Brian replied:

When the engine Bay was insulated properly the 3.9 4BD1 Isuzu on my 110 was very quiet!!!
Add a Turbo and it is even quieter, add this to the fact that it will just bolt straight in ( Depends on what year RR it is ) ,coupled with the bullet proof ness of the engine makes this the best option (IMHO)
I was getting 9km/l in the 110 as for smoothness if you raise the Idle slightly it got rid of all the shaking.

Just experiences & My 2¢

Brian

David O replied:

If your RR was petrol and you are going to go diesel, the advice I recieved from Graeme Cooper is that it will be prohibitivly expensive to do the change due to all the ancilliary equipment that needs to change.

Baldrick replied:

You will never recoup the cost in fuel savings and you WILL miss the V8!

Truckster (Vic) replied:

How much $$ are you budgeting for this project?/

TD27 wont be cheap, adn who knows how it will pull a rangie along.
SD33 very old donk, but should be cheap as chips..

Theres numerous SMALL diesels around but all depends on $$ you wanna spend, and the issues of getting it registered and insured.

What do you want the truck for? Touring, or weekend warrior??

biscuits replied:

I'll vouch for the SD33-T (thats turbo diesel). I think they are more powerful than the TD27 by a wisker. 88kW? and 280Nm? of torque I think. Usable rev range is between 1 to 2000rpm, not much point going past 2500rpm power wise. Like one of the previous posts said, the SD33 has been around for a while so they are readily available and cheap as chips to buy (recondition, like any diesel, is another matter!).

Pulls like a trojan in my patrol (recently towed a rangie on a car trailer ~2.5ton no worries - except for my old worn out rear leaf springs). Fuel Economy is excellent - about 10L per 100km around town (still with 380,000km on the clock). Gearing is okay for the highway - about 2600rpm at 110kph - I think a set of 33's would knock that down to a nicer level.

Only thing to remember is that its a diesel so don't expect to go anywhere fast. Its a truck engine designed for long life. I dare say it might go a lot better behind a ZF 4spd auto as you get to 5th gear in the patrol by about 50kph - so the (hopefully) taller gears of the auto might suit it more.

Only thing to keep in mind when doing a conversion like this i think is the stall rate of the torque converter. I think due to the rev range of the SD33, unless you change the lock point in the torque converter it will wont lock up under normal driving conditions (i dont think - something to check out with a trans specialist).

Can I ask why you are going a diesel over the 3.5L? I'm seriously considering a change from my MK patrol to a ~85 model rangie myself (i want nice soft coil springs over my old harsh leafs).

hope this helps,
good luck with it.

Dave.

biscuits replied:

Forgot to add - you realise the SD33 is a staight 6 cyl where as the TD27 is (i think) a 4 cyl? Being a straight six the SD is nice and smooth, but would it fit in the rangie? Rangies don't exactly have the longest bonnet in the world.

Dave.

Davoe replied:

Got a mate like you. he bought a landie with a 318 with rangerover disc diffs as an unfinished project. It needed to have the disc brake diffs fitted to be registered to He couldnt fit the diffs so he bought a turbocharged 245 coz being a 6 it could be registered as is. But the 245 was to long and wouldnt fit. Finally I talked him into putting a 186 into it coz he had the motor and all the gear to do this conversion. So he tried getting the 318 going out of the vehicle to show it ran when he sold it. It backfired and lit up the large amount of hay bales stored in the shed and torched the lot! I also have mates that have put 245s into hg holdens and 161s into toyota lite stouts. Good luck and keep on tinkering it is obviosly your passion

Eric Experience. replied:

Baggins.
The wreckers get offers of vehicles very cheap that have been modified. The petrol to diesel conversion is very dificult because the gear ratios are so diferent. A rangie neads a change of diffs to get any sort of resonable cruising speed. The vibration and niose is realy bad in a rangie because the floor is not thick steel like a jap machine. My sugestion would be to sell it and get a disco, early diesels are under $20k now.
Eric.

RobM replied:

have you thought about the pajero turbo diesel 2.8?? 4cyl and a chain driven cam too.

2.8 litre 92kW @ 4000 292Nm @ 2000 32.8kW/litre

Rob