Hey all...I have a 2003 Disco 2 SE with the 4.6L V8 with 2nd air intake that's suffering a blown head gasket and potentially more. I have found an engine for pennies on the $ out of a 2002 disco 2. It does not have the secondary air intake, so I know I will have to exchange my radiator...BUT the real question is will it hook up to my transmission? Any tips/advice on potentially doing this engine swap or not to do it?!? Thanks!

 

If you want to put a non secondary air engine into a secondary air car, you will have to change the heads out(SAI heads onto non SAI motor).

Its not a bad idea to do the head gaskets while the engine is out anyways, so its not that bad.

The rest is plug and play.

 

Abran is an expert on your subject. I'm doing the same thing but I am also changing engine size (4.0 to 4.6). If your engines are both 4.6 they will bolt right up but if not, the won't bolt up without modification because a 4.6 has a slightly different transmission than a 4.0. If memory serves, you have to change the flywheel and flexplate.

You will have a check engine light for the missing SAI. I'm not sure how to fix that except by swapping the ECU and BCU for a non SAI setup. That is, unless you do as Abran says and swap your SAI heads onto the new engine. You'll be doing head gaskets then.

I'm curious about the radiator... why would you need to change them? Oh. Wait. You are talking about a sensor on the radiator. You can just ignore or plug that if you go non SAI. An SAI truck requires that sensor, but a non SAI can have it or not. The radiator will work fine. I have an SAI radiator on my non SAI truck with a plug where the sensor goes. Your 03 probably doesn't have an oil cooler, though. You might want one of those and, again, Abran is the man to talk to. Again, if you swap heads like Abran says you won't have to do anything on the radiator.

I've read that if you are in a State that is picky about emissions, an SAI truck is required to have the SAI crap on it, but I don't really know for sure.

I've given away most of my SAI parts to members but I gather it can be worth money if you ebay it.

 

My wife has a 4.0 motor on her 04'. We didn't change the flywheel, it was a direct fit.

The length of the trans is different, but not at the point it mates to the motor.

She has the hp24 trans and torque converter bolted up to the 4.0 motor and is running the 4.6 ECU(both her car and the 4.0 motor are secondary air, so no issues there).

 

Geez. Sorry. I got bad info and repeated it. Further, I could have already swapped my transmission and worked on my transfer case.