"Nanuuq" my Land Rover Discovery 2 diesel swap, ...forever a project!

[Tinker]

Been reading this thread all day. I'm currently on page 9...

PROPS. You are one creative dude and super diligent...

All I can think when watching your videos that my brother held me back a lot when I used to race / help build cars - I grew up around cars but I was about 10 years younger than him. Anything that needed to be done in a car, it was him wrenching on it or my mechanics. All I did was race them. I was baby'd a lot, now that I'm in 30's, I wish I did more than just sat in the car. :( Especially welding. I'm gonna learn how to...

Thanks, I try! Lots of trial & error since all of it's either self taught or learned from skilled friends.

And I fully agree with Lanlubber on that! Get your hands on a cheap used unit & just have a go at it. You'd be surprised how much you could learn from YouTube too! I didn't have a clue about welding until a few friends helped me along with a dream to build our own giant moto freestyle ramp. Maybe not the best thing to start on, but well worth the struggle!

 

[Tinker]

Brian from HOONIGAN should holler at you. I don't think he ever got his swap running. He bought a brand new crate motor from Cummins.

I don't think so either, but with a fleet like that I'm hardly surprised! I used to have 9 projects, but thankfully have it down to 5 now (7 if you count bare shells) that I can barely keep running all at the same time. Maybe I could help him with his "carcaine rehab" by dropping by the yard to show it off if I make out west before he's done. I'd LOVE to get my hands on one of those R2.8's... someday perhaps I could convince someone at Cummins to help me out with that.

 

[Ob1]

Happy to help! And oh man the editing can be brutal, that last one cost me the better part of 4 hours & it was an easy one.

I can just imagine on the rebuild costs, thankful that I didn't have to crack into either of mine. That setup sounds great! I'm looking forward to rebuilding mine in aluminum. I'll have a look, anything I can do to learn more :)

Hey mate,

Keep in mind that drinking water in aluminum may be a problem - long term. I was thinking of using food grade stainless, but the weight was an issue. Also, time kept moving and we had planned to drive to AK from SF bay area (two months ago). The easiest solution was 8" schedule 40 PVC pipes under the vehicle instead of the OEM spare location. Two tanks can store 9 gal of hot and 9 gal of cold water. The PVC is a better insulator then aluminum or steel for the hot tank. This with two 5 gallon jerrycans should be enough for a while. If you travel with a woman, you must have a hot shower available to keep tranquility in the vehicle....

I plan to ship the vehicle to Amsterdam and drive to Vladivostok in Siberia across all Europe and Asia in the summer of 2021. Then, take a ferry to Japan and ship it back here. My wife said it is too long (2.5 months) so we might do a relay with the passengers swapping where there is an airport. My kids want a taste of Asia as well.

Currently building/installing 3 fuel filters on the line and a water treatment system so we can get water from rivers. I'm also adding a front mount intercooler. With this we should sustain 2-3 weeks without any dependency.

Again, your blog is truly inspiring.

Cheers

 

[Tinker]

Next on the list of steering mods is building the new drag-link, and might as well use something as stout as I did in the previous version: 1.5" DOM (seamless) tubing with a 1/4" wall thickness:

In order to calculate it's new length, since the Land Cruiser steering box is in a new place, first I had to drill out the taper in the pitman arm. The FJ80 pitman is a strong forged steel, so drilling it out to fit my 3/4" grade-9 hardware was a bit of a chore. But once I made room for the upgraded bolts I could stick in the spherical joints + tube adapters & center the axle + pitman arm for mocking up the new length tubing:

Thankfully I have a friend patient enough to show me the way of TIG welding, so we were able to get the new drag link hot glue'd together, with a few passes to preserve the tube adapter's fine threads from overheating/warping. It's probably obvious that most of my practice was on the bracket on the left, which is for my Crx rally car project. I made a few clean TIG welds, but similar to when I learned MIG they were not so smooth & slow going... but a little more than 15 minutes practice should help me towards getting my welds more like my friend's really nicely sunken smooth welds. I need to start looking for used TIG machines to start on, because I am hooked!

With the drag link sorted I could move on to linking the old Rover steering stem to the new Land Cruiser gear. I think I spent nearly an hour cursing at the Toyota u-joint that refused to let go, and then I started measuring the 2 lower steering u-joints next to each other for pondering a solution. Originally I thought I'd have to cut the 2 apart & weld some things, but after rolling them both around in my hands I started to notice something funny about their internal splines... they looked similar! I very much did not expect to put calipers in there & see the same dimensions! I think I quadruple checked the spline count + depth + diameter before I decided to try & fit the Rover u-joint to the FJ80 gear box. (Does anyone know if steering gear splines are maybe standardized?) Even the locking bolt lined up to the groove in the splines:

Modifying the steering stem should be considerably easier if all I needed to do was change the length, so I measured the difference, which worked out right at 1 inch. I cut from the middle so that I can retain all the safety features of the Rover's stem (collapsing, break away, anti-vibe)

After welding it was important to grind it all back in order for it to work like original. Turned out pretty good, hard to tell where the weld even is in the stem. So now it's time for all these parts to receive paint! Just as soon as I heal from an injury that's been bogging me way down lately.

