looking at a series 3 with a 2.25 deisel in it... think that's the engine... anyway wanted to get some info on this rover diesel. whats the scoop? already been told the headgasket might be a weak point and then can cause some other issues to pop up. And they arent any less power then my 240D so I would expect them to be sssssslooowwww. other then that stuff what else is there? is this a good powerplant?

Very noise

2.25 is very slow, very noisey, expensive to get parts for, not especially long lived. a 109 wagon with a 2.25 D is extremely slow. Generally they make excellent boat anchors. Get a SII/SIIA 109 wagon . . .much cooler then add the sals and power brakes.
-Ike

whats the difference between a series 2 and series 3 109 5 door stationwagon?

Originally posted by Ghostdog
whats the difference between a series 2 and series 3 109 5 door stationwagon?

Duh, the series II is older. Even harder to get parts for. Dash is in the center, not above the steering wheel. Other differences.

Happy hunting
JP

well i knew it was older bro... lol..... i was told the bodies where the same and that all the parts interchanged.... didnt know about the dash being different... but i was told everything else was the same... maybe the axles were different... not sure on that one either.... someone said that being this was an 1975 series 3 it might have the stronger axles over the earlier series 2's. but being im a complete newb with this... i dont know... havent read enough yet.

Anyone ever import out of the UK? There is anothr one I am looking at now... was qouted 1500 to ship it to Tacoma Washington where I could drive it home. What is involved? The owener said he has done this before and would have all the paper work ready and would have the road taxes paid for the UK so the vehicle could be driven.... i think my state gives you 30 days to get the vehicle inspected and titled.... havent done this before... i have bought vehicles out of Canada and the inspect and registration process was a piece of cake. the wagon is over 25 years old so I would expect it to be the same... any issues with it being a RHD? (other then getting used to driving it).... One of the Canadian Rovers guys I spoke with said they have to convert them over to LHD...

The drivetrain is nearly identical so parts are not any harder IMO and I drive a SII or SIIA every day. The SIIA has a metal dash where the SIII is plastic, ditto the grill. As a general rule the fittings and trim get cheaper and cheaper as production rolls along.
-Regards
-Ike

I just came across this url.. thought the supertanker commint was rather funny.
He doesnt have a bad website either.

http://www.preloved.co.uk/reviews/review.cfm?productID=1041

Most british trucks are rusty crap, you live in an area full of cherry rovers . . .look around! The series three 109 has a salsbury rear which is stronger than the rover type rear on the SII/SIIA hence my comments about adding one to a SII/SIIA. Its very easy to get used to a RHD truck and spending money to convert is a huge waste of cash in my opinion.
-Ike

You sound like you already have one in mind but I almost bought one from this guy: http://www.landroverworldflorida.com/TONYS___MAIN/Page_40x.htm

He can just straight import and the non-referbished (sp) ones look pretty good.

HolyCow that's a nice Series3.... To bad my budget doesnt allow something like that one... Im stuck in the "GottabuywhatIcan" budeget bracket. Sure it will need a ton of repairs and all. But that money I had set aside just keeps getting whiddled away with family things. Now we just had a death in the family (get the call at about 11pm Christmas Eve). Add in the cost of travel and it's pretty much all gone now. I might get that one in the UK. It will remain RHD. I'm going to try and contact this fellow buckon sent...maybe he can get me something in better shape for a decent cost.

Im telling you, you are much more likely to find a nice truck at a reasonable cost locally than you will importing one. Think about the empty cost of paying to find one, and paying to import one, and then to ship it to you . . . There are so many LHD, rust free trucks in the pacific northwest compared to the rusty hacked up RHD crap that comes from the UK I cant understand why you would bother looking elsewhere. Some ugly trucks on that website too BTW.
-Ike

I am unanle to find one for the price of this 109. I pretty much know I am not going to find one of these in the same condition for the price I am looking at right now. So far I have had a number of people email with their rigs forsale and all of them are over 10K. I just cant afford that right now. There have been a few that I have seen on rover websites in the States for 6-8K and some of those need the frames repaired. We have one local owned by a big shot rover guy... its a series II 109 5 door and it is seriesly thrashed out, doesnt run and needs a complete restoraton. That 109 is in very very bad shape. You dont want to know what he is asking for that wagon (I must be sitting on a gold mine)... but I could by one of the ones mentioned above and drive it from the east coast. The one I am looking at is well under that price. one of my friends said he has access to a 109 frame that is suppose to be cancer free. I thought I would take that frame and have it blasted, modify the frame to prep it for rust protection.... then have it coated. I dont know... I am starting to get the feeling that I am spinning my wheels lookin for an affordable 109 in the States or Canada. If I had not resigned my position at work and gone back to college to finish my degree so that I could make more money I could have paided cash for a nice 109 already in the states... but now I have to settle for what I can afford... and I dont want to have to buy another land cruiser... I am tired of yota's.. have owned them for several years... I want something different now... I have always wanted an old rover... sure they have some issues... but who cares... I certainly don't. :p Guess thats why I am here. I did do a ton of reading today... getting caught up on series 2 and 3 109's. Trying to learn as much as I can before I fork out the cash for one. thanks to everyone for their feedback... keep it coming... its helping me out.

