Land Rover related saloon as everyday car?

[o_teunico]

Hi all!

Just been thinking about the Discovery I will have in the following months. It will be used mostly on road as daily runner. Any off road advantage given by mods will harm road behaviour and, quite probably, fuel consumption, so...

What about converting an old SD1 to Land Rover Tdi? Has been done before?

I remeber that when I was a child a neighbour had one and I really liked it. The SD 2400 Turbo used a VM engine and LT77 as the Rangie. Will a RR VM to Tdi repower kit be suitable?

It will be a rationalization exercise, as my bro has two 200 Tdi engines and the Disco I will have is also a 200 Tdi.

The SD, the last true Rover car, not Honda or BMW based

[Bowie69]

You are a true sucker for punishment aren't you?

[Landy'd Gentry]

Interesting concept, but, please, leave the SD1 as a v8, and watch it rise in value, rather than turn it into something that ends up on the 'Pass the bucket / ebay' thread as a failed project!

[bluespanner]

There was once a time when the Perkins 4203 was THE engine to have in your XJ6...

[landroversforever]

There really aren't that many of them left, I'd keep the V8.

[bill van snorkle]

There was once a time when the Perkins 4203 was THE engine to have in your XJ6...

Only slightly less pointless than repowering a Rolls Royce with a Morris Minor engine !

[Quagmire]

I bought a rover p6 as my new daily for the same reason, my 90 is a v8, as are my dads 110 and 101. I agree with the above, leave the SD1 alone! Something like 95% of them have been scrapped already would be a shame to destroy another...

[reb78]

The best engine change for the sd1 was to drop a meteor engine in it!!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v-aC5B348rA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dv-aC5B348rA

He did actually finish the the car as well:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f1BnhZsS8a0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Df1BnhZsS8a0

[Tetsu0san]

I saw a picture of a saloon car converted to a (I think) 200Tdi. Good little job too but I can't remember what car it was and I can't find the picture

But I agree, leave the SD1 as it is. They are nice(ish) cars and will only increase in value.

[HPLP]

There a chap somewhere ( in the east of England I think) running round in I think an old Rover 90/100 car (not sure which) and I remember him saying that it got over 45mpg with a 200tdi in it.

Has anyone else seen it? He had a website detailing his conversion

H

[HPLP]

double post

[Diff]

Leave the SD1 - What about a 1980's London Taxi? They had a Land Rover 2.5 na diesel engine. Should be easy to drop a 200tdi in I would have thought.

Regards, Diff.

[o_teunico]

London taxi is another option, but here in Spain were never sold, just a pair of them for beeing used as promotional purposes.

I have already located two SD1, both originally left the factory with the 2.4VM diesel + LT77.

[FridgeFreezer]

Or just buy a diesel Freelander

[Soren Frimodt]

Even though I'm a huge V8 and Petrol fan, I'd say go for it! Sure SD1's in an original good nick are hard to find and worth saving, but there are (atleast here in Denmark) Plenty that are neither original or in good nick. So I can't see why it wouldn't be 'allowed' to do it to such a car. And for what I know about o_teunico's economics, I doubt he'll be buying a concourse SD1 and chop it up. heck I have even had the wild idea of fitting a TDI to my Jag XJ6 only as a quick thought admitted, but tuned properly it could easily pull it along. Would be nice if we all go bankrupt and I would need a cheap, reliable yet still cool and comfortable car.

For some reason I've always been fascinated about those Cuba hybrid yank cars with there puny engines

[HPLP]

Well if they already have the VM then why not?

H

[o_teunico]

Alfa Romeo saloons (front wheel drive and also RWD) that used either the VM 2.4 (type HR492OHV) and 2.5 (425OHV) were the

75, 90, Alfetta, 155, and 164, aswell as the Rover 800.

The 75 is interesting, because it uses "polar transmission", with engine and box phisically appart and joined by a propshaft. They were RWD, and also AWD variants were available, so a pair of front traction hubs could be used for creating a diesel-electric hybbrid

...but not as cool as the SD1

[Quagmire]

Didn't realise you were looking one fitted with an oil burner already- in that case go for it!

[o_teunico]

The 75 has some advantages over the SD1: 500kg less, cheaper and easier to obtain, easier to convert...but as said, not as cool!

[Anderzander]

There a chap somewhere ( in the east of England I think) running round in I think an old Rover 90/100 car (not sure which) and I remember him saying that it got over 45mpg with a 200tdi in it.

Has anyone else seen it? He had a website detailing his conversion

H

That sounds good. I've googled it though and haven't found anything, it seems lost amongst 200tdi conversions in 90's.

[Eightpot]

I've had some thoughts the other way round, on using an SDI LT77 gearbox in something like a basic military style soft-top 90.

That would make it rear wheel drive only, get rid of the transfer box, and remove the front diff and prop.

Would be interesting to see how the weight loss and reduced mechanical losses affected fuel consumption?

[Tanuki]

There a chap somewhere ( in the east of England I think) running round in I think an old Rover 90/100 car (not sure which) and I remember him saying that it got over 45mpg with a 200tdi in it.

Has anyone else seen it? He had a website detailing his conversion

H

I've not seen that one, but at Castle Combe "Classic & Sportscar" trackday some years back there was a Rover P5B saloon with a rather tweaked 300TDi, 5-speed box and 3.77:1 ex-Jaguar Salisbury Pow-R-Lok LSD back end. It would easily eat my Scimitar in a straight line but I could outbrake/out-corner him.

The P5 guys do some interesting conversions - there's a couple of Lexus V8-powered versions which are nicknamed "RoLexes".

[o_teunico]

I have been comparing VM vs Tdi fuel consumption figures on RR. Official figures tend to be too optimistic when compared to real life, but Tdi's worst figures are 15% better than VM's best ones.

Alfa 75's 5,5 litres for every 100km (sorry, dont know how many imperial MPG are) will became about 4.5 with the Tdi.

Will the conversion pay off? If the Alfa is older than 25 years (was built 1985-1992) it will be tax free, and insurance will be something about 300 eur per year. So, if the fuel saving is greater than those 300 eur per year when comparied with the Disco, it will paid off.

[o_teunico]

With the Tipo I use as every day car I Have spent 550 eur in six months, with an average of 6.7 litres of petrol for every 100km. Diesel is 0.05 eur cheaper for every litre.

[bill van snorkle]

I have been comparing VM vs Tdi fuel consumption figures on RR. Official figures tend to be too optimistic when compared to real life, but Tdi's worst figures are 15% better than VM's best ones.

Alfa 75's 5,5 litres for every 100km (sorry, dont know how many imperial MPG are) will became about 4.5 with the Tdi.

Will the conversion pay off? If the Alfa is older than 25 years (was built 1985-1992) it will be tax free, and insurance will be something about 300 eur per year. So, if the fuel saving is greater than those 300 eur per year when comparied with the Disco, it will paid off.

Have you calculated and included the cost of maintenance and repairs, plus cost of conversion when concluding if it is going to be cost effective? Although I run 3 vehicles, including a Honda econobox, and all on discounted registration, there is no way the extra fuel economy dollar savings of the Honda even comes close to covering its annual registration, insurance and maintenance costs.