News

Great video from the Juice motors team down in Kent, showing an overhaul of a low mileage TD5 90, fast road suspension, SMF clutch kit, wheels, tyres and lights!

It has been a long time coming, but we have finally finished our 16″ wheel brake kits due to popular demand!

We have worked to bring the ultimate performance, using what we learnt on the previous EXTREMEspec brake kit for larger wheels, bringing it into a 4 pot calliper system with 330mm Drilled and grooved disc!

Our kit is supplied with everything required to do the job, all in one box!

See more HERE

We thought everyone would like to see some images and information regarding the installation which we get asked about on a daily basis, below is a list of parts used (Including rough prices just to help people estimate a budget) Plus a bunch of random photos from along the way!

The Car: The original truck was a 2011 Defender 110 CSW with 60k miles, originally fitted with the 2.4L engine it was fairly slow and gutless, plus not very refined at all!

The Method: Instead of having the truck off the road for 12 months while converting to the Coyote engine (plus having limited space at our old industrial estate), we instead decided to build a rolling chassis using a brand new galvanised chassis from Marsland Chassis

Its worth noting at this point that your old engine/ gearbox/ rolling chassis will very much pay for much of the conversion, from memory we sold our rolling chassis complete for circa £7000. By doing this it meant we could ‘jig up’ and build a rolling chassis from new, and simply drop the original body shell onto the new chassis (Very helpful as it kept the 110 as a daily work horse!)

Below is a list of parts required to do the conversion, with links to some useful websites for info:

1.The Engine! 5.0 Ford Mustang engine (Coyote generation 2) is available new from a UK company called POWER TORQUE UK , If you go down this route you can expect to pay around £12,000 plus VAT, however if you search on ebay you can find second hand engines removed from cars for between £3000, £4000 which is much cheaper, its worth saying at this point that the engine has excellent reliability so in my opinion a second hand engine is not much of a gamble!

2. Gearbox, we used a one of one custom MT82 gearbox, the front half is the mustang manual Ford box with the Mustang gear ratios, the back of the gearbox was the Land Rover TDCI MT82 6 speed, this ‘hybrid’ was the work of Ashcroft transmissions in Luton! Options for others wanting to build a Coyote powered Defender would include a Tremec Gearbox, expect to pay around £7000 for one of these though!

3. Transfer box and differentials: We used Winchester Gears in Maltby for this, we had a Stage 2 transfer box with a ATB centre diff to help send power to all 4 wheels. We also had a pair of differentials installed with ATB centres, meaning permanent 4WD! (It sticks to the road like glue)

4. Exhaust: We started with two Cast Iron ‘headers’ (manifolds) from CJ pony parts (USA) These headers are used for the coyote engine from the F150 pick up truck, they work out around £350 landed in the UK, and is a much cheaper option than having custom headers made. The rest of the exhaust system was made by Demand Engineering in Suffolk, Dan the owner did an amazing job using 3.5″ stainless tube to make the system. We routed it as per the original TDCI system, with 2 silencers, and we also added a ‘ASBO Valve’ which at the flick of the switch gave a straight through exhaust which made the ground shake! (Exhaust cost £1300)

5. ECU and Wiring: We purchased a “PCM” kit from Power torque, the company who sell the coyote engine, this kit includes an ECU, Throttle pedal, Sensors, Body wiring loom and also an Air filter box with MAF sensor. (This loom was so easy to route, we left the ECU where the original 2.4 TDCI one was, and we put the fuse box under the drivers seat alongside the original LR fuse box! (PCM kit £3000)

6. Dash controller: In order to make the TDCI dash work with the ford PCM kit we used a ‘box of tricks’ From the company Futuranet, Martin the owner is very switched on and supplied us the perfect box which talked to the dash and the Ford kit! Martin also owns the Defender2.net forum! (integration cost around £1000)

7. Cooling: We used a full width full height radiator made by the masters at Allisport, This radiator was insane, huge in size and kept the 5.0 Engine cool! (Cost around £1000) The Aircon radiator was the original LR one and was made to fit with the custom Allisport Rad, some clever pipework was needed, we used our local commercial AC engineer. AC pump for the coyote engine is around £500 for a genuine unit.