 

[Tinker]

New steering links are complete! Don't mind that panhard bar hanging there all out of place... it's next up on the list:

Modifying the OE Rover steering stem to mate the wheel to the new Land Cruiser steering gear was a success & quite a bit easier than I could've hoped for with the splines matching up:

The big 7/8" spherical joint is bolted into the drilled out pitman arm, and the steering damper / stabilizer clamped onto it's new centering location on the new length drag-link:

I'm glad I was able to get my hands on a set of weld-in tube inserts with the hex ends, makes adjusting them a little easier. And some may cringe at the single-shear construction... but these Rover axles are barely considered "half tons" (with known strength issues involving ring gear deflection) so I'm not too worried about uber levels of strength until I can start building myself a set of custom full-float axles I have in mind. The primary reason being the brutal cost of just trying to upgrade these british axles versus building custom american axles:

The video of the work on the steering links:

 

[Ob1]

Nicely done mate! Impressive!!!!!

Have you considered getting a sand blasting booth instead of the wire brush? It makes time more efficient, and the paint sticks much better to the parts. Used ones are not very expensive.

Cheers

--ofer

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

Nicely done mate! Impressive!!!!!

Have you considered getting a sand blasting booth instead of the wire brush? It makes time more efficient, and the paint sticks much better to the parts. Used ones are not very expensive.

Cheers

--ofer

You are so right. Blasting is messy but it does such a nice job quickly. If you sand blast you should handle the blasted part with grease free leather gloves and prime the cleaned part as quickly as possible because just the humidity in the air starts the rust process.

 

[Tinker]

Nicely done mate! Impressive!!!!!

Have you considered getting a sand blasting booth instead of the wire brush? It makes time more efficient, and the paint sticks much better to the parts. Used ones are not very expensive.

Cheers

--ofer

Thanks! And yeah I recently picked up a cheap setup to try here soon. Paintwork is something I need to step my game up on, because it's definitely a weak point in my skills (as well as something I have a bad habit of rushing).

 

[Tinker]

You are so right. Blasting is messy but it does such a nice job quickly. If you sand blast you should handle the blasted part with grease free leather gloves and prime the cleaned part as quickly as possible because just the humidity in the air starts the rust process.

And man does corrosion come knocking on the door quick here in Michigan, sometimes I swear I live on an island. I've been working on getting better about that sort of prep work, but going into winter here makes it extra challenging.

 

[Ob1]

Thanks! And yeah I recently picked up a cheap setup to try here soon. Paintwork is something I need to step my game up on, because it's definitely a weak point in my skills (as well as something I have a bad habit of rushing).

A man got to know his limitations... :) It takes hours of practice to get the finish perfect. I gave up on the paint.

I have a good friend, that I lent him money to start a professional paint shop (liquid & powder) 20 years ago. His shop is 12 miles away, and it really makes a difference. I just pick the color from the chart and two days later I pick the parts up all wrapped. It's heaven!!!

This is how one of the projects started... and ended.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

A man got to know his limitations... :) It takes hours of practice to get the finish perfect. I gave up on the paint.

I have a good friend, that I lent him money to start a professional paint shop (liquid & powder) 20 years ago. His shop is 12 miles away, and it really makes a difference. I just pick the color from the chart and two days later I pick the parts up all wrapped. It's heaven!!!

This is how one of the projects started... and ended.

View attachment 129794View attachment 129795View attachment 129796
View attachment 129797

Simply said, that's amazing. You did goooood !

 

[Ob1]

Simply said, that's amazing. You did goooood !

Hahaha. Not me. Team work!!! My friend did all the paint/powder work. And helped me with the fork lift to put the engine in on the last job. The second album, my daughter did most of the work (code name Kermit).

Here is a link to the albums if you are interested...

Baby Blue 40 LandCruiser - Now 79' Dijon

77 new items added to shared album

goo.gl

FJ40 - Noa 1971

87 new items added to shared album

goo.gl

Big Red

197 new items · Album by ofer bruhis

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

Hahaha. Not me. Team work!!! My friend did all the paint/powder work. And helped me with the fork lift to put the engine in on the last job. The second album, my daughter did most of the work (code name Kermit).

Here is a link to the albums if you are interested...

Baby Blue 40 LandCruiser - Now 79' Dijon

77 new items added to shared album

goo.gl

FJ40 - Noa 1971

87 new items added to shared album

goo.gl

Big Red

197 new items · Album by ofer bruhis

photos.app.goo.gl

Well it would not have ever been brought back to life if not for you. Very few have the knowledge or skill to do everything. Plus even if you can do it sometime you want it better than you can do, that's okay. Still kudos to you !

 

[Tinker]

A man got to know his limitations... :) It takes hours of practice to get the finish perfect. I gave up on the paint.

