Mercedes 290D engine in a Defender?

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mikerajjers

mikerajjers

Well-Known Member
Posts
1,467
Location
Bedford UK or Trnava SK
Hi,

I'm usually in the Discovery 2 section, but have been looking into getting a Defender for some time now.

Came across one online that has a Mercedes 290D engine in it. Has anyone got experience with such a conversion? I haven't seen the car yet, but would like to go and see. What should I look out for with cars that have a different engine?

Cheers
 
Good engine when in the van, but the van and a Land Rover are very different. I would expect it to deliver max power a bit higher up the rev range. As above, can't imagine why someone did it, unless they got the engine for free, and had a lot of time on their hands.
 
I've already made my bed when it comes to engine swap decisions, but if I was to start the process again with a derv engine in mind, I would simply do this:

Look online for a database of Torque/BHP curves for various engines.... find the one with the most reasonable MPG which demonstrates a wall-of-torque, rather than a steepish curve.

For myself, it's all about the torque potential with the landy... then 2nd comes ability to keep up with motorway trafffic (read bhp), and then MPG. These are the torque readings from my JED v8:

RPM BHP LBS/FT
1065 48.35 238.36
1532 71.88 246.32
2094 104.05 260.86
2553 133.26 274.05
3096 175.18 297.07
3581 206.20 302.30
4045 229.69 298.11
4564 249.97 287.54
5045 268.17 279.07
5573 254.25 239.52

As you can see, it's a range of 238 ft/lbs to 302 ft/lbs... that's a pretty decent wall of torque I reckon... not much variation through the range. Ok, you can find engines (especially blown) which produce much higher figures, but they wont give you 238ft/lbs at 1000rpm! And in a pratical landy, that's where you need it!
 
farmershort said:
I've already made my bed when it comes to engine swap decisions, but if I was to start the process again with a derv engine in mind, I would simply do this:

Look online for a database of Torque/BHP curves for various engines.... find the one with the most reasonable MPG which demonstrates a wall-of-torque, rather than a steepish curve.

For myself, it's all about the torque potential with the landy... then 2nd comes ability to keep up with motorway trafffic (read bhp), and then MPG. These are the torque readings from my JED v8:

RPM BHP LBS/FT
1065 48.35 238.36
1532 71.88 246.32
2094 104.05 260.86
2553 133.26 274.05
3096 175.18 297.07
3581 206.20 302.30
4045 229.69 298.11
4564 249.97 287.54
5045 268.17 279.07
5573 254.25 239.52

As you can see, it's a range of 238 ft/lbs to 302 ft/lbs... that's a pretty decent wall of torque I reckon... not much variation through the range. Ok, you can find engines (especially blown) which produce much higher figures, but they wont give you 238ft/lbs at 1000rpm! And in a pratical landy, that's where you need it!
Click to expand...

That clears that up then...o_O
 
If that Mercedes engine is a 2.9 Turbo Diesel l imagine it would have plenty of torque at low RPM.
And it will probably last for 1,000,000 miles.
 
Don't get me wrong, I think they make some great engines. But if it's out of a saloon, the tuning may be a bit out of whack for a Land Rover. I had a 220d non turbo that would easily do 60mpg, and 100mph, but you'd have to rev it loads to use it in a Land Rover.
 
If it's a turbo then it should be OK.

If not, then it will be a lump. And not as good as the original Land Rover unit.
 
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