Turner engine worth the gamble??
 

My motor is toast. Ok. Now I have two options; turner or cummins. Is it worth the investment to install a turner motor ($12,000 for shop) or try this new cummins diesel for $$???. Is the petrol doomed to fail no matter what?? Is this diesel the new hope for Land Rover???

The Turner is has iron flange top hatted cylinder liners, so that weakness is cured. I don’t consider the Turner engine a risk, but everyone has their own opinion.

I know zero about a Cummins diesel, but it could be intriguing.

All engines are doomed sometime in the future, particularly diesel due to NOx emissions. It's a lottery in the future but the Turner Engine is certainly no risk but in 10 years time the authorities may ban most petrol and diesel engines anyway.

I'd say the Turner engine really isn't a gamble. They go over the entire engine and fix the deficiencies. The top-hat liners can't slip and essentially turn the engine into a wet-sleeve design so in case the block does crack, which I doubt it would, it doesn't cause any problems. Give them a call, they are very helpful.

I don't know if your heads are toast as well, but you could always have the heads rebuilt for cheaper and just order a short engine from Turner. That might save you some money. I'm planning to swap in a Turner 4.6 short-block in January.

I'd love a Cummins, but getting it to work with the rest of the truck would be a bit of an unknown quantity. It will probably be more expensive than the Turner. You could also look into Trailhead 4x4 GM LS-swap. That's around $12,000 and he has done several so far.

I love my Turner long block. No more worries about the engine and it runs like a raped ape. It should be around $10k installed along with all new cooling system and ancillary parts. Not $12k. It's the best option for these trucks. Good luck.

I'm not sure why anyone would pay 10k or more for an engine for their disco. Just buy another disco for $2500-3000 and keep trucking. Unless you've got one super tricked out rig already and 10k is just a drop in the bucket.

Likewise with the Cummins swap. You would double your investment in redesigning the rest of the vehicle to handle the weight and torque of a Cummins+allison+massive transfer case.

You've probably got a local racetrack near you. My experience is that every race track has at least one shop where many of the racers get their motors rebuilt on the cheap.

At Las Vegas Motor Speedway I used one shop to rebuild a Nissan 240sx motor for $1,200. That's parts and labor!

That took them 1 week.

Double the above for a V8.

Just let them weld or screw down the cylinder liners...or use cometic gaskets (add $200) ... so that the liners won't slip. Easy to do when the motor is being rebuilt.

Having my local shop do only the necessary machining, including the install of top hat liners, I think I could get the entire thing done right at 3k. Assuming I didn't need a crank or rods, and doing all assembly work myself.

spot on though, Oklahoma is a drag race central (literally) and there are reputable builders everywhere.

Maybe start with this (no affiliation so it could be misrepresented/hoax, etc.): https://www.ebay.com/itm/land-rover-...dZ917e&vxp=mtr

Turner is the safest bet - but where are you getting 12k from? Short blocks are ~$4k, long blocks ~$5k. plus maybe $500 to ship, $2500 to install. If you want to save a buck, get a hoist off craigslist, read the manual, do the work, and resell it when you're done. It's an adventure :)
https://www.turnerengineering.co.uk/40-v8-c102x3005626

It will last.

I personally opted to rebuild, but after all the expenses (not to mention time), going with Turner is a good move.

Last I heard on the cummins, it's still very experimental.