Great information, appreciate the time you took for pictures.. etc. I 5spd Disco just surfaced in my neck of the woods, but he is pretty proud of it so I may just wait for another. If it doesn't sell after a week or two, I might throw him an offer. Getting a disco with the R380 would seem the most logical, I was just thinking if they don't surface very often, I could pick away at getting parts made (adapters, bushing adapter..etc) while waiting on the right donor with a spare transmission sitting on the floor.

How much did you pay for your 240 flywheel setup, I need to start keeping my eyes peeled for one. I'm not sure how difficult they will be to source. Finding the right flywheel / flywheel ring gear / appropriate starter was already a mess I fought with the diesel ranger. Keeping it benz is the way to go for a lot of reasons.

I don't remember reading about that aluminum spacer in between the crank and the manual flywheel when I skimmed the thread for the first time, I'll go back and read it again. I kinda jumped towards the end the first time I ran across it, most threads died years ago with nobody really getting anywhere on the project.. except the illusive Jarek.

Did you just make your aluminum spacer at home? How thick is it? Obviously without both the Engine / Trans and flywheels sitting in front of me it makes it a bit difficult to measure. With whatever thickness that aluminum spacer is, how thick is your adapter plate going to have to be? I'm assuming that your bronze sleeve / bearing gets pressed into that as well!

Thanks again for the info, watching closely!

Bro.. First, I never said anything about an aluminium spacer, as it may be just a candidate for an adapter material....second, you should give respect to contributors of any thread enough to READ and not SKIM the info as you may MISS something as I believe you may have missed a few key facets to this particular build.

I have been told that the adapter plate thickness is to be in 3/4".... I state clearly AGAIN that I do not have the power and drive train on my garage floor in order to take any measurements.

As impressed I am at the fact that you actually fabricated this ford diesel out of a fork lift...... Please do not hijack this thread with questions to relating to statements or insinuations that were never made by me.... Please read the full text

Furthermore, Jerek is a good fabricator as well as a great pioneer in this type of conversion, further I may be stepping out there to say that I believe he may be the first to ACTUALLY do this conversion. Althought there are a few videos on youtube i believe to be real but Jerek showed the STEPS he took to get his Diesel rig up and running. I think his process may have lacked a few key components (and do not ask me what they were) otherwise his conversion would have been and still would be a running success. Where it is my own speculation as to the actual cause of demise his project, I believe he had poor oil circulation as well the fact he personally noted to me the intense amount of vibration he experienced once his torque converter was situated on an extension of two square aluminium rods milled and drilled although seemingly perfectly, did not match the weight of the crank for balancing. I wish I lived close enough to him as I would offer my help and ask for his when i needed it.

Balancing of the crank is absolutely critical to longevity of your OM617 motor

That said, I am still elated to have you along. Please read the entries in their entirety before posing opposing or contradictory observations as well as irrelevant leading questions or statements . I would love to keep this thread TOTALLY positive as well as objective.

I am just noting the items I have available to me that may make it work.
I have not alot of money for material appropriation otherwise this thread would have been pinned stickey and done about a year ago. thanks. ggfn!

If you have n opportunity to get a D1 or even a D2 with manual R380, I suggest you do inless you want to deal with a rash of complications with an auto box conversion.

As I said pm me and i can give you my number so we can discuss particulars and eliminate debate or rational on the open floor here.

Ok man,

First, I didn't mean to offend you or make anyone think I don't care about their input / advice / ideas by not reading every post in its entirety related to your build, I mentioned that I planned and still do plan on reading and understanding everyones input ... not only on your thread, but all threads pertaining. I've been doing these searches and replies mostly on my limited smart phone, that is undoubtably not the most ideal forum reader. I've been away from my home and computer and will be returning tonight.

Second, I'm in NO way discrediting Jarek AT ALL with his fabrication skills or abilities, his end result has been impressive both times that he installed the engine in his Discovery. I've read and tried to piece everything I could from his initial build on NJLR to his thread on 4BT SWAPS and his second build thread on NJLR.. along with any Youtube videos he put up. All that I was trying to say was that as well as he documented the build initially, and the second build when he was going through the engine, I haven't been able to piece much of his final result. Is it driving now? Last I bit of update I can gather is he was just setting his rebuilt/refreshed OM617 in the bay 3-4 months ago, and hasen't updated or made any comments on how everything turned out. I was only trying to give him credit by crediting him by saying that he truly was one of the only people I have seen being successful and he seems to disappear. I remember reading that same opinion in "ngarover's" thread by "Charlie_V"

Any case, what I was referring to was :

You called it an "aluminum disc" this is what I was referring to and what my questions where directed towards. Sorry for the confusion.

I have tried to PM you, but again, for some reason I cannot get into my "Private Messages" on my phone. I likely won't be able to until I can get on my laptop. I think it much be a glitch on my phone.

