Marks adaptor bellhousing kits

[xorph]

Is there anything wrong with these?

I remember reading a post that mentioned the faces were'nt square and something about needed to fit a grease nipple.

Like to see what experiences people have had.

Im prob going to buy from 4wd upgrades in chch

Cheers, Matt

[rangimotors]

which kit are you after?

[xorph]

LS2 Holden v8 to H55F 5 speed in landcruiser. bellhousing kit and 11' hd clutch kit

[doddzee]

Yip 4 out of 5 v8 to safari kits i know of the faces have been out of parallel which causes problems with the clutch engaging and disengaging. They area good complete kit apart from that so budget in a little machining at you local engineers before you fit it.

I fitted a breater and a drain into mine as i wasnt satasified with the slot in the bottom that they have which lets water in as well as out. My dad had a grease nipple via a tube fitted to lubricate the slide for the thrust bearing extention as the smear of grease they recommended didnt do the job on one of the earlier conversions we heard about. Keep in mind though all these mods void the warranty so if you find your one is out id go back to 4wd upgrades first.

[xorph]

Cheers,
Sounds like a terrible problem! did all of the 4 cases actually have clutch trouble? or did they just have their adaptor re-faced to a higher tollerance to be sure?
do you know of any other options there are? the marks kit is quite expensive, over 3 grand including the clutch kit and shipping etc.

[doddzee]

Two of them had the clutch trouble and two got them machined to be sure.

Dellows also do a kit but the kit i was after was not a complete conversion kit like the marks kit but us cheaper. I cant remember what it was missing but I went with the marks for ease of installation.

Sounds like there prices have gone up. I didnt use there clutch kit so you may beable to save some money there even though they say you have to we have found on the safaris you didnt have to.

Otherwise try a local engineer who has experence with conversions i think if i was doing it again i would use the holden box and get Howat Engineering to mate it with a suitable transfer.

[Sadam_Husain]

I've got the Dellow chev to H55F bellhousing in my truck xorph, what I liked about the bellhousing is it picked up all the origional cruiser bits like clutch fork, rubber boots, inspection cover etc and was drilled and tapped in all the right places for slave cylinder mounts and rear engine mounts if you've got an early cruiser with 4 engine mounts etc etc.

I think the Marks cruiser kits push the engines further forward with an input shaft extension if firewall space is going to be a problem. My engine fitted ok with the Dellow and a little bit of firewall massageing to give enough room around the passenger side head

[xorph]

I asked Dellows if they do a kit and they said no, the old 350 sure, but Chev changed the LS engines just enough to make them not compatible, the bellhousing has an extra bolt hole, and the spigot on the crank is slightly different and sticks out slightly different depth and the crank bolts are M11s (mythical bolts).

The Marks adaptor has a one year warranty so long as you dont try to fix the problem yourself and send it back to Aus at your own cost. In my opinion if the kit is wrong from the start this cost should legally be bourne by the retailer in compliance with consumer guarantees act.

Think Ill keep looking for options for a while, while the Marks kit seems expensive, that money wont buy much time for a skilled machinist to adapt it.

Sadam, have you had any trouble with your gearbox or transfer? advice I have got is that they are almost bulletproof, but to fit a 'modified transfer case input gear' that has a longer spline on it and is less prone to flogging out

[xorph]

Thought I should update this, because no doubt other people are going to be thinking about this soon.
ended up going with the Marks adaptor kit.
Had quite a few problems when I went to assemble it! turns out they changed the design of the kit just when I bought it and had a computer crash and bla bla but I ended up with half a kit to put a commodore v8 into a cruiser and half a kit to put a cruiser engine into a commodore or something :S but luckily they were proactive about fixing the problem, and twice mailed me the correct parts to complete.

I purchased the bellhousing adaptor and the super secret 11" HD clutch kit which is actually just an excedy clutch.
I did not purchase any of the mounting kits or wiring adaptors as there are so many variants of 70 series Cruiser I have no confidence any of it will fit... also ended up re-using the cruiser alternator cos its 24v.

The manual that came with it is rather dubious and looks to be written for an 80 series mainly. It talks about professionally beating the crap out of the firewall to make the engine fit, and also shifting th tcase forward 25mm. I cut and rewelded the tcase crossmember so the bolt holes were 20mm forward but became sceptical and did not beat the firewall and once I bolted the engine up there is about 2" of clearance! you dont need to do either. Neither do you have to cut and weld one of the engine mount brackets on the cruiser if you are willing to not have aircon. In fact theres a whole heap of perils and pitfalls...

