Engine wanted

Any body know where I can get hold of a 200 tdi to place in a series 3 ?

Ebay

Face book

The correct sales/wanted section of this forum?

I’m not sure of ur reply , I have had great pleasure in restoring a series 3 for the last 2 yrs , and tried to keep the 2.5 na which when I bought the landrover 25yrs ago has served me well , but sadly no more , I was only asking for advice , nothing else

Flo1 said:

Any body know where I can get hold of a 200 tdi to place in a series 3 ?

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Ebay probably easiest.

Although I'd be hesitant to put a Tdi in a Series. Been there done it... twice.

I like the Tdi engines and their power delivery when tweaked. But there is no denying they are gruff, noisy and very unrefined. In a Series this is pretty terrible IMO. The mpg was good and general performance and it did allow my to make very good use of my S3 88. But I'd not choose to do it again. A Defender Tdi isn't all that refined or quiet inside, a Series is far far worse. No matter what anyone will tell you.

If I was doing it again I'd probably go for petrol unless planning on doing 12,000-20,000 miles a year in it.

Rover V8 is a known and well proven swap.

Although I quite fancied going down the 2.0 litre Rover T-Series (Mpi) route. Got the bell housing ready, but sadly sold the vehicle before taking the Tdi out. T-Series engines are rare these days though, but still a possible option.

Other options if you fancy a project. Make a 2.5 petrol turbo using the petrol 2.5 engine and the 2.5TD turbo bits or similar. I've heard of someone doing this. Wouldn't need to go crazy with power, but a nice setup I'd recon.

Other swaps could include Ford V6 (The Essex used to be a common swap at one point). Or maybe even a BMW 2.8 petrol six pot, as per the S. African Defender 90s.

If you really want a diesel I'd be tempted to look at a Td5, although I'm not sure how easy it would be to retain the Series front. Would certainly be more work.

The 2.0 litre L-Series could be an option too (as fitted to Freelanders). I'm sure I've heard of this being done before, but it'd be a more involved swap. I'd guess the BMW Td4 might be an option too, although it used a different gearbox, so I'd assume different bell housing bolt pattern.

Flo1 said:

I’m not sure of ur reply , I have had great pleasure in restoring a series 3 for the last 2 yrs , and tried to keep the 2.5 na which when I bought the landrover 25yrs ago has served me well , but sadly no more , I was only asking for advice , nothing else

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Although possibly not the detail you were after the three suggestions above are the best places to get an engine. If you have a look on ebay/facebook there will be lots for sale, and there is a wanted section on the forum where you can use word of mouth in the land rover community to try and get one.
I bought a 2.25 diesel off facebook untested on a pallet that had been sat in the back of the chaps garage for years, got it running in an afternoon on the pallet to prove it ran and then rebuilt it before fitting.
I got a 200tdi recently for my 110 rebuild just by talking to a chap who was into land rovers who mentioned he had one in the back of the barn that he had provisionally sold to someone years ago but they never collected and paid so was mine if I wanted. Two days later I was in west wales with the trailer and some cash. Again this got a light rebuild before fitting but from what I found on taking it apart could probably have just been dropped straight in and given a good service.