Some more parts arrived today, including a new fuel filler hose, rubber mounts for the engine and gearbox, and the spacers that go in the outer rear crossmember for the bumper and roll cage mounts. Good thing those can still be ordered because my old ones were so rusty and they got destroyed after chiseling and prying on them to get the rusty bolts out. I already have new Britpart rubber mounts, but I read some people have had problems with them so I made sure I got the genuine ones. Have to do this right the first time.
It's fun getting parts from England in only 1 day.
Front and rear upper shock mounts to replace my rusty ones. Yay! And new bump stops for the chassis; I figured lower cost brands are okay for those. But I made sure I spared no expense on the fulcrum ball joint.
A buddy of mine installed low-cost Britpart. Bump stops 18 months ago, now the rubber parts haver fallen off and gone missing.
Oh no! Okay, no skimping on anything now. Of course the rubber on what I assume to be original LR bump stops on my truck have fallen off or disintegrated too. Who knows how long those lasted.
Jim, that's crazy. In normal circumstances the bump stops shouldn't even get touched - how the hell does the rubber just fall off? I plan on getting extended ones, but I think those are all aftermarket.
My experience with Britpart stuff so far has been hit and miss like most other UK brands, but overall pretty good. Some genuine LR stuff I've gotten has been pretty bad actually, like terrible quality control, just wrong, or damaged, so that's why I'm not afraid of Britpart for less critical stuff.
My go to parts supplier now is LRDirect (https://www.lrdirect.com/). Their prices are pretty good, not the lowest, but I get stuff from them much faster than I could get it from a domestic supplier.
I got new rubber floor mats. I had some commercial carpet in the truck, which of course just gets soggy.
And I got ceramic brake pads. I wanted Akebono Euro, but they only make them for the rear on the Defender so I got those and for the front I got Hawk. The Hawk's say Talon on the box; same thing I guess. Hopefully they're good. The funny thing is that Hawk only makes them for the front on the Defender, so I was bound to only be able to get a mismatched set lol. I was also considering PBR brand. Napa imports those, but they were a little more than I got these for on Amazon.
And a 4-bolt flange for the replacement axle. It actually cost less to buy the pieces separate rather than the kit. That way I got to choose the small bits as well. I selected Corteco for the oil seal. I guess that's the original brand. I don't know what the bolt is for, but I ordered it anyways. I guess I'll find out. They also sent me a pack of 10 nuts instead of 1, so I got 9 free nuts.
So I don't know much about u joints. I spent a few hours researching them after I found this article comparing a good one versus a not so good one. I thought the Meyle u joints I bought were German but they're made in China. Everyone on the forums seems to think Chinese u joints are junk. Whether or not that is actually true who knows, but I'm just going to go with that. The Dana Spicer 5-4x seems to be on top of everyone's list, but it looks like it's long NLA. Dana's PermaLube u joints look good to me, but of course they don't have the correct size. Bummer. The Neapco 1-0005 and Precision 344 seem to be popular choices, but they're pretty cheap so it looks like most people like them just because they're made in the USA. I actually tried ordering the Neapco's from Advance Auto Parts, but they are unavailable. So just to play it safe I ordered HD Hardy Spicers from the UK.
Some people complained about my plan to install the 95+ front indicator lights on my 94 because I'd have to put another hole in my front wings, but I just noticed that the 95+ front wing panels actually have 3 holes in them. So Land Rover just took wing panels they already had and put another hole in it. That's what I'm going to do.
Saw an M3 engine in a Range Rover classic two weeks ago and I thought of the project here. What they had done was put obd 1 electronics on the M engine (apparently there is a whole tuner group out there making these setups) and it was running flawlessly. They changed the bell housing and torque converter but retained the classics 4hp22 trans. Very nicely done.
That's basically the engine I had in my RRC. I sold him the 3.2 (M3) bottom and my engine, harness, and everything since my RRC is going a different direction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chip
That's awesome. A lot of people do convert an OBD2 engine to OBD1, but it is very illegal. It's very difficult to convert the dual vanos M54 to OBD1, although there is a guy I know who's done it using a custom made vanos controller. He also modified the engine to accept a cable throttle. None of that is ideal in my opinion. OBD2 gives you much more diagnostic information and of course lower emissions so that's good for the planet. I also very much prefer drive-by-wire. It's so smooth and I feel more connected to the engine.
If it hasn't been mentioned, look up Kassel Performance. They can delete EWS. Also pop in a EU2 tune to shut off the CEL when not running a SAP or secondary o2 sensors, in the stock BMW ecu for the M54. I'm running one in my 330i now since I have headers. Also got a EU2 tune. Works flawlessly. They also sell modified harnesses for fitting M54s into e30s and e36s, etc.
That's basically the engine I had in my RRC. I sold him the 3.2 (M3) bottom and my engine, harness, and everything since my RRC is going a different direction.
If it hasn't been mentioned, look up Kassel Performance. They can delete EWS. Also pop in a EU2 tune to shut off the CEL when not running a SAP or secondary o2 sensors, in the stock BMW ecu for the M54. I'm running one in my 330i now since I have headers. Also got a EU2 tune. Works flawlessly. They also sell modified harnesses for fitting M54s into e30s and e36s, etc.
That's awesome Jeff! But actually a group from Germany just shared the MS43 EWS delete so there's no need to pay to have that done now. Link here, here, and here.
I do know about Kassel Performance. Please don't suggest people do illegal things concerning emissions laws in my build thread though. An EU tune, M54 headers without cats, and deleting or disabling other emissions equipment are all illegal. I intend for my engine conversion to be legal. I will not discuss this particular topic again and I kindly ask others not to as well. Thank you.
That's basically the engine I had in my RRC. I sold him the 3.2 (M3) bottom and my engine, harness, and everything since my RRC is going a different direction.
If it hasn't been mentioned, look up Kassel Performance. They can delete EWS. Also pop in a EU2 tune to shut off the CEL when not running a SAP or secondary o2 sensors, in the stock BMW ecu for the M54. I'm running one in my 330i now since I have headers. Also got a EU2 tune. Works flawlessly. They also sell modified harnesses for fitting M54s into e30s and e36s, etc.
The 3.2 swapped RRC is a shop car at Sarek Autowerke, where I work. It was pretty straight forward with the OBD1 conversion on it. I will be fitting a 2.8 OBD1 M52 into my D1 and maintaining A/C soonish.