300TDi engine

[Rosco]

Does anyone have one they would sell, or know of anyone with one?

Trying to come up with alternative options, failing finding a 300 TDi, I will go the 6BT route.

Thanks!

[Red90]

300TDI to a 6BT?  That is one huge jump!

[Matt H]

Not that long ago I hatched a crazy plan to put a 12v Cummins in a SIII 109". By the time I had collected everything to make it work properly I realized three things.

1, I would be building a 3/4 ton Dodge Truck with a Land Rover body.

2, I would be building a lawn dart with all the weight up front.

3, I would be building a noisy rattletrap that I would hate to drive pretty quickly. And I like the old uncomfortable Series LR's so that's saying something.

I gave my head a shake and sold all the stuff.

My 2c.

[Red90]

If I was to do the "home made", non-LR diesel install to a Defender, I think the Merc OM617 would probably be the best route. It fits.  It is cheap and easy to get a motor.  All the conversion bits have been developed by a guy in USA if you don't want to do that stuff on your own.  You can apparently get a reliable 200 hp out of them which is tons from a diesel and these sized trucks.  You can manage to not replace the rest of the drivetrain...

[Rosco]

Out of all places the 6BT is looking like a popular swap back over in the UK as people are pulling them out of old lorrys and paying a couple hundred quid for them, there are even a couple of places that make adapter plates to bolt the transmission to the LT230 if you want to keep the transfer case and all other running gear.

So far I made as much progress in getting a Disco V8 with R380 with the Disco 1.2 ratio transfer case all in place and fitted nicely, but when it came to sorting the wiring out I decided that there is just far too much to go wrong, and I don't want to be left in a pickle miles from anywhere sensible.

The 300TDi on the other hand is a much simpler engine than the V8, so going that route at this point would probably be easiest with the least amount of back tracking, just finding a 300TDi is quite difficult.

The Merc looks like an interesting engine, something to consider.

Matt, I see your points, and they are worth raising, personally I would like to keep as much LR as possible, this would mean finding Salisbury axles to replace the rover axles, and most likely only use the engine and gearbox in the conversion. the noise isn't an issue for me as this is an ex military defender which had a 2.5NA with zero sound proofing, I want to use it for some around town but mostly trail driving.

[Red90]

If you have a 2.5NA right now, then a 200TDI makes the most sense.  Easy one day swap with no custom mods and all stock parts.  Just bring one in from the UK with its gearbox.

Lots of mods to do to fit the 300TDI and R380 and you end up with the same power as the 200.

A 6BT will be a huge job and will be very expensive.  You will need wither complete custom axles or a complete rework of the a Salisbury to chromo 35 spline and the front chromo 30 spline.  If you really wanted Cummins, then the 4BT makes a lot more sense.  You could manage with 24 spline chromo.  They are rough engines though and hard on everything.

[Rosco]

The 2.5NA has already gone and the V8 is sitting in its place, I did everything mechanical, the R380/LT230 mounted to the same place on the frame as the LT77/LT230, engine mounts were moved in the process.

The R380 has already been modified so the shifters are in the correct location and fits in the tunnel correctly.

I am sure I would have to change the engine mounts again to the TDi mounts and move the location, but thats no problem.

If I was going to bring one in, the majority of the cost is in the shipping, the engines are around the same price for the 200 - 300, it would be nice to find one here instead of paying 4 times the price of the engine just for shipping, I did see a 300TDi Disco for sale a while back on Kijiji, but didn't even have the Defender at that time.

What other mods would you say to fit the 300?

[Red90]

Why not run the V8 then?  They are very simple as far as EFI goes.  Only a few wires and simple to troubleshoot.  Nice now that the communication was figured out and you can hook up a laptop to log/see all the sensors.  Nothing to be scared of.

You know the 300TDI will need a different R380?  Plus, you need all the ancillaries, intake system, intercooler/rad/frame/hoses.  You pretty much need a donor Defender or it gets out of hand sourcing the little stuff.  As to price, whether you ship it or someone else shipped it, the price is not going to get any less...  Unless the guy you buy it from likes losing money.  As to grabbing the cheap Discos, you have to be faster than a certain guy on here.  He is fast.

[Matt H]

Who me?  ;D

I actually waited almost a month on that one as I wasn't sure I wanted another Disco. It wasn't running but I was suprised nobody else took it if only for the engine core?

