2.5 n/a Diesel to 300 TDI Engine Conversion 2006/7

 Start of project 2.5 n/a to 300 TDI. All I am doing here is what SHOULD be a relatively easy engine swap between a 1989 2.5L n/a diesel 110 and a 1995 Landrover Discovery 300 TDI. As you are probably aware the 2.5 n/a has a very small power output of about 67 BHP. Coupled with the fact it is now breathing deeper than a Dutch hooker on a line of the white stuff, its time to out the beast and put something in there a little more up to date.

 After phoning around several car breakers and Landrover specialists I got the distinct impression that somebody, namely the aforementioned persons where indeed piss takers of the highest order!  Astronomical prices where being banded about re the price of a 300 TDI engine and gear box suitable for my dear old 110. A little cheesed off I started looking at Discovery's to see how much they where fetching. To my utter amazement I found that a complete 300 TDI Disco could be bought for a great deal less than the boys wanted for there mileage unverified examples of 300 TDI engines.

The donor

One mint 1995 Landrover Discovery 2.5L 300 TDI 104,000 miles, just run in I think. ;0) If you are interested, parts from the Disco will be for sale when I have completed the swap. Just email me at the usual... Parts@TheWinchesterClub.co.uk and I will let you know what's available.

I can hear you saying why the F@*K are you ripping that up! Its quite simple, it has the mother of all water leaks into both foot wells. Unfortunately in in there haste to wack the bodies down the old production line, somebody was a bit slapdash with the sealant on all the main body seams and it leaks water thru all the rusty inner seams, right onto my plates of meat! Feck!

First, Rip that engine oot!

09/12/06 The best way to remove the 2.5 n/a is with a standard engine Crain. Its a piece of cake compared to the MR2's engine out from below.

Next, remove the flywheel from the 2.5 n/a

15/12/06 Apparently if you remove the 2.5 n/a engine to gearbox adaptor plate (the bit the clutch resides in) it should go strait onto the 300 TDI engine. This will enable me to use my old LT77 gearbox. I have been told that I cant use the Disco box as the gear lever would not line up in the cab. First take the clutch off. Then using a couple of long bolts, put them in the flywheel as in the picture below and with the aide of a snapper bar and a crow bar undo the flywheel. This will enable you to unbolt the 8 bolts that hold the adaptor plate to the engine block.

Now do the same to the 300 TDI

Boxing day to the 29th of December 2006. Extrude one rather heavy 300 TDI, haul the dead Disco caucus out of the way, and then... Do the same with the 300 TDI. Take the flywheel off etc. You will notice that the 300 has a different rear main oil seal. Don't worry, take it off with its separate adaptor plate and chuck them in the bin. Remove the two large pins that aligned the block to the adaptor plate. As you can see, side by side the adaptor plates have the same mounting points. Clean all the mounting faces ready for some new silicon sealant. When you come to fitting the 2.5 n/a adaptor plate to the 300 TDI you should replace the rear main oil seal. Another thing I did was to include the Disco power steering box in the 110. I had to use a puller to get the drop arm off and change them over but apart from that it was a strait bolt in swap. The pipe work is a bit short but with a bit of bending I think I will get around this problem.

The Money Shot

This is the visual proof it can be done! A 1995 Disco 300 TDI with the LT77 gearbox adaptor plate from a very old 2.5 normally aspirated Landrover diesel.

Moving this stuff about ain easy!

01/01/07 What where you doing new years day? I was moving a dead Landrover up and down my garden in the rain, what fun.

300 TDI in for engine mounts etc.

02, 03, & 04/01/07 After taking 3 hours just lining the beast up on the input shaft of the LT77 I was a bit knackered. The next thing was to make up some engine mounts. I have found that I could use the original 2.5 n/a mount on the left hand side of the engine. But on the right hand side I have hade to make my own. This was welded to the chassis and bolts to the block using one of the Disco mounts. The turbo actuator pipe is very close to the left side bulkhead foot well, this will be ok with a bit of fettling. After just tack welding the new mount onto the chassis its time to out the engine for the (touch wood) last time. With the engine out of the bay, fully weld the mount onto the chassis. Pop the new clutch on and wack the engine in for a final fitting.   

Boring Jobs

05/01/07 Fuel pipes are easy to reattach, use the Disco fuel filter and mount. Cut all pipes of banjo bolts and the like, then using new fuel line, make all new attachments. The exhaust back box needed changing, it was shot. Plus you will need to make up a pipe from the turbo manifold to the old 2.5 n/a pipe. I favour a short piece of flexi tube. Cut the turbo down pipe quite short, then weld the flexi pipe to this and join to the cut 2.5 n/a pipe. I cut the n/a pipe back to around the clutch slave cylinder area. The new flexi pipe only just misses the old n/a engine mount. I will see how this goes. Its the only drawback with using the old n/a left hand engine mount. The throttle cable just stays the same and fits strait on. Another thing that just goes on is the power brake pump and the glow plug supply. My thoughts at the moment on the electrics is do away with the entire 300 TDI loom and fit all of the 2.5 n/a loom. That will get rid of all that emission control crap, like the EGR valve. And guess what the CAT is already residing in the bin! Now tell me if I'm wrong but with a turbo you want really cold air in the intake, its why you have an intercooler, right? Well the O so clever EGR valve actually puts hot exhaust gas back into the intake tract!? Err that's clever...not.

R&R

06/01/07... Had a rest and did a bit of web page construction. Next jobs are, original starter motor back in, wiring loom modification, make new lower brackets for the main radiator incorporating the oil cooler and intercooler. When the rads in I can accurately measure how long the new oil cooler pipes need to be. That's one drawback with this mod you need to elongate all the pipe work. Not a problem apart from the power steering and the oil cooler, they will have to be made up bespoke.  

It Runs!

12, 13, 14/01/07 Its now the 14th and its all working fine, after priming the fuel system I just touched the key and it burst into life like nothing had happened! There are some things left to do, like put the floor back in. To get to this point I had to do a bit more modifying than I had anticipated. Nothing massive but I found that the radiator from the Disco is a little bigger than the 110's. You will need to cut the lower rad mounting brackets and lower them as much as you can. Be careful not to cut them to much as the rad pin mounts on the underside of the rad will hit the chassis. You will also need to weld some pins to the top of the rad, then you can use the Defenders own top mounting brackets. All the turbo pipes need elongating along with all of the coolant pipe work. The only pipes I could not do myself where the oil cooler and power steering pipes. I had these made up professionally, as a failure of these would be catastrophic. The cone filter is a bit of a cop out, but it will do for now. With regards to the wiring I used the entire loom from the 2.5 n/a. All I did to make it fit was change the alternator plug, the fuel cut off solenoid plug and the temperature plug. At a later date I will change the odds and sods pipe work on the intercooler and coolant side.