I found an old Series 2 yesterday with an engine init, but the report was that its got a cracked head(which is not there), but there is a BMW straight six with a tranny in the same shed.
Wondering if anyone a slipped one of these engines in a series 2 before?
Also the chassis are in quite bad condition, is there a website with quality parts for Series Rovers?
Thanks.
Which BMW straight 6?
You've had a few threads about engines haven't you?
As a rule most engines can be made to fit the space. The only restriction on a Series is if you want to keep the recessed radiator and grill. Fitting a Defender/Stage 1 front panel will give you the same size engine bay as a Defender. Which means all manner of engines will fit in the space.
You'd only modify the bulk head for a specific reason. Usually down to engine location.
Now the much bigger and complex questions on engine swaps are, how will you mate it to the gearbox? what gearbox? How will it mate to the rest of the drive train? Steering? Accessories? Engine mounts?
The standard gearbox already fits the transfer box. Which fits the props and the rest of the drivetrain. If you want to retain this, you'll need to mate the engine to the box. Which may involve a custom bell housing. Or you look to use a gearbox that already fits the engine. In which case you'll need an adapter to fit the transfer box. Or you find a gearbox and transfer box that fit the engine. But then you'll have to fabricate mounting for all of them and some how make it fit the rest of the drivetrain. But you may want to replace the axles too at this point.
Once you have this sorted. You can fab up engine mounts. And then address things like a custom exhaust, induction, water system, wiring and so on.
This is why most engine swaps are usually from the same maker. You can replace a Series engine with a Tdi and it'll mate right up to the same gearbox. Which makes it easy. The Rover V8 is also fairly easy. The Td5 could be used too. For similar reasons.
Later Rover gearboxes also mate to all the engines, so make for sensible swaps. They will require some degree of fabrication. But it's a much more bolt it together excercise. And of course lots of people have done it before.
For non LR engines, it's all possible. But will require far more work. And work usually entails lots more time and lots more money. Also having items bespokely made can be trial and error and any R&D comes with risk of it not working as intended.
And you have to weigh up the gains. If the end result is no better than something that would have cost half the amount and taken a quarter of the time to do. Then why bother?