Fuel injected petrol engine into a Series?

This is a thought I had recently due to the increasing anti-diesel sentiment by the authorities.

Although it would not be popular with the purists, has anyone fitted a modern EFI Petrol engine into a Series?

As far as I know, it would still benefit from MOT, emissions and tax exemption while having a more reliable modern engine.

Some sort of Japanese petrol from the 1990s era would probably be a good choice as far as reliability concerns. This is also the era before the electronics became too over complicated.

I don't have the time, facilities, money or motivation to actually attempt this conversion myself, it was simply a "what-if" thought.

Anything is possible if you have enough money to throw at it. Power and torque would be the issue I think, most petrol engines in cars have their peak torque high up the rev band, not where you need it for towing or off road plugging. Secondly it would need mating to a series box or a suitable car gearbox then mating that to the transfer box. This would require bespoke (and probably expensive) mating plates. I have not heard of anyone putting an injection engine into a series, but if its been done someone on here will have tried it or know of someone who has. I have a 90 which I am in the process of fitting a Rover T series engine (2.0l 4 Cyl petrol turbo, 200bhp, 177lb/f @ 1800rpm), mated to a R380 box, I'll let you know what its like when Ive got it up and running...

I would think that it would be very thirsty due to the weight of the landy

Why not?

They fitted the 2.0L MPI T16 rover engine in the defender and Disco.

J

The MPI fitted to the Disco was the normally aspirated version. They trialled the turbo version but it out performed the V8 so they dropped the idea quietly...

landowner said:

I would think that it would be very thirsty due to the weight of the landy

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Yes it probably will be but your not getting Yaris MPG from and old 2¼ either.

Bell housing/clutch/spigot shaft will be your biggest issues, the rest is simple engineering, ie easily bodged!

wireman said:

I have a 90 which I am in the process of fitting a Rover T series engine (2.0l 4 Cyl petrol turbo, 200bhp, 177lb/f @ 1800rpm), mated to a R380 box, I'll let you know what its like when Ive got it up and running...

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We have 1 but not with the turbo

J

lynall said:

Bell housing/clutch/spigot shaft will be your biggest issues, the rest is simple engineering, ie easily bodged!

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Its all rover available parts, you just have to find them
J

marjon said:

We have 1 but not with the turbo

J

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Is it one of the 'Specials' made by Land Rover for the Carabinari in Italy? Or a conversion? How does it go?

Thanks for the replies. I was not aware that Rover had done this with a four cylinder petrol, though I did know about the various V8s.

I was wondering about something like the 3 litre V6 used in Mitsubishi Shoguns. I would think that a LWB Shogun would be quite a bit heavier than a Series. There was also a four cylinder petrol version of the full size Shogun but it was never sold in the UK as far as I know.

The main reason for my idea of using a Series as the base vehicle was the tax and MOT exemption.

wireman said:

Is it one of the 'Specials' made by Land Rover for the Carabinari in Italy? Or a conversion? How does it go?

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Yes believe from Italy, its blue too, with lots of extra holes in the roof. and why its hard to find any bloody manuals, they have to be mixed and matched.
It goes alright but needs to be wound up a bit, don't use it much in the summer months TBH, have to go through the gears a little for inclines. That may just be cos the rest of ours are big autos though and how soon we forget
But fine off road at slow speeds and the use of low ratio have pulled a few people out. On normal roads wouldn't think any worse than any other 2.0L car.

It got slated hard when in the disco.
I went to get MOT for it and a trailer(750kg)the other day picked up 500kg (probably more as only scooped and guessed) couple bags of cement and got home without noticing any diff.

I would say obviously its got different engine characteristics than most landies but really its not that bad. We have fun in it
Oh and we run LPG too.

j

Webley1991 said:

The main reason for my idea of using a Series as the base vehicle was the tax and MOT exemption.

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Does that still count if you change to a modern engine "legally" ?

J

As far as I know it is a points based system. Certain features being changed are worth a number of points. Once so many of these points have been reached, the vehicle no longer qualifies for tax exempt status.

From what I have read, the engine is only worth one point. There are a lot of Series vehicles out there fitted with more modern LR and some non LR diesels.

Webley1991 said:

Thanks for the replies. I was not aware that Rover had done this with a four cylinder petrol, though I did know about the various V8s.

I was wondering about something like the 3 litre V6 used in Mitsubishi Shoguns. I would think that a LWB Shogun would be quite a bit heavier than a Series. There was also a four cylinder petrol of the full size Shogun but it was never sold in the UK as far as I know.

The main reason for my idea of using a Series as the base vehicle was the tax and MOT exemption.

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I'm no expert but I don't think it would retain MOT exempt status if you put a non Rover engine in it. When you go to tax a MOT exempt vehicle it asks if the car has been 'substantially modified' which a Shogun V6 probably is.

Reading into it on the HM Government website, it says if the engine has a different number of cylinders it is likely to be classed as a substantial change.

I wonder what happens in that case if you find a wreck of a six cylinder petrol Series missing its engine and start from there?

However there is also a line about "axles and running gear changed to improve environmental performance". I wonder if you could claim that you were changing over from the polluting diesel to a cleaner running petrol, thereby using their own rhetoric against them.

Webley1991 said:

As far as I know it is a points based system. Certain features being changed are worth a number of points. Once so many of these points have been reached, the vehicle no longer qualifies for tax exempt status.

From what I have read, the engine is only worth one point. There are a lot of Series vehicles out there fitted with more modern LR and some non LR diesels.

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The legalities of MOT & Tax exemption is just a side note to the main question and something I don't look at as it don't exist for my fleet

Basically its doable and would be a drivable car in the end

There are actually conversions for the LR 2.25 petrol to EFI as well think it was MS who did it not sure the Pros/Cons or even if still available.

J

Marmaduke said:

https://www.classicfuelinjection.co.uk/shop/product_info.php/products_id/413

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Interesting...

wireman said:

Interesting...

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And not very cheap