Hello Guys!!!

And here again..... The project I started a couple of years ago (a Disco 1 300tdi conversion) had a change.... The body of my discovery was so rusty that it didnt worth to repair it. The car had also several other problems to repair and I decided to find a better car to continue.

I found a very nice Discovery 2003 in California, without an engine. The car arrived last week to my country and now it is in my front yard waiting for me.

Does anyone has installed a 300tdi in a Disco2 before? Any lights on this?

My car has also 18 rims and I already had purchased a new set of rim 16 tires for the Disco 1. I realized also that the bolt pattern is different in both rims, so I can not just change rims between the two cars. Also, it seems that I need to have a giant torque wrench to replace the hubs of the wheels in case I decide to use the hubs of the Disco 1 in the new car. I would like to find an easy way to change the tires, between normal to AT, in case I decide to go offroading. Any suggestion?

 

There are lots of threads on diesel conversions, most ending in "decided it wasn't worth it". However, this is based on US owners. Depending on what country you're in (assuming Canada???) could change everything.

 

He has his location as Guatemala.


Land Rover Las Vegas has a 300 Tdi D2

I would go with a a TD5

 

Stupid Mobile version!

 

At least you can get it to work, every time I press to load it, it turns to letters and numbers and does nothing else....

 

Well guys.... just to keep you posted on this:

The car is already in my country. This week I hired a couple of handy men to help me deal with the amount of work that will require this conversion.... I think it will take me at least one week to remove the engine from my current Disco 1 and put it in the Disco 2. Will be doing this in my garage... so, the speed will not be as I would like it to be. The bad side on this is that today is my last day of vacations and have to go back to work on monday and will not be able to work on this project full time.

The good news are that the new Disco has almost Zero corrosion on it and the overall state of the car is very, very good considering that it was manufactured about 12 years ago.

This is the second conversion I do on this car. The first one was when I installed the 300tdi engine to a 1994 V8 Discovery. This was very easy compared to the conversion I am working now. Most of the circuits were very similar and it was easy to reconnect the wires and indicators in the dashboard. In that project, my mechanic worked with the nuts and screws and I worked in all the electric/electronic. in a couple of days I was able to identify and reconnect most of the circuits needed.

Well... before buying this car, I did not imagine the complexity of the conversion, specially in the reconnection of all the systems and accessories. Everything is managed by the BCU or ECU, and since this engine does not use an ECU, the things get complicated. I will have to find a way to make each system to work without an ECU and of course there will be some features that will be lost, for example, the Anti Theft System, which somehow will need to be bypassed.

I am not sure if I will be capable of finding an elegant solution to the electrical problems I am facing now or if the car will be a mix of cut cables, aftermarket sensors and indicators or if things like the power windows, air conditioning, sunroof, etc. will work. There are some things that I can live without (Automatic Air Conditioning, for example), but there are others that are really important, like the Engine Cooling Temperature indicator in the dash.

I am trying to figure out if the ECU/BCU can be somehow cheated to make them think that the old V8 engine is still there and is working. It seems that there are several circuits that are managed by the ECU/BCU but do not require the engine to be turned on. For example, the wipers, headlamps, windows, central lock, and some others. This may help me to enable all the accessories in the car. My goal is to make the car look factory original but I am very short of time and money.

Please wish me a lot of luck and patience, and if anyone can provide me some lights on how to bypass or cheat the ECU/BCM, I will send a box of beer and/or a couple of bottles of Zacapa Centenario (please google it!!!) to his door.

Will try to put some pics during the week so you get an idea of what I am doing now.

This week I did the following:

Removed:
Automatic gearbox, transfer box, and propeller shafts. (the car came without engine)
Canister and fuel lines.
Vacuum pump.
Fuel pump.
V8 engine mounts.

Other:
Gas tank cleaned.
Sealed hose which connects the gas tank cap to the canister.

In progress:
Remove oil from the carpet of the trunk. Someone very smart thrown about 1 liter of engine oil in the carpet..... have been washing it two days and it still has oil. Any idea on how to remove it easily? Yesterday I used about 1KG of powder soap, today 1 gallon of engine degreaser, and it still has oil.
New engine mounts already cutted and formed, but pending to be welded to the chassis.

For this week and maybe the next:
Power scrub the engine and chassis of the old Discovery just to have a cleaner working area.
Remove and power wash engine, Gearbox and transfer case.
Fix some oil leaks, change the core plugs in the engine.
Double check all the body of the new disco for corrosion and repair it.
Apply rubberized undercoating to the new disco.
Fix a belt whining in the 300tdi which is driving me crazy.
Reinstall the engine in the new disco and leave it ready to be connected to the wiring.


Circuits identified which seem that will work easily:
Battery indicator
Oil pressure.
Heater.

-Circuits which will require further investigation because the operation is managed by the ECU or by the BCU:
-Air Conditioning: AC compressor is earthed trough the ECU.
-Cooling: Cooling fan is earthed trough the ECU.
-Engine Coolant Temperature indicator and sensor: The indicator in the dash is managed by the ECU but requires the input from the sensor. in the 300tdi the dash indicator is connected directly to the sensor in the engine.
-Speedometer and Tachometer: also managed by ECU.
-Starter Relay: The starter relay is energized without engine, but the current does not flow to the started solenoid connector because the ground of the coil is managed by the ECU....
-Main Relay: the ground of its coil is managed also by the ECU/BCU... this is an important issue to solve because this relay energizes several other components/circuits.

 

Well...

It seems that there is an elegant fix to the electrical connections, but it seems that I need a Rovacom or a T5 Tool.... I think this may be very expensive to buy one of these tools to modify only one car.

Is there any cheap alternative to connect to the ECU of the car and change the settings? Any light on this?

The reference to the Rovacom / T5 is in this site:
Discovery 2 diesel conversion

 

You have taken one of the bravest Discovery projects from my perspective.

I do not know much about the TDI conversions in Discos. However, I have come across the postings of a local guy here in Portland, Oregon. I do not know him personally, but have come across his blog:

Laughs And Lashings

He may be able to point you in the right direction where needed if you come across any issues with the conversion project.

Here is his most recent TDI conversion on a 2001 Disco:
Laughs And Lashings: 2001 Discovery II 300tdi turbo diesel / R380 5-speed conversion


And another on a 1997 Disco:
http://laughsandlashings.blogspot.co...-w-300tdi.html

 

I believe the Rovacom has been superceded by the Nanocom Evolution (specifically Nanocom Evolution for TD5 Discovery II kit in your situation):


https://blackbox-solutions.com/shop/

 

pm'd



also, nice work!


Obviously as you've already found, the 300tdi in a D1 was much easier because the car was designed for a tdi, the d2 was designed for a Td5. Good luck though, it's a very cool project!