cidermaker Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 Recently purchased a 1997 Discovery SD with 4.0l and R380 manual transmission. Started working on the Disco and its turning out to be a lot more work than I expected - mostly because of the liquid brine that we in Ontario, Canada involuntarily spray on the underside of our vehicles for 5 months of the year Not totally resigned to parting the Disco out yet but have an idea of putting the engine and transmission into my 1991 Range Rover Classic 'Hunter" that I purchased from California a couple of years back and is still in great mechanical shape - engine just has lots of kms on it. Would really appreciate any input on doing this transplant and how well will it fit into the RRC. I anticipate that it maybe an almost bolt in transplant but again would appreciate any input and suggestions. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 What have you got in the RRC at the moment? 3.9V8 and auto transmission? It's pretty much a straight swop - both engines will be Lucas Hotwire, I think, so you don't even need to switch anything much over (you might have odds and ends like cruise control on the RRC but not the Disco, in which case a few brackets to move over or just swop the plenums with everything attached). IIRC you'll need to swop the crossmember under the gearbox, so take a look at that. You'll probably need to source some bits of trim to go around the gearstick inside, unless the Disco ones can be made to fit, and if you're keeping the Disco transfer box (think that'll be an LT230 with manual diff lock rather than a BW viscous coupling?). Then lever markings will be wrong if you're fussy about that*, or if you're keeping the BW you'll need to swap the diff lever housing on the gearbox. There'll be a few bits to remove such as the gearbox oil cooler and you'll need to fit a clutch pedal and master cylinder (not sure how much work is involved here - possibly all the bits can be taken from the Disco? If the RRC has ABS and the Disco doesn't make sure there aren't any knock on issues there. I haven't changed from auto to manual, but did put a Disco engine in my RRC - both engines were hotwire but the donor was 3.5 rather than the original 3.9. No issues there - the ECU fuels correctly for the lesser amount of air going in. If I'm wrong about the donor engine being hotwire, then you'll need to swop some parts over from the old engine (plenum and maybe inlet manifold). Main sticking point would be that the newer engine would have coil packs not a distributor, so you'd need to either install the loom and ECU off the Disco (could get to be quite a big job) or look at something like Megasquirt/Megaspark to drive the coil packs (far better than the distributor and fairly straightforward - think about coil back mounting, though, if you're changing the plenum you'll probably lose the original brackets). * - though my old RRC left the factory, so far as I could tell, with a BW and a hi-lo lever knob marked for a manual diff lock... Hope that's some help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 If the Disco is a NAS spec 4.0 then I dont think it will be too easy,from memory NAS D1's had Gems engine management with no distributor etc.Dont see many Rover v8's now but didnt the distributor engine have a longer crank nose ? Swapping the Gems to the RRC would be alot of work,as would converting the 4.0 Gems motor to a dizzy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.