"Nanuuq" my Land Rover Discovery 2 diesel swap, ...forever a project!

[Tinker]

After deconstructing & pulling the whole assembly out, I soaked everything in penetrating epoxy to seal it all. Next order of business is carpet, again I went with marine grade material, trimmed in paracord to match:

Packed full of all my hiking & camping gear:

Here with the bed folded out & if you look close you can spot my window covers/insulation. It's double bubble foil insulation + black felt I wrapped around the outside to hide the interior, both to add a moisture barrier & make it appear as dark tint from the exterior for snooping eyes in the woods or in the case that I'm stealth camping in suburbia:

I got a little side tracked by the tailgate... all that surface area with nothing but a interior panel was just a waste, so I set it up as a folding table.

First outing was a success! Taught me heaps about the organization of my gear & things I could do to further improve my build:

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[khorsa]

Outstanding

 

[MS_Disco]

Definitely following this build, gotta love a Disco!!!!

 

[Tinker]

Thousands of miles of off-roading through the summer was highlighting my rigs weak points & pushing me to make more improvements:

Silver Lake sand dunes:

Gaylord state forest area:

Lake Huron from Drummond Island:

Northern Manistee national forest area:

DeTour state forest area:

Forest around Camp Grayling:

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[Tinker]

You might've noticed the big blue "X" ...which was a reminder to get around to fabricating a custom hatch to replace the window that matches up to my new cabinets on the driver's side. I ordered up a sheet of aluminum & an assortment of hardware to operate it.

Window had to come out, & the upper cabinet needed unbolting so I could access the backside:

Cut, welded, drilled, hinged, locked:

Mocking up after I had everything back in hand from my powdercoater. Sneaky OB emblem hiding under the masking tape:

Check out this quick clip (less than 2min) I hammered together of the build:

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[blackntan]

Now this is a build !!!

 

[jhill15]

I love this build! But with everything you've done, Any thoughts on swapping out the front output shaft of the t case with one that has a cdl? I would love to see this thing with the center diff lock!

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[Tinker]

I love this build! But with everything you've done, Any thoughts on swapping out the front output shaft of the t case with one that has a cdl? I would love to see this thing with the center diff lock!

Oh yes! I'm very nearly caught up to the current day status of the build, & it's not just getting an upgraded xfer case, but engine & trans as well :)

 

[Tinker]

On a whim, with 30 minutes before departure on a trip, I decided to get creative with some scrap wood to bring along more energy until I can finish plans for my solar & house battery setup:

Spare battery & inverter that I had laying around, still with enough room for a passenger to swing their legs in:

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[Tinker]

Now catching up to current day... the ticking time bomb under the hood finally gave in to the ghost. After a multiple days long bout with random overheating & power loss, I popped the cork on the oil pan & found a milkshake where a simple caramel color oil ought to be :'(

The first signs the autopsy wasn't going to end the way I wanted:

Without any obvious visual signs, there wasn't much I could do to identify whether a cylinder liner was wandering or the block itself failed behind one. So given the money involved in acquiring a new block ($$$!), the best course of action was to tear it down to the block & rebuild. Just a couple hundred bucks to do it myself in the driveway over the course of a few days & hope for the best:

I found no shortage of minor problems during the rebuild. Fingers still crossed the failure was unrelated to the looming Land Rover specific engine failures I was all too familiar with:

All back together!

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[Tinker]

Well... it blew up again later that day... best I could figure, with help from some experienced friends, the block cracked behind a cylinder liner along one of the drivers side (middle-ish somewhere) head bolts. The ever common failure with these engines :(

Here's a time-lapse I stitched together of the rebuild along the way:

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[MS_Disco]

Man that sucks, I'm living with a timebomb myself...

OB#3799

 

[jhill15]

That really does suck! However, it could be a good time for a diesel swap! I never had my head gaskets go but I was constantly worried about it, to the point where I drew a mark on the expansion tank for hot and cold...then monitored it daily. My wife was so annoyed lol she made me sell it, and I must say we have regretted it every day...especially in the winter. We both make the comment "the rover would have made it" lol.

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[khorsa]

That really sucks man, hope you get things sorted soon.

 

[Tinker]

Yeah I would be lying if I said I wasn't heart broken at first... but after a brief grieving period I decided it was time to move up the timeline on a huge project I'd been dreaming about with this truck for a loooong time:

Swap out the little V8 & slushbox for a Cummins "4BT" 4-cylinder turbo diesel engine w/ heavy duty "NV4500" 5-speed manual transmission!

 

[Tinker]

Over a month of scouring the internet while spreading the word that I was on the hunt for a donor powerplant & a near perfect example came into view. A great friend (that I now owe a hundred beers haha) had word from an old coworker that an industrial mud pump with a 4BT was recently put out to pasture due to a failure in several teeth of the pumps main gear.

Believe it or not but this raggedy looking thing here is the donor:

...and the gem hidden inside!

A quick 2-minute clip I made of the extraction:

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[58-fc170]

diesel goodness. Might be a bit heavier than the Land Rover bomb though .

 

[pereztroika]

looking good !

 

[Tinker]

diesel goodness. Might be a bit heavier than the Land Rover bomb though .

No doubt about that, may break even on transmission weights, but I'm definitely adding a couple hundred pounds with the engine & all it's kit.

After turning up the fuel with the addition of a much better turbo & I'll be well over stock HP with more than double the torque... BOOOOOST! Will be glorious to have all that grunt available down low, plus getting back an actual highway cruising speed again after having my 3.54 gears so mismatched to the 35's. Oh, and the fuel mileage, oh man the fuel mileage. It'll be comically better, as my current setup is an embarrassing 6-8mpg

 

[58-fc170]

Then add the propane injection just for those muddy trails and hill climbs.