Thread: Engine swaps

Originally Posted by chaybra

I have a holden 161, not that powerful and has all the bits ready to bolt in...because i just removed it from my 66"

its in melbourne tho

66", is that a series 0.5 ?

Hey Debruiser, was the 200tdi out of a defender or disco or have you left the turbo off it?

Cheers

Originally Posted by Rhodi

Hey Debruiser, was the 200tdi out of a defender or disco or have you left the turbo off it?

Cheers

The discovery motor will drop straight onto the series chassis engine mounts and it's better to use the defender turbo / manifold. So I'm led to believe

Defender manifolds are difficult to find, but the good news is that a 300tdi manifold fits the 200tdi with minor modification and the turbo clears the chassis,

Cheers Charlie

Originally Posted by jerryd

The discovery motor will drop straight onto the series chassis engine mounts and it's better to use the defender turbo / manifold. So I'm led to believe

Sorry... havn't checked this thread for a bit!

As Jerryd stated....

Disco 200tdi motor drops straight in! Use the engine mounts from your 2.25, I've used HD diesel 2.25 engine rubbers on the engine AND gearbox. I did have to remove the battery tray - but then again I've dragged the engine forward 100mm and up 50 or 60mm to fit in the R380/LT230 combo into a shorty and still have a rear prop shaft! Quiet happily his also puts the gear lever in the right location! I moved the battery under the passenger seat, although I have seen photos on the web where they have retained the original battery location (think they just modified the battery tray).

I also took manifolds and turbo from a defender 200tdi and bolted that straight on. It was a bit of a faff fitting my 3" exhaust.... customised the dump pipe, then run the exhaust out into the wheel arch BUT you wouldn't have to do that... I dont have a pipe bender so was just using pieces of bent tube to make the exhaust.

Depending on how original you want it all to look, you could retain the oil bath filter I guess, but I went with a 200tdi air filter jammed in where the cab blower normally goes then stuck a defender snorkel on the side there so I have minimal pipework. As far as the radiator goes, you could run stock location rad OR get a defender rad bracket and have the stock intercooler there too, It'll all start getting nice and cosy in the engine bay at that point if your retaining the series bonnet. But definitely doable - google! I didn't bother with the series bonnet; I used an ex-mil bonnet and a defender grill, I also used a larger IC so placed that in front of the rad jammed as far forward as I could. I'm currently running a separate oil cooler but I'm thinking of using the 300tdi rad oil cooler.... when I get round to getting the right fittings to connect it up. Having the rad forward gives me plenty of room to work on the engine without pulling the rad out! (yes I'm trying to make maintenance easier)

I'm not sure if you'll have room to use the standard cooling fan from the disco - I seem to remember someone saying that it is in a very wrong location.... so thermo's are the way forward, but learn from my mistake and get quality ones, those ebay cheap jobbies are RUBBISH! I have a good one on the IC blowing, and the cheap rubbish pulling behind the rad. The cheap one needs changing out for a quality one.

Originally I had the 200tdi bolted up to a series box, it seems a very common setup over in the UK, but my box ended up being complete rubbish so I decided to upgrade. When the roadworthy man came to look at the car with the series box in it, they thought it was standard turbo diesel, I could have passed it off as a factory engine. THAT is how easy the swap is. if your interested my R380 has the 0.7 5th gear, LT230 has the 1.2 ratio and I'm running 4.7 diffs and 255/85r16s (33's) So 80km/hr is about 1800rpm, 100km/hr is roughly 2200rpm.

When you read all that and think "gee, that all sounds hard" remember that I'm a qualified teacher, I have no mechanical background, just tinkering in the shed. The conversions probably took me 10x longer than someone who knows ANYTHING but I got there in the end.

Thanks Debruiser, a good write up!

OP said he was going to stick with the standard motor.


Colin

Originally Posted by gromit

OP said he was going to stick with the standard motor.


Colin

Yes he did Colin.... Rhodi asked the question....