Thread: GOT TO MATE A 4JB1T ENGINE WITH A R380 GEARBOX, ANY HELP WOULD BE HOT!

Hello everyone!
Well, I own a 1987 90, it has the 2.5 TD Land Rover engine, but the LT77 gearbox was replaced with a R380 one. As you may imagine, the 2.5 TD is way underpowered and the R380 expects more torque and HP, so basically the car is a giant turtle. So I am going to fit an Isuzu 4JB1T engine to it.
I've done a few research, as well as my own test and fail approaches, and so far I believe I can do it fair easily if a use a clutch plate and bearing for a 300 Tdi and the rest of the clutch kit (cover and spigot bush) for the Isuzu engine. Just wanted to know if someone has done something similar so I can get a guide to follow.
An important issue is that I have the "short bellhousing" attached to the R380, so I hope I won't have to use anything else than an adapter plate to do it.
Thanks a lot!
Cheers!

Hello again!
I think I am going to use the M&D kit, number 204. Land Rover conversions - M&D Engineering. I certainly don't want "luck" here, I need to gain reliability, so I am going to avoid walking the path alone if someone else already did it and have a guaranteed kit available. It certainly can be a little bit more expensive than a home made tropical solution, but I've seen people around here doing the same thing twice (or more ), so early savings may become later looses.

About the clutch issue, the Defender clutch disc's diameter is 235mm., as you pointed, the 4JB1 flywheel's is 240 mm., and I found that the 2.5 TD uses a Verto diaphragm spring 242,1 diameter, so I have to check all this data (the 2.5 TD's may be bigger, but I think it's not designed to manage that much torque). My bet would be to use the 130 Defender's clutch disc, what do you think about the 5 mm. difference?
To set the right clamping pressure to the clutch disc, I thought this procedure may work well: I just need to check the thickness of the Defender's clutch disc, if it is thicker than the 4jb1t's, I'd just need to build and adapter (we call it "a flanger", don´t know if the word has the same use over there) for the pressure plate, if thinner, the opposite, machine the base a little so the pressure plate goes "deeper", so it gets exactly the pressure needed. What do you think? (You can slap me if you see I am going to make a mess! Please! )

My main concern is to avoid at all cost to modify the gearbox power takeoff splines, as well as using a custom made clutch disc.

About the Ashcroft Transmissions Short Bellhousing, I find it quite expensive! I found mine in a LR scrapeyard, taken from a Tdi engine, and I paid about $150 USD (about 160 AUD, if my Forex skills are not that rusty ).

Thanks a lot for all your posts and your interest!

I'll keep you posted.

Regards!
LB.