Will It Start? 55 Year Old Land Rover 109 Series 2A | Sitting for 15 Years

Today we see if we can get our 1967 Land Rover Series 2A started. This is a 109 NADA (#475 of 811) and was parked 15 years ago. We drug it out a couple weeks ago. Hopefully this goes better than our 88 2A that had a broken engine.

[@crazybrit-nasafan]

It's a Landy, of course it'll start and run. And we'll worth saving.

[@athromt]

"A visit from the Ether Bunny" 😆😆

[@LostCauseRanch]

He came bearing gifts.

[@timcampbell524]

Nice work Guys! I am super stoked to actually see it running. So COOL. Makes me happy that you guys ended up with it. Can't wait to see it when you get her all finished up. PS - There are multiple angry squirrels pacing back and forth searching the driveway. LOL....

[@LostCauseRanch]

I’m sure they are unhappy. Just don’t send them to Iowa haha. Did you get the fountain figured out? And happy to have it running, a low speed test drive might be in its somewhat near future.

[@mikebrennan6165]

What a great find, incredibly rare Landy, always loved the 6 pot 109 station wagons over here in the UK, the NADA ones are even more exotic and I have always been fascinated by them. Might not be the original engine but it still sounds amazing, cant wait to see it up and running properly.

[@LostCauseRanch]

Yep, would be nice to have an original engine one. But with the rarity we get what we get I guess. It will be a long term project on the restoration aspect of it. But we will get it moving soon.

[@MegaSkypes]

Excellent job thanks for sharing your progress with your good sense of humour! Last weekend I got the Defender bogged so I rang the wife to get her and the Lr 4 to recover me I then got the LR4 bogged so ran a friend of mine he got us out then he got bogged! Huge fun was had!

[@LostCauseRanch]

That’s awesome. It’s all about mindset when you get stuck and create a mess like that. Turn it into a fun day.

[@madderscience]

I had NADA #473 for about 10 years, unfortunately was in similarly poor condition with severe corrosion in the bulkhead and frame. Had sat since it threw a rod in the 70's; was an east coast truck though I found it in a field in oregon; that meant lots of rust. The GM 6's are a good conversion for these trucks, the NADA firewall is deeper than the standard series firewalls so it fits the GM 6cyl without being cut or the rad panel being repositioned. The original 2.6L 6cyl engines are pretty rare, especially with the US market westlake head which was only used on those 811 trucks. However the 6cyl engines do share many parts with the older series 1 2.0 and 1.6L engines. water pumps, pistons, etc. so not totally impossible to find parts for. Other good news the original motors are fine on unleaded gas and relatively high compression for the era. Other differences in these trucks - they originally had limited slip diffs - almost all broken and replaced by now - and the gear ratios in the original tranny are a bit different owing to the 6 banger. If it still has its original windscreen you can see very fine electric defroster wires in it too. Thats also unique to the NADAs and rare as hens teeth if not broken. Before I gave up on it and sold it all as a lot I had amassed four of the original NADA engines and a second NADA truck (in even worse shape) in addition to the remaining parts of the original engine. If you could ever find one, the rover 3.0L car has basically the same motor as well. I don't know if anybody had ever tried a swap there. Don't know anything about the HP/Torque comparison between that and the 2.6L, though presuming the car motor is tuned to rev a bit more. PM me if interested I may still be able to put you in contact with the buyer of all my stuff if you are serious about finding original motor parts. Still got a good running 62 IIA :)

[@LostCauseRanch]

Thanks for all the info. Sounds like you are pretty well versed. That’s neat that you were able to accumulate that many of the engines. If you want to shoot me an email sometime it’s [e-mail]

[@brianstuder2078]

Love it! Your NADA should be worth saving. Im restoring a 1966 109. Rebuilding all 6 wheel cylinders. Pretty sure I need to rebuild the slave cylinder for the clutch. Parts are available and fairly reasonable. I cleaned up wasp nests from mine. Lol. Keep up the good work guys.

[@LostCauseRanch]

I’d rather have the squirrels than the wasps haha. I think we will have to rebuild the slave on ours as well. Good luck with your 109!

[@janzzen9095]

Bleeding the brakes is some special Party too... The LR 6 has double brake cilinders and the air wants to go up. So british engineers placed the bleeding nipple on the lowest point in the system. Basicly, there are 2 ways to bleed the air complete.... 1 put the car upside down and bleed the brakes. 2 take off the wheel, take of yhe backingplate. Keep backingplate with cilinders attached upside down. Bleed the brakes refit plate refit wheel. Repeat 4x. I loved the old girl.....

[@dexburwell]

Great job for saving the 109. Oh yeah there’s an angry squirrel, chipmunk,mouse,rat … out there somewhere 🐿🐀🐁🦝🕷

[@LostCauseRanch]

I’m glad we are 500+ miles away. Don’t need any rodent revenge.