Ive had 6 109s (1959,1963,1960,1967,1966,1977) that were all purchased in the US 5 rust free and all runners. Average cost was 3800 USD. All were US spec models. As I mentioned you live in an area crawling with rust free series trucks. Ive probably had 8 trucks from the pacific northwest and I have 3 now. I cant understand why you would buy from the rust belt or the UK. Hell theres a guy right now in the truck trader in WA that has two complete 109 5 doors hes looking to get 4500 for the pair. I donno what kind of shape they are in but that seems like it might be a deal.
-Ike

Originally posted by Leafsprung
Ive had 6 109s (1959,1963,1960,1967,1966,1977) that were all purchased in the US 5 rust free and all runners. Average cost was 3800 USD. All were US spec models. As I mentioned you live in an area crawling with rust free series trucks. Ive probably had 8 trucks from the pacific northwest and I have 3 now. I cant understand why you would buy from the rust belt or the UK. Hell theres a guy right now in the truck trader in WA that has two complete 109 5 doors hes looking to get 4500 for the pair. I donno what kind of shape they are in but that seems like it might be a deal.
-Ike

Shit, I would fly up there with the wife, rent two dollies, and get them for that price!


j

See, thats usefull information I could have used.. two of em... now I need to try and locate those 109's. Like I said Im still in newbie ville with rovers.... Ive looked my normaly routes with whats used in papers for here... I forgot about the truck trader as we've been down here in idaho for the past almost 5 years and they dont sale the truck trader here.. out of sight out of mind..... i did look in the online autotrader and found nothing... all the other places have been the usual.. ebay.... some newspaper search engines and ofcourse all those high priced rover specialty shops.
I will see if I can find those two today.... thanks for the info....

Well those two are sold.

Be careful what you get yourself into.
I know you want one. I don't want to discourage you.
However the cost of ownership can be quite large.
If you are scraping together all your spare cash for the purchase, you won't have much left to fix the darn thing.
Trust me I know.
I bought my 61 mini a couple of year ago. Race ready. Ran perfect.
Went into debt maintaining the thing. It was a tough situation to get out of. There is nothing worse than seeing your baby sit unused because you can't afford to fix it.
Just think it through, be patient and the perfect deal will fall in your lap. If you rush it....you'll get something you'll grow to hate.
Good luck.

-Seth

Ya last thing I need right now is a money pit. But I hope that by converting over to the Mercedes deisel and transmission this might help water down the money pit affect. Still havent decided which diesel to use. The 300TD would be ideal but I would most likely need to convert over to a 110 front end and move the radiator forward. That is a 5 cylinder diesel thats at least 31-32 inches long. Should have plenty of power and allow the rover to cruise at highway speeds all day long. Still have some things to work on on that conversion. Like what to do about the transfercase. Some things come to mind but it is all still on paper. Ive been wanting to do a mercedes diesel conversion for a while now.

I am looking at the 109 5door as a wash and wear type rig. Would support the family and cattle dog and allow them to pretty much make a mess inside. Shouldnt be much of an issue to clean up. Im not into the pretty interior stuff. Then again I wouldnt be looking at an old rover if I were. :)
The one I am looking at now is 2000 dollars US. It is in the UK right now. Will cost me an additional 1500 to have it shipped to the west coast. I dont know the laws in the UK but the owner is in Canada. The PO still has the wagon at his home. If I do buy this rover he will take it to the local rover shop and have them go over the truck to make it road worthy. He will pay the taxes on it and then ship it over. I will get all the paper work needed to drive it home. He says it runs and drives fine and wouldnt worry about making a trip. Its about an 8 hour drive... and I would have it shipped over in the first part of march. Im sure that in the rover it would be more like a 10 to 12 hour drive. The guy has been pretty good about getting me information. This was a UK Gov wagon according to him. It has about 50K miles on the engine. After doing some reading on th 2.25 diesel that means its pretty much in need of servicing. Doesnt mater.. just needs to get me home. I hope to have a benz diesel in it by mid summer. I have a nice 240D I could use or wait and get a 300D or 300TD.
He said the frame has rust and cancer. He got out the hammer and said that a few of the corners on the outriggers need to be replaced. And the shop over there will do the work to fix them. I told him I didnt care because I have a good frame at my request. I just care about the body, interior, etc.. how complete it is and if it is road worthy.. he stated that he would need to get those items welded up before the government would allow him to pay the taxes on it... you can tell me if he is feeding me full of crap now... hate being in the dark... I will ofcourse continue to look around while I wait for this guy to get me all the info I requested. He already sent me some pretty good quality photo's of the frame and showed which areas needed attention. He said the body tub is very good.. dont know what else to ask right now... bulk head? whats up with bulks heads? is this a corrosion prone area? why? thanks.... not in a rush to buy... i just want to be sure i get the best bang for my dollar and i really do want to thank those people that have stepped in and given their views, concerns, feedback.

