Hi All. I’m Kup, from Utah. I’ve recently acquired a 200,000 mile, 2004 disco 2 (4.6L) with a slipped liner or a cracked block. I bought it real cheap with the intention of either fixing it or doing the (in)famous LS swap. The frame and electrics are honestly in great shape and it feels like a good platform.

Maybe predictably, the rebuild path isn’t seeming like It will pan out. I’ve ruled out most of the gaskets and it seems to have a pretty serious crack somewhere. Nearly all the coolant will drain into the oil pan on its own in about 24 hours. I haven’t finished disassembly yet but hoping that’ll be visible as confirmation once I do.

I know there’s some people tired of the LS swap path and a lot of information on these forums about swaps, I have read through a lot of them. Interested in going through the current state and what people consider best practices.

In the absence of ACE, the current path of least resistance appears to be the Golden Rovers kit to keep the 4 speed factory transmission. I haven’t seen many build threads with these kits, I know they’re pretty new and probably trying to fill the ACE market hole. They seem to be using a pretty similar method to ACE with an electronics gateway and a bell housing adapter. I’m leaning towards purchasing their kit and an LKQ iron block LM7 5.3L with about 100k miles.

My hesitation at this point is really just centered on the transmission. If I want to go with GR, I will plan to do the filter on my ZF, look around in there for any serious wear, and possibly swap a disco 1 transmission oil pan in to get a dipstick and be able to check the fluid regularly. I’m not really a transmission guy though and probably won’t know what I’m looking for super well. I’m also not planning to make crazy power here, the goal is purely to make a reliable and easy to find parts for backcountry truck for the southern Utah desert. That setup sounds like it could be OK for the factory trans.

That said, there’s 200k miles on the transmission I have. I worry about asking the old girl to handle any increased power and some bigger tires, especially since the engine is not running well enough to test out the shifting under load, so I’m not positive what shape it’s in.

Alternatively, I could go for a 4th gen Chevy and a 6L80 or the like, plus a transfer case adapter, possibly from marks 4wd.

The downsides I see there are;
1) Generally more work- new shifter and tearing up my nice interior, potential trouble passing emissions with a lot more diy electrical, a potential dashboard Christmas tree, and wanting (needing) diff lockers to compensate for trashing the traction control
2) Fitment - this setup seems to add real length and may require relocating the transfer case back, and needing at least new drive shafts.
3) I have read some negative things by Americans importing the marks kits from Australia about differences in fitment between the Aussie and US trucks.

On the other hand, I might get a more reliable truck and even spend less cash this route, as I think I can get the transmission and adapter for less than the cost of the GR kit.

Anybody gone down this path recently? Any advice appreciated before I get too deep in this thing. Whichever way I go I’ll post some progress and pictures on here.

 

I don't have any experience with the 6L80 swap, so I can't speak to what it takes to get that swap done. However I wanted to say that you are welcome to join the GR kit facebook group if you want to see people's build threads and ask questions. We are just starting to hear from the first people to finish their swaps: https://www.facebook.com/groups/630543706814060

With the Marks kit consider the cost of shipping and tariffs (27% I believe). That pushes cost pretty close to the GR kit, and it includes a lot less. You could check rw-eng.com since they are stateside it is probably a more affordable option for the 6l80 swap. Also happy to share a spreadsheet of the all-inclusive costs for the GR swap, that includes every little part needed for the swap.

Evaluating the transmission's condition after 200k miles is a tough call. That's a lot of miles. But the 4HP24 is pretty stout and does not die easy.

