Hello all, first off I'll start by stating the obvious. I've been working at this awhile and didn't want to leave yet another dead end engine swap/build thread on the internet for people to lookup, read, and get nowhere. So here it is my 1999 D1 as I bought it, with its fresh 2" lift "big blue springs and 285/75R16s. The car spent most of its life in Florida so the rust was minimal and it came with some nice goodies like Gwyn Lewis HD rear cranked arms, Terra Firma 3* front arms and a skid plate tucked behind the front bumper.
I had already made plans for an off-road adventure with my wheeling club so I scooped up a winch from a friend, built a bumper known as the "winch tub" and went out to the woods of VT/NH to run some mild trails. I had a blast! This thing is so fun to drive off road. I had moved on from a twin locked long armed XJ on 35's and this open diff Land ROver on 33's had me grinning from ear to ear. But that being said it is a land rover with a V8 at this point. I got hot, it made terrible noises, and I had the slightest gilmour of the forbidden genie (low oil pressure).
So after a big slug of lucas, a cam, lifters, and timing chain, I wheeled it some more. Word to the wise, don't try and do the whole winch plate behind the stock bumper thing. You'll fold the tin bumper in the first time you use it don't ask me how know.
The next rabbit hole was that I was losing power. Struggling to get out of its way, still getting hot, still sounding like a skeleton having a **** in a biscuit tin as they say. I finally dropped the pan to find a pickup tube completely clogged with silicone. Like house caulk silicone. I pulled a main cap and rod end cab and the bearings where wiped straight down to copper. I then had the great brain storm that its essentially a buick v8 and I've spiced up many of other v8's I can give this one the old hotrod try. So in went new cam,main, and rod bearings, a crower cam, I found a unicorn 1995 timing cover, and ran buick HEI with a 4 barrel edelbrock carb.
Worst idea to date and more or less killed me for being able to be on trail rides for the next few years. It ran, it had more power, but it was finicky and would stall off camber. The goal was to go throttle body but never got there. It still got hot it, still got terrible mileage, and eventually blew a head gasket.
4-5 years in a few post and were mostly caught up and onto the good stuff. I had been searching an engine swap even before I bought it. I knew I wanted a Land Rover for a toy and I knew that it would probably let me down on the engine front. In and amongst that time I found Doomsday Diesel had a prototype adapter plate to put a VW TDI in a Land Rover. I had expressed interest and finally got an email that he was going to build some so I jumped on board.
After a few measurements
More measurements, and it was starting to become apparent that it is not an easy fit. And this is why friends I believe these forums aren't full of info and details on this swap.
by dumb luck I bought a BHW TDI out of a passat. It was cheap and already out of the car. I figured if nothing else I could use it for mockup.
come to find out the BHW has one of the beefiest bottomends, more displacement, and lower compression ratio, all that means is it can handle more fuel and boost!
First few test fits did not go well. The PD pump would hit the firewall right where the bulkhead for the A/C lines go through the firewall and at this time I was at a loss for how I was going to get a power steering pump to fit between the frame, the engine, and the steering box. I slotted the T-case mounts to scoot the engine forward as much as I could without disturbing driveshafts too bad.
Here's a few more test fit pics. I seriously had the motor in and out a few times before I finally committed to welding motor mounts, that by the way came in the kit!
I needed wiring, an ECU, and other bits and bobs so I bought a beetle with the very similar BEW 1.9TDI
Good thing too. I ended up using the intake manifold, oil pan the accessory mount and alternator. It was also still a good runner despite needing a ton of maintenance work and had no check engine light so I knew I could harvest it for sensors and such without running into chasing bad parts on a fresh swap. Both engines are known for balance shaft problems and luck for me both engines have had balance shafts deleted.
I like the low pro look and the Idea of mid sump for steep climbs and descents, so I like I said, I used the BEW sump
