Hello all,

Realising this is an extremely broad topic I hope there are some adventurers out there who can throw suggestions at me!

I am driving off to Ghana in 2 weeks time (whoa so much still to do!) in a 1986 defender 110 hardtop with a beautiful sounding 3.5 V8 petrol engine.

Has anyone got experience with this engine (please let it be good!) and got some good advice on how to keep it running a smooth as a babys bum?

Many thanks in advance!!
Lotty

I had a 110V8 back in the 90's. It was reliable but not without 'issues'..

I did around 30,000 miles in it and found that -

- The manifold gaskets constantly worked loose resulting in a chuffing sound from the engine. Not serious but annoying.

- The heat in the cab from the V8 was ridiculous.

- Fuel consumption was around 15 mpg on UK roads.

- Carbs needed regular tuning/balancing

- Gearbox bearings became noisy

- Oil needed changing every 3000 miles due to small oilways allegedly.

- Clunky gearchange on the Santana LT85 transmission.

Nothing to stop you getting to Africa apart from fuel cost/limited range (250 miles a tank !) and you need to like a lot of heat !

Andrew.

I've not had a v8 landy, but years ago had the same engine in a Triump Stag - the only thing I can think of that could be a problem would be damp ingition leads, espescially if fording streams.

Make sure that you have the best quality ignition leads that you can afford and scan the web to see if there are any techniques for waterproofing the engine,, distributor, coil, etc.

Also take a good supply of WD40!

__________________
Cheers,

Julian Voelcker
Overland Cruisers - Specialising in Land Cruiser preparation and servicing.

Don't over-fill with engine oil-you'll blow the crank seals. Get the carbs rebuilt if you know nothing of their history. Very unstressed engine which will go on for ages providing you change the oil regularly. Can't remeber if it was every 3K miles though.

Q

if you've got stromberg carbs, make sure you take a spare set of diaphragms for them, if one splits and you don't, you're in trouble. these can be changed in minutes ( landrover part no. JS499L)

Thanks everyone, very helpful, keep it coming!
Lotty

I have a 1990 V8 HCPU right now

overheating of the engine when driving serious offroad.
take spare bearings for the LT85 for what they cost.

Once starting to wear out,they start sounding like a coffe grinder.
Locals will fix it very cheap when you take the spare parts(bearings& seals)


cab heating comes not from the engine but from the manifolds running under the tunnel.metal heatshield can be homemade and will bring down the temp dramatically.make shure the visco is in good shape of mount a fixed fan as your driving will be not in cold climate anyway.

We have used an overloaded V8 127 for the last 58k miles – down to W.Africa a few times and a couple of trips to Morocco and RIM. At 3.25 tons plus, we can get an average of around 22 to 23 mpg with a light foot on tarmac or graded roads but this goes down to about 8mpg in sand.

The engine is great as long as you look after it – we change the oil and filter every 6k, but as suggested you could do it more frequently. I also use change the plugs, dizzy cap and rotor arm every 8k which seems to keep things running sweetly and have had the carbs balanced professionally a couple of times. When driving in sand in low / diff lock, use a soft foot and change gear slowly otherwise the transfer box and UJ’s will take a real beating with all the torque from the engine.

Driving any real distance on soft sand in the low box will lead to overheating so keep an eye on the temp gauge and stop every hour or so for 15 min with the bonnet up and the engine running to cool it down if it gets near the red. As suggested make sure the visco unit on the fan is in good shape – I have replaced 2 now that seem to have become a bit slow to react and I usually take the old one as a spare.

As for the gearbox – its very agricultural but enormously strong. The bearings are the only weak point but I have driven back from RIM to the UK with the gearbox sounding like its on its last legs and it still kept going. I only fixed it as the noise was unbearable! The noise starts in all gears apart from 4 and reverse (lay shaft bearings go first – then the main) and gets louder and louder until it sounds like your dragging sheets of corrugated tin around with you. Tip -If this happens, empty the gearbox oil every 1k or so, filter it through a t shirt to get the lumps out and put it back in again if you can’t get any new stuff. I got another 8k out of what I had decided was a completely knackered box this way. I have also been told that 20/50 engine can be used and was recommended for older boxes.

I like the tip of building a heat shield to keep the cab cooler – we got it up to an uncomfortable 60 -65 deg a few times and kept stopping and standing in the sun to cool down!

Hope this helps – have fun!

jasper,I'll give you the pn's of the bearings