Engine Conversion - BMW M57 into a 90

[fourwzzy]

On 8/8/2020 at 1:29 AM, HoSS said:

If you can find one (more common in europe) from an E46 Xi it wil have a rear flange for the transfer box.

AFAIK anyway you have to make some sort of adapter plate and shaft to couple it with LT230

 

By the way — does anyone have SyncroGearboxes adapter for LT230 on the bench? Need couple params to check.

Edited August 9, 2020 by fourwzzy

[LiamC]

Well I found the source of my rattle/knocking noise, it was simply the selector housing contacting the transmission tunnel so that was a relief and easy to resolve. Now that's sorted it really is so lovely to drive. This engine is so super smooth and I'm really enjoying driving it. I need to sort a cooling fan at some point, it seems to cope driving home from work in 35 degree heat last week just fine but I wouldn't have confidence sitting in traffic etc with no fan at all. I wanted to have a hunt in the local breakers yard for a suitable electric fan but Haynes is still closed because of covid.

On 8/9/2020 at 11:43 AM, fourwzzy said:

By the way — does anyone have SyncroGearboxes adapter for LT230 on the bench? Need couple params to check.

My adaptor is obviously no longer on the bench as its fitted now, what is it you need to check?

[landroversforever]

2 hours ago, LiamC said:

Well I found the source of my rattle/knocking noise, it was simply the selector housing contacting the transmission tunnel so that was a relief and easy to resolve. Now that's sorted it really is so lovely to drive. This engine is so super smooth and I'm really enjoying driving it. I need to sort a cooling fan at some point, it seems to cope driving home from work in 35 degree heat last week just fine but I wouldn't have confidence sitting in traffic etc with no fan at all. I wanted to have a hunt in the local breakers yard for a suitable electric fan but Haynes is still closed because of covid.

My adaptor is obviously no longer on the bench as its fitted now, what is it you need to check?

Not sure when you last tried them, but the main place was open but not the scrap yard when I last went about a month ago. 

[LiamC]

1 hour ago, landroversforever said:

Not sure when you last tried them, but the main place was open but not the scrap yard when I last went about a month ago. 

Thanks Ross, yeah I Called them last week, you're right the main place is open now but the vehicle salvage yard will be closed for at least a couple more weeks apparently.

[Simobimo]

On 8/9/2020 at 8:43 PM, fourwzzy said:

By the way — does anyone have SyncroGearboxes adapter for LT230 on the bench? Need couple params to check.

Mine arrived today, it’s for the 6hp26x (auto 4wd) to lt230, would that help?

[fourwzzy]

5 hours ago, Simobimo said:

Mine arrived today, it’s for the 6hp26x (auto 4wd) to lt230, would that help?

Thx! But it has completely different design)

[Simobimo]

@LiamC thanks so much for the pics and detail mate.

Can I ask you what reference you used to set the engine position on the vertical and horizontal? I.e how did you make sure you were level left to right and x degrees back to front? I can’t see a good reference point for the one I have here and it’s already out of the car.

Also, what did you do for a fuel pump?

[LiamC]

I fitted the mount between the transfer box and the chassis in the normal position. I set the engine so that the bottom of the sump is level horizontally with reference to the chassis rails. As you lower the front of the engine to get it level front to back the alternator just about comes into contact with the chassis so I had to lift the front of the engine ever so slightly to provide some clearance, so it's not totally level in the front to back direction. If I were doing it again I would take some references from the centre of the crankshaft before removing the old engine, which would make things easier.

I used the BMW inline fuel pump from the doner car which I have fitted as close as practical to the fuel tank. If you don't have one you can find used genuine BMW pumps (Pierburg) on eBay or you can use a Bosch 044 pump but make sure you buy a genuine one from an authorised Bosch dealer as there are loads of counterfeit ones which seem to fail after a very short time.

 

[landroversforever]

With my 606 lump, I set the engine at the same angle front-back as the transferbox originally sat, which is from memory about 4-5Deg from horizontal.

[Simobimo]

@LiamC Thanks that’s helpful info.

I’m familiar with the 044, that’s a good idea thanks.

Do you think you’ll ever work aircon back into your setup?

How did you go with the engine mounts in the end? Did you avoid welding to the gal chassis?

11 hours ago, landroversforever said:

With my 606 lump, I set the engine at the same angle front-back as the transferbox originally sat, which is from memory about 4-5Deg from horizontal.

Great idea, the td5 hasn’t come out yet. I’ll use the tcase’s current location for the desired numbers. That’s a bit too obvious now that I think about it 😂

[LiamC]

Aircon would be great, I doubt I'll ever get round to it though. The pump could be relocated on the engine to clear the steering box or you could use a p38 steering box outside the chassis rail. I've kept all the parts from the BMW just incase but I don't have the aircon dash for the 90 and I hear they are difficult to get hold of.

