. It took 3 months of weekends to do, unfortunatley in the process we found out the engine was crap! We stripped it down to have a look what was wrong. The first noticeable problem was that a heater plug had snapped off - so that needed drilling out, the next problem was the big end shells. Over time (and lack of oil changes) the shells had worn down and all the bits had filled the oil way holes . A quick change of the shells, a good clean out and some fresh oil and it was back up and running. The back axle turned out to be a bit of a pain. One of the leafs snapped as we took the spring off, then we realised the diff casing was cracked, then we realised the cylinder had gone on one side and was leaking over the shoes - so that turned into a bigger job.

Anyway - we finished it a couple of months a go - took it for it's MOT and it passed straight off :D . Since then we had a radiator pipe burst, another brake cylinder go, a seal go on the axle and the speedo cable snapped All that happened in the first couple of days and it's been fine since. We'd done about 250 miles on the road but new it wasn't finished until it successfully completed an off road course

Sunday was the monthly "Fun Day" at a quarry up the road from us. It passed with flying colours. It was very capable on everything, the only lesson we learnt for next time is that it gets a bit deep in the middle of the water It's got to be the only car that I know off that can run with water going through the air filter We were a bit worried whilst sitting in the middle - power dropped right down but it kept going with clouds of white smoke emerging from the bubbles behind Once we made it through we drove round for a minute or so and it was fine again We took the oil bath air filter off which was now full of water, emptied it and put oil back in and carried on

So all in all a success. Now I've got to change the engine oil, gearbox oil, diff oil and swivel grease We're going to get a snorkel for next time and some wading breathers for the axles.

Here's a couple more pictures:

[knowlson]

Hang on a 4x4 that’s being used off road! I don’t believe it!!

Looks good dude!

[hoho15]

lol i wanna go!!

[Bibbs]

Landies are awesome .. I so want one.

[Karma Supra]

Landies are cool....

Ben have you seen Hairy Ed's one???

he has a crew cab pick up... it ahs the hugest widest off road tyres, looks like its been lifted... he has done things to ti to make it shift too :D Very cool!!!

Can I just ask though, you just replace the big ends without gatting a machine shop to match up new ones to the crank?

[sotal]

Cheers for the comments ;)

Hang on a 4x4 that’s being used off road! I don’t believe it!!

Looks good dude!

I've got to say you probably wouldn't want to do a school run in this

lol i wanna go!!

If you were closer I'd say sure. It's £20 / vehicle to enter so you can take other people in then keep swapping round. It's definatley worth doing if you ever get chance

Landies are awesome .. I so want one.

Get one Ours has cost less than £1000 including all new parts on it and the spray job. It did take a lot of effort and time but it's all part of the fun Then it's a great day out once a month if you've got a local of road course

[Bibbs]

Get one Ours has cost less than £1000 including all new parts on it and the spray job. It did take a lot of effort and time but it's all part of the fun Then it's a great day out once a month if you've got a local of road course

Would be tempted. Spent far too much of my youth being thrown around the back of one driving about Long Valley (Aldershot) in Army Cadets.

[sotal]

Landies are cool....

Ben have you seen Hairy Ed's one???

he has a crew cab pick up... it ahs the hugest widest off road tyres, looks like its been lifted... he has done things to ti to make it shift too :D Very cool!!!

Get some pictures of that up

Can I just ask though, you just replace the big ends without gatting a machine shop to match up new ones to the crank?

Don't start telling me I should have done various things now Just followed the instructions in the Haynes Manual. Bought the big end shells for £6, lay underneath, unbolted the sump, took about half an our to prise the sump off as it had been siliconed on. Unbolted the bits that hold the shells in place, slid the old ones out, slid the new ones in, bolted everything back together, filled with oil and it was good to go

Hopefully I've described everything right and got the right names for the bits I just follow the instructions

[jay dh]

looks great fun, i did it as a driving experience once and loved it

[Karma Supra]

Well I guess as long as it rungs ok.......

The joys of a landy.... its take me about two years to replace my big ends on my supra... and the bearings are STILL not in the uk :(

If the crank was not damaged it should be fine mate...

The problem I had was the bearing decided to grip onto the crank and spin around in its mounting a few times totally munching up the bearing surface... so the crank has to be re machined about 15 thousanths of an inch smaller and thicker bearings fitted....

All because some cowboy mechanics decided to stick in mega thick oil in it to plug the oil leak in their leaky turbs they had sold me.... unfortunately it plugged the oil ways that lubricate the bearings :ffs:

[sotal]

Yes they're great from that respect

The crank had a very slight mark on it next to the worst Shell, but nothing major. On taking the Shell out you could crumple it up in your hand it was that thin We are planning on taking the sump off after it's done about 1000 miles to check that everythings still OK.

I'm still completley amazed that it still runs after having so much water go straight through the air intake

We weren't too woried as we've got a spare engine

[Karma Supra]

Just for comparisin. new big ends and mains for my car cost £208..... And I need to buya set :( Oh, and a new crank.....

[sotal]

Everything is dirt cheap for the Landrover, we did have the slight added benefit of borrowing a family members industrial shed to work on the landrover, which just happened to have a Landrover specialist next door who had a full stock of spares :D So we got lots of spares at trade price without having to wait for them to come etc :D

I was amazed at how cheap bit's were though. One of the main bits which rusts on the landrovers is the door tops as they are made of steel where the majority of other parts is made of alloy. They only cost £20.

Just figuring out at the moment how I'm going to make a snorkel - looks like I could have a 90 airbox on it's way soon, then a bit of drain pipe and I'm away

[DaveSR]

That looks like so much fun :D !

I so want a go at driving in big puddles

[sotal]

It's fun whilst you're doing it, it's not so fun the next day spending 3 hours just washing most of the muck off - then I've got to spend several hours changing all the oils Next time should be better though if I can get the snorkel sorted and ready!

[Demonic Angel]

Cool!

My Dad has two, a 1971 military Land Rover and a 1995 Discovery - they aint for picking up the kiddies from school, I'll tell you that much!

[Jinxed]

heh looks like a cool vehicle and looks like great fun

[Johndcfc]

I've only one memory (must of been 17-19 years back) of when my folks had a land rover - waiting on the hard shoulder for an hour after the engine had overheated for some reason on the way to norfolk....

They are cool tho !

[sotal]

Cool!

My Dad has two, a 1971 military Land Rover and a 1995 Discovery - they aint for picking up the kiddies from school, I'll tell you that much!

The Disco Following us into the water on the 3rd pic is my father in laws. I "think" ours is a military land rover, the history of the vehicle gets a bit sketchy. It's got the tell tale signs of being one though - we've got the heavy duty axles and extended shackles.

Have you had a drive of your dads off road??