900 Club Forum

A hypothetical for a bit of fun.

Land Rovers and engine conversions have been something fairly synonymous for many years, Forward Controls and One Tons often being the subject of them in a quest for more power and economy, largely owing to the six cylinder being pretty thirsty, the 2.25 diesel being 'underpowered', or in the case of the 101, a worn out V8 just being too damn thirsty.

There's already a fairly extensive list of engines that've been fitted at some point in the past, and plenty others that have potential, so the question is this;

Without picking the original power unit, what would be your idea of the ideal power unit for a 9.00 shod vehicle?

To start, how about a Forward Control powered by a 4.2 Jaguar XK or AJ6 six cylinder?

I quite like the Cummins six cylinder engines in our DAF lorries at work. Rated at about 220HP I think, would be pretty decent in an FC but would need a six speed box. I imagine the sound of the engine brake working on a downhill off-road descent would be nice. I think there is a 4-cyl version in use in 7.5t trucks but that isn't as nice and comes mated to a 5 speed box.

The Mazda Perkins 6.247 would be my choice, revs to 3500, but good torque and reasonable fuel economy, and smoothness. I have one that I bought as a project but but needed a piston, ring set, head gasket, which is where I found a major obstacle - no parts in the UK, and v difficult to get hold anywhere else......

I plan on fitting a Mercedes OM617 5 cylinder turbo diesel in my One Ton when I start the rebuild. I'm running a Perkins 4.203 in my forward control which pushes it along quite well.

I think a GM 6.2 diesel v8 would be good too, I love these engines, I've run them for years in chevy blazers and run one in my 90 as an everyday motor, rev to 3600, plenty of torque and getting 22 mpg when towing with 1.4 transfer box.

The 6.2's don't seem to have much of a good rep.

There's a few people rave about them, but the general opinion is they're not the best in terms of output for capacity.
I believe they're a bit lighter than the Yanks favourite the Cummins 6BT, but otherwise the Cummins and Ford power stroke are meant to be the better engines.
I've also heard of problems cracking blocks, although a lot of that may also be due to the poor reputation built up by Samurai engineerings 'rebuilt' units.

Quaintly, I know of a 90 running a 6BT with a 3,800rpm governor spring and a +40bhp fuel pin in the pump. According to the owner it's pushing 200bhp and will return 30mpg running 1.003 transfer box gears on 37" tyres, also running a ZF 5 speed box to suit the engine, close coupled to the LT230.

I'm tempted to buy one myself, but no money at the minute...

I know the 6.2's have a bad rep, I've had a couple of bad ones over the years and have 2 that need stripping down and looking at at the moment, both Samurai engines funny enough. They'll never be a Cummins or Powerstroke but I still love 'em, especially with a turbo, they'll really move then!

Personally, having run and worked on trucks with the Cummins 6bt and 4bt in them, I wouldn't fit either in a landy. My brother has fitted a Perkins 6 cylinder Phaser 160t in his 110 Hi cap and that thing really pulls well, much smoother and a nicer engine all together than a 6bt in my opinion.

It's all down to personal choice at the end of the day I guess.

A 6 pot Phaser in a 110? Sounds interesting, how's he done it? What gearbox etc...

He used an lt85 box with 1.003 gears in the transfer box, made his own engine mounts etc and moved the gearbox back about 8 inches or so, had to have custom props made up to suit.

I'd be interested to see a few photos if at all possible?
Any other details, what springs etc? I assume he used a 4.236 adapter plate onto a V8 box?

I'm currently pondering the idea of a Td5 in a 101, and having looked under the bonnet of a Defender powered by one last week I think it's actually a reasonably practical proposition, and in reality no worse than an efi V8, of which I've done several conversions in 101's, 110's, and a IIB.

How hard can it be?

If its not a V8 it has to be TD5. Disco 2 donors are getting cheap now!