Thread: engine swap

while at the Brisbane truck show this month i happened to come across a small Cummins motor,4 cyl turbo inter-cooled and puts out a bit more than a 300TDi.
i asked about a price but the bloke i was talking to came from WA and didn't know much about it apart from it being made in china and so new to Australia that he didn't know the price, he suggested ringing the local dealers for that info.
got some brochures will have to look at them intently soon
it would be an interesting exercise to convert it over

I had a 6.5 litre Chev V8 diesel fitted into my manual 1998 TDI a few years back. I bought Rover with 35,000 km on the clock in 2000. I was towing a 28 foot alloy boat (with a diesel inboard) up and down the WA coast and the TDI was making hard work of it. It was coping, but I had to keep my foot to the floor all the time and it used to worry me.

I still have the 6.5, although I mainly just use it for towing heavy things these days. I have just pought a Discovery 4 3.0TDV6 SE - I will pick it up this week, but I won't be getting rid of Big Rover.

The conversion was done by Brunswick diesel here in WA. They did a good job, but to my knowledge, it is the only Disco conversion they have done - they do something like 400 Toyotas and Nissans a year. Says something!

I had to upgrade the suspension - it was sagging even before the new engine went in. I think Rover had 80,000 km on the clock when I had the swap done.

Fuel economy has suffered - I used to get around 10lts/100km and now probably average around 13 to 14. Torque is phenominal - Rover will take off from stopped by dropping the clutch in 4th gear at idle and even in soft sand I almost bever use low ratio. The engine pulls from 500 or 600 rpm.

At highway speeds, overtaking at 80 to 110 kmh is easy, Rover just keeps pulling hard to somewhere past 140 kmh.

The only problem I have had is with the brakes - I don't seem to be getting enough vacuum for the booster and I don't know whether that has anything to do with the conversion or not.

Cheers

Al