Engine swaps

[blue juice]

Hi to all.
Has anyone ever seen a defender that has had an engine swap as i have been reading a lot of the forum and its always the same { you can put this in or that in } but i have never seen any defenders with it done.
You hear of engines being transplanted and ive been told you can put a v8 into them ?
Dose anyone know who can do them on the gold coast or links to the forum that has photos of the work done.
Cheers

[lambrover]

marks adaptors i think in melbourne sell kits to allow holden v6 and v8 to rover box or transfers. there are people on this forum who have put holden 8's into defeners, rangies and discos.

[blue juice]

Anyone put a holden v8 into a 130 def and thanks lambrover for the reply
Cheers blue

[Psimpson7]

Ive looked at it in depth and there are a number of things that are difficult.

Firstly you need to find an engineer who is willing to sign off the conversion with that large capacity increase. Generally they dont seem to like above about 4.5litres, but some will go higher. I found one who was happy to go to 5.8 as teh architecture underneath is similar to a RRC.

He was the engineer who did my cage and stuff so that may have swayed his decision.

next, you need to decide on which engine... I cant see you getting engineering above 5.8 so that limits the engine choice as some of teh new Holden V8's are 6l.

Next is the gearbox. The R380 isnt strong enough. Rakeway make a race version but it is serious money. The T56 is long but would fit in a 130 (although from my research no adaptor to an LT230 is currently available). Tremec make a tko600 which is available with a multitude of possible shifter locations and that was my choice.

This can also be adapted with off the shelf parts from Rakeway to fit to the LT230...

It wouldn't be cheap.... I got all teh way to sourcing an LS6 engine out of a CTS-V in the states, and getting shipping quotes and so on , then the currency collapsed, and I gave up for now.

[mcrover]

Ive looked at it in depth and there are a number of things that are difficult.

Firstly you need to find an engineer who is willing to sign off the conversion with that large capacity increase. Generally they dont seem to like above about 4.5litres, but some will go higher. I found one who was happy to go to 5.8 as teh architecture underneath is similar to a RRC.

He was the engineer who did my cage and stuff so that may have swayed his decision.

next, you need to decide on which engine... I cant see you getting engineering above 5.8 so that limits the engine choice as some of teh new Holden V8's are 6l.

Next is the gearbox. The R380 isnt strong enough. Rakeway make a race version but it is serious money. The T56 is long but would fit in a 130 (although from my research no adaptor to an LT230 is currently available). Tremec make a tko600 which is available with a multitude of possible shifter locations and that was my choice.

This can also be adapted with off the shelf parts from Rakeway to fit to the LT230...

It wouldn't be cheap.... I got all teh way to sourcing an LS6 engine out of a CTS-V in the states, and getting shipping quotes and so on , then the currency collapsed, and I gave up for now.

Then you have to cool it.

This is where the real money starts as there are plenty of folks who have put V8s in them on the cheap but only a few get the cooling right so it is useable.

There are a few threads on here of Chev Diesel V8's in Deefas, do a search as all have the cooling as one of the most expensive and annoying aspects of the conversion.

[Psimpson7]

Good point, although i think cooling the petrols is easier than the diesels.

It should be easy enough to get a nice custom rad made, although as you say, not necesssarily cheap!

[rovercare]

Then you have to cool it.

This is where the real money starts as there are plenty of folks who have put V8s in them on the cheap but only a few get the cooling right so it is useable.

There are a few threads on here of Chev Diesel V8's in Deefas, do a search as all have the cooling as one of the most expensive and annoying aspects of the conversion.

Cooling is an easy exception on all things BUT a chev diesel

[PAT303]

I'd agree on that.There is a chev defender in town but it uses a lot of fuel for not much more performance,I haven't driven it but the bloke who fitted my D/gas system services it and is not very impressed by it considering it cost the guy 25grand.They seem to run OK at the front but hot on the back cylinders so he was telling me the other day,as I said he doesn't think much of them. Pat

[rovercare]

I'd agree on that.There is a chev defender in town but it uses a lot of fuel for not much more performance,I haven't driven it but the bloke who fitted my D/gas system services it and is not very impressed by it considering it cost the guy 25grand.They seem to run OK at the front but hot on the back cylinders so he was telling me the other day,as I said he doesn't think much of them. Pat

Nah, I found the 6.2 I had wouldn't better 16l/100klms, upto 22-3 driven hard in the bush, whereas my isuzu now gives 12's on the road and a shade under 15 flat bicky through the scrub

My fuel figures are all pretty anally worked out, with all errors accounted for

But the torque of the chev, fuggin awseome

[rovercare]

Blue Juice, what are you hopeing to fit?