[@sukottora]

It's the same age as me - and starts a lot easier than I do in the morning.

[@LostCauseRanch]

Happens to the best of us.

[@tommaples9174]

I'm sure you know that this is a rare model" that Chevy sounds good. The mice will be back!

[@LostCauseRanch]

Yessir, the rarity is the main reason we chased after this particular one.

[@stevepearce6689]

We had two S3 6 Cylinder 2.6 in a row in Australia as Company Cars. Both Fairley Overdrive. Unstoppable off road. On road I don't think we passed anything. Learnt to drive in them. Tropical roof and ten seats brush bar and 16 miles a gallon. So much fun

[@salahtadinya1149]

We love this fvcking car 🔥

[@LostCauseRanch]

I do too! So neat.

[@graemelliott3942]

Wow great find! Need to find an Original NADA 2,6 six!

[@LostCauseRanch]

I’m sure that may not happen but we will always keep an eye out.

[@patrickquinn3574]

Sweet Rig Farmer Ted!

[@LostCauseRanch]

Straw hat is next.

[@AudiophileStooge]

Good progress! Too bad it doesn’t have the original block but it opens up more possibilities… and those tires take tubes

[@LostCauseRanch]

Kind of a bummer on the engine not being original. But I guess that’s the old “You get what you get and don’t pitch a fit”. We’ll source some tires for it, these have cracks the size of the Grand Canyon.

[@op-dm8gv]

that looks really nice, except for the frame , but that can be welded back. long ones are rare.

[@LostCauseRanch]

Yes this one will need a frame and some bulkhead work. There is enough there for us to make something out of it.

[@stuartsturgess2199]

I have a 1975 series 3 109 on a new galv chassis very nice car's

[@LostCauseRanch]

That would be a nice one to have. I want to do an open top series 3 at some point for a summer cruiser.

[@stuartsturgess2199]

@@LostCauseRanch yes the soft top's are a bit pricy but easy to scource I have another I was given as the chassis was so rotten it couldn't be moved so I stripped it on the owner's drive I still have half of it to recover

[@georgejarry3964]

Good job, today in my 7th Series SWB Land Rover, what engine is installed in the 109"

[@LostCauseRanch]

It’s a 1970 250 from gm.

[@jstokvis]

Excellent

[@LostCauseRanch]

Hopefully this one is driving soon, just sorting out clutch issues.

[@stevenmoran4060]

Could this be a candidate for a new chassis too? Still it is very rare, bet there aren’t many at all still in use.

[@LostCauseRanch]

Yep. This will get a new chassis, bulkhead and all the rust repaired. It is a back burner project though, a bit down the road. Need to finish up the defender and the red 88 2a. We just had to get this one bought when it popped up because of the rarity.

[@vido4x4]

A Jeep pulling a Land Rover-cue all the Jeep lovers crapping on the Land Rover!

[@LostCauseRanch]

It’s happened a few times around here haha. But the good news the Land Rovers have pulled the Jeeps too haha.

[@whs386]

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you locate them? My searches haven’t been fruitful. Looking for a serious project similar to this

[@LostCauseRanch]

Just kind of scouring the internet and just a bunch of connections made with people over the years. It can be tough.

[@georgejarry3964]

Looks like a Nova slant 6

[@LostCauseRanch]

Yep. Would be about that era.

[@Skagitrover]

Mmm old car smell! What is that tent thing across the shop?

[@LostCauseRanch]

The white thing is a little spray shelter. Helps keep the overspray down when painting smaller items.

[@mechanicalmoron2251]

hello nice to see you got one goidng are you going to do this one then the red one?

[@LostCauseRanch]

Red one first. Just want to make this one mobile so it is easier to store it in the time being.

[@mechanicalmoron2251]

@@LostCauseRanch wooo you will be suprised haw capable a 88 is if you give it some beens what makes them so good is that thay can handle a bit of abuse

[@aidanring7364]

Hi and well done with getting it going,I enjoyed all this here in Ireland I have a few of these out back and a defender from 96 but the 2a are real land rovers be careful the get in your blood ,I ended up with 11 and she said the go or I go Aidan so now there just 3 ,keep it coming love to watch you guys, the 2.3 was more popular that 2.6 and more reliable. Aidan in Ireland.

[@andymckane7271]

That's not a 2.6 liter six cylinder Rover engine. Don't know what it is, but it certainly is not a Rover built engine.

[@LostCauseRanch]

Nope definitely not, it is a 1970 Chevy 250 inline 6.

[@janzzen9095]

@@LostCauseRanch The rover 2.6 was not a verry bad engine but you had to be verry carefull when adjusting valves. Exhaustvalve 6 was notoriously difficult to reach half in the firewall through a small inspection hole. When not treated properly the valve broke with devastating results.,

[@terryhutchinson6503]

Far too much chatter chatter and not enough doey doey