LS3 Conversion

I will admit this is a bit of a dreamer thread at the minute but who knows could win the lottery or just save up for a long time....

Idea was to get an LS3 crate engine and mate it to the Quaife 6 speed sequential box (only manual box there seems to be that easily retains 4wd) and an uprated Ashcroft LT230 TXbox with the ATB/LSD. As for the drive train I was thinking Ashcroft HD front/rear half shafts, HD drive flanges and HD CVs with the Ashcroft ATB/LSD front/rear diffs. Would this lot be able to handle the 430bhp / 428ft/lb (580nm)?

What about the clutch? What do you fit and from who?

As for brakes I doubt the standard LR set up would be up to the job, even if all brand new with grooved discs. Would probably have to switch to 18s and fit Tarox/AP Racing 6 pots, unless there is another option? I like my 16s

Then cooling? I assume you’d have to fit a pretty big rad and leccy fans

Anyone know how difficult it is to actually shoe horn an LS3 in?

Have I missed anything? On a rough calculation I reckon you could do it for less than £20k in parts but you then have a bastar.d powerful Defender

Thinking about it the ones that come from Kahn etc… don’t appear to have any drive train upgrades just the massive engine, auto gearbox and brakes but not much else really, surely these just rip themselves apart?

the 130 doublecab hi cap I had some years ago running a big block chevy (poss ls5 ?) & 4 barrel holly was fitted with a radtech hi flow rad which tbh was fine with a simple kenlowe setup , it was running front & rear hd Salisbury axles from a ex electric board 110, had huge vented front discs good stopping power but too much on the right pedal on pull off & the half shafts used to twist like a wet tea towel & snap, don't know who built it or the specs as I purchased it that way but it was fun.the starter packed up & after eventually finding a recon upon fitting found the starter ring had infact failed so was sitting unused on my drive for some time, ended up selling the engine to a guy to fit in a power boat he reckoned ?? & the rolling rest of it got sold on tbh looking back I should have held on to it

Loads of Chevy engines who knows! Sounds fun though!

Been reading about the MT82 gearbox, fair few folk over in the US having been running that with upwards of 500bhp/450nm with few issues and only minor upgrades. So you could just about get away with an LS3 without having to spend £8k+ on a gearbox though a big block V8 would be fine around 400bhp/400nm.

Mez.co.uk put a twin turbo ls3 in a Dakar. Lots of advice on there about gearboxes etc but he's not maintaining the site much and some pages have gone. He subscribes to the v8ownersforum

TT LS3 what 700bhp?

If you have the money, there are plenty of turnkey kits out there.

The Chevy engine was practically made for the land rover, they are perfectly suited to each other.

had a look at the spec for an ls3, that in a landy looks like a recipe fort fun

nesponge said:

If you have the money, there are plenty of turnkey kits out there.

The Chevy engine was practically made for the land rover, they are perfectly suited to each other.

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Ive seen but they run £28k + vat and autos, i was wondering if it could be done better/cheaper with a manual box.

mine was manual & as said don't know what spec but had a 1 inch thick spacer/converter plate to mate the eng/box together,threw it out for the scrap man as the fella who purchased the engine didn't want it. prob the heaviest engine ive ever removed so hope you got a good hoist