Off-Road Discovery Off-Road Discovery

60,000km Update on Turner Engineering Engine for Disco 2

How our Land Rover Discovery Engine Re-build and Replacement is working after driving

Contents

Introduction

After replacing our stock 4.0 L Bosch engine for a 4.6 L Turner Engineering Rover V8 with a high performance Kent cam shaft, ported and polished heads, top hatted liners, upgraded 4.6 intake, ECU tune from Mark Adams at Tornado Systems and new Safari Snorkel we have hit the 60,000 km mark!

Old Vehicle, New Engine, Endless of Fun

Land Rover Discovery 2 Upgrades and Adventures

If you haven’t heard our original engine rebuild and replacement experience then check out the first story here.

Here are our 60,000 km observations and insights:

Leaks

The most noticeable leaks are fairly minor in our opinion:

  1. Valve cover gasket: we consider this more as ‘sweating’ than leaking. This part tends to have a couple of year lifespan from what we hear. We have been tightening the accessible bolts at oil changes to keep things as tight as possible.
  2. Oil pressure gauge sensor: Deep in the guts of the engine and need to figure out if there is a way to access for tightening.
  3. Transfer case leak: we had this leak prior to the engine replacement and have tried to have it fixed several times since. The leak can only be repaired with a copper flange which requires the transfer case to be removed or disassembled then machined to accept a flange. The other option is replacing with a nice Ashcroft Transmission that has the insert fitted.

Performance

Carrying off from where we first began describing the engine performance since having the ECU tune done the most recent upgrade was the addition of the Safari Snorkel. We didn’t think this modification would have equated to such a large performance upgrade. When I say performance upgrade I’m not talking about an increase in horse power or torque but the improvement in operating performance. We immediately began seeing engine temperatures reduce by 10 - 15 C in the height of the summer during mid-day driving. This intake air temperature reduction must have an impact on the engine output though we can’t say exactly how much at this time. We can feel a little more pep in the step of our Rover these days even with all the other modifications we have done. Quiet interested to see how the snorkel will affect winter driving if at all or how it deals with snow storms on the way to the ski hills.

Noises

Only two engine related noises to report:

  1. Exhaust manifold gasket likely needs to be tightened again.
  2. Watts linkage appears to sound like it is going again.

Maintenance

No unexpected maintenance for the engine! Whoot!

After an extra muddy and dusty camping trip we did decide to wash the engine bay, which we are pleased to report it has not appeared to produce any negative side effects.

Overall we are happy with our Turner Engineering Engine experience!

We have been asked many times why we choose Turner over other options. When we did our engine there weren’t other accessible options.