I found my Bravo drive was making an unhealthy sound when running the motor on the hose:

That’s not right. Removing the top cap and having a look at the bearings, it all becomes clear:

Infortunately, the water damage also included the bearings in the gears:

So there was nothing for it other than a full strip down and rebuild. This is the pinion gear – every bearing showed some damage, and the big bearings are only available as part of a full kit of gears:

A fairly expensive round of ordering and the rebuild could start:

Carefully put it all back together using all the necessary special tools:

Major bits back in:

Checking pinion gear backlash:

And finally pressure testing it all:

Background

The engine started life as a Mercruiser Bulldog 540, originally part of a triple engine setup on a sunseeker.

Apparently the sunseeker ended up sinking when the engines were virtually new and they were removed and written off by the insurance. The engine then sat in my friend, Tony Davis’ garage for a few years.

When I got the engine, I knew I wanted to improve it a bit to take full advantage of the bulldog “tall deck” block and increased capacity, but without going supercharged or turbo. I always loved the “stack” intake manifolds you see on retro & vintage racing cars and I liked what kinsler had done on some of the mercruiser engines, so I thought this might be an interesting path. I found a small bore hillbore manifold that looked like I could convert it to EFI, along with a set of Eickert exhaust manifolds and mocked it all up:

This looked like it would all fit together, so I worked with Bob Madara (rmbuilder on OSO) to put a spec together. This is the specification we ended up with. It meant I would need to run exhaust dry to the tips, but should also give a nice idle, strong torque all the way up, with peak horsepower at about 5500rpm.

Specifications

Bore	4.5″
Stroke	4.375″
Capacity	556.7 cu (9.1 litres)
Compression Ratio	9.56
Exhausts	Keith Eickert Cast Headers
Cyinder Heads	Airflow Research 315cc with Inconel Valves & Anodising
Intake Manifold	Hilborn 2 7/16 Mechanical Injection
Fuel & Ignition	Megasquirt 2 V3 running Bank Fired injectors and Wasted Spark ignition
Camshaft	Custom Marine Kinetics Grind (see below)
Crankshaft	Lunati Signature Series

The camshaft was designed by Bob Madara with the following specs:

Modelling this all in desktop dyno, it looks good. I know the numbers aren’t doing to be “real world” accurate, DD is inevitably a bit enthusiatic on the numbers and is crank, not propshaft, hp. But anyway, this should produce an engine with similar power to the mercruiser 600 supercharged motors and should “just” be OK on a Bravo XR drive. The engine will never be dynoed to verify, but it’s nevertheless good to see some nice high volumetric efficiency numbers (we have all the head flow numbers entered correctly) on a big block chevrolet motor.

This set the recipe, so a few wise purchases later, along with having the block bored out slightly and a crank journal machined, I was ready to start assembling it all.

The Build

The block was bored from 4.44 to 4.5″ bore, leaving enough meat still in it for a rebore in future if needed (that would then make it a 572 as well). After cleaning all the block very carefully, new cam shells were pressed in to the block:

And the bottom end assembled:

so far so good

Next the cam was installed and timed:

And the heads, along with the scorpion marine duty roller rockers:

Including using test springs to work out that stock length pushrods were OK:

And the intake manifold:

It started to look decent:

And eventually it all came together pretty well:

Lessons

I learnt quite a few things duiring the build, here’s 3:

Avoid the single piece steel core sump gaskets – of it you do use them, use them carefully. I had a leak where one was a bit too thick and didn’t compress down properly – which meant engine out of the boat again tp put a traditional 4-piece sump gasket in.

The 140 amp single V-pulley alternators from DB Electrical are excellent value for money

Always use the bypass hose on the circulating coolant pump. I originally rigged my engine without this, making the block “full flow” – which also works for the full flow heat exchanger I have. Bad move. Without the little bypass hose on the reciculating pump, it generates enough back pressure to blow the core plugs of the engine. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. One popped out at fast idle on the hose – I assumed I had not put it in properly. One then popped out when I was out on the water – so I pulled the engine out to investigate properly and found that a 3rd would have come out, except it had wedged itself against the engine mount. Since re-installing the bypass hose, all is fine again.

Exhaust Upgrades

After the last run, it was clear I need to put some effort to quietening things down a bit around marinas and so forth. My initial plan was to just downrate the camshaft slightly – sacrifice a few mph top end and be able to run a wet exhaust – however rmbuilder was reluctant to spec me an alternative camshaft and instead recommended mufflers. So a fair bit of hunting round, eventually I found that Gil mufflers can run dry, so I set about making some new tailpipes that would fit the gil mufflers, plus also let me adjust how much water goes in to them.

At the same time, also wanted to reduce reversion. Original plan was to have a large crossover pipe between the banks – since the major point of reversion is due to the uneven firing cycle between banks. Originally planned to have a full 3.5″ inner bore pipe mounted immediately after the collectors, but eventually I realised this was impractical.

