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Modern petrol engine options?


Nigelw

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Moving to the Netherlands end of the month, the rules are a little bit less restrictive there for older cars.

And interestingly enough, from 25yrs and over there is a lower tax bracket for a petrol engined car but not a diesel.

What are feasable options in terms of a modern petrol engine for a Discovery?

Please remember, this is PETROL powered and no LPG!!! Petrol is typically €1.75/ltr in Holland :(

No V8s this time around as I have been there and done that and looking to see other viable options ;)

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2.5 from a defender? 2 MPi?

After that you get into engine mgt systems, so mega squirt/jolt or clever electronics. Shame about the V8 being out - you could go Lexus.

What else will fit a disco box? What about something ford? You might get a ford engine to series adapter that could bolt onto the disco box - Ford used to be fairly good about common stud patterns so it might help.

G.

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BMW six ? With the P38 2.5 DSE bellhousing and gearbox. Just like the S.A Defender of a few years ago....................

Why no LPG though Nigel ? I thought that was a big thing in Holland.................

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Problem with most modern petrols is they are all whizzy 4-valve engines with little torque, if I was doing it, 1UZ-FE, 250BHP V8, 250lb/ft and ridiculously over engineered and easily squirtable.

Otherwise, as has been done in Defenders on here a few times, BMW 2.5/2.8 or if you have some spondoolies and want some giggles, 3.0 twin turbo 300BHP, still a bit whizzy though.

MPi is 35 years old, not worth it honestly.

Or... Audi I5 20VT, that would be fun, if a little costly :P

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The rules for the lower tax bracket exclude LPG as a fuel due to the vastly reduced revenue in taxes as the fuel is less than 1/2 the price of petrol they wouuld make nothing on it compared with petrol only, diesel vehicles get hammered for €2200/yr tax until they are 40yrs old.

Could look at a non rover V8 I suppose?

The BMW engines, are they 4pot or 6pot? I had a 323 that was a straight 6 2.5 petrol, went like s4!t off the preverbial shovel!!!! Had a fancy for a new head gasket every 30,000 miles though.

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Yeah 6 pot petrols, they supposedly don't do head gaskets in, but mine munched it's way through one in less than 12 months and caused me to break it in the end -was a bad buy unfortunately (E34 2.5 auto).

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Moving to the Netherlands end of the month, the rules are a little bit less restrictive there for older cars.

And interestingly enough, from 25yrs and over there is a lower tax bracket for a petrol engined car but not a diesel.

What are feasable options in terms of a modern petrol engine for a Discovery?

Please remember, this is PETROL powered and no LPG!!! Petrol is typically €1.75/ltr in Holland :(

No V8s this time around as I have been there and done that and looking to see other viable options ;)

You know how to find your places don't you?

Are you going to be a permanent resident there? many people run over the border (to belgium) for tax reasons; not only because of road tax...

If you are, do you have intentions to start your own bussines? ifso you could register it as a commercial vehicle, which is much more bare able.

If the answer is no to either of the above, it will be expensive. You might halve your tax bill by going to petrol, but you double your fuel bill.

Don't bother, I think, I would get a cheapo daily driver and tax the disco for 6 months or so. Or rethink your plans....

All the best,

Daan

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Been looking at the self standing option, but can afford to run this one and build the next one for fun, new job is part time so might be able to conjour something up being self employed or starting own business?

Next stop, Russia me thinks, it can't be any worse? Can it?

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2.8 BMW engine. Great lump. 6 pot straight 6. I had one in a 528i and it was a great engine. It overheated and I think the HG went, but that was my fault for not keeping up with the maintenance on the cooling system.

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LSx, even a small one would be a hoot. Very modern, available in a crate brand new ready to go.

Ford V6's were common conversions back in the day, good candidate for megasquirt and some are still current.

The Nissan VQ seems to have stuck around & won awards, no idea on fitting it though!

Could always follow SimonR's lead and make it electric, plenty of space in a LR to cram batteries & there's no law against towing a generator (or having one in the boot!)

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FF, are you suggesting I make a diesel-electric Discovery :ph34r:

The very first hybrid fuel Discovery in Europe :hysterical: Next you'll be suggesting I buy a Toyota Prius :o

I was thinking about electric motors and torque converters/auto boxes about a week ago, this might get messy if I go down that road.

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Surely you don't need gearboxes with a suitably sized electric motor?

That's the holy grail. In practice, you usually need a fixed reduction between the motor & wheels. The rev-range of an electric motor is so large that you can achieve 0-100mph in one gear.

Even hub motors, which are in general direct drive, can produce reasonable torque (between 2 or 4 motors) for an ordinary car but cannot at the moment give you anything close to low range torque. So, for a 4x4 you're better off with a transfer box plus a fixed reduction between the motor & transfer.

The simplest way to get your fixed reduction is just to use a regular gearbox and leave it in one gear.

Si

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You could do worse than look at Toyota's 6-pot engine-offerings: the "JZ" series are pretty much bomb-proof - used in the Supra and Lexus Soarer.

The twin-turbo version gives at maximum dragon-rating 280 PS@5600 rpm and 451NM of torque. In something relatively light like a Discovery, it should fly! The single-turbo versions are a bit tamer and probably more appropriate in a Disco.

Alternatively, Nissan's "RB" series engines are rather good too [used in the 200SX and Skyline, which have serious history in the tunability stakes].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RB26DETT#RB25

Both these engines are relatively simple in terms of electronics, and so should make good "plug-and-play" options.

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Problem with most modern petrols is they are all whizzy 4-valve engines with little torque, if I was doing it, 1UZ-FE, 250BHP V8, 250lb/ft and ridiculously over engineered and easily squirtable.

Otherwise, as has been done in Defenders on here a few times, BMW 2.5/2.8 or if you have some spondoolies and want some giggles, 3.0 twin turbo 300BHP, still a bit whizzy though.

MPi is 35 years old, not worth it honestly.

Or... Audi I5 20VT, that would be fun, if a little costly :P

Who else has done the BMW Petrol 6 on here? I'm doing one at the moment but not seen anyone else? Actually, not seen anyone do it other than LR

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Alternatively, Nissan's "RB" series engines are rather good too [used in the 200SX and Skyline, which have serious history in the tunability stakes].

I'd beg to differ on those, I seriously looked at RB26's when I was building the 109, as it was originally a 6cyl ^_^ and it looked like a great/hilarious idea, but after discussions with the Skyline boys, and looking at some dyno plots, even a 500+hp RB26 can't beat the lowly old Rover V8 for low-down torque, as is the case for almost any modern car engine. They are simply not designed for lugging 2.5 tons around in a relaxed manner. Plenty of modern lumps give "better" power & torque numbers than LR engines but they only do it briefly and then you have to change gear (hence the modern trend towards 9-speed autoboxes)

It probably wouldn't matter so much on a daily driver that's not towing or not being off-roaded.

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Problem with 500BHP turboed engines is to get that power, you have to drop the compression ratio as you run silly amounts of boost (8:1 or so), this means that off-boost driveability is killed, with little to no torque, and a massive drop in efficiency as well.

A stock RB26 would likely have more torque low down than any of the tweaked monsters.

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