Diesel Engine Conversion - 25/02/06

More and more on my off road trips I've been finding my engine is holding me back. From problems with the carb to a lack of torque climbing and towing people out of trouble. Lots of people talk about replacing the carb to get better performance and stop it cutting out but I can't see the point in improving an okay engine when I can fit a much better one!

I decided that the new engine had to be a diesel because the main things I want from it are torque and a much greater resistance to water which the 1300 petrol didn't really like. I started looking at Peugeot diesels because they're very good engines and a fairly common conversion for the Samurai, in fact I believe Suzuki actually fitted Peugeot engines for a while to give a diesel option. I was really sure of the engine I wanted when suddenly I came across a diesel for sale, already fitted into a Samurai with all the necessary mods already done.

The engine was a 1400 non turbo Ford diesel married to a 5 speed rear wheel drive gearbox. The gearbox has been modified to have a short drive shaft to mate up with a Samurai transfer box and the gear lever has been moved forward to sit in a better position for a Suzuki. I didn't think the 1400 would be big enough for what I wanted but it happened to also come with an 1800 turbo diesel from a Mondeo. The current owner had planned to replace the small engine with the big one but never got round to it. I decided that was a very good idea and bought the lot which I thought was a bargain at just over £300!

Now all I have to do is remove my old engine and replace it with the Ford 1800 turbo diesel married to the modified (Sierra?) gearbox. Shouldn't be that hard I'm sure! Erm... well I'll keep telling myself that until it's done anyway!

First things first, remove the old engine. I didn't take many pictures and won't go deeply into this because it's really just a case of disconnecting any wires and hoses that will stop the engine coming out. I also removed the radiator and front grill including the top metal spar to make access really easy. I labeled all the wires to show what they had connected to so that I can easily join them to the new engine. The only pipes to worry about are the heater hoses, exhaust pipe and fuel pipes from/to the fuel tank. Everything else is on the engine itself. The only thing left to do before pulling the engine and gearbox out in one was to disconnect the gearbox from it's rear bracket and the transfer box and then unbolt the engine mounts.

I needed a hoist to lift the engine and considered buying a standard workshop engine hoist but they're expensive for something that wouldn't be any use to me once this job is done, I decided instead to copy a great idea from Rhino Rays workshop. Ray has a lifting beam running the whole length of his workshop and then uses chain hoists on beam trolleys to do any lifting he needs to. He lifts every from engines to complete vehicles and having used it for my own truck I found it much easier than using a jack because you can lift things really high and it's so stable. I wanted to do the same but my garage just isn't high enough to fit my truck in so it had to be over the driveway. The solution I came up with was to build a super strong car port and to run a beam along underneath that. I've bought a chain hoist and beam trolley and now I can not only do my engine conversion but I can lift my truck right up in the air to work on the axles or whatever! Okay maybe it's a bit of overkill but it makes things so easy and I love it!

Today I finally got the old engine out with help from my dad, two sets of hands always helps! We slung some webbing straps round the engine and gearbox as it only had one lifting eye and once the weight had been taken up, the gearbox and engine mounts were unbolted and the whole lot rolled out really easily.

Now I've got a big empty hole to work with! You can just see a couple of the white labels I've put on the wires here.

Keep checking back for more updates!