Disco 2 engine swap...see what I did

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ifloochies

ifloochies

Well-Known Member
Posts
866
Location
Friedrichshafen, Germany /Ghana, West Africa
I got myself a 1999 LR Discovery 2 which had its engine eat itself up after some sort of oil pump failure... Dont really have the full details of the failure, but one thing was for sure, the crank of the td5 was "welded" in place and would not budge.
I had a very good 200tdi with autobox from my old wrecked RR Classic sitting in the workshop and I thought of putting it to good use in the disco. I took out the old engine and basically everything else I didn't need to run the 200tdi and started work on modifying the engine seats on the chassis rails to accept the new engine.
Long and short of it is that, the 200tdi powers this truck in automatic form and has since done over 9000km. Initially had some problems with the tacho, speedo and temperature gauge not working, but an electronic tech of mine, armed with the wiring diagrams had allof that sorted out in 3 days and all is well with that.... Flat out on the highway, I've been able to get her to do 152kph (GPS reading) running on a set of 285/55/R18 tyres.
Getting an uprated toyota intercooler this weekend, and I'm hoping that will help to bump up the figure by a few notches.
:D:D
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Have you had it through an MOT? Wouldn't have thought it would go through the emissions check. Ah just noticed your not in England great idea then. Hope all goes well. :)

Mick
 
Hi there,
Can anyone out there tell me the maximum speed they've been able to get out of their 200tdi in any application (defender, discovery, etc)... Got an uprated intercooler that somewhat improved the pull of the engine once its warmed up but did nothing to improve the top speed. (1kph difference so far)
I know its not a race machine, but I'd just like to know what its capable of.
Anyone got any figures?

Cheers....
 
Nice work on the engine, the luxuries of the TD5 interior with the reliability of the 200tdi... although i'd be more concerned about the fact that your steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car... you definitely need to get that looked at next. ;)
 
Gosh, I hadn't realized the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car... :eek:
Well maybe I didn't think much of it because everyone else's was on that side... Guess I've been following the wrong crowd...lol:D
All in all, its a great ride with decent levels of performance and I'm really enjoying its use as a daily driver.
I just wish I could get it to warm up faster so that performance comes on tap earlier.
It seems to take forever to warm up even under load and the conditions we have here in the tropics. I dont know if this has anything to do with the td5's relatively larger radiator.
Anyways, land rover's being the "exceptional" vehicles that they are, I still use the little free time that I find at working to make it a "better" vehicle.

Cheers folks.
 
that looks like a fantastic conversion well done and 157kph is nigh on 100mph thats quite fast enough considering you have to stop 2.5 tons of brick shaped land rover and 100mph is about the top speed you will get out of the engine and box comination
 
ifloochies said:
Gosh, I hadn't realized the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car... :eek:
Well maybe I didn't think much of it because everyone else's was on that side... Guess I've been following the wrong crowd...lol:D
All in all, its a great ride with decent levels of performance and I'm really enjoying its use as a daily driver.
I just wish I could get it to warm up faster so that performance comes on tap earlier.
It seems to take forever to warm up even under load and the conditions we have here in the tropics. I dont know if this has anything to do with the td5's relatively larger radiator.
Anyways, land rover's being the "exceptional" vehicles that they are, I still use the little free time that I find at working to make it a "better" vehicle.

Cheers folks.
Click to expand...

You could install a pre-heater? Plugs into the mains and heats everything up before you get in...

you've definitely been following the wrong crowd... just 'cus everyone else is doing it doesn't make it right you know ;)
 
ifloochies said:
I just wish I could get it to warm up faster so that performance comes on tap earlier.
It seems to take forever to warm up even under load and the conditions we have here in the tropics. I dont know if this has anything to do with the td5's relatively larger radiator.
Click to expand...


Radiator wont come into it as the stat should block this off, check to make sure the stat isn't stuck open. Other than that its either a pre heater which I doubt will get it much warmer if your in a decent climate, cant think of any other ways really to get it warmer quick...

Looks a tidy conversion though, well done that man...
 
Checked on the status of the thermostat and that seems to be working fine. With the engine running getting up to temperature, the top hose of the radiator is cool to the touch, which shows that the thermostat is working as it should and not opening before the engine reaches operating temperature. The radiator core feels cool to the touch as well until the needle of the temperature gauge rises to just about the middle of the temperature range.
Technically, the engine appears to be in excellent working order, only I assumed a turbocharged engine with direct cast liners would dissipate more heat than this does.
Is mine the only one that seems to be staying cool for longer, or is this another trait of these engines?
I'm just a little worried, because in my line of work, I've seen one too many diesel power plants that have worn down prematurely and gummed up with soot due to overcooling, and I'd just like to be sure 'my baby' is functioning just right.
 
I saw a td5 at the donnington show the other day than it struck up and I heard the unmissable knock of a tdi haha :D confused me a little, dunno why you'd do it in this country but I can see why you'd do it in Africa :) top stuff mate :)
 
ifloochies said:
Checked on the status of the thermostat and that seems to be working fine. With the engine running getting up to temperature, the top hose of the radiator is cool to the touch, which shows that the thermostat is working as it should and not opening before the engine reaches operating temperature. The radiator core feels cool to the touch as well until the needle of the temperature gauge rises to just about the middle of the temperature range.
Technically, the engine appears to be in excellent working order, only I assumed a turbocharged engine with direct cast liners would dissipate more heat than this does.
Is mine the only one that seems to be staying cool for longer, or is this another trait of these engines?
I'm just a little worried, because in my line of work, I've seen one too many diesel power plants that have worn down prematurely and gummed up with soot due to overcooling, and I'd just like to be sure 'my baby' is functioning just right.
Click to expand...
;)
OK, can you just try a auxillery temperature gauge type of thing just to make sure you not losing a correct reading in your dash gauge.
my old 200turbo diesel runs normally on the first quarter segment on the gauge, but takes ages to warm up. but in our current very cold weather I have the front grill covered by a rubber floor mat held on by the grill fitting screws, so once warmed up runs a lot warmer (up to the next segment) through lack of airflow while on the move.
I did fit a new thermastat a year or so ago, and have purchased another thermastat, but dont think its worthwhile fitting it really.
 
So, I was faced with the task of towing a 2 ton caravan on one of our typically hot steamy afternoons. After a few miles of towing on uneven terrain, I decided to stop, pop the hood and see if all was well underneath (being the first major load test since I swapped the engine).
All appeared to be fine until I reached down and touched the hoses to and from the stock transmission cooler..:eek: Both of those hoses were as hot as fire, which led me to conclude that there was little or no heat exchange going on there.
I took some time over the next weekend to install an engine oil cooler from a mitsubishi L200 truck infront of the AC condensor, instead of where the stock cooler finds itself behind and exposed to the heat discharge from the AC condenser. I had the hoses extended and routed around the side of the condenser and clamped on to the pipes with a pair of hose clamps on each line. Thank God, so far, so good... With an ambient temperature of 36 degrees in start/stop driving, the highest recorded temperature on the surface of the new transmission oil cooler was 72 degrees.
I'm gonna work on attaching another uprated aircooled cooler for the engine oil as well. Gonna attach photos when all the work of tropicalizing my disco 2 is done...:)
 
simaopereira said:
You. only changed the entire engine right ?

how did you managed the missing eleetnomics ?
Click to expand...

Yup, changed the engine and transmission.
Stock 200tdi with mechanically controlled kickdown autobox.
Getting the tacho and temperature gauge to work again requires a bit of work, but I could guide you through it if need be and assuming you know a bit about electrics.
 
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