Started my 200tdi conversion today

I already bought some new half shafts in anticipation of breaking the odd one here or there!

Didn't get chance to do any work last night, ended up painting the dining room and doing a bit of socialising.

But on the rolling 'things i've learnt' front - take the rubber engine mount bits off before trying to fit the engine, then once it's in put them back again - i didn't do this which meant we had to lift the engine over them and the angle approaching the gearbox was not ideal for getting it all to meet up. In the end i snapped one of the rubbers, so removed it and the engine went in a lot easier.

Yes this may all sound obvious, but, trust me, when you are working in freezing conditions with lots of other stuff going on you miss the obvious things.

Not bothered about the cold, so long as its not wet or windy.

I have 1986 defender axles on mine, dunno what spec they are apart from 3.54 diffs, they'll probaby cope with the 300tdi better than the series ones though.

dr pepper said:

Not bothered about the cold, so long as its not wet or windy.

I have 1986 defender axles on mine, dunno what spec they are apart from 3.54 diffs, they'll probaby cope with the 300tdi better than the series ones though.

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3.54 salisbury rear and 3.54 landy front on mine

and the speedo is correct too, got all the stuff off a stage 1 v8. leaf sprung beast that the army used over here for a long time. so they are mostly pretty beaten up

tonight's work:











Thank you to Dr. P for the excellent suggestion or removing the inside bits of the power steering pump. This is now done and mounted again.

Got one of the engine mounts bolted down but couldn't get to other one, might buy a new engine mount to fit tomorrow that might help a bit more as the current problem is the thread is a bit old and rusty.

Got a friend writing a guide for replacing the timing belt on the engine so that's hopefully the next task to be done

Looking good......I got a mate who's a bit of an off-road nutter with a 200tdi in his series and he goes through halfshafts by the armfull, seems to be the weakest link, he's had no diff or gearbox problems.
Got a 200di in mine and while I'm not really into playing off-road she works hard dragging timber in the woods and regularly pulls 1 1/2 tons on the road up and down the Cotswold hills and I use everything the engine's got with no drive train problems in the last 3 years beyond a couple of UJs.
Thinking of extending the shaft on my alternator or making a bracket to move it inline with the crank and water pump pulleys so I can cut out the steering pump altogether and running it all on 1 long belt.
Good luck with the linkages, didn't have any real problems with mine just a bit of head scratching.....um....apart from elec...tricky...ery, luckily I have a mate with a brain that works :frusty:

Thanks!

I'm hoping that degree in Electronic Engineering and day job as a Telecoms Engineer will come in handy when it comes to the electrics!

Think i'm going to use a bit of flexi for the exhaust too.

And going to put a snorkel on with an air filter on the top instead of an internal air filter.

lucky you.......if I ever decide to fit composite helecopter rotor blades to my landy my degree will REALLY come into its own :doh:

That would be an interesting conversion...

Problem with degrees is it teaches you theory. I could draw a circuit diagram off the top of my head for a car. But stick your head into the engine and it suddenly becomes apparent that although that theory is good, knowing what bit is what and how you connect to it, etc. is a lot harder.

I tried this last night, got a bit confused and spent until 1am chatting to a friend who is an auto spark. Hoping tonight will be more productive

Well I also have a similar qualification to you, but I work in the telephone exchanges on the engines and batteries which is quite useful when it comes to re wiring stuff like this it's just the mechanical stuff that sometimes takes a bit of thinking.....

Hopefully get my arse into gear soon and get the 200tdi in my 109 series 3 soon

Bit of an update as to where i am at (i gave up early tonight as everything was just too damn cold, i could hardly hold the spanners they were that cold)

- Got the engine all bolted down with new engine mounts. Should have thought of changing them before putting the engine in. The drivers side one is a right bugger.

- I had intended on changing the timing belt, so locked the bolt on a breaker bar against the chassis, gave the starter a bit of power, starter motor engaged, bolt did not slacken. Infact, the bit of wire i was using to earth the battery to the engine just started to smoke. Guess i need to upgrade the earth wire then (i was using the series one)

- Given up on the timing belt. I will take it to my local landy garage when i'm up and running and get them to do it for me.

- Ripped out every single wire from the whole vehicle. It was a mess. a REAL mess. Wiring harness for the series was knackered and i'd by-passed it so many times when things had stopped working. So plan is to re-wire it all from scratch. Should be fairly straight forward.

