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300 Tdi Conversion: Engine height on chassis rails


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Hi all, I recently hoiked my NA lump out of the 90 and supported, as many guides say, the front of the gearbox, near the bellhousing..... thing is, now that the engine isn't there, the BACK of the gearbox has not dropped down! at the moment I can actually put my foot in the bellhousing and push it down to bring the gearbox into it's "normal" position. so if I were to have an enging in there as it stands, it'd be pointing at the sky!,

So the question I guess is 1) how can I make sure that the engine and gearbox are lined up, ie paralel to the ground when I go to weld the new mounts in place?

Also 2) is the centreline of the 300 vs NAD the same, or will I need to add some spacers/cut the engine mounting brackets down to one or either of the engine mounts to get things back paralel with the chassis rails

Thanks again!

D

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oh right! thanks, I'll have a look and dig in the grey matter.....

I guess I could also drop the engine in and lower it down (connected to the gearbox) untill the top of the engine mountin brackets just dip below the top of the chassis rail, see if it looks about right and use that? looks like the engine wants to be tipped back slightly anyway with the oil drain plug being at the back of the sump......

thinking aloud, I think I'll probably measure up as shown above, and then use the suck it and see method, if the two correlate with eachother, then I whow I'm on to a winner!

Cheers

D

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  • 7 months later...

tech thread here may be of interest http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=64756

The lro article shows how to use the original chassis mounts with a fabbed bracket.

I retrofitted r380 and def300tdi and had mounts re welded. From memory using a lt77 is a shorter box so would put the back of the engine almost against the bulkhead, unless there are different length lt77's bellhousings i.e disco/def/etc.

If you have your gearbox and transferbox in and connected to the factory mountings/beam, I used a straight edge and a 600mm steel rule to measure from the face of the bellhousing on gearbox to the point on the chassis rail. The measurement was the same as the back face of the engine to the engine mounting bracket bush bolt.

Put the straight edge across the back face of the engine and take 2 measurements (1 down each side) to engine mounting bush. Transfer the measurements backwards from gearbox bellhousing using straight edge again and scribe centre on chassis.

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I just wondered as I have already welded in the disco mounts, and found them to push the enging off to the right when viewed from the front, the enging offset is different in the defender to the disco, but I'm getting a galvanised chassis made up with the required mounts for the LT77 and 300 Tdi engine, the engine does sit right at the back but it's all stripped down now to the engine on a rolling chassis,

I think I'll just go with these: http://www.steveparkers.com/conversions/300-tdi-discovery-90-110/300-conversion-engine-mounting-kit.html and get richards chassis to weld them in before galvanising the chassis, not the cheapest route, but I can't think of another way to easily tell them where to put the engine mounts on the chassis. I'll be sure to post an update when I get my chassis and get it all re-assembled!

thanks for the help D

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Don't know if it may help, but I drew up some measurements (here) which are accurate for installing 300TDi with LT77.

The measurements are from the rear face of the factory chassis mounts on a N/A chassis, so they should be able to use that to get the position right.

As you've noticed, there is an offset, the holes on the chassis brackets need to be at different distances from the chassis rail to get the engine straight.

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If you are going to the expense of buying a galv chassis, have you considered 2 sets of engine mounts?

I bought a galvanised chassis from Richards last year, and after speaking to them in depth about the extras I wanted doing before galvanising, Alistair suggested having 2 sets of engine mounts fitted.

This meant that I could retain the current 300tdi/lt77 set-up, but could convert to an r380 at a later date without having to damage the galvanising by welding new engine mounts in.

IMG_5593.jpg

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Thanks for all the replies, I think, after speaking to someone at Ashcroft about the gearboxes is that my old LT77 is really a bit weak for the 300 Tdi, seeing as I have the disco R380, I think I'll chop both of them in to Ashcroft and get a Defender R380, my seatbox is knackered as come helpful soul chopped it about with a windy wheel, so all I need to source really (that I didn't already need is a transmission tunnel.... going the whole hog is what they call it I think....

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