Powerslave

Well, yes, I should definitely have thought that question through better. I am asking if the vacuum generated by the engine is enough or at a level compatible with the servo fitted as standard to the TD5. I could well be over (or under) thinking this!

Just jumping away from the crank sensor/EDIS discussion for a moment...... I vaguely recall that the TD5 Alternator has a vacuum pump attached. Am I correct, or is that just on the later TDCi? If it is the case, I need a strategy for replacing that function. Either fitting a TD5 alternator to the V8 or another source of vacuum. Again, I haven't got far enough into the TD5 to know more, but I am interested in hearing ideas. regards Ian

Yes - that is the general consensus. I have been googling, reading and also was fortunate to catch Richard Turner to get his take. I'll post more when I have sorted the whole thing out. It seems a damn shame to me that you can't seem to buy replacement parts with any kind of expectation. As the engine is currently stalled (oh - how we lolled), I got a friend who is stronger and has a little more experience with removing transmissions and spent some time yesterday grunting, disconnecting and keeping fingers crossed. The auto box and transfer box are now out as one and waiting for a little clean. The next step is going to be to remove the TD5 and its transmission and put this lot in its place. The TD5 looks a little easier to remove than the V8 was in terms of plumbing generally, especially as it doesn't have aircon or ACE.

Really interesting (and thanks to Dave for the clear explanation). Even though I have the trigger wheel set up now, I might well build the driver and try it the other way at some point. It was bugging me that I had a perfectly good crank sensor that I couldn't use. Today, though.... it's 'retrieve the gearbox' time.

Well, it was running in the Disco up to a few weeks ago. I am unsure how much to further strip the engine to see if there are any large shards of metal lying around the place. I don't think I have found all the pieces from the damaged rocker arms. A lot of the larger bits were just lying in the recesses in casting. I assume any other bits will have fallen down into the valley and gone from there. I have read on TVR forums and such that this is not an uncommon problem and (obviously) a bit of metal blocking an oilway can be catastrophic. That said, I guess that these rocker arms have been in this condition for a while so maybe I've been lucky and the bits that are left have been collected at the filter. (Oil has been changed regularly.) I generally buy genuine parts and would look to replace all of the rocker arms. Thing is; gen ones are about £26 and non-gen are a fiver. There could be a reason for that, but there is also a suspicion that the genuine ones are not of the quality that they used to be. I'm very interested in hearing ideas or people's own experiences.

I spose it's not all doom and gloom though: (Although, I now realise I meant to clean the pulley up and treat it to some paint before I fitted it. Doh!)

Thanks for your replies, fellas. Gives me some ideas. Dave - interesting what you are saying about the existing crank sensor. I was aware of it and had wondered if I could use it. I would have to look now, but I believe it had been discussed on here and the consensus was that it couldn't be used directly as the timing was substantially different. If anyone has done it, it would be worth putting the information on this thread to help others. I spent some time setting up the trigger wheel and sensor tonight and removed the passenger side rocker cover to help locate TDC. (The rocker covers will be cleaned up and given a tasteful coating of red vht paint at a later date. I was a bit distraught when I found that a number of rocker arms were damaged. So, gotta strip both shafts down and rebuild them with new components. I wasn't planning on removing the lower inlet manifold assembly, but I am now tempted to check it all and see if there are chunks of metal lying around. Similarly, I wasn't planning on taking the sump off as it is beautifully leak free, but it might be sensible. I'm disappointed with the rocker components. They haven't covered huge miles since the heads were reconditioned and fitted to the new block. I wonder if the company used cheap aftermarket components. So, a bit of a one step forward half a dozen back.

Tonight and/or tomorrow, I'll be dragging the transmission out of the donor vehicle. My nearly-wife is fast becoming my long-suffering nearly-wife, but I have promised her that it will be done in just a few short years! I have some questions which are buzzing around in my head at the moment. It's by no means a complete list and I welcome any ideas/responses or exclamations of 'You idiot!'. 1) I've got a new old-school fuel pump from Nige along with the PRV which came with the kit. Has anyone grafted such a fuel pump into a TD5 tank? Or should I start again? 2) Can I retain the existing TD5 radiator to service the V8 engine? 3) Until I get the engine out of the 110, I won't be able to answer this for myself, so does anyone know what engine mount combination will work best? 4) The autobox has an oil cooler. I see that Ashcroft's offer a couple of different options in their kit. Again, I can't offer it up yet, but does this mean that the long, thin oil cooler from the Disco is inadvisable? 5) Finally (for now), I am tempted to go electric for the fan and ditch the viscous unit. Has anyone got strong feelings either way? regards Ian

At the end of the week, I was test-fitting some of the shiny bits that I got from Nige and a friend of mine (who is much better at shaving bits off spinning chunks of metal) did some machining for me.

