Do you know what your current horsepower numbers are? Does it feel less or more powerful to drive vs V8? What are your personal cons and pros between the two if there are any cons at all?

 

I have not put it on a dyno to get any solid hp numbers yet. I do feel a considerably higher amount of torque and bottom end. 4 low became much more enjoyable, just dump the clutch and go. It would be very tough to stall it.

I can climb very steep hills in my neighborhood in 3rd gear and maintain an easy 35-40mph. Only thing that limits me from going faster is my exhaust gas temps getting too high because I have the injection pump turned up.

Around town driving is very comparable to the V8 other than waiting for the turbo to kick in at lower RPM's but much better top end acceleration once the boost starts flowing. Merging onto the freeway is probably the least impressive attribute of this motor. It takes a tad longer than the V8 and shifting the manual trans does take away a bit of your momentum. Although, if you accelerate and shift aggressively you can match the pace of a floored V8.

The nice thing is when you get a load under it or pulling a trailer, it pretty much pulls the same whether you have a load or not. This has been nice for when I pull my 3500lb boat. The simplicity of turbo motor allows for lots of easy performance upgrades to turbo and fuel system.

The best part about the whole swap is the peace of mind that these simple diesel motors offer. They either work or they don't. There is no guessing and chasing sensors to find out what misfiring, etc. Rarely have to worry about breakdowns and no electrical demons because the entire engine runs off of 1 single power cable.

All in all, it has greatly increased the driveability and practicality of my discovery. I used to only drive it on weekends and in the mountains, it is now my choice for a daily driver!

I also love how the 5 speed feels to shift

upload foto

 

This thing is like my DREAM! Cool Discovery looks paired with RELIABILITY and fuel economy?? Imagine how much better resale on these things would be if they never put that joke of a v8 in them. Sure, that's a hefty price for a disco but it's not really comparable to other discos anymore. Figure the only reason 4.0's are so cheap is because they're unreliable and thirsty. Sure, maybe it takes some time to make up fuel costs but then factor in a couple head gasket jobs, lost time and frustration and this TDI has more than paid for itself.

Then go out and try to buy something new to compare it to... like maybe a Touareg or Q7 diesel and plan on spending 30k plus for something less cool. IDK, pretty sweet ride if you ask me.

Did you do the swap yourself? Where did you get the 5-spd and engine? Big job?

 

Thanks for the feedback. It's nice that others can see what I see, a totally unique vehicle that has PLENTY of utility to it.

I've been toying with this idea for a couple years and got so sick and tired of jumping on these forums just to see people talking back and forth about the conversion and never getting any solid feedback about the swap. That is what prompted me to move forward with it and see for myself what the pros and cons are. Luckily, I am diesel truck dealer and have some great mechanics that work for me that were willing to take on the project. To answer your question, YES! this project takes some serious time to map out the first time you do it. You're going into uncharted territory and you have to make your own map as you go. It took about 3 weeks of solid 8 hour days to get this first swap done. Good thing is, now we know what to do and we have 3 discos in the shop undergoing swaps right now and they have been a complete breeze. We can finish a conversion in about a week if we have all the parts ready to go.

 

Discovery 2 diesel conversion

i found this and thought it was very inspiring to know that it can be done right.

(Rovacom to access the computers to change settings - there are some who think that simply ripping out the LED's on the dash is enough to stop the crazy lights coming on, but that was not good enough for us - we wanted it right. You have to trick the engine computer that the old V8 is still there, once we worked this out then a whole lot of problems disappeared at once)


i would like to know more about this if someone could shed some light on it!


thanks,

joe

 

Thats a great write up on the D2 Conversion. Being able to retain ABS, TC and all of the electronic gizmos while running the TDI is a major plus (and just goes to show how myths propagate on the internet, I was under the impression that only the age appropriate TD5 would work).

I'm shopping for a new engine, i've been swithering between my desire for a TDI and the fact that if we move from Seattle we couldn't get it registered. removing the loss of the electronics from the equation makes this it a more compelling argument to go for a remanufactured TDI instead of a "new" V8.

 

Good day:

I changed my V/8 up for a 300TDi with 143k miles on it. I changed the head, rebuilt the Fuel Distributor and Turbo Charger.

I also have a 1.6Ltr Jetta Diesel with 500K KMs on it. Still works great. My question is could we expect anything like that from the LandRover 300TDi?

Jetta guys tell me most Volks. TDis can be expected to go 600K miles. Is there any hope for the LandRover 300TDi?I know it depends on how well you take care of it - but, what does that mean? I hear, keep the filters clean and do regular oil changes. We always do that anyway, so no problem there.

My gas mileage went from 13mpg in town & 18mpg highway to 20.1mpg in town and 28mpg on the highway now.

Biggest problem is Cold Weather Starting here in Canada. I recently found an Interstate Battery with 1200 Cold Cranking Amps for $303. Maybe that will solve this problem. Today am doing the Bearing on the Fan Belt Tensioner Pulley as it has squeaked for months, and the belt broke. No Disco Diesels imported to Canada, so bought it on the Internet from the U.K. for $20Cnd delivered by mail.

 

So you have a shop in Utah that does the TDI conversions?

 

I run 3 trucks and all diesels, 1x RRS TdiV6, 1x D2 TD5 and 1x 2.8TD Pajero and I wouldn't ever buy another petrol SUV. Yep, petrol are faster and accelerate quicker but cost more to run and lose your licence quicker also

I'm a diesel convert and have never changed back for many years. I did own a near new 2000 D2 4.0 V8 for 2-3 years but exchanged it for the then new 2003 TD5. To me, IMO, V8 Rover engines are a mechanical disaster waiting to happen sooner or later and real expensive to run especially in insurance and petrol in the UK and europe.

Ironically, the UK, French and european governments encouraged people to buy diesels 5-8 years ago claiming they were more eco friendly, now they are saying the opposite and are maybe going to introduce a penalty tax on diesels does one get the feeling we are being taken for retarded monkeys and future cash cows here.


PS I get on average 28/29 mpg (imp) D2, 33 mpg (imp) RRS but we won't mention the Pajero eh nah, the ole Paj is a disaster, it averages about 23/24 mpg but in it's defence it is rather old and decrepit and uses a mechanical diesel fuel pump but it's still going well after 20 years

 

I drive my 300tdi D1 100% more than my V8 D2. So, much, better.