Forum:
After a weekend spent 'car shopping' after the engine in my latest series 3 Landrover gave up the ghost, I've ended up with a Sportrak as a daily driver while I find another engine for the Landy.
So far I'm impressed, but the odd rust bubble on my M-reg motor is something I'm not used to having to deal with.
My question is simply is there anything I should know about Sportys before trusting one to get me to work and back every day? Any weak links or things you have to keep an eye on?
Andy.
Unfortunatly you are right ab
Unfortunatly you are right about the rust. Daihatsu for some reasion had difficulty building a car that didn't rust befor a few years ago.
However the mecanics are prety well bomb proof. The ex-ception posibly being the main shaft nut problem that sometimes arises in gearboxes of a 'certain age'. The warning of this is difficulty in selecting gears (2nd firstly), but is fairly straight forward to fix, as many posts on this site will tell you.
The electrics can be finiky sometimes, but usually will outlast the car with little atention.
In a nut shell, I'd stick with the sporti, and not worry about re-engining the SIII if I were you. Of course you can always put a Fourtrak 2.8 terbo Deisle in it.
Any veiws expresed in this thread by me are purely from my own experience, and (sometimes) falible memory. Hope my comments help, but please don't take them as gospel.
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Yes the reply is quite right all cars rust inc Daihatsu,s the only thing I can add is after driving one of the worst 4x4 by far "I,v had 10 Landrovers inc Disco,s/ & Rangerovers fitted with various engines & updates they were all rubbish" driving the Fourtraks little brother the Sportstrak should be a revelation for you! Best bet is ditch the idea of another Landrover engine for your series 3 & fit a Daihatsu 2.8 diesel engine & box Series 3 Landrover boxes were never that clever anyway dealing with even Landrover power then sell it! Welcome to the world of the proper 4x4s that work as they should my Dad said it best "Jap stuff never lasts" (He's eating his words now) regards Paul AKA Stan