Hi all I'm starting this thread to share the trials and tribulations of the above implantation, but also I have some questions to ask of you knowledgeable folk, so hopefully I'll get some answers along the way. The story so far...... I have a 2001 TD5 Defender which is pretty tricked up and has a quite aggressive Pete Bell map on it along with an uprated intercooler and a Griffin 3 inch exhaust system. I have a later TDCi to drag my family around in, so this Defender is more of a well-loved toy. I have always had this hankering to put a V8 engine, but couldn't decide on an approach. Kids and work also get in the way somewhat. I bought a Disco II as a family bus some years ago. It was a tidy vehicle, but after a year or so the engine suffered the porous problem. At the time, RPI were selling their cross-bolted lumps at reasonable money so I bought one and had it slotted in. I couldn't resist upping the capacity so the donor vehicle has a 4.6 Litre engine in pretty good condition to offer. I don't really need the Disco anymore and it soon became apparent that I would be better off taking the engine out than selling the vehicle complete and then trying to find another engine. The upshot is that at some point I will have to find time to break a tidy Disco II ES. I had heard of Megasquirt before, but I did some proper reading on this forum last last year, found Nige and ordered a full kit of parts. I now have a working ECU which flashes lights in the right places. Fast forward to last week and I finally got around to sympathetically removing all the plumbing from the Disco engine bay and lifting out the surprisingly compact V8. The pictures show the ancillaries removed and a moderate clean in progress. I don't have the patience to go for concours condition, so cleanish will do. Nige had told me that using the auto box from the Disco II would be problematic because it relied on the original ECU. I was going to then go the short-bell-housing-and-use-the-110's-existing-gearbox-route. A chance browsing of Ashcroft's website and an email to Dave led to me finding that I could get some bits from them and a compushift setup and use the autobox as well. In for a penny, in for a fair few pounds then!

Ok - that gives me some flexibility. Thanks for the quick reply. The boxes are the original fit, so I will keep my fingers crossed that LR didn't just use whatever they felt like on the day.

Morning all! Does anyone know if the transfer box ratio for a 2004 TD5 90 would be the same as a 2001 TD5 110? Reason is that the engine, gearbox and transfer box are coming out of the 110 in favour of a V8 auto setup. The transfer box on the 110 has a GKN overdrive fitted which would be very handy in the 90. I am weighing up whether to just remove the overdrive unit and fit it to the box on the 90 or swap the transfer box whole. regards Ian

Hi all. I'm taking a V8 engine from my 2003 Disco (which is SORN now, but will be broken) and putting into a 2001 Td5 Defender. I'm reading this thread with interest in conjunction with this link: https://www.gov.uk/change-vehicle-details-registration-certificate/what-evidence-to-give I am wondering whether the original engine build sheet from RPI (from 8 years ago) will be enough evidence that I own the engine. I could always get my local garage to examine the vehicle and provide a letter to say that the engine is in the truck. I read somewhere on here that it might get a lot harder to do engine swaps as the emissions will have to be to the current standard - not age related. A different topic I know, but does anyone have more information on that? regards Ian

Thanks! Now I have read your diagram in conjunction with the relevant bits of the manual and taken into account your comments about simplification earlier in this thread, it makes a lot of sense. I had to pick up a 1.3K resistor which cost me all of 10p. I'm just going to make up the bit of vacuum pipe with the brass connector and I will close the lid (at least for a little while). I notice that the lamda reading on Tunerstudio gauge goes down as I turn turn the O2 pot on the stim clockwise. Is this normal behaviour?

Ok - it turns out that I am a little bit myopic! I had linked XG1 to XG2 as per the megabuild manual and missed that FF's diagram did not have this jumper in place. I cut the link, powered back up and she breathes! So, lights are flashing everywhere, gauges are moving around and I'm a happy chappy. Now to carry on stripping the V8 out of the Discovery!

Ok. I finally had some time today, so I have finished building the board up to exactly match the diagram. Plugging into the Jimstim (V1.5 board and v2.04 software), the gauges respond as I would expect, but I don't have a reading for Engine Speed/RPM. I'm starting to dig around for some documentation on the JimStim to see if I need to set/change any jumpers or switches to provide a suitable signal for this MS configuration. Any advice is, as always, very welcome.

