I'd give that much for a 110with half a chassis and a bulk head made from swiss cheese.

 

Just so you know, diesels are not high horse power engines nor are they meant to go fast.
Their sole purpose is to drive slow, work hard and produce tons of torque.
No matter what diesel you chose it is not going to push your brick down the expressway at 80mpg, you are looking at topping out around 70mph.

So again, I ask, why do you want to do this?
So you will have the ultimate off road machine, to make a 100% off road trek across the US? Or to pull stumps out of the ground for a living?

If i remember right the TD5 has 120 horse power.

 

Yes I know, but realistically this is a 4500 ton brick like you said. I never expected this to be a HP-Monster. I just want something to drive around town, and on the highway, and be able to off-road, while getting at least 25mpg. The 200TDI is sounding good since it is not that different from the 300TDi, like I said it is not about the power, and it is less complicated to service.

 

I completely understand and admire your passion. I have a project vehicle myself, and a couple things that have come up for me over the past few years....

Where will you store it while you are working on it?

Have you mapped out an estimated completion time for this project, or do you have a "drop-dead" date as a deadline?

Lastly, I'm really thrown off by your "my wallet and Claire won't get along" comment. If you can't afford the gas/maintenance/repairs now, how can you afford to import/install a diesel and transmission, on top of the other maintenance items on the truck? A diesel won't magically make everything else invincible, you know

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Not meaning to **** on your parade, just want to make sure you aren't looking at this through "diesel goggles" which are similar to "beer goggles" when you're trying to pick up a girl at the end of the night at the bar and a 4 looks like an 8

 

i would just import a RRC with a disesl in it then u can use the RRC with parts as well that will fit ur D1.

 

For roughly $3000 you can import a DI with a 200TDI and a 5-speed, take the parts you want, sell the rest.
Or even swap your V8 and auto trans into the donor and sell it that way.
Honestly, that would be your cheapest route.

 

Exactly.

 

Sorry guys but you can't get any D1 or Defender, all costs included, landed to North America for USD 3,000 unless somebody gives you the D1 and delivers it for free to the port. Anybody who suggests you can obviously hasn't done it and if they have please show your invoices. Ro/Ro from Europe alone is going to cost close to 3k when all is said and done. Ro/Ro is about 1.5k for a land rover. Then you have bunker surcharges, custom clearance, fuel surcharges, port fees. doc fees and the list goes on. This will easily add up to another 1k -1.5k. Been there, done that. So count on 3k for Ro/Ro and double that for a 20ft container. If it is coming to the USA cross your fingers because customs can easily add another 1k to the bill if they want any searches or exams. BTW if you try to bring a diesel D1 into the USA, you will have to export it immediately or else customs will seize it and fine you. So realistically you are looking at least 3k for shipping alone for a 25+ year old Rover.

 

Hi,

I am new to this forum but not to Land Rovers. I found this an interesting read and hope this is still active.

I have been wanting to do a swap for some time as I own 2 diesel Discos in Europe. My first is a 95 TDI 5 speed that I have owned since 99 and my second is an 02 TD5 that I have owned since 07. The 95 has about 255,000km (about 150K miles) and the 02 has about 130,000 km (80K miles). Both were bought from Germany, tha latter owned by a mechanic. I have had very few problems with either one which is saying quite a bit as they are driven in Bulgaria and the roads and conditions are pretty rough on vehicles.

The foremost reason I would say for doing the conversion is for mileage but at these costs it has to be because you love diesels. For reference at 70mph on the motorways I averaged about 27-28 mpg with the 5 speed and about 25-26 mpg with the auto. It would be good to point out that mpg figures posted from members from England might be based on the imperial gallon so they will be about 20% higher. For further reference the 300 Tdi will push the Disco down the motorway at 80mph and even faster. I routinely drove 130 - 150 km/hour (80-90 mph) on the motorways and even topped out just over 160 km/hour but found this isn't good for the turbo hoses ! I would have to agree that 70 mph is a more comfortable cruising speed.

For the original poster I would have to say that the 300 TDI motor would probably be the best bet. I know that there was concern with added electronics over the 200 and I have the 2 door version with not many electronics other than A/C.

Was the original poster speaking of buying a new engine ? Personally I do not see why spending this amount for that model year when there are decent lower mileage motors available in the UK.

When speaking about importing entire cars for the motor, I doubt this would be possible at all since to get a decent one I would think that all Discos with the 300 motor are less than 25 years old. I doubt they would even clear customs unless they make exceptions for military personnel which they probably don't.

My thought would be to import a used engine, ecu, needed transmission parts and fuel set up in order to drop in. I did come across a company selling 200 and 300 tdi motors (might be the one referred to on this thread) for about $3,500 used or $5,500 rebuilt. This would lead me to believe that one can import the parts needed, although it would be a bit of work and research. The only question would be if one could find a consignment space in a container to make the shipping cost reasonable. I found that used TD5 motors with between 70K-80K on them are running about £500-£600 ($800-$950) fairly complete and 300 tdi motors should be less that this.

Does anyone know if the transmission in the 01 V-8s can be modified to work with the TD5 motor. I assumed they wouldn't but came across a forum in Austraila where some builders were saying they are the same ZF transmission numbers but with different bell housing & transfer case. They also said something about using a different TC. Even if it can be modified I would think that the TCU would need to be changed.

I might look into doing one later this year as I found a very good condition 01 Disco with a blown head that the owners might just give away. Still on the fence about going with a TD5 or the 300. The TD5 in my personal opinion is a bit smoother.

 

Great info, thank you.