Defender 90 - 6.0l LS V8 and 6l80 conversion.
Discussion
Love this build!
I'm planning this swap into my TD5 as well, been told on other forums that the Td5 mounts interfere with the manifold, doesn't look like you had any problem with your custom made mounts. Any chance of getting the rough dimensions you used for these mounts? I take it the bushes you used also cancel out the vibrations that a rubber mounting would?
I'm planning this swap into my TD5 as well, been told on other forums that the Td5 mounts interfere with the manifold, doesn't look like you had any problem with your custom made mounts. Any chance of getting the rough dimensions you used for these mounts? I take it the bushes you used also cancel out the vibrations that a rubber mounting would?
Hi Keith,
Sorry for the very slow reply, I missed your question.
A lot of the stuff on the internet is inaccurate.
The factory manifolds won't fit, but its not the engine mounts that are the issue, its the chassis rails. (Well they will fit but the outlets are basically dead centered on the inside edge of the rails)
The hooker headers give sufficient clearance.
Engine mount rubbers are something I am looking at currently as it is slightly harsh. I may switch out to some standard rubber bushes as opposed to the poly ones shortly
cheers
Pete
Sorry for the very slow reply, I missed your question.
A lot of the stuff on the internet is inaccurate.
The factory manifolds won't fit, but its not the engine mounts that are the issue, its the chassis rails. (Well they will fit but the outlets are basically dead centered on the inside edge of the rails)
The hooker headers give sufficient clearance.
Engine mount rubbers are something I am looking at currently as it is slightly harsh. I may switch out to some standard rubber bushes as opposed to the poly ones shortly
cheers
Pete
Psimpson7 said:
Hi Keith,
Sorry for the very slow reply, I missed your question.
A lot of the stuff on the internet is inaccurate.
The factory manifolds won't fit, but its not the engine mounts that are the issue, its the chassis rails. (Well they will fit but the outlets are basically dead centered on the inside edge of the rails)
The hooker headers give sufficient clearance.
Engine mount rubbers are something I am looking at currently as it is slightly harsh. I may switch out to some standard rubber bushes as opposed to the poly ones shortly
cheers
Pete
Ahh yes I've seen a few places where they have used the hooker manifolds, The guy that sells an adapter I think its the same as the one you got said something about my TD5 mounts fowling.Sorry for the very slow reply, I missed your question.
A lot of the stuff on the internet is inaccurate.
The factory manifolds won't fit, but its not the engine mounts that are the issue, its the chassis rails. (Well they will fit but the outlets are basically dead centered on the inside edge of the rails)
The hooker headers give sufficient clearance.
Engine mount rubbers are something I am looking at currently as it is slightly harsh. I may switch out to some standard rubber bushes as opposed to the poly ones shortly
cheers
Pete
Have you thought of using softer Poly bushes or are the ones you've currently got the softest available?
Reading all these conversions is making up my mind more and more each day! Just got to source it all to the UK thats the problem.
Is this where you post your updates the most or are you on any defender specific forums that you update more on?
This thread is about as detailed as anywhere.
I have had threads on other stuff on some other LR specific forums but don't post much anymore. There is some stuff on Defender2 for instance but this thread is probably more up to date.
I may hold off on the engine mount bush swap for a few days. I found my very off road spec radius arm bushes were objecting to the new power plant. I changed every suspension bush last night (apart from the A-frame) for OEM spec ones so will test that first.
Bush quality is a joke. for instance I can scrap a set of non OEM standard type radius arm bushes in <500km
Factory bushes from LR used to last @20k km which I was ok with. Now depending on the bush in question nothing seems to last more than about 8k km and a lot get no where near that. I would pay vastly more for bushes that were of a reasonable quality. Depressingly the majority of people just want the cheapest of everything irrespective of the fact they are total junk.
Pics for amusement.
I have had threads on other stuff on some other LR specific forums but don't post much anymore. There is some stuff on Defender2 for instance but this thread is probably more up to date.
I may hold off on the engine mount bush swap for a few days. I found my very off road spec radius arm bushes were objecting to the new power plant. I changed every suspension bush last night (apart from the A-frame) for OEM spec ones so will test that first.
Bush quality is a joke. for instance I can scrap a set of non OEM standard type radius arm bushes in <500km
Factory bushes from LR used to last @20k km which I was ok with. Now depending on the bush in question nothing seems to last more than about 8k km and a lot get no where near that. I would pay vastly more for bushes that were of a reasonable quality. Depressingly the majority of people just want the cheapest of everything irrespective of the fact they are total junk.
