300tdi into earlier Defender - chassis mounts

[Eightpot]

I've just completed installing a 300tdi into an earlier n/a diesel engined model with LT77 gearbox.

I couldn't find any detailed measurements or templates for the chassis mounts, (if using the disco 300tdi mounts that come with the engine) so thought I'd share these in case anyone finds them useful.

To make the mounts I used 5mm plate for the vertical legs of the mounts and 3mm box section for the top face - useful as it gives you the correct radius on the leading edge

I've used the rear face of the old chassis mounts as a datum point to measure the centreline for the new bolt holes. this is pretty important to get correct, I would suggest moving the engine in to place with the crane, bolting everything up and offering the mounts up to the chassis to double check before welding. However these measurements were spot on for me and the engine dropped in place without a fuss.

Note that the mounts are not placed symetricaly on either side and are at different heights.

Chop the old mounts off when you're done as the passenger side is in the way of the exhaust and driver side reduces room round the oil filter.

[Boris113]

A good bit of advice there, I wish I had something like this to hand the first time I came to fit my 300!

I'm in the process of rebuilding my 90 at the moment (300tdi & original lt77) and am currently looking at where to mount the air filter housing, where are you planning on putting yours? The best I've come up with so far is to use the AC pump mounts but that involves long lengths of hose to connect up to the snorkel.

Harry

[Eightpot]

I'll be using a rubber discovery 300tdi flexi intake hose and a standard metal TDi canister filter housing.

The rubber flexi hose is 3 short sections clipped together normally, but using just the first section which attaches to the turbo intake, the other end of this is just big enough to stretch over the output end of the filter housing. I'll make up a bracket and the canister will sit nice and high up between the engine and the passenger side inner wing, with plenty of room to access the air filter element.

Couple of observations so far - a 300TDi Discovery bottom hose is the perfect length to reach the radiator and the expansion tank. The high pressure hose to the power steering pump is too short to reach the front chassis crossmember and crosses the gap between the rails a few inches back, which doesn't look right and makes it difficult to secure them - but if you loosen the union to the power steering pump you cant rotate the curved neck of the pipe towards the front of the car which gives a couple of inches back and puts the pipes back against the crossmember.

if you're going to use the n/a backplate, it is a straight swap over and all fits very easily, just make sure to remove the rear crank oil seal from the 300TDi block and then fit a new n/a crank seal into your old backplate before offering it up. Or it will leak.

EDIT - just noticed that I've missed a couple of key measurements for the bolt holes of the first sketch - corrected version attached

[reb78]

Would be worth cross referencing this thread with this one:

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=65230

Some good info in both of these and i'm sure it will come in handy as this conversion will become more common as 200tdi engines become harder to get.

[western]

Would be worth cross referencing this thread with this one:

http://forums.lr4x4....showtopic=65230

Some good info in both of these and i'm sure it will come in handy as this conversion will become more common as 200tdi engines become harder to get.

sorted.