By Harpo on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 06:16 am: Edit

I recently lunched the engine in my 95. I am thinking of going to a Chevy V8 and transmission. Advance Adapters sells a kit by an Aussie company named Marks. has anyone done this swap or know someone that has? Comments?

By MA on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 11:11 am: Edit

that will be pretty sweet...I am also considering putting a 5.7L vortec V8 under the hood of my disco. I have a 1997 GMC Yukon that is pretty screwed so i want to take out that old engine(only 33,000 miles on it) and put it in my 95 Disco. If you do this, i would recommend the new Allison 5-speed tranny from Chevy, that thing is awesome. The Disco is pretty weak in the power department. I talked to several mechanics and they said it would be a kind-of easy task, i don't know though. give it a try!

By roverDLR on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 11:16 am: Edit

I recently saw a disco with 5.3 liter Vortec Chevy. Very clean install, fits well under the hood. Check out www.overfinch.com, all they do is chevy-rover conversions.

By Rick on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 01:25 am: Edit

www.eastcoastrover.com
You may think I'm crazy, but I recommend a 300tdi.
Awesome engine that simplifys your rover. Yes its very expensive. But so is a vortec & new tranny. Why not put a rover mover in, that will double your milage, and double the life of the motor?
My .02. Diesels rule.

By john scott on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 03:01 am: Edit

and makes it really really slow. A defender with that same engine does 0-60mph in 23.4 seconds.

By nadim on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 04:00 am: Edit

john...if you want 0-60...ur on the wrong board my friend!...

By Jon on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 04:28 am: Edit

300tdi, no. Td5, yes. Especially for the money. But Nadim has a point: these aren't race cars. But if you're aiming for the 350, why not get crazy and upgrade to a Corvette LS1? That should drop your 0-60 down to about 8 seconds LOL

By nadim on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 04:45 am: Edit

The 300tdi has certain drawbacks in the timing system...that is why many upgrade to Zeus timing gears...

The Td5, up to now has been a very good performer...however, I haven't seen any in any motor sport competitions (paris dakar, malasian challenge)...and their reliability is not proven, neither is it questionable...

I'll go with teh V8 any day, a chimp in the african bush can fix it!

By Discosaurus on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 06:43 am: Edit

But, the Td5 is also stuffed to the brim with
electronic systems that probably don't mix well
with water and make it almost impossible to fix
in the field.

keith
discosaurus

By nadim on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 07:34 am: Edit

That is very true...
Most LRs that are made for competition go for the 300Tdi, or even for the 200Tdi...for simplicity, cost, and reliability!

By wisker on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 08:40 am: Edit

Well someone has too . . .
I think having a rover with a chevy smallblock would be great. You could find parts for it ANYWHERE and you could get more power out of it than you would ever need. Personally I'd rather use a ford 5.0, but whatever works.

wisker

By Norm Orschnorschki (Norm) on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 07:11 pm: Edit

After my wife melted the original 3.9 in my '95 Disc, I thought long and hard about dropping in a Chevy 350 replacement motor and did a fair amount of research. After talking to several people who had done the Chevy conversion on LRs and other vehicles I came to one conclusion -- it ain't as easy as you'd think. Apparently, you'd have to replace and refit virtually every component even remotely associated with the engine (even the front suspension to handle the additional weight of the iron block), which can get costly and time consuming. Apparently, you'll spend a lot of time collecting and fitting all the ancillary parts to fit the Chevy motor.

Eventually, I opted for an RPi 4.6 Rover motor with a Tornado chip. Once I got the !@#$%^ US distributor to put the correct motor and parts in a box and ship them to me, the motor was pretty easily installed by the local LR dealer.

Now, the 4.6 may not have quite the umph of the Chevy 350, but it is certainly more than adequate on and off road and much smoother, stronger and much more powerful than the 3.9 -- without all the fitting hassles of the Chevy.

Sooo, unless you have a lot of time and money to spend on the Chevy conversion, you're probably better off dropping in an upsized Rover motor.

---Norm

By mike w on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 08:40 pm: Edit

when i die i want to be reborn as a tdi 5!!!!!!!!

By Jon on Tuesday, April 24, 2001 - 04:13 am: Edit

Somebody mentioned eastcoastrover.com. ECR has got some engines available to put in your Rover that would make a Chevy 350 look stupid. The best thing is, they're all Rover blocks (bored and stroked) so there's no need to put some beefmaster springs on the front to hold the extra weight. One of ECR's engines is a 5.2-liter bored and stroked 4.6 and puts out like 340 hp or something. It's enough to move a Defender from 0-60 in well under 7.5 seconds, and has more than ample torque. It's something to think about...

By Milan on Tuesday, April 24, 2001 - 04:45 am: Edit

As far as heft goes, one could use aluminum heads and intake manifold on that chevy and maybe the GM performance center has an all aluminum block. I know Ford Motorsports does and that's what I'd like to use. It can be bought as a short block or as a long block or as a complete assembly. The problem is that these all aluminum engines are probably as expensive as a new rover engine.

I too like the SB Ford as it is almost 150-200 lbs lighter than Chevy even in it's cast iron form. However, I don't know if there's an adapter, that would make it fit to the tranny.

How about rebuilding the Rover engine, boring and stroking it and using some performance parts? It might give you the power you want for less money than a conversion.