8. Power steering: This one was fun! So because of the coyote AC compressor on the engine, we could not run the normal LR steering box mounted to the chassis. Instead we comissioned Blackbird Industries to build us a mounting bracket to fit the Range Rover P38 steering box to the outside of the Defender chassis rail, similar to the Land Rover V8 works defender! This conversion was awesome, the steering ratio was quicker than a stock Defender, and handles so so well. (Cost around £500 inc PAS box). For the power  steering box we had to use a reverse mounted pump facing the engine itself, the pump is a common US design for these sort of conversions, supplied by Pace Automotive

9. Suspension: We chose to run Bilstein Shock absorbers all round, with JE lowering springs on the rear, and genuine standard springs on the front, It sat nicely and would swallow up corners as flat as a mill pond! Very little roll at all. Other suspension upgrades included a full set of Super Pro bushes, far superior to the LR rubber ones! In addition we did the HD anti roll bars, much bigger in diameter and much stiffer, supplied by Defender upgrades. The whole set up cost in the region of £1000.

10. Fuelling: We took the 2.4 TDCI Fuel tank stack and fitted a fuel pump from Glencoe fuel pumps, and ran a wire through the LR chassis harness all the way back to the fuse box in order to power the pump. We used the standard fuel lines up to the fuel filter position, instead of the LR filter we ran an AC delco fuel regulator/ filter all in one. This piece of kit cost around £50 from Pace automotive, it regulates pressure to the fuel rail at around 85 PSI, and also filters it, so much easier than an inlet manifold vacuum regulator, our one requiring no wiring or vacuum pipes.

11. Engine mounts/ gearbox mounts: The way we did this was bolt the LT230 transfer box in its original place, Our MT82 gearbox also bolted in stock chassis mounts. This left the engine directly above the original LR chassis mounts for the old 2.4 TDCI. Using some aluminium/ Poly bush engine mounts from Pace automotive we fabricated the engine mounts to meet up and bolt onto the original chassis mounts. (we used 8mm mild steel plate with some gussets) Total cost circa £200. Distance between the front pulley and the chassis cross member was the same as the V8 works Defender. A standard 2.4 TDCI sits at around a 4 degree incline, we lowered the engine so it sat at 2.5 degrees incline. (the sump missed the axle casing at full spring compression on the bump stops)

12. Brakes: We used our LOF EXTREMEspec big brake kit on all 4 corners, the front kit is 345mm 6 pot, and 330mm 4 pot on the rear. The vehicle stopped very well, helped with the 20″ Khan/ Chelsea truck alloys and the Cooper AT3 tyres!

That pretty much covers the basics of the conversion, obviously the interior and exterior upgrades I have not mentioned as they are easy and not unique. If anyone would like any help/ advice about doing this conversion, feel free to send an email to [email protected]!

If you are interested in having someone carry out this conversion for you, here is a list of our trusted people that would be able to do the job for you:

Pace Automotive- Dan Padmore- Peterborough

Blackbird Industries – Michael Brown- Lichfield

4×4 Fabrication- Dave Lea- Shropshire

Futuranet- Martin Lewis- Oxford

(Plus many more of our agents but these are some that we know have strong experience in the conversion)

We thought it was about time we did a fitting video, so here we go! Please like and subscribe for more helpful videos!

Calling all Defender drivers, do you have a nasty clunk when pulling off?
Stop that CLUNK!

THE PROBLEM SHOWN BELOW

LOF Solution shown above!

We have found a lot of Defender drivers complain about the awful back-lash in their drive train, leading to clunks and clangs when setting off!

We thought we could explain common areas that are easily fixed, which we have solutions for!

1. Rear Drive flanges on the axle, these are common, they wear the spline, not lubricated and end up causing total loss of drive if left too long (shown top right) The solution was easy, resort back to older designs and eliminate the spline using a solid one piece shaft as shown in the bottom right photo! Real easy job to do, wheels off, undo 5x 17mm head drive flange bolts, slide it out, slide the new one in! (Tools needed: Jack, wheel brace, 17mm socket, RTV Silicone)
LOF single piece half shafts here >

We hope this has been helpful! In addition here is some other parts that can cause a clunk:

1. The Front and rear differential (most common for them to have a lot of backlash on TDCI vehicles
2. Front drive flanges (same principal, best to change like for like with plenty of EP2 grease!)
3. Propshaft UJ’s, easy to check by twisting by hand, we always suggest refreshing the whole pro-shaft rather than rebuilding as it is cheap and easier!