 

Good afternoon Kup,
2004 Disco is a great starting point. I am glad Daniel has already chimed in on his kits. I have approximately 20K miles on my swap with the 6L90 (yes it is the 6L90).
First off, let me address a few things. The 4HP22/24 seems to get a bad reputation for some reason, but is considerably stout. It came behind some BMW V12 engines and tons of other vehicles. I think the main thing is that as power increases (beyond factory levels) things break. The 4HP22/24 should be totally fine behind a stock LS engine, but many people follow the "while I'm here" logic, and throw camshafts and other things that increase power. It sounds like you are fairly clear with what you want from the vehicle (a fun back country vehicle that is fairly reliable). The LS plus the 4HP is a pretty solid path. If the transmission fluid smells burnt or really nasty when you drain it, you may have issues. If it is just old or still red and smells like the new stuff, you are probably safe. There is no real hard and fast rule with transmissions. People freak out when they see material in the pan/on the magnet, but the clutches are wear items. 200K miles will have some clutch material in the pan (clutch material being shiny/glittery stuff in the fluid). Unless there were issues before, this is generally not an issue. Chunks of material (exploded needle bearings or broken hard parts) that is a problem. Benefits of the Golden Rovers kit would be retention of the transmission, no driveshaft adjustments needed, and it seems like Daniel has sorted a lot of the problem areas from the ACE kit.

Now as far as the Gen 4/6L80 swap. I believe it is a great swap to do, and leaves you lots of room to grow. There are several problems with this route. There are no instructions of what to do. You will have to muddle your way through a lot. I am happy to offer any advice/guidance, but it is just my own experiences/opinions. There are several issues I ran into that I would do differently. The Mark's kit seems to place the transmission and transfer case in a better position than the RWengineering kit. The Mark's kit does put the engine higher into the engine bay. I was unable to use any of the truck manifolds. My own inclination, if I were to do it over, would be to use a car engine, so I could get the car intake manifold. The Mark's kit will require the front driveshaft to be lengthened and the rear to be shortened. They will not be able to shorten the rotoflex coupler driveshaft, so you will need to convert to the u-joint style rear driveshaft. I did not have any issues with fitment of the parts, but that has been several years now. To your other concern, the cruise control, tap shifting, dash lights, and shifter, all of those are solvable problems. I have no dash lights related to the swap. I have not solved an ABS light I had before the swap, so I cannot confirm traction control function, but I do believe it is possible to solve this problem. I had to make a bracket, but Rocky Mountain British sells a bracket to use the factory shifter. Looking at the interior of my Rover, you would have no idea anything has changed. Emissions, that sort of depends on what they are checking for and how they are checking. It is possible, but may present more headaches.

As far as costs, I have not checked the cost of either kit in awhile. I will say this, I am still fighting some cooling system issues, and am headed down a crazy path to solve it. That being said, the 6L80 would really benefit from the 1.003:1 transfer case gear ratio from Ashcroft. This is one of my next upgrades. Once you start adding all the costs, parts, time, and other things you don't think of, the 6L80 path will likely be more expensive 100% of the time. For what it is worth, the ease of simply replacing the engine (from someone like TWS) is actually similar or less costly in the long run. You get the benefits of a simple engine replacement, and they have fixed all the common problems with the Rover V8. If you are serious about the LS, and want to go through the arduous process of swapping, it is fun for sure, but very time consuming. I am not here to sway you in any direction, but I do believe the order of cost is likely TWS rebuilt engine being the cheapest, Golden Rovers kit next, and Mark's + 6L80 being the most costly. I did rebuild my engine and trans, which added some cost, but I could have spent $0, or rebuilt the 4HP22 and been in a similar spot. Let me know what questions you have. I will add some pics here in a bit.

 

Thanks for the thoughtful responses, and nice to hear from you Daniel I think you're doing a really cool thing with Golden Rovers. Your videos and tutorials are great and take a lot of the guesswork out of things. I will join that Facebook group and see what people are getting up to on their swaps.

And Mike my gut says you're correct on the ordering of the costs the more I look into it. Many more parts involved in the transmission swap than with the kit. I was imagining the full rover v8 rebuild to be close in cost to the GR kit with how cheap LS engines can be, but with less complication and labor.
As someone who's done the 6L90 route, what made you choose the extra beefy transmission? Did you get a whole donor truck to accomplish yours? I was thinking that might be the best route if I wanted to swap more of the drivetrain, and get all the engine peripherals.
Also on the Ashcroft, I hadn't considered swapping out the transfer case as well. Classic scope creep, at that point the only thing original in the drivetrain will be the shifter and the solid axle assemblies... not a far cry to convince me to go all that way and not drive this truck for the next 2-3 years

I am thinking the GR kit sounds like my sweet spot at the moment.