I do not want to deal with the 4 speed auto, and would only consider the r380 IMHO. I just haven't come across the right deal yet I too am limited on my budget and would want to be as cost effective as possible. I'm not sure what exactly you mean by "eliminate debate or rational on the open floor here." I was thinking by carrying out our conversation here, onlookers would have the ability to more easily follow the direction of your project, or mine, rather than leaving information elsewhere? I'm obviously not very far in my project. My first priority is to deal with the engine and get it running, and running well of course.

I don't mean to hi-jack, certainly don't mean to offend anyone, sorry.

No worries. Didn't mean to jump you sh*t. I appreciate the research anyone can do and as you site references shows you have been everywhere that this info is contained. The "disk" has a hole in it that may be close to the OD of my output shaft. I thought the material it's self would be an appropriate fit for closing the distance between shaft and crank bore or flywheel bore.

I have researched this project for over a year including reading and reading all the info out there 5xs over and watched EVERY video on youtube at lease enough to be called an obsessive wing nut.

I may have caused more confusion with that disk in the picture as I did not explain that I may not even use or how is may be applied to my build. I am sooooo close to realizing my plan my way I have dreams and talk in my sleep about it my wife says. LOL.

You get my PM? any updates on your build?

Basically the guy helping me do the build has gotten too busy to help finish it. Going to bring the whole project home and decide what to do from there. One issue, the aluminum plate came in and was twice the thickness it should have been. Nobody around here seems to have the ability to cut in in half. So I'm sitting here with a large chunk of unusable aluminum. I'm not about to spend that amount of money again to order another piece.

In my project, the clutch was resurfaced, using kevlar. The original R380 flywheel was machined to bolt up to the om617, and there was a custom throwout bearing made to fit it.

To finish the project would require at a minimum, a 5 inch lift of the truck (for the oil pan to clear the front axel) The spacer between the trans and motor fabricated. The R380 rebuilt, since it was falling out of gear. etc...

My engine is almost brand new... it has 6500 miles on it and was built by metric motors. I've been tossing around just buying a jeep and getting the kit for it thats available, then just sell off the parts I have as scrap to cover the cost and taking the loss. In the end I think I would end up with a much more reliable vehicle thats a lot cheaper to work on and get parts for.

no updates as yet. just finished a driveline job on a rusty dirty and annoying RRC LWB after 2 weeks. haven't time to scratch my *** but took a print of a zf4hp22 auto bell housing assuming it is the same as r380 to rover V8. As mentioned early on in this thread, I plan to use HDPE if not for my adapter at least for a template. I will edit this with a picture. Comments welcome... just as an info r830 conversion Range Rover Discovery V8 R380 5 Speed Conversion Package Manual Transmission | eBay

Saw all of them except this one http://njlr.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=659
this is new since i was deep in research. This is all new to me.

i like especially the the franko's version of the motor mounts. square tube stock looks like 3/16 or almost 1/4 inch. I have a 98 that I just ripped out a motor and have a core zf4hp22 that should have the same belll housing as r380.... here are some pics from today. difficult to comment on pics until they show up in thread...

In white is my HDPE plate approx 3/4 in and i took a spray can to the back of my core zf4hp22 bell housing /// new comers know i will be using R380 manual and NOT a zf4hp22 auto box. I did this print assuming the r380 and zf4hp22 auto bellhousing are the same.

Here is a 4.0 out, a om617 out, as well as a 240D manua flywheel mounted up to the 98 4.0 with BMW flywheel and there is absolutely no play in drive plate from bmw to OD of my 240 flywheel. The benz 3.0 5 cyl om617 absolutely drwarfs the 4.0 rover v8. Un believable!

I have to swap out the break booster and pedal pate and a few other things.

Comments and questions welcome.

I am sorry you are having dificulty with your build. Honestly the Jeep build is less work but i find the seats uncomfortable. you can do more with the Jeep for axle articulation than the rover but... I have to disagree about cost of parts ... In my neck of the woods rover parts are available at junk yard and any other suspension and driveline parts are available. I will not use Brit Atl or a few other "Rover" sources online except Trevor at Rovah Farm and Nigel at Nigel's Car Place as they are very reasonable pricewise and VERY knowlagable. They are from UK. These trucks there are like the Chevy here in the states. Reliability is, in my humble opinion a mater of proactive maintenance

On the adapter plate, that sucks but you can get for a 3rd of the cost HDPE material that will do the job. a 4x6 sheet costs about 130.00 Find a local distributor of plastics and they will hook you up. I plan to use it and if it does not stand up to twisting and heat, I can make about 4 templates...lol

Good luck and I hope your build goes well or you step off with no ill will!

Sorry to hear that ngarover, seems that everyone I've researched falls under the same fate. Spending a bunch of time and money to fall short. I hope that it doesn't happen to you too, even if that does mean that you end up using a wrangler or some other. raeuspius is really motivated and may pave the way for a lot of us with concerns if he can find solutions to our problems. Hope you can hold out!