Great video from the boys in Denmark at Tirsbaek!

They have fitted our POWERspec single mass flywheel kit to their Defender 90 TD5!

In addition to the MT82 output shaft, the second place where ‘slack’ can be found in the drivetrain is in the rear two piece drive shafts!

We just had to supply these- Every Defender owner needs a set!

These HD rear shafts are solid, fixed one piece, meaning no clunking!!

Easy to replace in 10 minutes per side, these make a world of difference in reducing the slop in the drivetrain!

We run a Defender with a 5.0 V8 Engine  (450HP 550NM torque) with Limited slip differentials, and we have not broken a pair yet, well proven!

2x Defender Solid HD Rear drive half shafts

LOF ROADspec TD4 2.0 Freelander clutch kit now in stock

3 piece kit including OE spec concentric save cylinder, with a heavily sprung clutch plate for improved drivability!

 

Freelander Mk1 2.0 TD4 clutch kit- ROADspec

New for 2020 – introducing LOF Brakes, the ultimate brake kits for all Defender, Discovery and Range Rover.

For the last 3 years or so we’ve been producing the highest quality of clutches – helping all manner of Land Rovers go faster and pull harder.
As any cartoon superhero will tell you, “with great(er) power comes great(er) responsibility”.

So we decided the next thing to get the LOF treatment was the braking system. Our new range of brakes are designed for tuned, faster vehicles where the engine performance exceeds the stopping power of the original braking system.

Applying the same principles and technologies used in our LOF Clutches, we’ve developed a product with:

Better stopping performance
Quicker stopping distance
Reduced brake fade
Longer life

Developed with our customary minute attention to detail, our comprehensive kits are simply categorised and come with absolutely everything required.

We have kept our 3 levels of specification including the ROAD, POWER and EXTREMEspec.

So the idea behind the LOF Brake kits, is the same as our clutches, you will have everything required to complete the job in one big box, the idea here is that both Garages and Hobbyists alike won’t be waiting for ‘that bolt’ or ‘that caliper slider’….. They will have everything to do the job to a high spec, in all ROAD, POWER and EXTREMEspec Brake kits.

So what are they?

The ROADspec we have designed to OE level of quality,

• OE spec Discs,
• OE spec organic pads,
• OE Caliper bolts,
• Hub seals, the list goes on

at the ROADspec level the kit is not so much an ‘upgrade’ as more of a fully comprehensive kit.

The POWERspec is where the performance comes in, The POWER Discs are Dimpled and grooved to add braking efficiency, remove and pad contamination and also de-glaze the pads. Furthermore the discs come in a black phosphate coating, meaning not only do they look great, but they help with anti corrosion resistance and remain a ‘smart’ look through the alloy.

The POWERspec pads are an upgraded pad, still made of organic friction material, but with a higher coefficient of friction, leading to shorter stopping distance, longer wear life, and reducing the chance of brake fade. We have made sure that the POWERspec pads will operate in all climates, unlike other performance pads that have reduced performance when cold, the POWERspec pads have an equal balance of reliability vs performance!

The EXTREMEspec Brake kit from LOF is currently only available for Defender front, this kit includes the following:

• 345mm Large discs, Drilled, grooved and vented (18″ wheels minimum required,)
• POWERspec LOF Pads (much larger than OE spec Pads)
• Adapter bells for discs to fit hubs
• Adapter brackets to mount LOF Calipers radially to the Defender axle casing
• LOF Brake lines to mount into the existing chassis mounts
• Also included in the kit is a full hub seal/ calliper bolt/ flange seal gasket set, ceratech grease etc!

Here at LOF Clutches we have developed a quality heavy duty clutch kit for the classic Series 1 80″, 86″ and 88″. The clutch kit also fits the Series 2 88″ too.

This new clutch kit is 20% stronger than the original factory clutch kit, which helps to cope with the oil contamination found on the older Series vehicles!

This clutch kit is the 9″ diameter type, as fitted to the 1600cc and 2000cc side valve engines.