I have a good friend, that I lent him money to start a professional paint shop (liquid & powder) 20 years ago. His shop is 12 miles away, and it really makes a difference. I just pick the color from the chart and two days later I pick the parts up all wrapped. It's heaven!!!

This is how one of the projects started... and ended.

View attachment 129794View attachment 129795View attachment 129796
View attachment 129797

What a transformation!

 

[Tinker]

Next up is replacing the original Rover panhard-bar bracket I cut off the frame to make way for the Land Cruiser steering gearbox. Thankfully I cut the old bracket off nice & clean so I can use it for making sure I start out fabricating the new mount with the panhard bar propped up right where it used to be:

Starting out with simple lower mounts using a pair of great big washers & tubing that has just enough clearance for thick impact sockets to get ahold of the pivot bolt:

I plan to work with tubing much more in the future (roll cages, bumpers, exhaust etc), and I need something to speed up the "fishmouthing" / cope cutting process. It'll speed up the cutting AND set me up for better welds too since the fit will end up much more accurate. There are options out there for off the shelf tools to do this, but the cheapest are $80+ for each tube size... that could get brutal on the wallet & take up a mess of space in a hurry! Others use software to print out cut templates, but this is faster & easier. This idea is just a handful of stainless rods I cut down + velcro strips that cost less than $20 all in:

The rods stack up around whatever size tube/pipe & get lashed on with a strip or two of velcro (or tape for easier duplicating). I made up enough rods to fit the circumference of anything ranging from 1/2" to 4". The velcro is tight enough to keep them from falling out, while allowing enough slip for them to form the shape. I'll see how it works in practice, but the idea is to either slip the inner tube up to mark the end for cutting, or use the other end of the tool (that has the same shape mirrored around) when you slip the tube in to mark it. Here it is showing a simple 90-degree cope profile on 1-1/4" DOM tubing:

 

[Tinker]

Took some time aside to make a trip down to Indianapolis for the PRI show (a huge racing industry expo; think Sema minus all the showy stuff) for my first time. And glad I did... because WOW was that an overload of beautiful craftsmanship, new tech, & info to try to take in within an all too short 2-day period! Way too many interesting things to share them all, but I've got a few good ones, here a near completely billet Cummins:

There was a big area devoted to a whole spectrum of tools & equipment for building vehicles, from small hand tools all the way up to 5-axis CNC machines that are always pretty fun to watch doing their dance (especially since I work with CNC machinery for work). I was drooling over the welding tables & fixturing setups like this, something that could be super useful for me & maybe even be able to build myself in the future:

And here one of my favorite vehicles, something of a mix between a rally car & super bike & trophy truck, all in a compact 900lb buggy. Would be so much fun to build AND rip around:

 

[Tinker]

As soon as I made it back home from PRI I went right back to work on the Rover, now with extra motivation & a few new ideas. I'm starting the base of the new panhard-bar bracket with a 1/4" plate cut to fit where the old OE Rover bracket hung on:

I may try to build a boxed-in version of this bracket as well, similar to the original, in the case that I'm not liking how strong the tubular version ends up. But I'm confident this will be better than original, & it will have even more contact area with the frame based on the numbers I crunched for the design I have in mind. Next I'll tack weld this all together so I can add a couple more tubes & several gussets up on the welding bench:

I also learned another weakness of the GoPro lenses in the cold, even though they're glass... 20 degree air + hot sparks from an angle grinder = instant crack! I keep a handful of spare lenses around, some like this one for dirty work (welding, painting, grinding, etc) & several clean ones for regular filming. This lens took a beating this summer, but winter always takes it's toll on these GoPro's:

 

[CaptainBuilt]

Nice work as always.

 

[Tinker]

TIG welded panhard-bar bracket! All thanks to a friend with more skills & the patience to show me why TIG is so awesome. I'm for sure getting my hands on one by spring... it's so precise & clean

Bracket MIG welded in place of the old OE bracket with a healthy coating of weld-thru primer beforehand. The welding went better than expected for upside down & off handed. The welds along the rectangular base laid down great, but the vertical section of tube was a bit of a handful:

Finally reassembled & functional once again! No interference with the new Land Cruiser steering gear's pitman-arm, & as smooth moving as you can expect from wrestling the steering wheel without the engine running:

Here you can see the vertical bit of tube that runs up the inner-side of the frame rail. Overkill I'm sure, but it just sort of made sense with the angle that the tubing ended up after I bent it for the ideal position, plus it could help in resisting the side-to-side loads that the panhard-bar will leverage against the frame:

I'm liking all the angles of the links on the front axle, should keep from tracking funny or having any weird bump steer effects. But it's all good in theory until the long awaited road test shakes out any issues with all the work on these new/modified things... honestly I'd be shocked if there's not at least something I come back with after road testing thinking "Well that didn't pan out!"

So now the only things in the way of the first test drive are: Reconnecting the steering system's plumbing with the new reservoir, & then making a few throttle-cable brackets.... figures I'd reach this point right smack in the middle of winter, but I can hardly wait!

 

[Seanm26]

Amazing. You are a fabricobbler of the highest goobering.