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Is this practical


Simon_CSK

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Having wreaked the engine in my D2 and looking at the price of Diesel it got me thinking. How easy would it be to convert to a V8?

In theory if I buy a V8 Disco with a rotten chassis, there should be loads about, is it simply a case of switching everything across? Fuel Tank, fuellines, block, wiring , ECU and BCU?

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I think there are better, more economical engines than the rover v8 to consider. e.g BMW M57. Ford, its all been done.

If you really want the rover, i dont think its too complicated.

- If carb, simple. If injection - means HP fuel pump
- get ECU with engine or MS it.
- Clean the fuel tank and lines, maybe a diesel filter to change /remove.
- Maybe new engine mounts.
- a V8 tunnel is required
- different bigger radiator?

Other than that it should drop in pretty easily

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I've been considering the same thing, 

 

Currently, my engine is too good to swap out, but if it died, would i stay TD5? The inner "take way too much work on" in me is half looking for a suitable V8 conversion, Not sure i want a Rover v8.. thats too easy, and why not put an easy 300+BHP in?

Also considering pulling the TDi out my series in favour of something like a well played with volvo T5 engine.. That's probably more likely to materialise as a project. 

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I've thought about fitting a Volvo D5 to my series.  2.4l, 5 cylinder, VNT, common rail, 160hp, 350 torques.

 

But the tdi will be staying, as it's in there and bomb proof, and fits.

 

 

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5 hours ago, HoSS said:

I think there are better, more economical engines than the rover v8 to consider. e.g BMW M57. Ford, its all been done.

If you really want the rover, i dont think its too complicated.

- If carb, simple. If injection - means HP fuel pump will be EFI on a disco2
- get ECU with engine or MS it. not just ecu, wiring loom/ body loom, etc etc
- Clean the fuel tank and lines, maybe a diesel filter to change /remove.
- Maybe new engine mounts. definitely 
- a V8 tunnel is required not on a d2
- different bigger radiator? use the v8 radiator

Other than that it should drop in pretty easily

its a lot of work to do this on a d2 id suggest fitting another td5, I had the head gasket go on my defender td5 & it was quicker / cheaper to fit another engine

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7 hours ago, HoSS said:

I think there are better, more economical engines than the rover v8 to consider. e.g BMW M57. Ford, its all been done.

I’m not sure swapping in any of these for “economy” is going to pay off. The shear cost of a custom engine conversion is unlikely to be recouped in fuel savings unless you are doing massive mileages. 

The RV8 should be fairly easy. Especially if you are using a donor V8 D2. 

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Provided it doesn't need new camshaft, rocker shaft assys, top hat liners, usual rebuild stuff, standalone fuel and ignition, different gearbox, radiator etc etc.

An easy two and a half grand or more, and that's for a "standard fit" engine. No point in fitting a shi**er. Not to mention the poor fuel consumption. Then there is LPG, in order to "save" money.

Better off fitting another TD5, or if you really don't mind spending the money, fitting a fit and forget engine...……….and I DONT mean a Tdi. It will probably come in the same, or less, and be more reliable and economical fuel wise.

But then there is insurance...……………………………... 

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My Disco has 187k on the clock sitting on a galvanised chassis. I rebuilt it in 2013 and did 40000 over 4 years before the engine died on me. The car owes me nothing. 

In May I fitted and engine from another disco I had been using after I blew the gearbox on that one. Unfortunately the turbo blew a couple of weeks ago and that has taken out the engine. I was slowly getting the Disco where I wanted it to be before the engine went again.

The reason I an considering the swap is that petrol is cheaper and there is a drive back towards petrol cars so my feeling is that the gap between petrol and diesel will rise. I can convert the Disco to LPG after the V8 conversion and it will be good for many miles. Iunderstand V8s better than Diesels anyway so after the initial swap I am more confident with the car. Having the donor will keep the costs of the conversion reasonable low as everything will be available.

For me it will get the use as I cover about 30k miles a year over all my cars.

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22 hours ago, RedLineMike said:

petrol is cheaper, but it doesn't really make up for the difference in fuel consumption, even LPG isn't as good as it used to be 

Mike

I took the Disco to London in October and averaged 22.5 going down and 23.5 coming back the last time I took my P38 down I averaged 23. With those maths it would have been cheaper to take a V8  and I think it will only get worse.

 

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1 hour ago, Simon_CSK said:

Mike

I took the Disco to London in October and averaged 22.5 going down and 23.5 coming back the last time I took my P38 down I averaged 23. With those maths it would have been cheaper to take a V8  and I think it will only get worse.

 

Really ? I have never had a TD5, but I would expect nearer 30 ! But I expect it depends on how fast you are going. 

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2 minutes ago, smallfry said:

Really ? I have never had a TD5, but I would expect nearer 30 ! But I expect it depends on how fast you are going. 

70mph most of the way for the TD5 whereas the P38 a 4.6 I was doing only 60mph. It is a good 420mile trip so great for a comparison test.

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14 minutes ago, smallfry said:

Really ? I have never had a TD5, but I would expect nearer 30 ! But I expect it depends on how fast you are going. 

Td5’s seem variable in mpg. Auto ones drink and are low 20’s. But some manual ones are quite frugal. My Ubcle has two manual D2’s one will do about 26mpg the other will be over 30mpg and will easily do over 600 miles to a tank. 

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My Td5 does 30mpg.

I’ve been wondering what would be a good replacement engine come the day. The OM606 is smooth and they say good for a million miles - but that’s a fair job to fit and the 2nd hand motors are in smaller numbers and with bigger mileages.

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Just now, Anderzander said:

My Td5 does 30mpg.

