I have not personally undertaken one of these conversions (although I have often considered it). However, I once owned a '67 109 SW which had a Chev 235 l-6 in it and can attest the the joy of the performance (without noticing any particular penalty in fuel economy compared with what I have heard with the Land-Rover f-head 2.6l 6-cyl). That one was not a Scotty conversion, however.

Also, I know a fellow in my town who put a Scotty conversion in a '68 109" SW (which had had a Land-Rover 6 in it) with a Chev 250 l-6. He did a very sanitary factory-looking job of the conversion. He did, however, find that Scotty's instructions, both in the scanty documentation provided with the "kit" and over the phone, were somewhat sparce. I called, today, and talked to him about the conversion. He said that the kit, as far as it went, was well made.

However, his recollection was that he had to find a certain type of Chevy flywheel and then have it machined to work (remove about 3/8" thickness to allow the clutch room to engage properly, i.e., not slip) and that he also used a Chevy 9" clutch disk and pressure plate (cover). He found that clutch to be sort of marginal for that engine. It occured to me that his problems might be unique to a conversion to a gearbox which was originally fitted to an f-head (6-cylinder or Series I 4-cyl) Land-Rover engine, due the the narrower bell housing used for those engines. If that were the only reason for the problems, you could perhaps solve them by changing the bell housing to one for a 2.25 liter four cylinder Land-Rover.

He also mentioned the difficulty of working out all the details of cooling the engine properly and felt that a custom shroud for the radiator was needed. I have heard from others with American sixes and V-8s in Land-Rovers that cooling is a persistent problem.

Another problem with fitting most V-6s and V-8s is room for the exhaust next to the steering box. The solution to that one, apparently, is to modify the bracket holding the main steering box to angle outward (into the wheel well), a little, to move the box away from the engine. This modification was used by the Land-Rover dealer in Willits, CA, Carbry Motors, which did quite a few V-8 transplants into Land-Rovers, years back(but the conversion pieces were made by someone in S.F., not by Scotty).

A conversion which I have strongly considered is the 4.0-liter V-6 used in the Ford Explorer, as it is a 60-degree vee, rather than the 90-degree vee of most V-6s and certainly has enough power and torque for a Land-Rover 88. It would fit in well, as it is quite compact. Also, 60 degrees is the natural balance angle for a V-6 and so tends to be quite smooth. My understanding is that that particular Ford V-6 is made in Germany.

I noticed in another one of yesterday's postings, from Greg Hiner in Australia, of other adapters available for the Land-Rover (available in the U.S. from Advance Adapters). One of them purports to mate Ford C4 or C10 automatic gearboxes to the Land-Rover transfer case. I don't know if this would work for the Explorer V-6 or not, but intend to find out. I feel that there would be two major advantages to the auto box (three counting my wife liking it better): 1)better crawling ability off-road (now favored by many off-road racers) and 2)less strain on the Land-Rover-not-made-to-take-all-that-extra-torque drivetrain. In that latter vein, I feel that converting to full-time four-wheel drive would be better, too.

In that connection, there may be a low-cost ($400+/-) add-on viscous coupling available from Mile Marker (who make Selectro Hubs) in Florida. Whether or not they have one which would work probably depends upon what engine is fitted and how much torque it has. I also understand that such a conversion would require modification of the Land-Rover front axle to add CV joints in place of the u-joints.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[ Granville Pool (Redwood Valley, CA) L-Rs: 4-88" 1-80" + Austin Champ 4x4]
[ e-mail to: mcdpw@pacific.pacific.net              Phone: (707) 485-7220 ]
[ Net-Rovers leave a trail of mud & oil on the information superhighway!  ]
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~