Not a Lazy Sunday

I have spent the weekend preparing the 109 for the engine swap and finishing off the Tdi.

I spent yesterday morning fitting the alternator in a way that brings the pulley in line, installing the manifolds and the turbo, and fitting the studs to the newly tapped holes in the flywheel housing. I then went outside to prepare the 109, removing the floor matting, gear knobs, overdrive lever and then the front floor panels and gearbox tunnel cover. Once that was done, the Defender grille and surround, air filter assembly, batteries and tray, washer bottle, radiator, SIII rad panel and oil cooler all came out. I had to stop play at 1500 as my family and I were going out to a friend’s for dinner.

This morning saw the disconnection of the engine electrics, fuel, oil, throttle linkage, mountings and bell housing bolts. The engine came out without too much difficulty, though I did find I had missed the brake vacuum pump hose, which I simply pulled off the servo without any harm done.

Once the engine was out, I could use the engine crane to remove the Tdi from the engine stand. This allowed me to trial fit the flywheel housing to the bell housing to ensure enough material had been removed from the stud lobes (it was fine), then fit it to the engine, followed by the flywheel, clutch and starter motor. When you replace a crank shaft seal, leave the white plastic guard in place until the flywheel housing is almost home – the guard fits over the crankshaft end and locates using a ridge, pushing the guard out as the gap between the housing and block closes up. The clutch uses the SIII friction plate and release bearing, which work perfectly with the Tdi pressure plate and flywheel. I used the pressure plate and friction plate from the 12J (the same part as the Tdi’s) as they were renewed during the vehicle rebuild and have done less than 6,000 miles.

I also fitted the oil and water temperature sender units, the latter of which requires a special adaptor to cater for the different threads. The part numbers for the sender and adaptor are 560794 and ERC8973 (thanks, John). I had used a SIII military sump on the 12J to allow fitment of an oil temperature sender. Fortunately, the thread of this sender unit is identical to that of the steel blanking plug on the front end of the oil filter housing, so the sender was fitted here instead of having to drill and tap the Tdi sump. The blanking plug has been transferred to the 12J’s sump. This sender is compatible with the 3-in-1 cluster gauge on the main instrument panel, which shows water temperature, oil temperature and fuel quantity. I have also fitted the brass T-piece that allows the use of the oil pressure warning switch and the oil pressure gauge.

My chassis was made to accommodate all LR four cylinder engines except the 300 Tdi (and now the 2.4l Ford Puma engine) – the way to achieve this was to use 90/110 engine mounts, which just means that I have to use the 12J/19J engine brackets on whichever engine I fit. As the 200Tdi is another evolution of the original LR four cylinder, it uses the same bracket bolt holes as earlier engines, and the 19J brackets fit straight on.

With the engine complete, the time came for installation. I used the borrowed crane and balance bar, which allows the engine pitch to be adjusted without force. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in the roll axis, so I had to push down hard on the right hand side of the timing cover to get the studs to line up with the bell housing holes.

It took a bit of effort, but eventually I got the engine and clutch splines aligned, and the engine slid in tight to the gearbox. To prevent further struggling, I immediately fitted one of the bell housing studs finger tight. Finally for today, the engine was then lifted as high as it would go so that I could fit the new 19J mounting rubbers. These were used because they are nearly twice the cross sectional area as SIII rubbers.

I plan to secure the bell housing and mountings tomorrow, followed by the electrics and fuel lines. On Tuesday, I plan to refit the slam panel which will allow me to position the radiator and intercooler frame so that I can make up some brackets for the frame’s base to sit on the chassis. I’m glad that my hoarding of parts that may one day be useful forced me to keep the frame’s top mounting brackets that secure the frame to the slam panel – it’s one less thing to fabricate and will give me an ideal datum for fixing the frame in the correct position. Thereafter will follow the water and air pipes, the air filter and sorting the fluids.

The whole modification and fitting of a Tdi to a 109 will be appearing in the FAQ section of the site as a “How To” article.