Hello all,
Just bought my first Land Rover. 2004 Disco 2, and love it. I want to know, is it hard to supercharge one of these?
-Angas

 

What are you going to be using the truck for? How much extra power do you plan to make? How deep are your pockets?
Mike

 

The compression ratio is fairly high for supercharging. I think you would get a lot of detonation unless you went to a low compression set of pistons. Race gas will reduce or eliminate detonation, but not practical for a daily driver at $5 per gallon and up.

 

I would be very cautious about supercharging this engine. Check out web-sites dedicated to building high horsepower Rover engines. Most are UK based, and one excellent site is the RPI Engineering one. The factory Rover induction manifolding does not lend itself to forced induction. You end up with a inconsistent mixture to a few cylinders that then run lean. This makes quite extraordinary holes in piston crowns and melts the piston ring lands along the way. To supercharge this engine you would need to remove the entire intake system, and have one fabricated to allow proper distribution when under boost conditions.

This gets very expensive. And as Willie said, the static compression ratio is too high to use any more than about 5-7 lbs. of boost. The best way to get a power increase is to fit a performance camshaft, bigger valves in the heads, an exhaust system that flows better, and a ram air set-up on the intake plenum.

The next big power increase available requires a complete teardown of the engine to fit larger pistons and a longer stroke crankshaft with compatible connecting rods. Do a search for "Wildcat Rover Engines" to get an idea of what those guys are doing across the pond. The Rover V8 is their small block Chevy, and they have extracted as much as 400 h.p. out of them.

Oh.....of course there are supercharged and turbocharged Land Rovers floating around the US. But I've yet to see one that lasts very long.

Regards,

Geoman
www.eurotekapg.com

 

Also the transmission and driveline cannot handle such big power outputs for long, so it's probably best to keep it stock!