3.5 rover v8 into ln130 surf

[mikeymud]

Hey guys I have a ln130 surf bush truck and it NEEDS more power, I also happen to have a freshly rebuilt 3.5 rover v8 sitting in the shed that needs a home.
Anyone happen to know of anyone who has done this conversion before or a place that sells a REASONABLE priced kit to mate the engine to my factory box?
Any info is much appreciated

[Tarmac]

While you may have both a surf and a rover v8 are you sure this is the best combo? I am sure it has been done before but possibly there are other options

[niblik]

Where are ya located chap? Got a mate with one sittin in his drive. He's not used it in an eternity, but it's that combo.

[Sadam_Husain]

halfway through doing the conversion for possum's boy, personaly if I was going to all the trouble and cost i'd do something a bit bigger than 130-150hp emgine but I guess if you've already got the engine then thats the way you'll be going, dunno that much about the conversion stuff coz I've never really had much to do with hiluxes and rovers but anyway we found an old graeme berry rover to toyota bellhousing, dunno what sort of toyota it had been redrilled and had a bit welded onto it for a few different gearboxes before we got it, we had it redrilled for the G or W gearbox in the truck (1992-1993 ish petrol hilux), the bellhousing was the right depth for the input shaft and we has a brass bush turned up for the end of the crank, we think the engine was out of a rangie with a bigger flywheel, we used a rangie pressure plate and an 11" 21 spline 3b cruiser clutchplate and some sort of hiace release bearing with the hilux clutch fork. The engine fitted in there and bolted up sweet but theres not much room for the radiator so thats going on the back, the exhaust manifolds are pretty tight on the chassis rails so we mounted the engine up a bit higher to allow room for the exhausts, the torque arn on the front axle housing will have to be shifted sideways slightly so it dosent fowl on the sump... or maybe it was the oil filter or something I cant quite remember what its fowling on, we tried starting it last weekend but it was only firing on 4 and wouldnt quite pick up and run so its getting the coroded up dizzy cap replaced and another try this weekend, thats about all I can tell you so far

[mikeymud]

Thanks for the info. I know there is better engines I can put in but the rover will be enough and I'm not looking to spend big $$$.
I live in Greymouth.

[Trundle]

If you are actually serious about putting the rover in the surf you have a screw loose ,
For 800 buy a lexus , piece of piss conversion , and at least you will have 200rwhp not 20 , i have put rovers in various vehicles in the past and owned them myself , they are shit , end of story ,
Sell the motor to some other poor prick and put a decent engine in it ,the diffence will only be hundreds and at least you will be able to sell it in the future if you use a lexus v8 , 3sgte or simular ,

[mikeymud]

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[mikeymud]

Ive looked into a lexus, the money difference isn't a matter of hundreds once you take into account ecu and the over priced conversion kits. I'm only looking into the rover because it just so happens I have one laying around and I only need enough power to push the 35s. To be honest if I was going to buy a new engine for it I would probably get a 1kz-te, but scene as it is a off road truck only i'm not looking to spend big $$$$ on it and nearly anything is better than a 2.4 turbo

[J_Dub]

never mind the haters, I see where you are coming from, you have it sitting there and its rebuilt so half the work is already done.

Go for it, they can be tweaked to run sweet and they are strong,any engineering shop should be able to help you marry up your box to the motor

[Dirtydog]

is your gearbox a manual or auto?

my brother recently made up a bellhousing to go from a vh41 to a 300zx gearbox, he cut the flanges from either end that he needed and sat the clutch etc where it needed to be then tacked it all up and sent it to an engineer, think it was around 400 bucks to get it all finished?

if ya can find a stuffed box or even the bellhousing from the rover it would be much easier.