Pics for amusement.
FWDRacer said:
Hugely impressive build. Bookmarked.
cheers!FWDRacer said:
Have you done a tank-to-tank check on it yet for MPG 
??
Not really! ?? Having said that I did monitor it on the longest drive I have done it so far which was about 300km each way towing my camper trailer and it did @18l/100 (about 16mpg ish?)I am fairly confident without the trailer on a long run it will do over 20mpg (14l/100)
Krikkit said:
Psimpson have you considered polybushing those bits? They're obviously getting a fair hammering, and my experience with polybushes is that they're much more durable.
I am not really a fan of polybushes in general so I have avoided them as much as I can so far. Will see how this set of rubber ones go and look into it if I have to.Trevor450 said:
Love this, credit to you OP.
My LR man wanted to put an LS he had lying around in his workshop into my 90 when it blew its 300Tdi. Sadly, I use it as a daily and the range and fuel consumption would kill me!
My LR man wanted to put an LS he had lying around in his workshop into my 90 when it blew its 300Tdi. Sadly, I use it as a daily and the range and fuel consumption would kill me!
Lewis Kingston said:
This is a superb build. Thanks for taking the time to document it. Fascinating to see it come together.
Thanks both 
fieldio said:
Hey, Pete.
Im looking to do a similar conversion to my TD5, could i get in contact you by email as i have a number of questions about the conversion.
My email is: fielding.oc@gmail.com
regards
ollie
Hey Ollie, sorry just noticed this. sent you an email from my yahoo account. fire away with any questions!Im looking to do a similar conversion to my TD5, could i get in contact you by email as i have a number of questions about the conversion.
My email is: fielding.oc@gmail.com
regards
ollie
Slight update to this and its not something I would normally do but the plate LS 90 was available so I grabbed it!
Just over 2000ks on the build now. Probably 1300 of which was towing our camper trailer and 3 weekends of wheeling. New Radiator setup has totally sorted the running warm issue.
Next jobs are to refit the winches (or at least the front highmount) and possibly tidy up the paint a bit.
Whilst originally I said I didn't want to put paddles on it I have changed my mind.
I started to design up something but decided for once just to by an off the shelf solution that I can probably use most of. I cannot use the steering wheel boss and these will be fixed to the column but making one adaptor to mount the switch sections will be a lot quicker than trying to make something from scratch
I started to design up something but decided for once just to by an off the shelf solution that I can probably use most of. I cannot use the steering wheel boss and these will be fixed to the column but making one adaptor to mount the switch sections will be a lot quicker than trying to make something from scratch
Bit of a mixed update. The Griffin Radiator appears to be junk. I expected better tbh.
Leaking in more than one place after less than 1000miles (and about 7 months) conveniently they have told me the warranty is 30 days... Waiting for an update from the supplier but I am not overly hopeful.
I also quickly test fitted the paddles which arrive a couple of weeks ago with a very crude bracket! They work fine so now I am just designing up a final mount to get cut and folded to fit them to (bit lower than they are in this image, also more level!, and slighly closer to the wheel) and that will also allow me to refit the column shroud
Leaking in more than one place after less than 1000miles (and about 7 months) conveniently they have told me the warranty is 30 days... Waiting for an update from the supplier but I am not overly hopeful.
I also quickly test fitted the paddles which arrive a couple of weeks ago with a very crude bracket! They work fine so now I am just designing up a final mount to get cut and folded to fit them to (bit lower than they are in this image, also more level!, and slighly closer to the wheel) and that will also allow me to refit the column shroud
Really interesting thread, thanks for taking the time to post it all.
I built an LS3 Defender a couple years ago and it’s probably the best thing I ever did, I hope you get as much fun out of yours.
I had a similar experience with my alloy radiator, £800 for an Allisport rad with fans. First one leaked after 2 weeks, got them to recore it then started leaking almost straight away and thought to myself third time lucky... NO that was no better! Gave up with them and got an Allmakes TD Defender rad (pre TDI) traditional type rad and that’s been perfect for 20k miles.
All the best,
Alex
I built an LS3 Defender a couple years ago and it’s probably the best thing I ever did, I hope you get as much fun out of yours.
I had a similar experience with my alloy radiator, £800 for an Allisport rad with fans. First one leaked after 2 weeks, got them to recore it then started leaking almost straight away and thought to myself third time lucky... NO that was no better! Gave up with them and got an Allmakes TD Defender rad (pre TDI) traditional type rad and that’s been perfect for 20k miles.
All the best,
Alex
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