 

Kup,
I have never found anyone who has used TWS (The Wedge Shop), but they sell several versions of the Rover V8 that are nearly identical in power output to the LS. I am just not sure on price for the rebuilt engine, freight shipping, core charges (sounds like your core may be junk anyway). My gut tells me they are around $10K and I believe that is top hat cylinder liners etc. I can try to call and check. The benefit there is very close to that initial price. There are no odds and ends, it is a simple engine removal and replacement.
Golden Rovers kit is $3,400, but Daniel includes A LOT of the necessary items in that kit. Couple that with no alterations of the rest of the drivetrain, and the rest of your swap is still pretty solidly close to that price (of course this leaves the engine completely out. Add an LS, reseal the engine at a minimum, and some other incidentals, and you are still probably nearing $5-6K easily).
The Mark's kit is roughly $2,200 American. Add any freight or customs or whatever else, and it is just shy of $3K. This route still requires the acquisition of an engine and transmission, plus everything else needs to be modified following that.
My main goal for the whole build was to attempt to do the whole swap for a comparable price to the ACE kit. Most of the guys who had done that, had rebuilt the engine, added extras, plus the cost of the kit. The only reason I went with the 6L90 was price. I found a core for $300. Most 6L80s in my area were selling for $1,800 used. I cannot recommend the 6L90. Marks says it works, but it requires the use of a 2wd output shaft, AND it has to be resplined the 32 splines (I had to send it to Moser Engineering to be resplined). The 4wd output is a different spline count and physically too small in diameter to be resplined and fit the spud shaft in the Marks kit. All versions of the 6L80 came with the 32 spline output shaft.
I did not use a whole donor truck, but I tried. That would of course be the best route, so you don't have to hunt everything down. I also did something crazy. I used a Gen 3 engine and converted the necessary parts to make it a Gen 4. This created a lot of extra work, and more issues than its worth.
I apologize if I was not clear. I actually think every LS swapped Rover could benefit from the gear ratio change in the transfer case. I do not think it is necessary to swap the entire transfer case. Simply buy the alternative gear ratio for high range. The LT230 came with a 1.2:1 ratio in high range. ALL GM transfer cases that I have ever dealt with are 1:1 ratio in "high" range or 2wd. If you are running monster tires (35"+), keep the 1.2:1 high range. This makes your effective gear ratio (1.2transfer case ratio x3.54 axle ratio) something like 4.25:1. This is too much as most GM products (whether the 4L80 which has similar gear ratios to the 4hp22/24, or the 6L80) run anywhere from a 3.08 to a 3.73 from the factory. If you change the transfer case gear ratio from 1.2 to 1.003:1, this will give you the factory axle ratio of 3.54. Much better suited for the LS, and better for mileage.
So Mark's kit would be different engine and trans, but I would retain the factory transfer case.

If I did it over again, I would get a 6.0L out of a newer Chevy Caprice, or 6.2 out of an SS or Camaro. This gives you the correct intake manifold needed. If you get the whole car, it will give you wiring, gas pedal, ECM, and nearly everything you would need. I am not sure about the accessory setup. I used a kit from Dirty Dingo and modified it. Currently, I am around the $10K mark and that is just parts. I imagine that with a few years since I bought stuff, that amount would be similar or more. Keep in mind, I rebuilt the engine and transmission. You could get a used engine and just run it. I do think the GR kit looks like a great option, and alleviates some of the headache/confusion. Let me know if you have more questions. Overall, I am really happy with this setup, and would recommend it to anyone willing to pursue it. I just want them to know what they are getting into before jumping.