Bulkhead is a corosion prolem, as are the T posts between the front and middle doors, all the door frames, radiaor panel, tub supports. Anything thats steel or sits on steel. If the frame needs extensive work expect those other peices to be past saving or poorly repaired. You wouldnt have to move the rad panel forward for the 300 but you would have to modify it as well as the bulkhead. Keep the transfer case they are nice. Spending 3500 bucks on a rustbucket from the UK is a waste of money.
-Ike

Hey Ghost
Leafsprung is trying to tell you that the bulkhead is a corrosion problem because it is steel rather then Ally. The time frame you are giving to acquire one from UK would allow someone to buy one here. Probably at the same money, total.

If I were you, and here is my advice. Pay Leafsprung a finders fee for locating you a good deal. Settle on a good amount $400-$500. He will find you one at the budget you have set, including his birddog. He and I do not know each other that well but I think he is one of the few that could pull it off. He already found you a great deal you missed in your back yard.

Extend a similar offer to our board members. But I think your best bet is with Leafsprung. I do not know of anything in your price range.

Jim Pendleton

I will keep looking then. maybe in march i could afford more.

You were looking for a Series - this one is LHD, and having lived in Lanzarote, shouldn't be too rusty. The money is very silly and will come down. Would be best if you could get someone in the UK - or with a good British accent - to open negotiations if you're interested because otherwise when they hear export to US they will also hear "ching"..... :rolleyes:

The 20k since new and has only ever lived in the Canary Islands is questionnable in my view. The mileage is very dubious and unless there was a significant British military presence in the Canaries in the Sixties that I am unaware of, it had to have come from somewhere else (unless it's a Santanna ?)

**************
1964 2.25 Petrol soft top canvas ex military model.
Only done 20,000 km (approx 12,500 miles) since new.
1 owner since demob and has lived all it's life on Lanzarote which is one of the Canary Islands, thus very dry so no rot.

Condition reflected in an expected asking price around £5,500 ono.

http://www.lrenthusiastforum.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB3&Number=216845&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1

The 2.25 Diesel is not as bad as people say - most of the people who put $hit on them have never owned/driven a good one.

Sure they are slow, 64bph will never win any speed records, but if properly set up and maintained they will last as long as a 2.25 Gas/Petrol engine , be very reliable, and WON'T BLOW SMOKE (except at startup). There are also a few performance mods that you can do which cost almost nothing and make a difference.

I am very happy with mine - in a heavy 109" IIA pickup. The engine will happily turn 33" tyres and cruise at 65mph with an overdrive. And if you have decent soundproofing they aren't any noisier than a petrol series. And the diesel is nice and torquey at low revs off-road.

My 2.25D has only done about 30 000 miles since I built it and installed it , but friends have done 200000+ without problems. And mine only blows smoke at startup. The injectors and injector pump are fairly common too, and used on other engines - some Kubota tractors for one thing!!!

thanks for the info guys..... i am going to save my money up and buy one this coming spring... we just had another death in the family most recently which took a huge bite out of my savings. so i have to wait anyway... maybe something will turn up in 2 or 3 months when i have more money.

ghostdog, where you at 'xactly? ike is right - and surely one of the pnw brethren can hook you up without all the internet nonsense. shoot me a PM when you're back out on the hunt. if you're close by maybe we could catch a beer.

cheers,

isaac

Ghostie old lad,

You now have a contact in the UK! RPR knows me from other forums so can vouch for me (if he really wants to).

What do you need?

I live down by boise idaho. We hope to be moving back to washington state sometime in the next 1 or 2 years.
One thing for sure... waiting to buy a rig sux but it also allows me to read up more, ask questions and learn before I buy. I never did hear back from the fellow with the 75 series III 5dr. I asked for more information on the bulkhead and frame. He said he would get back with me but hasn't. Wouldnt be the first deal I've passed up on. I used to be heavy into Land Cruisers and Aircooled VW's. Plenty of maintenance to keep you busy. I have the skills to do the work... I just need the knowledge on what to do when it comes to rovers. Every rig has its own little qwuirks, rust spots, special mods, etc.... I know most of the folks in this forum know this... you guys are realy no different then I am... we just come from different communities and I am in the process of leaving one community Ive been in for almost 12 years and going into another I know very little about. Before I came here I knew only one other person that owned a rover.... and he lives a few 100 miles away so that kinda hampers seeing the rig up close and asking questions in person. You guys are the only other source of a rover community Ive spoken with over a period of time. I just recently join a few mailing lists for rovers. So I hope to learn more before I buy. Im not in a hurry, I want to make an educated purchase...... I am aiming for this Spring. By then I hope to have my fnds back up and able to afford a better rig. thanks

Ghostie old lad,

You now have a contact in the UK! RPR knows me from other forums so can vouch for me (if he really wants to).

What do you need?

Thanks Nonimouse... nothing I can think of at this time... I was looking at an 1975 Series III 5door there. But the guy kinda fell thru anyway so maybe thats a good thing. He claimed the vehicle was owned and maintained by the government there and that being so he made claims that it was not cancered out with rust in certain places. Im not so taken that I need to buy his rig. I was how ever willing to listen to him.
So if this stationwagon was owned by the government in the UK does it show any favor for being somewhat in decent shape?

thanks
dave