Engine Swaps into a D90

For those that wanted a few pictures, here you go.

Copied and pasted from my build thread, just re-added pictures as they had disappeared.

So the day of reconing arrived about a month later and so did a bag of goodies.



Basically the gear is made up of the old zf prop flange and the LT230 input gear.
zf prop flange turned down and welded to the input gear.





And the adapter plate, which was laser cut out of 25mm steel plate.



And has a pocket milled out of the back for the zf.



This is what the back of the gearbox looks like before we started and what we had to contend with.



Plate bolts to the gearbox.



Screw the drawbar onto the gearbox output shaft.



And put the new gear on.
So this is effectively what you have but with the gear inside the transfer box usually.



Or if you look at it the other way, put it in the transfer box and the excess pushes onto the gearbox output shaft.



I decided to do a test run with it on the floor as opposed to struggling with it in the vehicle.
So stick the draw bar on the end of the gearbox, new input gear in the transfer box and slot the box on.





Then the original zf prop flange nut put on to hold all the gubbins together.



Both boxes are very close,to get the transfer box as low as possible to improve prop angles.
Needed more so on the 90 as the rear prop ends up quite short.



And that was that sorted, Just to fit now.

Hahaha, you guys make it all look so easy!

I get the idea in my head that I'll be able to do an engine swap no problem, I can weld, I can cut, I can bolt, then I see the photos and all that enthusiasm quickly turns into "Yep, no, got no chance."

Thanks for the photos though! I think I'll look into a 200/300tdi instead!

Merryck said:

Hahaha, you guys make it all look so easy!

I get the idea in my head that I'll be able to do an engine swap no problem, I can weld, I can cut, I can bolt, then I see the photos and all that enthusiasm quickly turns into "Yep, no, got no chance."

Thanks for the photos though! I think I'll look into a 200/300tdi instead!

Click to expand...

Why? The above can now be bought in kit form, he also now does engine mounts, gearbox mounts, gearbox selector (I think) (I imported mine from the states)
Props, just measure them and get yours shortened or a new set custom made to length.
The conversion is getting easier all the time, someone has said on the cummins lr group if you can fit a tdi you can fit a cummins. Personally I think it's a little more than that, but as above, a lot of parts are now available making it much much easier than it was.
If you want to know anything give me a shout and I can try talk you through a few bits or try find you some more pictures.

Wow, that's a lot more available than I thought! I might take you up on that!

aaronmorris said:

Why? The above can now be bought in kit form, he also now does engine mounts, gearbox mounts, gearbox selector (I think) (I imported mine from the states)
Props, just measure them and get yours shortened or a new set custom made to length.
The conversion is getting easier all the time, someone has said on the cummins lr group if you can fit a tdi you can fit a cummins. Personally I think it's a little more than that, but as above, a lot of parts are now available making it much much easier than it was.
If you want to know anything give me a shout and I can try talk you through a few bits or try find you some more pictures.

Click to expand...

Do you have any links for that kit at all? Thanks.

Hello.

I found this post very informative. Thanks.

I wanted to ask about two things..

1. How much power can a TD90 gearbox and suspension/braking handle before things start breaking?

2. If you were building a daily driver that was a toy built strictly for the joys of driving offroad. What engine would you choose to get max power with the least fuss?

flat said:

Fit a discovery transfer box

Click to expand...

A Roamerdrive will enable you to go faster by about 22% and also allows you gain 22% higher gearing for each gear. The Roamerdrive bolts on to the transfer case and a basic DIY can do it in an afternoon.

Try it out and if you don't get the performance that you want then you can decide to do an engine swap at that time and keep the Roamerdrive.