Anyway, I agree the V8 is the cheapest option. I sold the 12valve Cummins engine I had for my abandoned project for $1500 within a week of listing it. Same deal with the axles etc. Market is always hot for big diesels in Alberta.

Also a Rover V8 will be far easier to find parts for here than a TDI that was never sold in North America. You will be able to source most things from the local parts store.

Petrol engines are simple. lots of help available here to get any issues figured out.

[Rosco]

Well the more I dug into what I needed to get the V8 to run, the more wires had to stay, I ended up with a mass of the wiring harness left over, so I looked at the other EFI solutions to see if I could go that route, but they are pretty pricey in themselves.
Am I missing some trick here? I have done a fair amount of searching, as well as going through the rave manuals to see what could be eliminated, maybe I got the wrong model Disco (96)

Yes,there are the differences in the input shaft, bellhousing, and gear levers, but I did the Ashcroft kit and they are now located right where they should be for the Defender, so the 300 would sit further forward, have to work out the logistics of that, but might be better finding a engine/gearbox combo from a Defender as you say, as of all the ancillaries.

Sorry, what I meant about the shipping was that if I found one in the <1000km range, then its collectible by truck on a weekend road trip, saving $1400 of shipping from the UK that some people would charge.

I think I need to do more research into getting a pallet shipped from the UK as that would open up a lot of options, I really like the idea of keeping it all Land Rover.

The parts are a lot easier to come by for the V8, thats for sure, but getting parts shipped over from the UK has only been taking 4 or 5 days, if this was going to be my daily driver then I would weigh more on the V8, but I have other vehicles so if I need parts I can wait, seems like I always have something waiting for parts.

So many things to think about, and you both have raised great points, thanks for the input so far!

[binch]

If you are putting the tdi into a disco then stay with the disco version of the tdi....will be much simpler to install.   You can purchase the 300tdi with zf auto gearbox (for a diesel) complete with ancillaries for about a 1000 quid.   Parts are not difficult to get as long as you have 3 or 4 days to wait for them ;-)     For shipping you would need to look into "less then load" shipper that can add it to a seacan or ship by air freight.   Still won't be cheap but it's quite doable.   Rob Mills in SE BC brings a couple engines in a year for various projects.

If you really want to go the V8 route Ivor Wilde in Sundre has a power plant for a mustang that's suppose to be a "farely simple fit".   But I think it's a new engine and it won't be cheap.

2.5 cents worth

[Red90]

He is putting into a Defender Bill.

You want the distributor engine with the Lucas EFI (14CUX).  The EFI loom is all by itself with a single plug that goes to the "vehicle".  Everything else goes to the EFI sensors which move over.  The only weird sensor to move is the VSS.  I can describe that in detail, if needed.  The "vehicle plug" is just a few wires.  You need to print out the 14CUX wiring diagram and just mark it out.

[Rosco]

So what I have at the moment is the 96 4.0 with GEMS, and as far as I can see if I want to simplify this engine I would need to go the megasquirt or other aftermarket ECU route, those were all looking to be $2000 and upwards.

I have heard of a friend of a friend using this engine, but he kept the whole wiring harness and tucked it all away, this is just a mess in my opinion and  asking for trouble down the line, and locating an electrical gremlin could mean the different in driving home or being put on a trailer just for driving through some deep water.

Really want to go the diesel route of the 300, simple engine with very minimal electronics to get water in or go wrong, dont need to add a fuel pump as has a mechanical lift pump, mechanical injection etc. My '97 110 had the 300TDi and it never let me down, and I bought that with a head gasket that was pretty badly gone, but at the time in the UK you could get a whole new replacement head for under 300 quid, with all the valve train.

I have heard of the mustang or LS engines into the Defender, but yeah those routes are not cheap, and I would consider them an option for myself if I was going to be doing more on road driving.

I wish now when I bought mine I had the extra money to try to get one of the 97 Wolf Defenders, would of saved me a lot of hassle at this point.

[James W]

I have a full 14cux set up including ecu and distributor front cover. Its about as simple as you can get if you want to maintain FI

[Matt H]

I think the cam is also different from the GEMS V8. It needs to have a distributor drive gear on it then, in turn, the dizzy drives the oil pump on the older units. There is a rare gear driven oil pump but still with a distributor V8 that was used in early 96 model Disco's. But you would still need to swap the cam.  Still doable though, probably needs a new cam anyway if it has any mileage on it.