Freelander 1.8 Turbo

Sorry to hear that Disco, you put a lot of time and effort never mind money into it. Having said that if it has only done a couple of thousand miles since you got it going then maybe your right to let it go.
Mind you I called into my mates house tonight and Bertie was sitting in his drive looking better than ever. Must admit I felt a twinge of regret that I'd sold it.
You sure you want to let it go?

I don't want to let it go. Dug it out, washed it down for some recent pictures, and couldn't help but give it a blast down the road

Worked out this morning what I had spent on it
The reserve price is set at less than half of that

It done 275 miles last year, and 100 of that was a round trip to get the exhaust done, and another 100 round trip to take it to the quarter mile

Since it's MOT in April, it has covered 4 miles...

OK but you'll be sorry...............

Alibro said:

DMGRS claim the N series HG is the fix but I suspect a good dose of quality control would have gone a long way towards sorting the issue in the first place.

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I installed an N-Series HG in my MGF after the original gasket failed and the replacement multi-layer failed within a month. The N-Series gasket looked to be very well made and it is still performing well 4 years later.

Sad to see that you need to sell it DM. I like you description on weight saving. Although I'm curious as to how much weight you saved by loosing the HRW?

Good luck with the auction. If I was closer, I'd be tempted to take a punt at it myself.

disco_mikey said:

Take one Freelander with a dead 1.8...



Take one Rover 75 1.8T, in need of a clutch...



Remove dead engine from Freelander...



Just need to find time this coming week to get the turbo lump into place

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Hi Im new year and joined because I see this post, I am looking at doing this myself as I am a mechanic, if I was to fit the new turbo ecu onto the car direct would it work or would i need a standalone on my original non turo ecu? Many thanks

Chris Harrison said:

Hi Im new year and joined because I see this post, I am looking at doing this myself as I am a mechanic, if I was to fit the new turbo ecu onto the car direct would it work or would i need a standalone on my original non turo ecu? Many thanks

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I don't think there is a turbo ECU that will work with a Freelander. I think disko mikey ended up using an aftermarket ecu and instrument cluster. I guess that means he had to get it mapped too.
If you can find a way to use the original ecu for the car and the turbo ecu for the engine you'd be very popular hereabouts.

Alibro said:

I don't think there is a turbo ECU that will work with a Freelander. I think disko mikey ended up using an aftermarket ecu and instrument cluster. I guess that means he had to get it mapped too.
If you can find a way to use the original ecu for the car and the turbo ecu for the engine you'd be very popular hereabouts.

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Thankyou, just a question on the instrement cluster, why would you need a different cluster?

Chris Harrison said:

Thankyou, just a question on the instrement cluster, why would you need a different cluster?

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The cluster is driven by the ecu so if you have an aftermarket ECU it won't drive the oem Cluster.

Depending on model year may dictate how all the instrumentation is activated - but the days of a speedo cable and individual wires for bulbs (there are some still) are gone and replaced by network messages, pulse width etc. Unless you're a dab hand with an Arduino or something and can decipher the comms - its unlikely you'll be able to get a non-Freelander ECU to talk to the Freelander cluster.

Tony Reeves fitted a VVC motor to a 1.8 FL1 see here. He gave a pretty good run down on the process. Re the ECU he piggy backed the MEMs 2J onto the MEM1.9 IIRC and that was just for the critical engine management aspects the MEMs 1.9 acted as it had with all the rest of the tasks.

The cluster won't work with an aftermarket ECU and the Freelander special traction programmes won't either. So no traction control, HDC and potentially ABS too.
A piggy back boost ECU might be a better bet.

You can get Mark Stacey to put the Freelander software/ firmware onto the turbo MEMS3? Drop him a line: I have a hunch that this has been done before...

rob_bell said:

You can get Mark Stacey to put the Freelander software/ firmware onto the turbo MEMS3? Drop him a line: I have a hunch that this has been done before...

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Just as an update to the ECU question, yes, you can use an original Freelander MEMS 3 ECU and Loom with a manual boost controller. I am talking to Mark from K maps about this now. This should then allow you to run the Freelander clocks and dials and Engine from one ECU and the original loom.

I am currently sorting this out for my engine.

monkfish24 said:

Just as an update to the ECU question, yes, you can use an original Freelander MEMS 3 ECU and Loom with a manual boost controller. I am talking to Mark from K maps about this now. This should then allow you to run the Freelander clocks and dials and Engine from one ECU and the original loom.

I am currently sorting this out for my engine.

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How did you get on with this? Is your project a runner? Do you need the actual ecu from your project car or can you use a donor ecu? Also can the immobiliser be disabled?

Your original ECU can be re-mapped

Just read this thread - thanks for resurrecting it Does look like a 1.8 turbo would be highly amusing. Sticking with my TD4 for now but I'm always open to tuning suggestions as well as the usual air filter and chip route

Mick X11 said:

Sticking with my TD4 for now but I'm always open to tuning suggestions as well as the usual air filter and chip route

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Serious power output from the M47R is limited to about 150 Bhp. It was never designed to make lots of power, and doesn't do it easily. Forget air filters, unless sticking with paper, as oiled filters trash the MAF.
You can fit a larger intercooler and improve the induction pipes for some small gains. Then get a remap done to improve things more. Be warned though, the M47R uses a cheap n nasty cast iron crank, which fails with the standard engine, so a modified one will break it faster.