Land Rover Conversion - 300 TDI Engine Conversion into 90/110 Land Rover 4 Cylinder with LT77 Gearbox

300 TDI ENGINE CONVERSION INTO 90/110 LAND ROVER 4 CYLINDER WITH LT77 GEARBOX
SUMMARY OF CARRYING OUT THIS CONVERSION

The engine is a good engine and is becoming readily available now that the Discovery 1995 onwards are getting older and are failing MOT’s on body corrosion. Although similar to the Land Rover 90/110 engine that is being removed the engine blocks are quite different at the engine mountings.
The 1996 onward 300TDI fitted with automatic gearboxes have Electronic Diesel Control (EDC). This engine is more complex to install so we would recommend not using this engine.
The ideal thing to buy is the full vehicle. You will need the engine, radiator, intercooler assembly, header tank and bottom hose (if in good condition), air filter and intake hose, power steering pipes and steering box if your vehicle is fitted with manual steering or the early three bolt PAS box or the six bolt steering box (identified with the number of bolts fixing the top cap to the body of the PAS box). Also required will be the fuel filter and the ends of the fuel pipes to joint the new engine to the vehicle
New engine mounting brackets are required to be welded to the chassis and the old mountings cut off, we supply these new brackets along with detailed instructions and recommendations on fitting the new engine, the engine fits to the gearbox with only minor alterations. The engine mounting brackets from the 300 Discovery chassis will not be suitable as the center line of the engine to the chassis rail is different between the Discovery and the Land Rover 90/110.
On petrol and non turbo Diesels models, a full exhaust will be required as the existing system is of the wrong internal design in the silencers and the pipe size is too small for a 300 TDI engine and will create back pressure and possible overheating. We have developed a full system larger bore pipework and single silencer, complete with special chassis mounting brackets designed to fit later exhaust systems to early chassis, bolts and mounting rubbers. If the vehicle you are converting is a Turbo Diesel our specially designed front pipe will fit to your existing system, however this system is a little on the small side but will be ok for now but would recommend fitting the larger bore system at a later date still using the same front pipe.
The 300 Discovery radiator will fit with minor alterations to the frame to mount it to the chassis, although radiator top brackets will be required. We can supply these if required.
The 300 Discovery has the engine fitted close to the radiator however when this is now fitted into the 90/110 the engine is positioned at the back of the engine bay the same as the original Land Rover 90/110 engine did, so all the hoses off the Discovery are too short. So we make a water pipe kit comprising of a top hose specially manufactured for us, heater pipes, temperature sensor, all stainless steel hose clips, header tank mounting bracket etc. with the bottom hose off the 300 Discovery being suitable to be used on the conversion we just supply new hose clips for this. If the original hose is in poor condition we can supply a new hose too.
An electric fan will need to be used as the fan is too far away from the radiator to be effective. Kenlowe manufacture a superb two speed fan for this application which we stock.
We supply new intercooler hoses and pipe kit including all stainless hose clips again as the engine is at the back of the engine bay the intercooler pipes are too short.
We recommend using the 300 Discovery air filter and intake hose if available. The air filter will be mounted on the left hand inner wing support bracket. Some models have the washer bottle mounted there, if so this will need relocating. Some models will need a flat plate making up to mount the air filter. Turbo Diesel models with the wing mounted air intake can be piped up to the air filter with our intake adapter kit, this comprises of a “U” shaped steel tube that fits the intake hose from the wing to the air filter, Petrol and non turbo models can use the 300 Discovery pipe work. Vehicles using a snorkel should be unaffected by this.
As we have said earlier we recommend fitting the 4 bolt power steering box off the 300 Discovery, you can then use the 300 Discovery pipes and reservoir. However they are too short so we supply a kit to adapt them which consists of two high pressure compression fittings and new filler and return hoses, reservoir mounting bracket, complete with stainless steel hose clips.
The engine oil cooler pipes off the 300 Discovery are too short so we supply specially extended pipes for this conversion using the latest specification oil pipes (the original pipes were prone to leaking on the crimped joints)
All the above kits come with detailed fitting instructions.
We have designed all the above kits so that the engine installation looks neat and original and not a conversion.
We also recommend renewing the timing belt, P gasket behind the water pump housing to the engine block, also the rear crank oil seal & T seals before starting this conversion. These jobs are all easier to do whilst the engine is out of the vehicle. We keep these items in stock should you need them.
We would recommend using a workshop manual for reference purposes to help with electrical work and the above mentioned jobs. We keep these items in stock should you need them.
Once the conversion has been completed you can enjoy greatly improved performance and good fuel economy. DVLA and your insurance company will need informing and may require an engineers report.