If priced reasonably, I'd buy the kit when the time comes.

 

Definitely a market for this if priced reasonably. Only reason anyone stays with the Rover V8 when an engine is needed is the current swap kits are outrageous.

 

The only way California would be happy...is if you were making it an electric option...lol.

Good luck, with your project. If this would have been an option years ago...probably a lot of Discovery's would still be on the road.

Brian.

 

The rules for swaps in CA are tight, but doable. It has to be from the same class of vehicle (no truck motors in cars), same year or newer, and it must retain 100% of the factory emissions equipment. Then it must be inspected, at which point the car should get a BAR sticker, which a smog station can scan when they're doing the smog check.

I looked into doing this with my VW with an engine swap from a later model VW -- (Mk2 with a Mk3 motor) but sold the car before i had a chance to do so.

 

Following this. Thx.

 

First, let me say this is an amazing build and I too will be following its progress. These old trucks need exactly this kind of an option and I'm impressed by your work. I will add that the 4HP24 is also known as the achillies heel of the big BMW M70 V12 cars back in the 90s however. I can't quote you actual numbers but there were lots of these cars that experienced trans problems by 100k and engines were available for a song, I know a few guys who transplanted them into E28s and E34s. It does give me an idea about the old M70 engine should I come up an another however Anyway, the LS doesn't have to be made into a hotrod (or used as one) in our trucks, just needs to be more reliable and efficient than the Rover supplied engine, and this looks like a cost effective solution for both targets. Bravo.

 

Thank you! We've put in a lot of long hours and hard work into this conversion. Had my own Disco engine not blown, then I probably would never have looked into building this. Now seeing how good its turning out, I believe that it could be a viable alternative to the Rover V8. The 5.3 makes plenty of power to pull the Disco along on regular gas and it should last the life of the truck.

The primary reason we went with keeping the 4HP24 was because it seemed uselessly expensive to replace a perfectly good transmission. After running it behind the LS, it seems to be capable of handling the power. It shifts very smooth and has no idea there's a different engine powering it. Like you said, the LS doesn't have to turn the Disco into a hotrod. For day-to-day usage it should be fine. The LS I am using only makes 35 ft-lbs more peak torque than the 4.6.

On a side note, I believe Dinan even offered a shift kit for the 4HP24 with a bigger torque converter and transmission cooler for their twin turbo 850i setups and those made huge power. I think adding a second transmission cooler to the 4HP24 could be a practical option if people are looking to get more power out of the 5.3.

 

Now that you mention it, Disco transmissions do seem to be a dime a dozen and rarely are problematic in them. That's another reason this seems like a no-brainer. Definitely interested in where this goes.

 

So, how much is this gonna cost?
No more than?

 

Still unsure, we are waiting to hear back from suppliers.

We may have come up with a solution that would allow people that want to do an non-emissions-capable swap to do some of the wiring on their own. On the upside, this would be less expensive. On the downside, there would have to be two harnesses in the engine bay versus the single simplified harness that we are planning on building for the emissions-capable swaps. If people are interested, I'll look more into this option.

I'll get some better pictures of the setup at the end of this week. I'm also working to get a master parts list together shortly.