22 mpg or bust.... and reliable. Engine swap discussion thread.
 

Hey guys! Back at it again with another hair brained idea.

So here's the inside scoop. I'm moving north to Cleveland, OH to persue a mechanical engineering degree as well as an opportunity at NASA Glenn Research Center. The degree is a 5 year commitment and 7 hours from home. If I ever want to be able to see my family and girlfriend (who will be 3 hours away south of Pittsburg) then I'm going to need something fiel efficient. This is also just shy of the great white North, so 4wd is going to be a must. The Silverado at 15mpg highway isn't going to cut it. I'm looking to get well more than 20.

Well I've been scheming you see. I've got this beautiful 03 Discovery just sitting there with a nearly empty engine bay. Why buy a vehicle when you can build one? This is where I start to get a trouble. Something about too many projects, but there's some kind of screaming deal.

Needless to say, I've been looking at engine options. I want to keep the stock transfer case and everything after it, at least for the time being. I want a manual transmission. Minimum 5 speed, but I'm thinking 6. And then there's the engine.

Oh the options. SBC is cheap and plentiful, but hardly going to get 20 mpg no matter how you build it.

LS is nearly as cheap and more plentiful now a days, but 20 is still hard to achieve without major weight reduction.

Diesel? 4bt is always an option. Should be able to break 20 and the swap should be fairly straight forward.

But no, none of these appeal to me quite like the next. Listen to this one: a Ford Ecoboost V6 out of an F150, mated to a 6 speed manual transmission and adapted to the drivetrain. Should be able to hit low 20s with ease. Maybe mid 20s on the highway. And I've heard wonderful things about their reliability. The people I know who have them absolutely love them, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think they sounded good.

In stock form putting down a drivetrain shattering (for our trucks probably) 360 hp and 400 ft/lb of torque. Easily tunable to 400 hp / 475 torque I'm sure.

Anyway, throw me your ideas. If you've got alternatives I'd love to hear them. Tell me your experiences with these engines, pros and cons, anything you've got for me. Even if it's about an engine I didn't list, throw it in. And transmission ideas. Frankly I haven't even looked yet, so tell me what you know.

Thanks guys!

Thanks! It's just an internship as part of the degree program, but those often lead into jobs. Pretty exciting.

I've thought about it, but honestly I can't find anything I want that does what I need for less than 20k anyway. If I'm spending that much I might as well have it be exactly what I want.

Additionally, the Disco needs a new engine anyway and I'm not going to put another Rover V8 back. At the very least it's getting an old school small block from one of the big three, but I'd love to morpb it back into DD duty.

Get a B5/B6 Audi A4 :dunno:

You can find those all day long for $5kish -- throw another $4-5k at it and you'll have a fast 4wd with good MPG!

If you are going to be in the Cleveland area, spend a day with Eric (at 4X4 Trailhead, which is just a few miles south). Not to be rude, but you will learn more from him in a day...than all of us here in a year...or two. He's a rover guru.

As far as gas mileage goes...in my opinion...it has little to do with the engine in these rovers. It is more reliant on drive train issues. My Silverado, l can let off the gas at the beginning of a long exit ramp and still have to break hard at the stop sign. The Discovery, if l let off immediately after exiting the expressway...l'm back into the gas shortly afterwards to "get" to the end of the ramp. These things have the rolling resistance of a turd.

Another issue, about creating a build of this sort...would be vehicle systems interfacing with one another. Finding or having firmware written to accomplish this would be difficult or expensive. Me, considering your endeavor in Cleveland (internship), l'd find another rover engine for a few hundred dollars, at a junkyard or wreck...and throw that in and save the money you didn't spend on this project for gas. My 01 got 16 mpg, solid, going to Ohio on the expressway. So, to gain a few more miles per gallon...after doing all of this work (and having an engine with a system you probably couldn't monitor anymore) and expense...sounds...well...illogical.

Me, l say...get your career in order...then when the time is right...do this build.

Now, after all of that...and you still want to go through with this...l say...stay with a Chevy power plant. Heck, someone recently had the adapter plate and stuff for the conversion for sale on Discoweb. This way...you aren't reinventing the wheel...so to speak. And there will probably be more information avaliable.

Good luck, with your new endeavor.

Brian.

Hi Alex, congrats on the course. But, you'll never find a gas D2 to achieve 22 mpg only a diesel. If you're prepared to pootle along at say 30mph many cars with gas engines will do but in all honesty find yourself a good popular re-saleable car that is easily fixed (NOT an LR) and go with that, the problem with 4x4 is they have more parts to break or wear and they use more gas and wear tires faster. Good luck (apologies if it all seems too practical)

Diesel just drop the Rover Td5 in there and be done. It is a direct fit and you can order the whole thing out of the UK. They run about 30 MPG.