Also wanted to have a flange between the collector/manifold and the tailpipes – to give me a better mount point for the O2 sensors and also to have a EGR check valve in – this is another idea, to have an EGR type check valve in so that at idle, rather than suck exhaust (water) back in, fresh air is pulled in via the check valve. Don’t need a huge amount of flow here, just enough so that at idle there’s a little less reversion.

The flange idea also means that as I try different packaging/ideas out – I just need to make a new flange, not a whole new tailpipe each time!

Exhaust Flange

Part 1 was to make the flanges and see if this plan was viable. I needed an aluminium flange, 50mm thick,

Unfortunately, nobody wanted to make me one of these, so had to make it myself.

Started off with a couple of bits of 50mm thick aluminium:

And then slowly using the biggest holesaw I could get to work, cut a hole in the middle:

That was enough to then get it into the lathe with a boring bar:

I think they came out OK:

Tailpipes

Next it was time to build new tailpipes to fit both the flanges and the mufflers. I had new stainless 316 flanges laser cut from fractory, so the first steps were easy to mock up the inner tubes:

However, if you’eve ever looked at a dry tail pipe boat, often the exhausts look asymettrical coming out the back of the boat through the transom – because the exhaust manifolds are offset slight (one bank of cylinders is about 3/4″ forwards than the other, which messes up the angles). This meant that while I could have one bank with a straight tailpipe, the other bank would need to be adjusted to make sure the exhausts are symmetrical on the transom). This took a lot of backwards and forwards for what appeared like a small cut. in the pipe You can see in the below pic that I’ve already welded the inner & outer to the flange, along with the water dump pipes fabricated and welded on, along with half the outer.

It was also necessary to have the flanges bolted to something pretty sturdy to stop them distorting when they were being welded:

And I’m still a beginner at tig welding, but I think it came out OK:

Next it was time to weld on the last bit of the outers (which then means I also need to remove the manifolds to install & remove the tailpipes – aggro!)

Then needed to make some clamp water dumps for out the back. The “idea” is that the mufflers get cooled externally from the outside to avoid burning them up too much – pics below will show:

Final install. I think they came out OK. Hope it works! this pic is with the flaps closed.

Oil Leak

Also noticed a small oil leak from the sump last time I ran it. A bit of googling tells me that the “modern” single piece oil pan gaskets are notorious for leaking as they’ve a bit thick & rigid, so yet again, engine out:

And then when I drained the oil, I found a couple of drops (literally) in the oil. That’s not right! So I pulled the intake manifold off as the most likely culprit. I hope I found it:

So a bunch more work redoing that:

29th July Update

Finally got a chance to test all the work out. Everything seemed to work well, oil leak is fixed and with the mufflers closed, it’s quite a lot quieter. No high-speed footage unfortunately, but you can hear the idle is now tolerable, similar to a wet silenced engine. Not quiet, but acceptable. It currently has a 3mm water hole into the mufflers, primarly to let the tips drain down, but it also helps muffling. Once everything settles down and all the efi map is tweaked, I’ll add another one that’ll help silencing (water is the best silencer) and then review it from there.

Certainly not a new purchase, I bought it in June 2008. But it has recently been the subject of a bit of attention over the last 12 months.

What Is It?

A 1989 Factory 90 V8 Country Petrol.

I bought it because I previously had a 1981 Series 3 Stage 1 V8 which I got rid of many years ago, and I fancied another one. I’m not a particular Landrover fanatic like many are – but I do like a V8 engine under the bonnet. So I wandered in to Safari Engineering in Yateley and asked dave if he knew anyone with a 90 V8 for sale. It just so happened he did. The blokes nickname was Jesus and he used it as his dog walking car, until the engine had expired (little end failure). Now, a wet dog is a smelly thing, so it took a lot of time and effort, mostly by jetwashing the inside of the car, to eventually get rid of the smell of dog. But the name persists and it is known as “The Dog” in our household.

Over the years, have done many many jobs on it, when I first bought it I replaced the engine, going from a broken 3.5 carb to a 4.0 EFI, which I then later put a megasquirt on. Various welding jobs over the years.

A few years back:

And sometimes I do work on it:

This time it needed a little more work, so I gave it a fairly decent going over. I wanted to fit rear seats to it, but proper, forward facing ones with 3 point seat belts, not the sideways facing ones only with a lap belt.

On inspection of some of the bodywork in the vicinity of where the seatbelts would mount, I realised some work was needed:

The lower panel – easy to replace with a stock item from landrover, but that upper bracket is not available, so I had to make one.