So far I have gone about 2000ks in it including some offroad thrashing and it is working flawlessly. the clutch doesnt slip at all even when changing gears quite rough.
The gearbox doesnt seem to like the revs much. If you try changing 1st-2nd at 7000rpm rev limit the syncromesh disappears and graunches horribly and you cannot get it in gear. The rest of the gears are fine, just takes about 10 minutes to get it in gear, and you need to double clutch on downshifts if the engine is going to spin faster than 4000rpm.

overall, yes I would recommend the Marks adaptor bellhousing and clutch kit. I have had no problems once installed and It is also the only adaptor on the market to fit a holden LS series motor to a cruiser H55F box that I could find.

-Matt

[gary_in_nz]

Thought I should update this, because no doubt other people are going to be thinking about this soon.
ended up going with the Marks adaptor kit.
Had quite a few problems when I went to assemble it! turns out they changed the design of the kit just when I bought it and had a computer crash and bla bla but I ended up with half a kit to put a commodore v8 into a cruiser and half a kit to put a cruiser engine into a commodore or something :S but luckily they were proactive about fixing the problem, and twice mailed me the correct parts to complete.

I purchased the bellhousing adaptor and the super secret 11" HD clutch kit which is actually just an excedy clutch.
I did not purchase any of the mounting kits or wiring adaptors as there are so many variants of 70 series Cruiser I have no confidence any of it will fit... also ended up re-using the cruiser alternator cos its 24v.

The manual that came with it is rather dubious and looks to be written for an 80 series mainly. It talks about professionally beating the crap out of the firewall to make the engine fit, and also shifting th tcase forward 25mm. I cut and rewelded the tcase crossmember so the bolt holes were 20mm forward but became sceptical and did not beat the firewall and once I bolted the engine up there is about 2" of clearance! you dont need to do either. Neither do you have to cut and weld one of the engine mount brackets on the cruiser if you are willing to not have aircon. In fact theres a whole heap of perils and pitfalls...

So far I have gone about 2000ks in it including some offroad thrashing and it is working flawlessly. the clutch doesnt slip at all even when changing gears quite rough.
The gearbox doesnt seem to like the revs much. If you try changing 1st-2nd at 7000rpm rev limit the syncromesh disappears and graunches horribly and you cannot get it in gear. The rest of the gears are fine, just takes about 10 minutes to get it in gear, and you need to double clutch on downshifts if the engine is going to spin faster than 4000rpm.

overall, yes I would recommend the Marks adaptor bellhousing and clutch kit. I have had no problems once installed and It is also the only adaptor on the market to fit a holden LS series motor to a cruiser H55F box that I could find.

-Matt

how much $$$ ??

[cool__bananas]

my dad has a chev to nissan gbox adapter and its sweet, we had it checked and added the grease things but its been all good, and were using a oldskool style chev bell housing on out ls1 and it seems ok.

were bouts are you from? make sure you take lots of pics of it when its done

[xorph]

Heres a link to the current prices for all the bits. these are for an 80 series cos they havent updated their page for 70 series. Looks like prices have gone up too

http://www.marks4wd.com/products/engine-trans-conversions/toyota/landcruiser/lc-fzj80gen3-LS1V8.html

I got the bellhousing kit and HD clutch, and also bought the specially modified sump which was a waste of money as it is modified in totally the wrong direction for a 70 series. Get a chev truck sump instead. The std HSV sump appeared very difficult to modify as it has integral oil passages and filter.

The new kit doesnt have an extension shaft and bearing like the old kit it is just a bellhousing adaptor plate and has a spacer that bolts onto the crank to space the new flywheel and clutch back.
LS motors have a different spigot and bolt pattern on the crank and a slightly different offset to old 350s I think.

Im in Taupo, going to join the club down here.
Its pretty much done now, just having overheating probs offroad and could also use a dyno tune cos im using a Megasquirt ecu.

-Matt

[flyingbrick]

From Dellows.

Nathan
Our Chev V8 to Safari kit consists of a bellhousing & engine mounts to
couple your Auto to the Chev
Cost is $700 + Post
Regards
Jeff



Nice price.