Thread: Disco 3.9 V8 and Auto box into 110 Defender

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Shame you're in South Africa. I'm about to pull a 3.9 V8 and automatic transmission from a discovery when I get some time.

Edit: actually I think it's a 3.5 ESI.

Yeah well I'm tired of watching my hard earned cash disappear out of the old 3.5's exhaust pipes with little to show for it power wise.

My other vehicles are a 4.7HO Jeep GC and a 3.6 Pentastar Wrangler, so as long I get 190kW for my 5km/L I'm happy as.

It's a Lexus V8 or else I'm going to the smoky side and I'm putting in an Isuzu 2.8 or 3.1 TD.

...........and just for the nay sayers and Luddites:

the current 3.5 is an 8.15 CR and has some issues:

- water pump shot
- cam follower noise
- loss of power (POWER? WHAT POWER?)

Just a mild do-over in South Africa with a hone, rings, 3.9 cam, cam chain & sprockets, gasket set, etc etc will cost me $2,000 and no guarantee that the monkey with the honing stones actually knows what he is doing.
And I'll still have 100kW of mind blowing custard-skin pulling power.........

1uzfe is a fantastic engine, even with some adapters etc it will still be worth it. these engines in stock bottom end can handle 300kw easily.

and they are fuel efficient.

and they are light.

and they are easy to work on and very reliable.

I had an LS400 and now an LS430 with the 3UZFE 4.3VVT engine. What a gem. 9.7l/100km on the highway and if you need it over 440Nm on tap....Still silky quiet and smooth at 198,000km


JC

Originally Posted by justinc

1uzfe is a fantastic engine, even with some adapters etc it will still be worth it. these engines in stock bottom end can handle 300kw easily.

and they are fuel efficient.

and they are light.

and they are easy to work on and very reliable.




JC

Exactly. They make 280Nm at 1000 rpm and over 350Nm at around 4,500 rpm. That's more torque at 1000rpm than my current engine get at PEAK.

And I can get another for just in case for $600.

I can run them in various ways: batch injection per bank, paired injection, or even full sequential if I want to.
I can do the ignition of a single coil and a crank sensor, or I can play with the cam sensors and run multi-coil.

I can even run closed loop or open loop on the Lambda sensors. I can run knock or not.

But the downside:

- alternator sits very low
- crank sensor sits low
- starter motor is in the V and doesn't like water

IIRC Starter on the 2UZ is in the V, 1UZ on the side? Anyway, jap electrics are pretty reliable. I went through 2 alternators on my 1UZ, both due to power steering pump dripping onto them. A common complaint with these models and who says toyotas don't leak oil!

I'd say these are minor concerns for the sort of plusses in fitting an engine of this quality.

JC

Edit: Oops, yes starter IS in the VEE! Good thing it never gave me any trouble in almost 300,000km, thats why I wasn't sure where it was