200 Tdi Conversion

The Engine

The engine i used was from a 1994 130 tipping backbodied Defender from some sort of forestry company that had been hit in the drivers side. The engine was rebuilt 50,000 miles ago and had a genuine Land Rover exchange gearbox and transfer box. By the time we got to see it, the engine, gearbox and transfer box were on a crate and everything else was gone. After hearing it running it was arranged we'd be a back at the weekend to pick it up.

Ensure that the engine is from a Defender . The Defender unit has a high mounted turbo were as the discovery unit has the lower down turbo which can be a painfully tight fit.. The 200 Tdi is an easier conversion than the 300 Tdi as it has the different gearbox (R380), although an LT77 will fit on it but it sits further forward and can foul the power steering box and the pump could well not fit. Before fitting it would be a good idea to change the cam belt as it's easier to get to!

Ancillaries

When you buy the engine try to get the following :

Exhaust front pipe, Alternator, starter motor, air cleaner, expansion tank(if it hasn't burst at the seam) , Slave cylinder (if your taking the gearbox as the LT 77s one is different), Radiator intercooler and the pipe work, Glow plug timing relay and as much wiring as you can get including the battery positive lead as a brown lead runs beside it for the glow plug timing.

Engine and Chassis mounts

The 200 Tdi mounts are the same as the original 2.5 variant of ones. The actual engine mounts are the same as the 2.5 TD. Mounting rubbers for engine 200 Tdi are ANR1808

Fitting the engine

The fitting of the engine was very straight forward, with the engine hoisted up either by engine crane or other means (we used a tractor be cause we could get the lend of one). Sling the engine with the front slightly angled towards the sky. Keep the rubber mountings off and simply drop onto the existing mounts with it in the right place, line up the studs on the rear face of the engine with the ones of the bellhousing. The top two seemed to fit on alright but it was a bit far out at the bottom, so two nuts were loosely fitted on the top studs and the trolley jack placed underneath the gearbox fly wheel housing. Slowly jack it up and try to align the bottom studs .When this is done , again place the nuts and washers on the bottom studs loosely and torque up the nuts all round evenly. Hoist it up again and fit the mounting rubbers place a washer spring washer and torque up the nuts.

Wiring

The wiring is practically the same as the wiring for the other diesels. The original battery lead can be reused. Because Land Rover Actually did the 200 Tdi as a proper Retrofit you can buy alot of parts off the shelf. I joined the vehicle engine connector to the engine connector as it's the same, the colour coding of the looms was identical. When buying your engine, make sure you get the glow plug timer relay located on the bulkhead if you lucky you could take the wiring right back to the dash. You can buy the loom for this off Land Rover or make your own, I bought it because wiring isn't my strong point and so that you lovely people can copy it! the Cable is 7ft long the brown and yellow/black wires are 5mm and the others are 2mm. The cable PRC 6083 has a plug which connects to the glowplug timer and a yellow/black cable which goes to the screw on glow plug number 4. the thick brown cable goes to the battery +. Cable STC 934 plugs into PRC 6083 and the black/white wire screws to the bulkhead. At the other end of it the white/red cable goes to the white/red on the back of the igniton and the connector with both the whites goes to the white on the the ignition, they both have piggyback connectors. The yellow/black wire goes to the spade on the bottom of the orange looking square light on the warning panel and the other white goes to the top spade.

Fuel Tank

It's the same if you already had a diesel, But if you don't As long as you clean it well I don't see why you couldn't use the petrol one?. The fuel pipe connector to the fuel pump is the same although the other one is different but again you can get the bits as retrofit parts.

STC935 £2.32 connector
STC936 0.26p olive
STC937 0.65p nut

Other bits and pieces

The accelerator cable is different (ANR1419) and is around £10 The radiator and intercooler has different brackets you could make your own or buy them (ESR282 and ESR283) they're also about ten pounds each. RTC3635 (40p) - capless bulb to replace existing glow plug bulb in warning light panel, STC934 (£7) - a new harness with slightly different connectors for the bulb which also connects to harness PRC 6083 and has all the right connectors so you shouldn't have to do any wire snipping. Mounting rubbers for engine 200 Tdi are ANR1808. You also need to fit the aircleaner which goes on the passenger side wing. It's attached by three M6 bolts.

The Exhaust

The front Exhaust down pipe on mine had had a ding when the engine was removed so off it went to my dads friend in engineering to be fixed. Although it may seem a good idea at the time to take the exhaust down pipe off it really isn't!!! if it doesn't foul anything else leave it there! as I found out I'm now having to take the removable gearbox crossmember off, it wouldn't even fit with the clutch slave cylinder removed! The rest of the exhaust is standard Land Rover 200 Tdi because it's all in the same place as the original 200 Tdi's.