>If
>the engine swappers are so convinced that what they are doing is so right,
>then why do they get so defensive and attempt to cling onto something that
>the factory did or gave its blessing to 40 or more years ago for validity?
I can speak for myself. I wanted to go to a more powerful engine several
years before I did. During those years I did not make the swap because I
wanted to be accepted as part of the group. I was afraid I would be
ostracized and being accepted was something that was important to me. So
I stayed with a Land Rover engine.
I'm an atypical Land Rover owner in that I actually put miles on my
series Land Rover. American LR parts houses are convinced that the vast
majority of North American series LRs get used 5000 miles or less per
year. Looking at some of the series rigs that show up at local British
car meets I can believe this claim, because they are not in dependable
running condition and the same rigs show up year after year with the same
problems.
An owner who just puts on a few miles a month but depends on a different
car for REAL traveling, can be a dedicated to something non-practical.
Because it is their fantasy toy car and they have their real car for
commuting and real traveling.
For many years I have been putting a minimum or 25,000 miles per year on
my Land Rover.
That is why I "snuck in" such things as dual power brakes from a series
III, the later series optional heated windscreen, the series III two
speed wiper system (I was actually driving long distances in bad weather
and wanted to see), and a series III 109 rear axle assembly after I broke
my sixth stock rear axle.
But through all my driving I have been in a very large number of
potentially life threatening driving situations. Going as fast as I can
I was still not going as fast as relevant traffic. Impatient drivers
were passing on hills near the crest, on blind curves and in any number
of dangerous situations. In highways I was always having vehicles coming
up from behind at much higher speeds. Sometimes at over twice my best
speed. In 1997 I got run off the road by an 18 wheeler that tried to
pass me and discovered an oncoming 18 wheeler he hadn't seen.
It was then I decided that an engine with more power was more important
to me than being accepted by the American series Land Rover purists.
Then of course in my own way I have set about trying to make an engine
swap acceptable to the average American series Land Rover owner.
I get upset when people deny that my car is not Land Rover at all. I
have no problem with Land Rover/Ford or Land Rover hybrid. But the
body is Land Rover, the frame is Land Rover the suspension, brakes, and
axle assemblies are Land Rover as well as the prop shafts and transfer
case. All of the volume II and part of volume I of the Factory workshop
manual still applies. SO yes I get upset if someone denies those parts
as having any "Land Roverness" at all.
Even though I tend to travel alone, I guess deep down inside I still want
to be accepted as part of the series Land Rover group. So I guess that
is why I for one tend to get defensive.
I feel the ONLY people who can legitimately criticize my Land Rover are
those who put at least 20,000 miles per year on their own series Land
Rover. The people who have their fantasy toy rigs that only go out for
occasional short trips don't have a clue about what people who put real
miles on their rigs go through.
TeriAnn Wakeman If you send me direct mail, please
Santa Cruz, California start the subject line with TW -
twakeman@cruzers.com I will be sure to read the message
http://www.shadow-catcher.net <- Photography for sale
http://www.overlander.net <- Web directory for Land Rover
http://www.cruzers.com/~twakeman <- My personal web site
"In the world of type A & type B drivers consider me a type C gypsy
traveler. Destinations are optional and not necessarily desirable."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Apr 07 2001 - 14:00:00 EDT