Engine and gearbox swap

Hi all,
I would like some ideas about the following
I have just been informed about a 2008 defender tdci station that has no engine and is up for sale. I would like to know if it's possible to put an discovery td5 engine and auto gearbox into the engine bay of a this car. I know that electric stuff will be an issue but i think i can solve that. My biggest concern is buying the tdci body only and discovering afterwards that the disco td5 engine and auto gearbox are not going to fit. Does anyone have any ideas on this conversion? Has it been done before?

Could be more interesting and fit a V8!

well that is not an option, i have a td5 engine and box at hand so i would use that. Also i already have a defender td5 so i am quite well acquainted with this type of engine

Fair enough if you have it all lying around. I imagine you'll have to fab up some engine and gearbox mounts, people have done Defender TD5 auto conversions before but I don't think its an easy task to get everything running properly. Equally I don't think the TDCI clocks will work with the TD5 management.

if you mean with the clocks, the instrument gauges, i will use the one of the donor, wiring will also be taken from the donor car

Hi all,
back on this again.I have spotted a cheap defender tdci body that i could use to put the defender td5 engine and autobox in. Will this work? The person who will do the conversions says its just a bolt on job; is this true?

I have no idea @jamesmartin might know, but not sure. If I were you, as a start, I would be looking for a TDCi manual so I could see where the engine & gearbox mounts are. Or, better still, find someone with a TDCi and ask if you can get in there and look at the mounts etc, take some measurements and compare to the TD5 you already have. Is the TD5 engine out of a Discovery?

yep, it's out of a discovery with auto gearbox

It's a while since your first post. If no one else has taken the TDCi on, you might get it for decent money.
Are there many Defenders in that part of the world?

not that much, but i can get my hands on for quite some for a reasonable price

Guessing there is more off road than on road over there?
How about parts for Land Rovers if there are not very many?

a decent number still driving, but owners are very protective of the ones thye drive. We just have one dealer here so parts are very pricey. I usually get my parts from the netherlands. Would like to get from the UK, parts are very cheap there

unequalwolf8 said:

a decent number still driving, but owners are very protective of the ones thye drive. We just have one dealer here so parts are very pricey. I usually get my parts from the netherlands. Would like to get from the UK, parts are very cheap there

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Wow, is the postage not expensive?
Are you Dutch and born there or moved out? You're English is very good Or, are you English

nope, not dutch; Surinamese. many years ago an overseas dept of the Netherlands. English is a language that i never had an issue with
postage is crazy but if you need the parts, that's the way to go

unequalwolf8 said:

nope, not dutch; Surinamese. many years ago an overseas dept of the Netherlands. English is a language that i never had an issue with
postage is crazy but if you need the parts, that's the way to go

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Yeah, I thought Suriname was a Dutch colony or something one time and when you mentioned the Netherlands I put two and two together.
There are many parts suppliers based in England that post internationally. It might be worth checking their websites to see which ones do and what their international postage costs are.
About your original question, I'm thinking that given that the TDCi is relatively new in the LR history, there may not be many people who have put an older engine in to a TDCi body. You might be a pioneer in that respect.
I'm busy putting my engine back in and just stopped for a coffee, so I'm back off in to the garage

have fun

does someone know if there is a seal/gasket between the engine and the gearbox. These two will have to be split to be removed from the disco

unequalwolf8 said:

does someone know if there is a seal/gasket between the engine and the gearbox. These two will have to be split to be removed from the disco

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there isnt

great, thanks for the info I really hope this project comes through

just had a thought; is it possible to remove both engine and gearbox still attached form underneath the car? This way a minimum of components will be disturbed