Restoration - Range Rover CSK 1991 No. 120

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Bolted the bottom end of the engine together, once I had the right big ends.

I sprayed up the rocker-covers in a rather fetching bright red colour, sprayed the sump and the engine mounts satin-black and bolted the age-correct front cover the 1991 back on, looking forward to getting the air-con working!

The final build has ended up as;

4.6 X-bolted top hat Rover block
Standard piston rings
V8 Development MC1 Camshaft
Cloyes "Street True Roller" timing chain set
Stage 3 heads

I've also picked up all the hoses to swap back to the correct multi-v timing cover, a heavy duty clutch bearing and release arm, braided clutch hose and a new friction plate.

I've got next week booked off to slot this engine in a sort a few other things that have been annoying me, if the weather is good I'd like to get the leather re-dyed too.

 

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After a long hard week of toil, oil, sweat and blood, the engine is IN.

The old engine slipped out fairly easily, not much to report there other than it still looked like the day I fitted it.

I replaced the clutch friction plate, despite it being in good condition, the clutch release bearing was replaced with a HD version. I bought a HD clutch release fork but it turned out mine was a cast item anyway, so that was returned.

I'll post a few photos and let them do some talking;

Old engine out, new engine waiting to "slip" in.

That's the engine "slipped" in and cam lubed.

I then set the lifter pre-load with shims, primed the oil pump and bolted in the manifold.

Then the "fun" of fitting the LPG and the petrol injectors, all the ancillaries and belts (it was around this point I wished I'd gone with serpentine).

I was pleasantly surprised that it started first time, so I bedded the cam in (thankfully no water leaks and the electric fan worked well) and then timed it slightly better before putting it away for the night.

The following morning (it's taken from Monday to Friday by now) I took it out for a test drive, followed by a longer test drive, being very conservative with the fast-pedal, keeping the revs below 2500.



A little tidying left to do and aircon to refit. It's a shame it still says "3.9" on the engine but it looks original I guess.

Initial feeling is that the engine has a load more torque, just need to get the engine run in before I can open her up and see how well she goes

It also seems much smoother and idles a lot better, slighlty quieter too, although I'm sure that's just me. It does sound sweet on tick-over.

I also need to look at re-chipping the ECU. I'm going to replace the fuel-chip with a Mark Adams Tornado ECU chip and a "best guess" map for the mods I've done, also replacing the AFM with the later 20AM version. This is a tried and tested approach taken by a lot of TVR owners, TVR even sold Marks Tornado ECU to owners as an upgrade.

At a later date I may go either megasquirt or perhaps GEMS, depending on how good the MA chip is.

At the moment it all looks very original under the bonnet, that would change with both Megasquirt or GEMS.

 

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Yay updates.

Cannot wait to see this finished. Lovely bit of metal!

Thanks

it's been on the road for a while although I'm not sure it's ever going to be finished!

 

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That's a very good question (in fact the insurance company asked me the very same thing).

Honestly I have no idea, the cam is supposed to develop torque from the very bottom of the curve (which it seems to have in abundance) rather than straight HP.

The standard power for a 4.6 Rover V8 in a second gen Range Rover is 225 hp and 280 lb/ft but that's with no mods and running stock exhaust/cats etc. TVR claim 285 hp and 310 lb/ft for the same engine, TVR were known to grossly over inflate their stock figures though!

Looking at what other people have said, given similar mods, I'm probably looking at around 250bhp and 300 lb/ft of torque, maybe less maybe more depending on how well I can sort the fuel out.

Whilst these figures may seem quite low the stock for the CSK engine was 185.1bhp at 4750 rpm and 235.1lb.ft at 2600 rpm so it's still a hefty increase.

I've put my name down for the rolling road day so I'm sure I'll be suitably embarrassed when it only makes half what I hoped for!

 

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I've been running this engine in for a little while now and have a few updates

It's still burning a little too much oil for my liking, especially at higher RPM, which I hope is down to the rings not bedding in enough yet. Otherwise it's a case of dropping the pistons out and glaze busting the bores/fitting new rings.

I bought a S/H "Tornado" chipped ECU from ebay and sent it off to the 14CUX (Hotwire injection) guru Mark Adams with my engine spec, he's used to chipping TVR's with the engine spec I sent him so he had a "best fit" map on file. I also got him to program the ECU to take the later AFM from the second gen Range Rover GEMS injection system, it flows far more air.

I had to fabricate a clip/bracket system to hold the AFM in place as the mountings were very different (there aren't any on the 20AM as it's designed to clip in place).

I'm now going to keep an eye out for some silicone "smooth" inlet tubing.

I'm also considering ripping the LPG system out and fitting a fully ported inlet manifold and trumpets. I don't do many miles and I can stomach the fuel consumption at the moment, the LPG doesn't detract from the power output of the engine but it does add weight and looks odd having two tanks slung underneath the sills. Probably helps with the centre of gravity though!

