Project Fighter - Engine Rebuilt

I plan to join Kalimantan (Borneo) expedition next year if money, health and God permit, but it is good to start preparing for it now... there are many things need to be prepared though, here is my plan over the course of one year

1. Physical and mental health, start exercising... I am now 93kg 174cm, it is an obese by fitness standard, I need to shed about 20kgs.. :-).


2. Build a Fighter land rover series, I always want to do kind of expedition with the most basic vehicle... Series land rover will do the job hopefully, and it is cheaper to built than the defender.


3. Money matters... how can you save money if you built a Land rover... I do not know...:-)

I won't talk about the money and health issue here, but for the vehicle it probably good to keep the record on the progress.



I still have one (unhealthy) Land rover series III, I call it Bagong (a Sundanese word for warthog or Hog)... it will remain so and it seems fit with the task. But as I said it is not yet healthy and need (a lot of) fixing.

First thing First... Engine rebuilt.

This week I have finished the engine rebuild and it cost me about US$ 400 including the man hour cost.

Following is the detail of parts

Parts	New / used?	Cost Roughly
Packing Head	new	$9
Other Packing	new
Piston ring	new	$45
Seals	new
Oil pump	used	$25
Tension and chain	used	$15
Water pump kit	New	$25
Rocker arm	used	$25
Tappet	used	$25

You may think why on earth I use "used" parts instead of new one... well.... one of the reason is I can not find the "original" parts or the original parts price is ridiculously high. I'd rather use the "good' used one than settle with low quality new parts. But buying the used parts require a good knowledge about how good is good.

Oil pump for example we measured the backlash and housing gap in accordance to Haynes manual... so I have no worries to use it. Timing chain: if you can bend it, it is not good, as for tappet the physical evidence will tell you the story. You can read http://landy.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/used-parts-the-choice-is-yours/ for more info on used parts

I am very lucky to know that bearings and pistons is still in very good condition, in fact the previous owner just change it, and the honing is still visible. I probably do not have to change the piston ring either but I replace it anyway.

To slightly increase the power, I do some porting on the intake. I want to go further by increasing the compression and using defender cam, but as I want the engine to be at it most reliable, I do not want to increase any load on the engine, just breath easier.

So I have finished the engine rebuilt, the next would be the Gear Box... stay tune...