AJ's Disco 2 VW Diesel Swap
 

TLDR so far:
Bought a 2003 Disco 2 with a blown head gasket. Did my own head gasket job, engine immediately overheated. Unclear to me why (I check the deck and heads with a straight edge). Tore down the block and sent it to a machine shop. 3 months of machine shop jail later, I started working on the engine swap on the side. Now the engine swap has gone from Plan B to Plan A.

The PLAN:

• Engine: 1.9L BEW TDI
  • 2005 Jetta donor (already parted out, had the engine under the bench)
  • TD conversions Adapter TDI to LS
• Trans: GM T56 6 Speed Manual
  • Had a spare and various parts left over from an LS swap BRZ project
  • Custom adapter to LT230
• Driveline: STOCK
  • want to add center diff lock linkage

Details on trans:

Parts: front to back

• Donor trans from C5 Corvette
• LS bellhousing
• Fbody/GTO midplate
  • C5 midplate does not bolt to LS bellhousing so a Camaro/GTO midplate is required
• SSR main/output shaft
  • SSR shaft works with C5 internal components
  • Also has 32 Spline output to match 6L80
  • Output shaft shortened to keep overall length down
• C5 tail housing
  • This tail housing has a mounting face to allow an adapter to bolt directly to the trans
• 6L80 to LT230 shaft adapter
  • Now that the T56 has the same output spline as the 6L80, one of those shaft adapters can be used
• Adapter bracket
  • Mounting plates made for t56 and LT230 sides from 5/8 steel plate
  • 5in schedule 80 pipe used to connect both ends
• Shifter TBD
  • Mid Shifter required. Not sure if I'm going to buy an off the shelf unit or build one myself
  • C5 shifter comes from the midplate so not an option with different midplate
  • Camaro/GTO shifter is in the tail housing, since I'm not using that tail housing, the shifter can't be there either

The Work:

• Rework donor trans
  • Reassembled with parts mentioned above
  • Left out gears, shifting components to lighten it up while test fitting
  • Plan to rebuild once test fitting done
• Making adapter flanges
  • T56 side. Began by drilling a 5in hole in the plate. Using the lathe I expanded the hole to 6in to slip fit over the C5 Tail housing. I slipped the adapter onto the tail housing and then center punched the bolt holes. 2 through holes for bolting into the trans, 2 threaded holes for bolts going the other way. 1 more hole unused (kinda forgot about it till after everything was done). Cut down the edges to follow tail housing shape
  • LT230 side. Same story but I started with a 3in hole to save some time. Then again I punched, drilled and tapped the holes. The I cut down the edges. I've left some for now because I am still not sure how I want to add the trans mount yet.
  • Mating the flanges. Flanges are welded together with a 4in long 5in diameter schedule 80 pipe. Started by lining up trans and Tcase and then adding the adapter shaft. Pushing them all the way together resulted in a 3 and 7/8th inch gap between the plates. Final pipe ended up 4in but I figure it would be better to have some gap than be too short. I chamfered the pipe and welded it to each flange. Making sure the shafts were as perfectly lined up as possible. Laid a few beads with the stick welder (I suck at welding). Going to do a final pass eventually but it's good enough to test fit in the car for now.

Overall length of this Trans is 3in longer than the stock 4hp24 (27in vs 30in). Shouldn't be an issue but I'm still waiting on the BEW to LS engine adapter. So I have yet to test fit the entire powertrain in the vehicle.

To Dos:

• Add a trans mount to the T56/LT230 adapter
• Test fit entire powertrain (waiting on engine/trans adapter)
• Work out a shifter (shifter hole and trans are miles apart). Gonna need to do something there

Here's a picture of what I have so far. My phone takes bad pictures. Will update with more pics to come as I get the trans and engine mounted in the vehicle.