For the mounts we did indeed manage to avoid welding to the galv chassis. On the drivers side we made a bracket to bolt onto the existing chassis mount plus we drilled an additional hole in the chassis. This bracket then bolts to the BMW rubber/hydraulic mount which in turn bolts to the original BMW engine mount/casting. On the passenger side we bolted the BMW rubber/hydraulic mount directly to the original land rover chassis mount, we binned the BMW engine mount/casting and we fabricated a new engine mount to go between the rubber and engine. Pics of what we made can be seen at the top of page 3 of this thread.

 

[Simobimo]

Thanks mate, top work.

yep I saw the pics I just couldn’t work out how they rest in the vehicle from how they were sitting in the pic.

[LiamC]

On 8/14/2020 at 11:06 PM, Simobimo said:

Thanks mate, top work.

yep I saw the pics I just couldn’t work out how they rest in the vehicle from how they were sitting in the pic.

I just found these photos which show the mounts in situ.

[ianmayco68]

Hi Liam , great thread just getting the bits together to do this conversion myself only I’ve gone for a L322 3.0d engine . Did you use the original 200tdi type gearbox mounts or convert to the later crossmember style mount ? And I’ve been looking for a BMW manual box GS6-53DZ HGA but no luck yet , apart from eBay is there any other places you contacted when you searched for your gearbox?

cheers Ian 

[LiamC]

I used the original mount on the transfer box side but had to modify the original gearbox mount to fit it to the adapter plate as I think it is designed to work with the later 300tdi, mounts but that was pretty straight forward.

The HGA type gearbox box is hard to find and it's quite expensive because it's sought after in the BMW world for manual conversions. If I were doing the conversion again I would consider a later engine with the wider bolt pattern as although the electrics/software is a bit more complex the later gearboxes are really cheap and easy to find. Yes they come up on ebay if you keep looking but unfortunately sellers don't know the relevance of the three letter code so often don't mention it in the listing. I had to trawl through photos and e-mail sellers to get that information. The HGA box is found in the E46 330d but it was also in some of the very early E60 530d but only the very early ones. In the end I got mine from a BMW breakers in Kent called Nick Jupp, he was quite good so might be worth a call. I negotiated a deal with him for the gearbox with a virtually brand new clutch and DMF for £500.

[ianmayco68]

Cheers Liam . Yes I’ve had to scroll through the listings looking for the code and I’ve emailed quite a few , some didn’t even know about the code . Thanks for the heads up on the breakers I’ll keep them in mind , but I’m starting to think that fitting a 4HP24 would be easier and probably a nicer drive . I’ve actually got a 300tdi cross member in the workshop sitting about , so might be an option .

[Simobimo]

Thanks for those extra pics @LiamC, clear as now. The mounts on the td5 and the m57 I have are both completely different. Goes to show the variations that exist.

[LiamC]

I've covered nearly 1000 miles now since the conversion has been on the road. Still plenty of little things to finish off but I'm really pleased. It has totally transformed the land rover and it's such a pleasure to drive. Here's a quick walk round video and short test drive.

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by LiamC

[landroversforever]

Looking good Liam!  

[Simobimo]

Top work @LiamC.

The AC causing the PWM fan to always run at half speed is an interesting find. How did you work that out?

[LiamC]

11 hours ago, Simobimo said:

Top work @LiamC.

The AC causing the PWM fan to always run at half speed is an interesting find. How did you work that out?

I just did a bit of research, turns out its a common problem on track cars when they remove the air-con to improve airflow performance but then find that the fan runs continuously. The PWM fan is a brushless motor with about a dozen windings and its own built in controller so you can't make it run without an appropriate PWM signal. I could have generated my own signal but I think the solution I mention in the video is a tidier option. It's a seriously powerful fan when it gets going at full speed. The engine also had a viscous fan fitted in the BMW in addition to the electric one, I have remove it though as it won't fit with my intercooler pipework.

[Adamoliver1]

Hi Liam,

 

Great documentary on your build.

Im planning on doing the same conversion to my defender.

what’s your defender like for towing now? 
 

thanks,

Adam 

[LiamC]

3 hours ago, Adamoliver1 said:

 

what’s your defender like for towing now? 
 

Well I haven't done much towing with it yet but I did move my sister's horse trailer and it was effortless. The engine has so much talk I didn't really notice it was there.

On another note we did a run from Oxford to Dunfirmeline at 70mph all the way (on cruise control), we then competed in a two day on and off road navigation event and then drove back home via the lake district and averaged 32mpg, which I was very pleased with. 

[Falkon]

Great expedition and writeup, thanks a lot for sharing.

[landroversforever]

Put many more miles on it Liam?