Defender engine transplant - completely confused

[zed shaarani]

Just bought my first Land Rover. A complete 110 station wagon, abandoned for the past 3-4 years but with all the bits still intact. With a non running 2.5L 4  cylinder diesel and a LT77 gearbox. So I'm planning to do a Japanese transplant cos here in Malaysia, Japanese engines are a dime a dozen, so to speak. Now starts the confusion.My LR buddies here swear on their grandmother's grave that Toyota or Isuzu or Nissan or (whatever they have in their LR) is absolutely the best. Not counting those purists who won't talk to me anymore because of my blasphemous tendencies of putting a Japanese engine into a true British blue blood. Here are the engines available to me -- Nissan SD 33 non turbo 6 cyl.diesel (I also have the axles and gearbox for this model), Nissan TD 27 2.7L and BD30 2.9L. Isuzu 4JB1T or Isuzu 4JG2T, Toyota 3LT or a Mitsubishi 4DRS. I intend to reuse the original LT77 gearbox. Please anybody out there, help me clear my confusion.Thanks.

 

 

 

[Arjan]

Bonjour  - welcome to the Madhouse !

Engine conversions like these are the stuff weeks and weeks of camp fire talks are filled with what engine..

I have used Mazda 35Slt's in the past and very happy with them.

Bon Courage !.

[miketomcat]

Flying spanners used the 2.8 Isuzu lump in petal (land rover based trophy raid racer) to good effect.

Mike

[FridgeFreezer]

Big lumpy diesels kill LR gearboxes, so 6 cylinders is better (smoother) than 4, smaller may be better than the biggest/most powerful and don't labour it in high gears at low RPM.

Or just fit the entire Nissan drivetrain and enjoy driving your abomination against the Gods of unreliability...

[zed shaarani]

Hi Fridge. Do you know anyone who has put in the entire Nissan SD33 engine, gearbox and axles? Would like to contact him.

[FridgeFreezer]

I don't think I do.

Have a look through the "Members vehicles" section as there's some interesting creations in there. Also the search button might turn some results up

[dirtyninety]

my friend had a SD33 in his range rover classic. it was absolutely awful.

 

nissan 2.7 is an absolutely fantastic engine however!!

[steve b]

A look  through what engine conversions are popular in Australia may help to narrow it down - conversion kits may be available as well . What your intended use is and such things as tyre size/ tread type and normal rolling weight may be worth factoring in too . Welcome by the way , you are in the right place to find answers

Some pic's are always nice too

cheers

Steve b  

[Snagger]

Perentie put Isuzu diesels into the Australian military Land Rovers, so that's what I'd be looking at doing - there should be a supply chain for most of the parts you need if you deal with Australian suppliers.

Fridge is right - big diesels have a strong pulse from each stroke, so a six cylinder would be better than four if you have the choice.  I thin Santana went the right way with the six cylinder derivative of the 4-cyl 2.5 naturally aspirated diesel 12J.

[zed shaarani]

I hear about lots of conversions using the Isuzu 4JB-1 2.8L  engine. Has anyone used the newer 4JG2 -Turbo 3Liter engine used in the Isuzu Bighorns? Bigger and newer is better -- right? Actually I am rather ignorant about all the size versus power to weight ratio and all that. So really appreciate some help here.

[FridgeFreezer]

The Isuzu 3.1's were supposed to be less reliable than the 2.8, I can't remember what goes wrong with them though.

Size / power-to-weight is entirely down to what you want, the Isuzu 2.8 will be better than anything Land Rover fitted as standard in a 110 and should be reliable & economical.