• https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...47f1c231f4.jpg

This could be interesting. :popcorn:

March 4th update:

• Test fitted the trans and transfer case into the chassis
• Semi fabricated a trans mount. Needs finish welding but I ran out of MIG wire
• Dragged engine out from under my bench and started removing stuff I don't need

Next up:

• Still waiting for engine to Trans adapter
• Started looking at AC and power steering. Hoping to use VW accessories if possible
• Need to fab engine side mount. Not a lot of bolt holes to use on the TDI block. We'll see how that goes
• Trans shifter. Looks like off the shelf units will not fit due to body clearance issues. Body lift?

Pics for today: really should take more pictures while I work
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...aed437d4bb.jpg

I am watching this with so much enthusiasm!

Do you have any more photos?

I've got the week off work so I plan on getting a good bit of progress. Todays update includes test fitting the engine for the first time. everything fits with plenty of space to spare in front and the back.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...c6c1302a21.jpg

I also tacked together an engine mount of the driver side. Plenty of clearance for the factory oil filter housing and oil cooler. Still missing the TDI to LS T56 adapter so I am only eye-balling and tacking things together for now. The TD conversion adapter is listed at 2in thick so I added 2in of wood between the engine and trans. The TD conversions mount will allow me to clock the engine so until I have the right clocking position I will leave the mounts only tacked together.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...4f10a8176a.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...3b76b8a135.jpg

Also peep the axle clearance. Don't suspect I will have an issues there.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...409dd2d52f.jpg

Unfortunate side note: The disco 2 power steering pump directly bolts to the factory VW accessory drive bracket. But, this bracket does not fit in the car because it hits the steering box. This would have been a great solution if not for the steering box getting in the way. Still considering moving the engine to the passenger side to make room.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...cea808aeea.jpg


Next to do items:

1. Sort out the power steering pump situation. either move engine or find another spot to fit a pump
2. Tack together a passenger side engine mount
3. Figure out how to attach all the V8 sensors to the BEW. Planning to do crank sensor, coolant temp, oil pressure switch, charge indicator. Should be enough to make the cluster and rest of the vehicle happy enough. Will eventually need some help reprogramming the vehicle into a manual to make the lights go away
4. Sort out a shifter. Not a lot of space. Will share an additional pic but it's TIGHT.
5. Sort out a clutch pedal.
6. Fuel system. Planning to use VW fuel filter. Might swap in tank pump. Not sure.
7. Intercooler. Plan is air to water, reusing the factory trans cooler and an off the shelf unit.

I'm open to ideas for the power steering, a bit stuck there at the moment. I am also open to ideas about the shifters. At this point I am not sure how I will fit both the TCASE and TRANS shifters around each other.

ROW modules from a diesel with a stick could solve the issue possibly and maintain the other vehicle functions

FINALLY. The adapter has arrived. Engine is in and mated to the transmission. With this I was able to finish the driver side engine mount. Passenger side is tacked together for now until I get the new turbo installed. Decided to go with a larger, top mount turbo due to the turbo, starter and passenger engine mount all wanted to exist in the same area.

I also removed the pedal box and added a clutch pedal. The pedal is hand made from scrap I had laying around. Still waiting on the clutch master cylinder before I drill the holes for it. I also welded on a mount for the VW diesel accelerator pedal. The plan is to reuse the cable throttle hole for all the VW related powertrain wiring.

Driver side engine mount:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...7fb6e51b07.jpg

Overview of the engine in the vehicle. Looks at home. Wiring is a spaghetti mess right now but it'll come around soon enough.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...7312122eb8.jpg

Picture of the pedal box. VW gas pedal, scrap metal clutch pedal. I reused the spring from the rover gas pedal on the clutch. Looks pretty OEM actually. Will look better with paint. But that will have to wait until I get the right clutch cylinder installed.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...c0840ec8c3.jpg

Progress has been slow but we'll get there.
Main items still to do:

