replacement engine options

sadly sunday evening our '02 freelander 1.8 shed it's timing belt, having stripped it down it's terminal with a cracked liner, destroyed piston and 2 valve heads lodged in the head.

ive started looking around for replacement engines and there's not many cheap coil pack freelander engines around currently, ive found a couple of options but not sure if they can be made to fit,

the first option is a '02 mgtf 135 engine with alloy inlet manifold, if i swap the cams out to the freelander ones and fit the freelander plastic inlet manifold and all the other ancillaries i think this should work?

very local to me there is a coil pack engine but it comes with an auto box, are the k series blocks all the same so i could remove all the auto parts and just fit the manual flywheel to the crank and off i go?

and lastly is it possible to convert an earlier distributor freelander engine to use the coil pack setup from my current engine, if so what parts are required?

ive got a belt and headset ready to fit to whichever engine i go with obviously i need to make sure there both auto tensioners.

thanks for any help you can offer
chris

I personally would go for the auto box engine. Its likely to have had an easy life connected to a slush pump. (if your sure its a gud un)

Changing over to a distributor system would be a pain in the ass re different MEMS systems etc etc. Your manual flywheel should bolt right on (the same seven bolt system as the torque converter plate (see pics) , and the rest should be more or less plug/bolt and play.

You can then also clean up and re sell the auto box later to get some money back.

Thanks longbolt, i meant what is required to make a distributer engine into a coil pack engine, but ive been informed all id need to do is swap in my cams and covers so that means i can use early engines aswell

Ahh, i see, you really wanted to go that route.

Then its cams, i think your original flywheel and crank sensor, and the right cambelt for the older engine (manual or auto tensioner).

It should then be bolt all your old system on and happy days.

The auto and manual tensioners/belts are interchangeable, if you use the correct kits, and a few extra bits and pieces.

Your 02 will be the MEMS3 system, and so the MG engine will drop straight in, using the alloy manifold and 135 cams for a little increase in power, at the expense of bottom end torque

mustang v8

lol