Mr.Who

Hello all! It´s been quite a while since I last posted here, thank you very much for not deleting my account! I have a Land Rover 90 (not Defender yet), and it has been my mechanical pal since long ago. Now, the 2.5 engine is getting a little bit tired (it's still working, so I will refresh it and donate it to Rocinante, a '74 Series), and I am trying to figure it out what to fit into the 90. I am in Costa Rica, and here Japanese stock is the rule, so I was thinking that an Isuzu 2.8 engine could do it (I have collaborated in a few projects of my friends who have done something similar, pretty straightforward swap). A 300 Tdi engine may well be the option too, but the costs are higher, as you may expect. I can rebuild an Isuzu 2.8 Turbo engine that I got from a friend at a ridiculous price (it was running and pulling like a train, but just for the sake of peace of mind, I'd overhaul it before installing it), but here comes my question: have you ever done something similar with this kind of workhorse? Is the configuration the same for a Turbo and a Turbo Intercooled engine (pistons, rings, injection, etc.)? Any thoughts would be highly appreciated! Cheers!

Hi again! Thank you for your posts, I am going to order the kit from Conversion and Precision, since they showed way better e-mail communication and their prices are just good. Actually, I am ordering two kits, mine for the short R380-4jb1t, and one for a friend to mate a long disco r380 with a 4jbqtc. Andy, the person who is dealing with me, is very helpful and bares with me and my everyday questions. M&D suddenly stopped answering the mails, and they are more expensive (yet they use ebay, and for intn'l buying, it's better). It took a week to Peter Parkers' fellows to answer an email, and just to say "We don't send anything overseas". So, I'm expecting to close the deal this week and wait for the kits to make the long journey across he Atlantic. I'll keep the forum posted with the whole process, someone may find it useful. Cheers!

Great! Thanks a lot for the tip! Cheers!

Greetings all! I am going to swap the engine of the old 90, the 2.5 TD goes to a Series III, and a grunty Isuzu 4jb1 is going in, as told in a previous thread, and following all your advices and posts, I believe I won't re-walk the path on my own, I am going to buy a conversion kit, it seems to be standard, professionally made and pretty much do it yourself stuff. However, now the question is where to buy the kit. I have three options, all from UK: Conversion & Precision : £300 M&D Engineering : £375 Steve Parker : £295 I would like to know if any of you can give me some kind of review or feedback about any of these kits (or the companies who build them) before I buy it. Thanks a lot for your help! Happy muddy weekend! Best regards, LB

Hello again! I think I am going to use the M&D kit, number 204. Land Rover conversions - M&D Engineering It includes the adapter plate (or bellhousing if needed), the spigot bearing bush that Markyboy cleverly pointed, and the engine supports, it's a straight forward do it yourself kit. The good news is that the 300 Tdi clutch disc fits into the 4jb1t flywheel (I just need to check the thickness of it, 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 exact pressure needed. With this configuration I wouldn't need to find a workaround to modify the power takeoff of the gearbox or build a custom clutch disc (my biggest concern so far, is gone! ) Do you know if the Defender 130 clutch disc differs from the 110 one? I'm planning to use the heaviest duty possible, for endurance sake. About the specs of the 4jb1t, they certainly are not V8 like, but this engine is tuned for heavy work and long lasting durability (and certainly is fair easier and cheaper to maintain and way more reliable than Land Rover engines, please don´t get me wrong, I love the Land Rover heritage, but sometimes it just hit the pocket too hard to be that faithful). The tuning can be easily improved with a few small mods, like a good intercooler unit, more turbo boosting and a little injection pump adjustment. I've seen a Range Rover Classic with this engine, and it performs better than a 300 Tdi unit, even when the Rangie is a heavier duck. Thanks a lot for your help, I'll keep you posted! Cheers!

Hello everyone! I am new around, so first I'll introduce myself. My name is Luis Brenes, I live in Costa Rica and I am a proud owner of two aliminium pets: a '74 Series III 88" called Rocinante (after Don Quixote's horse) and a '87 90 called Magallanes (spanish for Magellan, after Fernando de Magallanes) . For many reasons, Costa Rica is a Land Rover zone, and it's the tropical paradise for Rover Hunting! Well, here is my story about them, I hope you can light my path about it: The 90 has the 2.5 TD Land Rover engine, but the original 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 bell house" 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!