Ok. Makes a lot of sense. I will follow the diagram. I am making an assumption that the standard LR injectors are Hi-Z otherwise I am sure that Nige would have warned me.

Good luck! My reasoning on the position is that (from distant memory - it's been about 10 years), the dosing pump can't be fitted on the high pressure side of fuel pump. If you could have turned the Webasto on before you removed it, you would have been able to trace the distinctive 'tap tap tap' from the pump. I can't imagine that LR would have done anything more exotic with the Webasto installation in terms of using their own fuel delivery method. I'll keep my fingers crossed.....

Ok. I'll keep my electron manipulation questions for the collective. Am I right in thinking that when you get involved, the magic smoke escapes from the components and they stop working? I have other questions about transplanting which might suit you better. I'll post them in the other section. A quick question for Mr FF, if I may: I notice that on the schematic, Q9 and Q12 are white which is keyed 'do not fit'. But, they are populated in the photographs. Looks like they might relate to my active flyback circuit question. I would appreciate any thoughts, but especially the decision process. I am sure that the content of this thread might be useful for those non-Nige types who like poking things with a hot iron. regards Ian

Wow! Thanks very much for the comprehensive reply. I bought the Thor kit from Nige along with his suggested mods and upgrades, so I am very much looking to do it 'his' way. I will study the pictures and follow these mods where they differ from the ones suggest on the v3 build page. Thankfully, I haven't done too much of the output stage yet, so this is very timely advice. Thanks once again, Mr FF. regards Ian

I can't tell you the factory placement, but I expect that the dosing pump will be the standard Webasto item and will have been tee'd in somewhere before the vehicle diesel pump (which should narrow it down). Am I to right that you can't easily follow the fuel pipe from where you removed the heater? If it helps, I have a spare fitting kit somewhere, so I can help with photos of pump, exhaust, wiring loom etc. regards Ian

Hi all! I'm well into building the Megasquirt ECU kit which I got from Nige recently. (As I am a bit of a magpie, there was also a lot of other shiny stuff in the box which I am itching to play with.) Ultimately, everything will come together with a 4.6 Thor engine which is going to be transplanted into a 2001 Defender. I've been using these instructions: http://www.megamanual.com/ms2/V3assemble.htm and I reckon I have picked the correct options on the way down and the tests have worked at each key stage. I am confused about the output options. I have the "Thor PWM Control Kit" from Nige to fit. My questions are: 1) Do I follow the modification for "For PWM Idle Valve Users Only" (Around step 62; it says "Do not install Q20, do not install D8, and jumper R39 as well." The step also involves not installing Q4 and using a more powerful TIP120/121/122 transistor. I realise this sounds like a stupid question, but Nige's site says of the PWM kit ''This will immediately work with our standard ECUs current or past, without any additional electronics or programming required.' So, I am wondering if either the standard transistor setup can handle this particular PWM device or all of the pre-built ECUs are going out with this mod. 2) At step 69, I can choose to install the 'PWM flyback damping circuit'. Should I install this or not? I am quite happy to be told that I have missed something, but I always think that the stupid questions are the ones we don't ask. So..... can anyone help? kind regards Ian

I was kitting out my workshop a few years ago and bought a Creusen. For sharpening tools, tidying bits up and generating sparks it has been great. The cheaper ones seem gutless and badly balanced. At the time, Cromwells and Axminster stocked them - not sure who does now. regards Ian

Thanks for the reply, FF. I'm removing the engine from the Disco as I type, but I will read your thread with interest. I'm tempted to get the engine running first in a frame as a learning process and also because it's something I always fancied doing. I've got an email in with Nige at the moment to place the initial order. When he gets back to me, I am sure there will be other things that I just must have! kind regards Ian

Hi all! I'm new to Megasquirt and have held off putting a V8 engine in a Defender so far, but I can't resist any longer. I have a nice 4.6 Thor engine in my Disco 2 Auto. I spoke to Nigel earlier in the week with a view to dumping both in a 2001 TD5 100. He explained why the auto box was a no-go, so for now the engine will mate to the existing R380 with a few new bits from Ashcroft. I might go compushift at a later date, but it's a bridge too far right now. I am going to order the Megasquirt full kit for the Thor engine, but am wondering what the collective would suggest I order on top. I am going to get a Jim Stim as a learning tool. I wonder what the views are on the 74 degree thermostat. I also would like to know from those who have done similar conversions what fuel pump solution they have used. Finally, it's not clear to me, but it seems the kit comes with used coil packs. If that's the case as I am a cry once kinda bloke, I would pay extra for new ones. Any and all suggestions gratefully received. Thanks! Ian