Blown a pot on my recently purchased 1982 swb series 3. Been quoted £900 to rebore the one pot and rebuild - but advised to find a replacement engine.

Which is the easiest fit, guy at garage said Defender 200tdi, told by someone else that a Disco engine would also fit.

What would need the least work/modification.

Thanks in advance, sorry if it's a little basic, but we've all got to start somewhere.

defender 200 tdi would be easier but hard to find ,disco more awkward but easier and cheaper to find ,average cost of reboring 4 x cylinders plus honing to piston + clearance size £120 + vat ,pistons plus rings £20 each + vat ,bearings seals etc £60,id never rebore one pot unless fitting a liner and putting back to same size as others

Cheapest option is find another 2.3 diesel and fit that, straight swap. Tdi conversion is more involved, MAY affect your insurance premium also as its now a modified vehicle - you ought also to think about brake upgrades if you go down that route. Depends how fussed you are about originality really, in the long run more original vehicles hold their value better.

im putting a disco 200 into my 88 nothing overly difficult if you have a bit of mechanical competence, and the convertion is well documented on here and on the web

someone here has advised you backwards on which tdi is the easier fit, the defender tdi requires you to move a chassis mount due to the shape of the timing chest and the position of the injector pump

whereas the disco tdi doesn't as the injector pump is higher up the side of the engine, this engine really isn't a difficult one to fit in an 88" but if your not reasonably handy with a box of spanners i'd suggest you do a little research and find a few threads that document the fitting, there is several ways of completing it and you just need to be able to decide how you want to fit it

quick and dirty it can be completed in 3.5 - 4 full days on your own including making your own exhaust

but if you want to make a nice tidy job of it spend a full week on it

my first was done in a rush (early S3/late 2a bitsa and my only transport) and i had never worked on a series before really, my second was done at my leisure as it's my show car/limosine/nice motor (1965 109) so i took my time and a lot more in depth thinking

i'm now building my third, a 1959 88" which again is going to be a tidy motor under the skin and 200tdi powered

but if you want really simple for whatever reason i'd suggest replacing with an original engine plus there'll be no custom bits needed and everything you'll require will be easily obtainable and probably work out cheaper if you can't fabricate/weld or have limited spanner ability/tools as i suspect you have (no offence intended), don't forget you'll need access to an engine hoist, they can be hired or bought plus enough space to do the work