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We recently wrote about Ferguson FE-35 glow plugs. The vital piece of information in the article was that glow plugs from a Land Rover engine also fitted the Standard 23C engine. Land Rover parts are quite easily obtainable, so this is a good source of supply if you need glow plugs.
We have been given some information as to why this may be, in a historical context.
In 1954, the Rover Motor Company was in talks with Standard-Triumph with the possibliity of a merger. Standard manufactured the 20C engine as fitted to the Ferguson TEF-20 tractor (also fitted to the Standard Vanguard). The merger never actually went ahead, but during talks the Rover engineers were able to study the designs of the Standard diesel engines. This helped give them the knowledge to develop their own diesel engines for the Land Rover.
The final design of the 2.0 litre Land Rover diesel engine (unsurprisingly) had some similarities to the Standard engine, including the use of Ricardo Comet swirl chambers with heater plugs fitted as an aid to starting performance. Hence (Vintage Tractor Engineer believes) the heater plug fittings are exactly the same in the Land Rover engine (1957-1962) as they are in the Standard.
The Take Away
The Land Rover glow plugs will fit the Standard 23C engine with cold climate head. The Land Rover plugs are 12V, so they would need to be wired in parallel (originally the glow plugs were wired in series on the 23C). See the FE-35 Heater Plugs page for wiring diagrams.