1. Fuel system: Tank has been drained but I need to add a Passat fuel pump and a return line
2. Cooling system: Upper/lower rad hose, heater core, oil cooler, turbo water feed (new turbo is water cooled)
3. Intercooler: water air vs air to air. still not sure which way to go
4. Exhaust: waiting on turbo first
5. WIRING: wiring itself is mostly complete. just need to route and wrap the harness

ArmyRover,
While I think the ROW diesel modules might work great, I would probably also need all the wiring from those vehicles. To me the main things I need are Tach, coolant temp and oil pressure indicator. With that I would just need 3 rover sensors adapted to the VW. 2/3 are already done. The only one I still have to somehow attach is the crank sensor. Still working on that. I'm also hoping that this is enough to make the other modules happy enough to not flash ABS lights on the dash. We'[ll see though.

In my ifs 4 runner I've been daily driving on a stock 2005 Passat TDI power steering pump on @ 32 inch by 11.5 inch wide tires for 2 years and about 60,000 miles with no issues. A few jeep guys have gone with electric power steering pumps, I think Volvo and maybe Prius use them but seems overly complicated to keep adding more electronics.

Purchased bulk roll of power steering hose and some reusable fittings to adapt my VW pump to the yota ifs steering box.

My AC isn't the most efficient as the VW is an r134 variable compressor on an expansion valve run r12 Toyota system. I'd imagine running the VW compressor on the disco which I believe uses oriface tubes would yield much more efficiency.

My yota didn't come with a functional tach so I grafted the 2005 Passat cluster to the dash under the factory cluster outer shield. Used some abs plastic to fill in the sides.

You can keep the factory disco 2 fuel pump but you need to add both a pressure restrictor to keep the fuel pump alive and tee for a return line. The pd pump doesn't want more than 15 psi even wot. My BHW is very happy on a max 15 psi old 6.2 ac Delco Chevy diesel fuel pump if you want to delete the disco pump and install an external. Very quiet

Main issue with power steering was that I couldn't fit the pump anywhere on the engine. I've got a high mount turbo and air to water intercooler on the passenger side and the discovery steering box already hitting the accessory bracket on the driver side.

Ended up cutting the accessory bracket down and going with the electric power steering pump. Mounted it in the old airbox location. Didn't even have to modify the lines. Thought I could get away with running it in default mode but it's but a little to hard at a stand still. Will be hooking up the CAN connections next to fine tune the assist based on vehicle speed.

For fuel pump I think I might still need to rework it slightly. I dissected the Land Rover sending unit and removed the pressure regulator and added a return. This brought the pressure down to a dead steady 20PSI. Sounds like that might still be too high. And I'm not sure how much the fuel pump is loving that pumping rate. Might invest in an external pump/filter combo (FAST/AIRDOG or something similar)

I've driven the trucks few times now around the yard. Gearing is really tall but i also can't tell if the engine is in limp mode due to all the EGR components being gone. Will be working on this once the base engine components and wiring have been truely nailed down.

My biggest accomplishment recently has been getting all the dash lights to turn off (this is required for me to be able to register it here in Ontario). I ended up using an Arduino to simulate the 60-2 crank signal of the original engine
The Arduino reads engine RPM from VW CAN, uses that to set the PWM rate on one of its outputs, that output is then attached to the crank input for the ECM. Doing this I was able to get TACH on the cluster. By plumbing in the land rover coolant temp, oil pressure and charge light, I got all the engine related dash lights to be happy (Aside from the MIL). By dissecting the transmission I was able to get the M and S lights to turn off by plugging in the valve body and speed sensor (somehow this speed sensor doesn't need to be given any input?? It doesn't get mad when SLABS and TCM speeds are different. Seems really odd but I'm not complaining).

Anyways. Next projects are the low temp air to water cooling loop, wiring wrap up and learning how to tune this engine. I refuse to pay 700$ for a "STAGE" tune so I'm slowly learning the ins and outs of this TDI ECM to do my own tuning.

More pictures to follow once I get the chance to pull them from my work phone.