First I made a template in CAD:

And then cut it out in steel:

I think it came out well:

Bulkhead Removal

As is often the way, I then started to get carried away, so I then removed the bulkhead, replaced with a bulkhead brace bar, to give a lot more room in the interior and make it easier for the kids to get in and out:

Body Cappings

And carried on replacing any rust as I found it:

Brand new cappings from Landrover:

It was starting to come together quite well:

Leaky Sunroof

The sunroofs are well known for leaking, so I decided to remove the sunroof entirely. Even though the roof is a bit old and dented, I still wanted the new panel to sit flush and look tidy:

A nice sheet of 1.5mm NS4 ready to cut:

Seemed to go OK:

And fitted nicely:

Quite happy with the end result:

Bulkhead Repairs

At this point, I was looking at the bulkhead. I knew the top corners were a bit rust and I’d put some patches on them a few years back. I decided it was time to do them properly. It was fairly scary how rusty the structures were underneath once I started cutting:

This took a fair bit of work to make:

But came out pretty well. I did both sides, naturally:

The Repaint

As I then suffered a severe bout of scope creep, I decided that as I’d just replaced a bunch of rust with steel, it just wouldn’t do to leave them unpainted. But what colour and how to do it. I decided it might be fun to learn to spray a bit. I did learn a bit – the main lesson being, it’s well worth paying someone else.

Nevertheless, it came ouf OK, although I intentionally did it in white because that’s more forgiving of my errors. All done in cellulose. Would have liked 2-pack, but I don’t have the booth or breathing equipment to do it. Felt like I spent forever filling and sanding – and even then, it’s not a great job!

Slowly but surely, things progressed:

Gradually it started to look like a landrover again:

Apple Carplay

One thing I like in cars is to have apple carplay, plus I wanted front and rear hitchcams to help me line up a trailer first time. But I don’t like the bulky dashboard solutions mosf of them end up with, so instead I found a suiper compact 5″ screen carplay unit which I fitted along with some auxiliary switches:

The slighty curveball here was that the LT85 gear stick is further forwards than the other variants, so I had to modify the gearstick to make it fit:

Somewhere during all this I replaced the gearbox too with a refurbished LT85 from Ashcrofts.

Rear Seats

Finally I was in a position to start fitting the rear seats, using the exmoor trim Loc N Fold ones. They’re really good.

Cab Heat

I also decided to add another heater to give a bit more winter heat in the cab:

Oil Cooler

And made some proper brackets for the oil cooler:

Finally

So with it all back together, here’s where we are today. Still on the original chassis, I will replace that one day, and I need to do new roof lining and carpets in the cab. But looking smarter than it was, I think:

Aria Resorts St Helens caravan site is on the Isle of Wight. At the end of 2018, all customers on the site were not offered a pitch renewal and everyone had to move off the site.

It wasn’t handled by Aria as well as it could have been at the time – but the site was well overdue redevelopment and it didn’t really come as a shock – although it was still a disappointment; we’d hoped for at least one more year.

2 Years later, we’ve just bought a caravan with the same company that threw us off last time. Why would we do that?? Are we mad? Possibly yes, but the reasons are also pretty compelling.

Location

We love St Helens & Bembridge end of the island. There’s lots of vans in many locations on the island, but we like that it’s:

• Walking distance from Bembridge Harbour (especially Brading Haven Yacht Club, The Best Dressed Crab)
• A small park – 92 Vans total, not crammed in, nice and secluded with a good bit of greenery.
• A quiet park – Some of parks have a lot of laid on entertainment. We don’t need this – we like peace and quiet and doing our own thing.
• Walking distance from Bembridge beach
• A short walk from the green at St Helens

This is an honest photo (taken from trip advisor) of the park, in this case, looking up the middle of the park at some of the lodges. Not your run of the mill, crammed in, holiday park:

Cost

It’s important to consider not just the upfront cost, but also the ongoing costs.

When we compared costs to the nearby Nodes Point, their pitch fees for what we considered to be one of the worst pitches on the site (overlooked by the bar) – £7,000. St Helens £4,500.

On a like for like basis, the van costs are not disimilar – but over 10 years, Nodes point worked out in excess of £25,000 more expensive for an inferior pitch. Parkdean sites do lay on a lot more entertainment, have their onsite restaurants and so forth – so you do get more for the money – but for us as owners, it wasn’t value.

The Van

We liked the van – a Regal Seascape. Vans have come on a long way over the last few years, and Aria were offering a central heated, plumbed in (gas, water & electrics) van also with double glazing. It’s a great van, well made and has a great feel to it.

The Agreement

You read horror stories from some of the pitch agreements. The one we signed was reasonable and fair, plus any Steve (The sale manager we worked with) was open to tweaks to get it just right.

The Sale Process

There is no pressure. Steve is much more interested in making sure the location & van are right for you than squeezing you in to a sale you’ll later regret.

Summary

The proof is in the pudding – since we bought, we’ve not had a hint of buyer’s regret. Quite the opposite, we look forward to every visit and can’t wait until we’re back down there again. Thank you Aria for reinvigorating the site and bringing it back to life again.