Conversion time
Steve goes shopping for the special parts needed to install the ex-discovery 300Tdi into his Ninety’s engine bay
Undertaking the engine conversion on my early Ninety to Discovery 300Tdi power is now well underway. With the 300Tdi engine transported from Farmer David’s on his trailer to my house, I soon set about taking the cylinder head off to ensure all was well with the internals – there’s little point in fitting an engine into the next vehicle and it all going horribly wrong just a few miles down the road.
I also wanted to change the head gasket as I was unsure when, or if it had ever been replaced in the past. Once the head was removed, the bores appeared to show absolutely no signs of wear, despite the 166,000 miles the Disco had on the clock. My mate Pete helped me fit a new water pump, cambelt kit, fan belt tensioner and, before fitting the rocker cover, the tappets were also correctly adjusted. All these jobs were completed more easily with the engine out of the car. I was now in a position to go shopping, so I decided to get in touch with Steve Parker Ltd, as I know they’re experts with Land Rover conversions. Steve in fact started out in the early 1980s, designing and selling kits to fit the Ford V6 engine, amongst others, into Series Land Rovers. I once jointly-owned a Lightweight with Pete many years ago which had been fitted with a 3.0-litre Ford Essex V6, sporting one of his conversions. To say it went well was an understatement – the Lightweight would just about stop wheel spinning somewhere midway through third gear – but that’s another story for another day.
Back to the Ninety… I had a good look through Steve Parker’s website and concluded which parts I would need. It’s actually really straightforward as their kits are all listed, with clear instructions as to what would be needed based on engine choice, gearbox and model of Land Rover. Obviously I have a 300Tdi from a Discovery which I intend mating to the original LT77 gearbox. If I was to utilise the Disco’s R3380 ’box then I would need slightly different parts. I was aware that the Tdi engine would need to be positioned on mounts located further back from the original factory-fitted engine mounts, but prior to even looking at Steve’s website, I cut my existing mounts off with an angle grinder flush to the chassis. Had I looked into it in more detail, I would have bought the new version of the Steve Parker engine mounts, which bolt directly to where the 2.5 NA diesel engines were, negating the need to weld at all or cut the old ones off. If only I had spoken to them first!
So with an empty engine bay and a comprehensive box of parts delivered, first up was to weld on the new mounts. Now there’s something I want to share with you. Pete, who is chief mechanic, allowed me to have a go at welding – out of the two pictures on these pages you can probably guess which mount I welded. To be fair, it ain’t pretty, but it’ll be strong enough. In my defence, it was my first attempt, so hopefully I will improve next time.
What’s fair to say is that for everything supplied from Steve Parkers, it is superbly designed and thought-out, with comprehensive instructions included with every part – it makes the conversion as easy as possible. As the Tdi sits further back than the 2.5 naturally-aspirated lump, the original coolant pipes were too