Land Rover Project: Sexy Back: Love is in the Eye of the beholder.

[sawtooth4x4]

Yes the 5 cylinder 300D Mercedes.


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[sawtooth4x4]

Welded up the mounts with my crappy harbor freight MIG welder using C02 shielding gas. Came out nicely I think.

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[Tonkaman]

Wow that turned out great! I love how simple you made it seem.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Engine, starter ring, flex plate adapter all fit perfectly together. Mercedes and Land Rover living in perfect harmony.

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[Greg]

When do you think you'll be bolting the engine up for the last time? I'd like to see this thing running in person one of these days, any diesel swap is interesting to me.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Tomorrow I hope! I got a lot done today

When do you think you'll be bolting the engine up for the last time? I'd like to see this thing running in person one of these days, any diesel swap is interesting to me.

- - - Updated - - -

Alright progress has been made today. Figured out I could delete one of the pieces. So my tolerance is now .003" which should be really good. Considering all the parts are made out of flat sheet metal, that is pretty damn cool. Sorry engineer nerd talk there.


I have also installed some taller tires and a small lift kit.


Adapter fit up

Engine Mounts welded in

Some Exterior and of the lift

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Everything fits together good. Just need to make a spacer for the starter. She's going in the hole tonight.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

everything is in, everything fits. just need to make a spacer for the starter, and it should hopefully fire up.

 

[Rot Box]

Sweet!!

 

[sixstringsteve]

That's really cool, congrats! Do you think the flywheel (or is it called a flex plate?) is a lot heavier than stock?

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Steve, the flexplate is a little lighter then stock i think, i should weigh them and compare the differences. I tried to keep parts heavy on that end for inertia. Every diesel i've ever worked on seems to have really heavy flywheels and flexplates. Probably to deal with all the torque.

The one i designed is made from 1/4" stock. I made all the parts so they could be cut on a laser CNC or High Def. Water Jet machine. That way I could keep the cost low for a kit for others to purchase. I'm not sure if it will sell well or not, but atleast i know it is designed well and fits great. I would never trust myself to make something like this by hand. The measurements had to be perfect, i don't want any weird engine vibrations while its running. I'm very happy with how they came out.

 

[sixstringsteve]

that's cool. It's gotta make it 10x tougher (and slower) to design it for production, rather than a one-off. Nice work.

Does mercedez have any weird 5-sided bolts or weird fasteners that require mercedez-specific tools? I remember my dad would never wrench on our 300D cuz he didn't have the "mercedes-specific" tools. But now that I look at it, nothing looks too specialized.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

The only specific tools you need are the triple torque for head bolts. And some special wrenches to adjust remove the injection pump. They also have a lot of allen head bolts. The cool part of a mercedes is reliability. Something the land rover motors are not exactly known for.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Sorting out fluid conveyance through the vehicle. I started with what i thought would be the hardest to fix. The power steering. But I was wrong, because the hoses hooked right up to the mercedes power steering pump. So, now i have the oil cooler piping, Air Conditioning, Heater Core, Radiator, fuel lines, and that is it. Then some wiring and it should run. this is going to be a lot easier than I originally thought.

 

[Greg]

Always good news when you don't have to adapt stuff like power steering hoses! You're almost there!

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Anyone know where I could get some oil cooler lines made. I need to adapt the Mercedes lines to my Range Rover lines. I think the lines have about 50 psi running through them


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[sixstringsteve]

hose and rubber? or maybe evco?

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Yeah. It has metal fittings at each side. I'd almost prefer stainless steel. Something that will last and not wear a hole through the it.


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[sawtooth4x4]

Got some more done tonight. Alternator is in. Radiator. Coolant reservoir. Battery. Air filter and air filter box.

Also trying to figure out if I can mount an intercooler and where I can stick one. Clearance is getting tight.

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