3,9 V8 into my One Ten

[Lars L]

Right. Here goes...

My ex-MoD One Ten has had some upgrades during the years - Disco 200Tdi and also a short bellhousing R380 from Ashcroft.

It has been my daily driver for 9 years, but since I found a 97 Defender with low mileage the first thought was to sell the old one off. But it has been a good and trusty companion for almost 100.000 miles and you really don't sell a friend... So it will remain as the wagon for heavier offroading.

I now can get my hands on a 3.9 from a Disco for silly money which could be fun since the miles will be few.

Am I right in assuming that a conversion ring for a V8 into Series is, among other stuff like engine mounts etc, is what's needed to get it onto the gearbox?

Are there any other pitfalls that makes it more or less impossible to achieve?

[tacr2man]

I take it, that its the ex mod 110 you want to fit V8 into?

You can fit the 3.9 with suitable eng mount adapters, . The gearbox will fit with suitable bellhousing , so no adapter ring needed. You will need to think high pressure fuel pump, wiring changes, exhaust mods, speed transducer for efi ecu etc

Its all the little things that add up to make it more expensive than you first think, the actual engine cost is not the real expense HTSH .

[landy V8]

i'd rebuild any V8 just as a precaution anyways.uprated cam,rings,bearings and put an edelbrock carb on it.thats what i did to a 90 i rebuilt.electrics are easy(1 wire to coil) .

i do know someone with a tubular system off a RRC you could modify to fit.

do it,as it'll sound awesome with just a rear silencer.

[FridgeFreezer]

If the gearbox is a stumpy one then you can't just swap bellhousings, the input shaft will be too short and Disco/RR gearboxes have the gear stick 30cm further back, swapping to Defender position requires a stripdown & the back half of a defender box.

The series adapter plate is your quickest route and hopefully retains most standard bits. An old 110 should have been designed for a V8 from the factory so stuff like exhaust may even work off-the-shelf or with very minor modification. I'd grab the front half from the donor vehicle as it will have the Y-piece and lambda sensors already fitted.

If you keep the hotwire EFI you'll need to wire the ECU in, depending on year it may or may not care about speed transducer, the setup doesn't need a lot of external wiring to work. I would look at fitting megasquirt+EDIS, especially if you want it to be reliable in the mud & water. If you keep the lump fuel-injected you'll need a high-pressure fuel pump, which will probably need to be fed by a low-pressure (carb-type) lift pump (HP pumps don't suck well).

I wouldn't touch an Edelbrock carb with a bargepole, I had one, it was awful. Even flapper EFI is better. Likewise the Weber and Holley ones. If you are really allergic to wiring then a set of standard carbs is about as robust as you can get.

Have to say I'm also not a fan of the tubular manifolds, I don't think they really gain you anything and are just a mud trap & extra heating under the bonnet.

Ultimately, I'd question if hacking up what sounds like a very tidy TDi 110 is a worthwhile exercise, I'd have thought it would be worth a lot more as it is, sell it on and buy something cheap and V8 powered to off-road.

[hammoj28]

I used a Range Rover Classic LT77 with the 5th gear extension housing from a 200tdi defender LT77. This meant I could use the Defender Gear shift.

Speed Transducer - I didnt use one and its fine. Seems to vary though.

Fuel Pump - I used a range rover one, the smaller one actually fits straight into the defender tank, you just need to extend the pickup as the tank is deeper.

Engine mounts - we cut the defender one sout and welded in range rover ones.

Wiring, we used the Range Rover Engine and ECU loom and branched it into the Defender stuff. Stuck the ECU in the cubby box and ran the wiring up the tunnel.

Radiator - 2.5TD rad is huge and fills the whole front up.