- Bought the bits to make myself a snorkel and bought some 2 1/2" flexi exhaust to get past the chassis, then just need to work out how to do the rest. Not got an exhaust yet, that maybe a trip to the scrappy tomorrow.

So, the weekends plan is to:

Wire her up fully.

Sort out fuel system (any suggestions on cleaning a petrol tank to use it as a diesel tank welcomed)

Deliver rest of disco to friend and collect cash to pay for more bits i require!

fix + bleed breaks (yey ) - i accidently sliced through one of the pipes with the grinder earlier.

**Hopefully** get the engine running and if time start plumbing in radiator, heater, etc.

Don't worry about cleaning residual petrol out of tank, just empty as much as you can, and then top up with diesel.

A basic diesel engine will run pretty well on upto 25% petrol anyway - they used to add petrol to winterise diesel.

Mark

ahh ace, well tank is empty so it should run fine then. thanks

MikeDowson said:

So, the weekends plan is to:

Wire her up fully.

Sort out fuel system (any suggestions on cleaning a petrol tank to use it as a diesel tank welcomed)

Deliver rest of disco to friend and collect cash to pay for more bits i require!

fix + bleed breaks (yey ) - i accidently sliced through one of the pipes with the grinder earlier.

**Hopefully** get the engine running and if time start plumbing in radiator, heater, etc.

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so what you up to the rest of the weekend.......

blue beasty said:

so what you up to the rest of the weekend.......

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Laying 25.84 square meters of laminate flooring!!!

It's why its taking me so long, each evening is some time spent on the Landy and some on the house.

I,m watching this post v/carefully. Had my s111 3 weeks now and love it to bits(apart from the clutch m/cylinder which i,m going to change today, yes in the snow)but i like the idea of a bit more ooomph, so ive bought a 200tdi lump. I,m in 2 minds with this one, i fancy the ide of more power but dont fancy the idea of breaking things. Are you running the engine standard, do you think its worth running with a bit less boost if possible, dont want to go beserk, just have a bit more grunt.
cheers
Dave

I had my '62 2a with the semi crash 'box converted to a 200tdi last year. My mechanic mate told me just to take it easy in 1st and 2nd and let the torque and turbo do the business in 3rd and 4th.
Mine's on standard boost but no intercooler - still looking in to that one.
Good luck.

****ant said:

I,m watching this post v/carefully. Had my s111 3 weeks now and love it to bits(apart from the clutch m/cylinder which i,m going to change today, yes in the snow)but i like the idea of a bit more ooomph, so ive bought a 200tdi lump. I,m in 2 minds with this one, i fancy the ide of more power but dont fancy the idea of breaking things. Are you running the engine standard, do you think its worth running with a bit less boost if possible, dont want to go beserk, just have a bit more grunt.
cheers
Dave

Click to expand...

At the risk of repeating myself and getting shouted down its a fantastic lump without the turbo.......fantastic for towing and with an overdrive happy at 70 on the motorway but yes....you can put 112bhp through a series drive train so long as your careful when you boot it......just remember you still only got series brakes to stop it.....:doh:

Well today the beast lived! Engine started far easier than my TD5, on a little old petrol battery too, went forward a bit to check clutch, all working fine. (maybe 5 seconds on starter before kicking in, probably less, second time starting was nearer 2 seconds)



Not plumbed up yet or electrics done properly as i spent most of the day painting bits of chassis and delivering the rest of the disco to a friend, but, hopefully tomorrow it will get a bit closer

Things are looking good, i am very happy!

Oh and in the turbo / no turbo. I was intending to go the no turbo route, but, realised it was easier to leave the turbo on, and, well, i'm lazy.

I am watching avidly.
i want to see exactly what you do. the last engine transplant i did (ford 2.5 di) took 10 months as i slipped two discs in my back so progress was slow.
keep posting the photos please.

Today's Landy related task, a battery box. Series landy's normally have the battery in the engine bay, but, adding the 200tdi decreases the space + water and batteries don't mix when going through big puddles. So the 90 approach of putting it under the passenger seat has been adopted. Slight problem being there isn't space as standard - and - in my case the floor was rusty and rather religious. So I cut out the old floor and built a new one. Great chance to use the new sheet metal folder. It will now be going back to Machine Mart - as it's not quite the same as in the pics on the box, and the new design is **** and doesn't work.
The old floor:


Chasis also got painted yesterday!

Cut away:



New floor, lowered and painted - there are some small gaps which will be silicon sealed at a later date




What i'm working with, it was -9*c on the themometer and my cup of tea on the wing had frozen.