Wondering if the folks on here who have done an engine swap with one of the companies that sell remanufactured engines (AB, Turner, etc.) can give me their thoughts. Where did you get it from? Would you do it again? How is the reliability? If you had a shop do the install, how much did they charge you? Any guidance, insight or reviews is very much appreciated (except an LS swap, I want to keep the 4.6).

My mechanic tells me I have a slipped cylinder sleeve (100k miles on engine) that isn’t bad currently but I’m having issues with other parts of the engine (misfires, oil leaking out of head gasket, rough idle, m and s lights coming on randomly while driving, etc.) and it isn’t worth dumping money into an engine with the slipped sleeve. I’m really trying to take this thing on road trips with the wife and I’m hoping an remanufactured engine is the ticket I have to buy in order to get the reliability needed for that.

thanks in advance for responses!

 

While I didn't go the reman route I sure wish I had. My engine rebuild has been a complete disaster and I will have more money and time in it than I would have just buying a reman with a warranty. The only two I considered were TWS and Atlantic British. TWS doesn't really want to do stock builds and are priced accordingly. If I did it over again I would have just ordered an AB one. They have been great to work with on everything else. I can have the engine out in about 2.5 hours but I am sure book time is probably 8 hours or more. Depending on shop rates you could be looking at 2-3k for a shop to do the swap with fluids and consumables.

As for my rebuild, the biggest issue has been machine work. Seems every shop around either didn't want to do it, or took months to get it done. Finally found a shop to do the sleeves and after 4k miles on the new engine it developed the rover knock. I spent thousands chasing down the issue thinking it was valve train related since the block had top hat liners and shouldn't be able to slip. I finally gave up and tore the engine all the way down to discover the shop that did the sleeve work broke one of the sleeves. So now the block is back at their shop, they are "cutting me a break" by only charging me $300 to replace the sleeve they broke and now I will buy another gasket kit, more engine bearings, more rod bolts. etc.. I had planned to have about $5k in my self done rebuild saving me 2-3k over a reman engine. Now the engine has been out 3 times, spent probably 3k in additional parts, and I still have no warranty to protect me if another sleeve breaks.

 

You’re living my nightmare bud, thanks for convincing me not to go that route. Sorry to hear you’re going through all that. Best of luck to you, hope it works out! Also appreciate the insight on TWS, didn’t realize they aren’t interested in stock rebuilds. AB is my preference as well but my mechanic is going to look at some shop in California.

 

Fixing a slipped liner is pretty easy, I had mine done. In hindsight, if I had a garage and seeing how it was done, it is DIY-able. There is shop in NJ that did mine, he is super experienced. If I were you, I would ship it up there and have him do everything, I bet it comes out way cheaper than a rebuilt engine. He is on here as Rover Master Tech or similar. There does not seem to be a 100% infallible engine rebuild available, atleast that I have heard about. 100k is not that many miles, I would bet your problems are not that severe, unless if was overheated. Even then, head are cheap, all the replacement parts are cheap. I guess it depends on if you want someone else to do the work, or if you are interested in tackling some of it yourself.

 

Head gaskets, spark plugs, and ignition coils are all normal things to address at that mileage. Might be worth trying to fix those first and see how it responds.

 

I have a '03 with a Turner 4.6 in it. I bought the D2 from a local shop. The shop owner was a D2 fan, drove one daily, and usually had several on-site in various conditions. The one I bought was towed there not running, and the prior owner decided to sell it to the shop instead of fixing it. I bought it from the shop and did a deal with them to replace the engine and ton of other work. Shop ordered the engine from Turner and did the work.

Have done about 85K miles on the Turner, zero engine issues. My D2 is at the point where accessories and maintenance items are what's coming up (AC condenser, expansion tank, power steering pump, water pump, coils, wires, plugs...) I usually change the oil around 3K miles and have done things like PCV mod and inline thermostat. The shop used URO hoses, and I had the T fitting fail and some other issues with those parts. Swapped hoses for better ones and Carrs4x4 metal parts, and deleted the T fitting with the inline thermostat.

We're done many road trips in it. It's been loaded down, lots of stuff on the rack, bikes on the back, 4 people and dogs in it, gone from the Seattle area to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and back seeing over 100F and around 10F in the same trip with no issue. Been up and down into BC all over the mountains there summer and winter, no issues. Just need to drive within the limits of the D2. There's a very steep freeway hill in Eastern Washington going up that in summer, I have the windows down, heat on, and in 3rd gear. I'll never be able to speed up that hill in the D2, but I get over it and keep the engine temp in check even when 90+F out.

I don't remember the cost of the swap itself. When it was done, the swap was a part of the overall build (engine, radiator, hoses, water pump, bumper, winch, lights, wheels, tires, brakes, driveshaft, locking center diff, lift, rack, wrap, stereo system, cameras...)

These days I'd look at an LS swap just for the extra hp. The Turner 4.6L is good, the D2 is never going to be fast or quick, but some extra hp would be nice.

 

You could buy like 2-4 D2s for the cost of an LS swap.

 

If you have to pay someone to do the work. The labor is where the cost is.

IMHO, unless you are already retired and worry about how you will ever spend all of those millions that you have, you shouldn't own a D2 if you need a shop to do your work. Again, just MHO.

 

Get a Turner . Period .

 

Did the spark plugs, wires and coils myself a couple weeks ago. Not interested in doing the head gasket job myself and my shop refuses to do them for any customer.. something to do with the cost, customer’s expectations and bad experiences with different machine shops. I also don’t want to dump money into a head gasket repair and end up having to replace the engine anyway due to a slipped sleeve.