Fitting a Discovery 200tdi engine into a 90

With my engine having come from a Discovery, there are a few differences associated with fitting one from the defender 200tdi engine.
The turbo on the disco lump sits much lower down and therefore gives some issues with the exhaust downpipe clearing the nearside chassis rail. I overcame this by buying a ready made downpipe from a seller on Ebay that has perfected the manufacture to make this simple. It's visible along with the new clutch in this pic:



Before fitting the new engine, the clutch pipe bracket on the bulkhead needs cut off and moved as far to the nearside wing as possible to clear the exhaust downpipe.

Because the engine sits much further forward in the disco than it does in the defender, I had to have the oil cooler pipes extended, it's well worth getting this done professionally, as it really isn't expensive. Macgregors hydraulic department in Inverness did mine.

My 90 already had power steering, but I utilsed the fluid resovoir and the high pressure steering pipe from the disco. The pipe isn't quite long enough, and it's the wrong shape, so I had it modified at the same time as the oil cooler pipes, I basicly just used the ends and replaced the rest with high pressure flexi hose. All of these hoses were extended by about 5 inches.

The low pressure return pipe was made up from a mixtre of cutting back the steel pipe, and fitting the rubber hoses cut down to fit at either end, and fastened secuerly with jubilee clips.

The intercooler pipes from the disco are all too short, so I bought the kit (same guy on ebay) that is designed for this conversion, it fits straight out of the box and saves a huge anount of fiddling. I made up radiator hoses from a mixture of the parts from both vehicles, having to cut and join some, but I'm pleased with how it now looks.





The radiator and intercooler from the discovery were used. I had to cut the side lugs off the housing and re-weld them in the top to utilise the 90 brackets from the wings, and also had to drop the rad mounts on the front cross member by 30mm to prevent the top of the radiator from fouling the bonnet.

Because my 90 was originally petrol, I fitted the diesel fuel filter housing where the coil used to be on the bulkhead. Contrary to popular belief, early petrol 90's/110's actually DO have a fuel return pipe that runs from the swirl pot before the carb, this was utilised for the diesel return with the swirl pot removed.
Make sure the petrol in-line filter is removed.... they don't like diesel (ask me how I know!)



Time to get the circut tester out... For the fuel pump solenoid you need to find a wire that is live with the ignition on, and the engine running, which doesn't momentarily cut off at any point of the ignition key turning. I was originally advised the wire to the coil was fine for this, but it wasn't, it had a momnetary dead spot while the key was let go, meaning the engine stalled as soon as it had been started.

For the glow plug relay, I only used the heavy brown cable to a main feed, black to earth, and the plain white wire to an ignition live. I made sure the white wire was to a source that wasn't live with the engine running. The white wire operates the timer in the relay, which automaticly pre heats as soon as the ignition is on. I added a neat wire to the old choke light on the dash panel so it lights up while pre heating.


I used the wiring loom from my old engine, most of it was a perfect fit. I had to cut off the plug for the alternator and crimp eye connections on, but otherwise everything fitted the same.

The temperture sender in this engine isn't matched to the 90 guage, it reads too hot, but there is a sender unit available from Steve Parker conversions just for this conversion, it works perfectly. The alternative is to fit the guage from a 200tdi defender.

The difference to the vehicle with this engine fitted is absolutely outstanding, and worth every freezing workshop hour, and skinned knuckle!

I'm sure there is lots I've missed, and I really should have written this at the time!
if anyone reading this has questions, just ask
roz31573@hotmail.com