Late Stages of Fitting

Well, after fastening the bell housing and engine mounts, the engine fitting hit a few bumps in the road.

The first problem was that the bottom end of the turbo’s exhaust elbow contacted the corner of the foot well. It wasn’t any more than a light point contact, but it had to be rectified none the less as it would present a fire risk.

Initially, everything else looked OK. I tried slackening the engine and transmission mountings and pulling the engine to the right before re-tightening, but the engine returned to its prior position each time. Shiming the mounting rubbers to raise the engine wouldn’t work because there would be insufficient clearance between the flywheel housing and bulkhead.

I came up with a plan to raise the turbo up independently of the engine by fitting an 8mm plate between the turbo flange and exhaust manifold, the thickest I could do without having to source longer turbo mounting studs, and had a plate machined using a turbo gasket as a pattern.

A bit more study of my engine and photos of other similar conversions revealed that the engine was sitting low and well to the left of the normal position. Close inspection of the engine mounting rubbers showed they were also being distorted. I’d had Marsland fit 19J engine mountings on my chassis, so I had already fitted the corresponding 19J engine brackets and rubbers to the Tdi block. There was evidently a problem; the “V” created by the chassis bracket upper surfaces (where the rubbers sit) is too wide for the “V” of the engine and its brackets. Either the Tdi block is narrower than a 19J’s, which I doubt, or the chassis brackets have been incorrectly set during manufacture (reminiscent of the trouble I had fitting the rear tub). By using a 20mm shim to fit between the left side enge bracket and block, I have managed to correct the engine alignment so the turbo now clears the foot well and the rubbers are all straight.

The next big problem was the viscous fan. It fit easily behind the front cross member, and as the rad will be infront of the cross member, the fan had nothing to foul on. The problem was its vertical position. The lower blades were obscured by the cross member, and no amount of clever shrouding and trunking was going to make the fan effective. I have had to remove the fan and fit an electric substitute – something I was keen to avoid given my distrust of electric fans. This has been fitted to the refurbished rad cage, complete with the new radiator and cleaned up intercooler.

The fuel system has been finished, including replacing the heated fuel filter unit with a standard one following an electrical short within the unit. Several new Defender pipes were used as the engine bay layout is similar and the Discovery pipes wouldn’t reach. Some pipes had to be altered in order to include the heat exchanger. The heater matrix and fuel heat exchanger have been plumbed in on the bulkhead. I have also stipped and freed the Kenlowe Hotstart’s pump spindle. It still needs to be tested, but if it works, it’ll be fitted behind the intercooler.

The throttle cable (566426) has been fitted. I had to add a couple of large washers so that the outer sheath adjustment nuts would secure the cable on the large holed bracket at the rear of the injection pump, and a nut had to be similarly added to have one nut each side of the pedal-end bracket. As the cable has clevis pin forks pre-attached at each end, these washers and nut had to be fitted by hacksawing a slot in each to fit over the inner cable. The cable attaches directly to the pump arm and the SIII acelerator pedal shaft arm – I don’t use any of the other SIII throttle assembly.

The SIII diesel temperature sender is totally different from the Tdi’s, and the gauge wont be compatible with the Tdi sender, so an adaptor had to be used. The brass adaptor from a 2.5 petrol, ERC8973, does exactly this, and screws straight into the Tdi thermostat housing, and the SIII sender screws into the back of that.

The engine electrics are broadly similar to before – I just needed to extend the temeprature sender cable. Because the batteries can no longer go in the engine bay, I had to relocate them. On Helena’s suggestion, I tried putting them in the aft tool box, behind the rear left wheel. They fit perfectly with enough space to include the split charge unit. I have fitted four M8 threaded rods in rivnuts through the box floor, two for each battery, to secure the batteries with a clamping bar over the top of them. I will have an Anderson socket just inside the rear door for jump starting. I have run two large (235A) cables along the top of the left chassis rail. One runs from the main battery +ve to the starter motor, the other runs from the second battery +ve all the way to the front for the winch. Both batteries will be connected to the chassis for earthing, as will the winch.

The water connections have been simpler than anticipated. The Discovery’s top hose will be used straight across to the rad. The only alteration is to be the fitting of an X-Eng X-Switch – an aluminium housing that fits the hose and houses a thermostatic switch for the rad fan. This is to replace the potentiometer and gland switch that the fan kit included, as these are notorious for leaks and failures, but also need accurate adjustment to prevent engine overheats. As my SIII gauge and sender are designed to show middle position at 82oC, and the Tdi is meant to operate at 88oC, I have no idea where the gauge needle should now sit, and so cannot set the fan potentiometer as a result.

The bottom hose, including the tee-ed offshoot for the expansion tank, don’t fit directly, but were easier to arrange than I expected. By using the front section of the Discovery hose onto the radiator, cutting the end off just before it would attach to the water pump, I can use a length with a down turn to connect to the SIII bottom hose already fitted to the engine. I just need to source a couple of pieces of suitable rigid, corrosion resistant pipe to put inside each splice joint and use a combination of PU adhesive and strong jubilee clips to secure each joint. The expansion tank will simply connect onto its hose and be bolted to the right inner wing.

I refitted the SIII front panel, but after cutting most of it away, to provide support and location for the front of the wings. I also fitted the radiator cage’s support beam. the cage normally sits into brackets on a Defender or Discovery’s front cross member, but this is not possible in this instance due to the Series vehicles’ anterior cross member position. Instead, I used a 30mm box tube (2mm wall thickness) to span the chassis rails half way between the front cross member and the bumper bolts. It’s level with the top of the cross member and slopes down at a shallow angle to match the brackets on the underside of the cage. It is secured by brackets into the sides of the dumbirons. Once the slam panel is back in, I’ll fit the rad assembly and secure the top to the Defender slam panel with the standard Defender top brackets.

Most of the planning and thinking is complete – I just need a break in the weather on my next days off late next week.