I replaced all the vacuum hoses with silicone ones to stop them splitting (a common issue)

Other than the engine I refitted the remains of the air-con system and had it re-gassed but it appears I have a wiring fault somewhere as it's refusing to engage the clutch, I'll chase that out when I find some time.

Whilst at my local Land Rover spares dept. buying some HT leads for the off-roader (Series 3 V8) I was offered 2x plastic front wings at an obscenely low price, so I now have those to paint up and fit

Other than that not much progress, still hunting for some perfect rear wings and a perfect bottom tailgate. Can't decide if I should use the fibreglass bonnet I bought, I'd need to use bonnet pins or aero-catches to hold it down which would look odd, I think.

Hopefully the rain will hold off long enough for me to give her a good wash tomorrow night before the RR

 

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haha, fortunately the rottys were caged both times I was there, the little Yorkshire terrier was on the prowl though

 

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Just a note to say that the CSK is featured in this months (January edition) Land Rover Owner magazine

 

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The result was posted in the rolling road thread, it was a little down on power from what I was expecting.

After the RR day I stripped the engine back to a bare block and rebuilt it again, with new rings.

During the strip down I found a fairly major issue with a failed component in the induction area, had it not been on the rolling road I probably would have been none the wiser!

With this issue fixed and the new rings it seems to be a lot better, I need to get it back on the rolling road one day to see how much better it is.

 

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Cheers guys, I'm a bit of a perfectionist at times, the comments mean a lot

utmost respect to the OP, I am a landrover fan and especially a fan of the Rover V8, so to see the work, time and commitment put into this project is really warming. Was NOT expecting to see this on ocuk this morning, thats for sure.

A request - please upload a video of idle and throttle being tickled, i would love to hear how yours sounds - cheers

As much as it kills me it's laid up for the winter currently but I might need to drag it out of hibernation for a different magazine to take pictures, I'll get some video of idle and a bit of a tickle. I'll also try and get a video under a bit of load

 

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What was the induction issue? Did you really need to strip it all after you found that, how much were you down?

Excellent read I have to say, I miss my parents 3.9l that I used to rag around the Andalucian countryside

Miss the noise.

I had two issues, excessive oil consumption after 3000 miles of running in and also a lack of power compared to what I should have had on paper. It pulled only slightly better than stock BHP for the standard 4.6, and wasn't much better on torque.

During the strip down I found that one of the induction pipes in the plenum had worked loose and fallen over partially blocking an inlet or two and certainly killing the airflow. One of the pipes at the rear is also sitting too high which will cause that air path to be of an unequal distance.

These pipes are fitted with some glue which does go off over time, I had a spare plenum chamber and pipes so I checked it was all OK, re-glued those that were not and swapped them over.

Having found that I think it will have gone some way to resolving the issue of power, although eventually I'd like to replace them with some nice bigger inlets to match the head porting, that should give me a better top end power when done.

It seems that, for whatever reason, the initial set of rings just didn't bed in properly, the new set seems to be doing so which is a relief!

It certainly drives better now, I haven't had it back on the rolling road yet, if I'm not busy on the next RR day it'd be nice to see what difference in power I'm getting.

I should also tweak up the timing before then

Next year I'm taking the Range Rover down to Romania and back for a proper road-trip, so I need to make sure it's all tip-top before then.

 

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Heads up again, of you happen to be passing a magazine stand then have a quick flick through Auto Express this week, there's a restoration feature that starts on page 32 featuring me and the CSK. (thanks to Lashout_UK/Lewis for the hook-up).

Here's two of the photos from the last mag shoot;

The Auto Express guy took the photos with the MGB-GT project in the back ground which was a nice touch I thought

 

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Thanks, Not much has changed in CSK world really, it's been driving around the place and I've done quite a few miles.

The trip to Romania was amazing, so many photos and I really did enjoy the driving, to me it was a perfect trip for the car.

Here's a few photos from the Transfargarasan;

One day when I have some spare time I will do a write up on the trip

 

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Still loving the finished result!

You lost weight Task? (No I am not coming on to you ).

I had lost weight in those photos but put a bit on since then Need to get back on that this summer though.

 

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Well, as this thread has appeared up here again I will give a quick update.

CSK is still going well, I was considering selling it but I think I will keep it for the moment, I also just bought a 1993 Vogue SE to use in place of my Discovery, which I have now sold. I'm spending a lot of time "oop norf" currently as I've recently started a new relationship, as such a few projects have been slipping, like the MGB. I will pick up the pace again soon though!

 

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You can put that big v8 in mine if you up here now

Bit further north than that, up near Alnwick

Actually will be in County Durham tomorrow though, visiting a friend. I've got the CSK booked into a car show here in October, the GF's Dad wants to display it, which is quite nice.