I’ve been wondering what would be a good replacement engine come the day. The OM606 is smooth and they say good for a million miles - but that’s a fair job to fit and the 2nd hand motors are in smaller numbers and with bigger mileages.

Not thought about an alternative diesel engine as I wouldn't have a clue where to start with the electronics and integrating it with the ecu

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On 11/25/2018 at 11:26 PM, smallfry said:

Provided it doesn't need new camshaft, rocker shaft assys, top hat liners, usual rebuild stuff, standalone fuel and ignition, different gearbox, radiator etc etc.

An easy two and a half grand or more, and that's for a "standard fit" engine. No point in fitting a shi**er. Not to mention the poor fuel consumption. Then there is LPG, in order to "save" money.

I totally agree with all of this.

I just gave away a 4.0 v8 disco 2 for free a couple of weeks ago, it came from Dumfries, you could have had it. It was horrible, it was amazingly rusty but it ran and everything worked. 
They seem to age really quickly and although they're V8's they don't actually go that well.  I think you'd need to run megasquirt or something to get the best out of them

If you're looking around the 300hp mark, have you considered a Chevrolet LS type engine? They're light, modern and powerful. Given that you have a galvanised chassis it's probably worth it. Adapters are easy to whatever gearbox you have or even to the LT230. 

The chev engines are very simple and parts are cheap in the unlikely event that you need any. An LQ4 or LQ9 would be cheaper than an LS to put in. You'd get better milage out of one than with the rover v8 and have as much power as you wanted. Standalone ecu's and harnesses are easy come by. It would also add value to your vehicle and would be fun to drive. It would be no more work than fitting the rover.


An M57 diesel would be the diesel choice I suppose but as you say you're not keen on integrating the wiring so that leaves the mechanical diesels like the OM606 or maybe a 12V Cummins and run it off one wire. 

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11 hours ago, Simon_CSK said:

Not thought about an alternative diesel engine as I wouldn't have a clue where to start with the electronics and integrating it with the ecu

don't really need to integrate much to the ECU, I know of a D2 with a 606 conversion that's integrated & there's several M57 conversions out there,

 

id suspect firing in a m57 to be easier than converting to a v8

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6 hours ago, RedLineMike said:

don't really need to integrate much to the ECU, I know of a D2 with a 606 conversion that's integrated & there's several M57 conversions out there,

 

id suspect firing in a m57 to be easier than converting to a v8

I can't see the m57 being easier, the V8 is factory fit and you know you won't need to R&D or bespoke anything. The cost of fitting the M57 must be several magnitudes higher I'd have thought.

I'm also not sure how easy it is to desperate the BECM from the ECU. I know it can be done, but probably harder if you want to retain the TCS and alarm. I've been trying to research similar on a p38 and have come up short at every avenue thus far.

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24 minutes ago, Chicken Drumstick said:

I can't see the m57 being easier, the V8 is factory fit and you know you won't need to R&D or bespoke anything. The cost of fitting the M57 must be several magnitudes higher I'd have thought.

I'm also not sure how easy it is to desperate the BECM from the ECU. I know it can be done, but probably harder if you want to retain the TCS and alarm. I've been trying to research similar on a p38 and have come up short at every avenue thus far.

id have to ask but im sure the TCS was fully operational with the basics of modification, as such on a D2 the TCS/ BCM are separate modules as such,

as such there isn't a great deal of R&D involved in fitting the M57, Looms & adapter plates are readily available, you can purchase a complete car for less than a grand, with a little bit of work you can fit a m57 & have it running for about 2k including buying a car

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1 hour ago, RedLineMike said:

id have to ask but im sure the TCS was fully operational with the basics of modification, as such on a D2 the TCS/ BCM are separate modules as such,

as such there isn't a great deal of R&D involved in fitting the M57, Looms & adapter plates are readily available, you can purchase a complete car for less than a grand, with a little bit of work you can fit a m57 & have it running for about 2k including buying a car

You might be correct, I'm not really up on the D2 wiring wise. I know the p38 BCEM and ECM are synced with a rolling code and the immobiliser won't deactivate if this is wrong. But maybe it is easy to by-pass.

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On 11/25/2018 at 7:44 PM, discomikey said:

I've been considering the same thing, 

 

Currently, my engine is too good to swap out, but if it died, would i stay TD5? The inner "take way too much work on" in me is half looking for a suitable V8 conversion, Not sure i want a Rover v8.. thats too easy, and why not put an easy 300+BHP in?

Also considering pulling the TDi out my series in favour of something like a well played with volvo T5 engine.. That's probably more likely to materialise as a project. 

I love the T5 idea, i've had both a phase 2 T5 V70 and now a phase 1 V70R.  It's a cracking engine that i've often thought of putting in a Land Rover, obviously any engine conversion is going to present problems but the one i can't get past is the plastic timing chest.  On an off road vehicle, it's likely to fill with mud and throw the belt off.

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4 hours ago, RedLineMike said:

Or even easier, Fit another td5 engine, £500 & a weekends work :i-m_so_happy:

That was plan A but having fitted the engine in May and then had problems with electronic causing the care to go into limp mode I got thinking about alternatives. Am looking for a complete car as it will yeild spare parts, not that I need any as I have two other spares at the moment, and I will at least have an idea that the engine runs. 

The electronic really have me stumped most of the time. 

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the electronics are relatively basic in comparison to more modern vehicles, even the m57 is slightly more complex but is easily played with, 

best suggestion is to invest in either a nanocom or hawkeye if you are sticking with the td5 or converting to a v8 using the full wiring loom, 

 

 

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