@The Deputy I feel your pain I think I removed the upper intake 4 times, and yes SAI is just evil.

 

I'm jealous of you guys stuck at home. I've got so many automotive projects I've been planning to tackle when I get quarantined, but as of right now I'm still working every day.

Dodge needs the bed replaced and suspension completely redone.

Chevy needs CV axles and the front end gearing changed to match the 4.56s in the rear.

Land Rover needs lift kit swapped over, driveshaft swapped over, headliner dropped and reinstalled, ECU/bcu/cluster swapped back over, plugs and wires replaced, who even knows what else.

Oh, and I've got to finish the framework on the car trailer.

Please VA, quarantine me. After Sunday. Saturday/Sunday is new Dodge motor weekend about an hour from home.

 

 

yesterday the weather was nice, so used the Shelter in Place time to pull, dry out and fix the cracked turn signal on the '01. then replaced the worn out OG shifter and E-brake boots on my '04 with some new black leather. looks so much better and took all of about 15 minutes.

maybe i can get motivated to pull the headliner out fix the leaking sunroofs in then next couple of days. i've been putting that off for a while.

 

I've been daily driving mine for two weeks while parts are coming in for the usual daily driver. Its been great! I do seem to get gas more these days though....

 

The more I sit here and with all my free time from not commuting the more I'm leaning towards tackling an LS swap. At 125K original miles with no head gasket or top end motor work it's just a matter of time before that needs to be done. If going through the motions of pulling motor, installing a cam and 4.6 internals and porting everything to match I'm not convinced that the gains from all that effort/money is worth it. The elevation here is a killer and I spend almost every weekend in the mountains where that issue only gets worse. The idea is to run a gen3 6.0 LS motor with a 6L90 trans and NP pass side drop t-case. Two extra gears and daily driving in 2wd plus regular fuel sure seems real nice. My end goal in my head has always been to build small camping/offroad trailer with gear and RTT so that I'm not adding more weight on top of my already tall disco. Plus more room for puppers and passengers and trail performance is not effected, that can't be a reality with the stock rover motor with mountain passes in excess of 10,000ft...


edit: still plenty of issues to work through but I'm in the process of identifying them and potential solutions. Biggest things will be wiring, which I can do.

 

That's my general plan, except I'm just doing 5.3/4l60 with a Dodge NP208. I've got all the parts to do it. Just gotta find the time to do that, too.

 

running the 6L90 will be pricier and more wiring plus the controller isn't cheap but I think the 2 extra gears will be worth it. I was looking at running a NP208c or a NP241c. Wife got laid off this morning so this is now indefinitely on hold...however once I can source the motor and trans I can start the wiring before it gets into the vehicle and will probably just make a custom harness so there's no extra fat or stragglers floating around when it comes to diagnosing any potential issues when it comes to firing it up.

 

Road test done, fluids checked, looked underneath for dripage (lol), scaned codes - none. Drives pretty nice, bought it non-runner.

Started early this morning and everything went well...well...besides the crossmember bolts, even with lube and anti sieze...thank goodness l had an impact at home. Usually work without air tools at home, quieter and more relaxing (after listening to them all the time at work). But, had to bust that bad-boy out for the sixteen bolts of death. Bled right out, no issues and heat from vents immediately (previous owner had put a new radiator in just before his duaghter overheated it). This engine came out of my 03, and was running fine beforehand. Freshened it up and sound strong...actually...pretty surprised how it pulls off the line.

Pictures or it didn't happen...




Only issue was a dead battery, even after charging over night...it wouldn't overcome the rust on the starter armature. Swapped battery, got a couple solid clicks, could hear the starter humming, third time was a charm...turned over for a bit and fired right up.




She's kind of cute. Think l may throw a plate/insurance on it and drive it for a bit. Plus, who knows...maybe l'll just park the Defender for a while (even after rebuilding the engine) and be a Dll guy again...there is...one hell of a difference.

Brian.

 

So my project truck that has been a nightmare since the day I bought it has continued to test my patience. I wasn’t even going to buy the thing but I let my dad convince me it’d be a nice purchase since it was an HSE7 and what’s the worst that could happen. Well 10 months later I still have it in pieces and it’s still not right. So I had the engine rebuilt and I finally got it back from the shop and installed it but unfortunately my excitement about getting my truck running again was short lived. First the oil pressure switch had failed so it appeared I had low oil pressure which luckily I did not. Then when I finally installed all of the cooling system and ran the truck for a little bit to bed in the cam I noticed I was hemorrhaging water midway on the block on both sides which I thought was really weird and then I checked my oil fill cap and guess what it’s milky. So first I think my machine shop somehow messed up installing my freeze plugs as I’m not sure how else water could be coming from mid block and second I can’t decide if I somehow messed up installing my headgaskets or if it’s the Lucas break in additive I added that’s left this yellow foam on the cap as the oil still looks clear elsewhere. This is probably my 5th time doing head gaskets on a rover V8 and this block had no issues with overheating/water loss prior so I’m a little dumbfounded.