*My LSx Swap LR3 Build (World's First)

[William48151623]

Like the title says, this is the world's first LSx Swap done to an LR3 (or any newer Land Rover/Range Rover for that matter).

Background Information: The car belonged to my mother and was her daily driver. At about 190k miles the air suspension went bad and the motor blew a head gasket. At that point we got several price quotes to repair everything and it was substantial. For the fun of it I got a quote from a shop in my hometown that specializes is LSx swaps (Rakich Performance) and to my surprise his quote was way less than the OEM replacement cost. At that point I was sold so I bought the car from my mom and sent it to his shop so he could get started. Never having been done before, everything had to be fabricated custom. There's been snags here and there but overall the build has been a great success!

Build Specifications:
2006 Land Rover LR3 V8 SE
Atlantic British Air Suspension to Coilover Conversion Kit
Forged 370 c.i. Cast Iron Block (LQ9)
JE Forged Pistons
Callies Compstar Rods
Stock Crankshaft
King Racing Bearings
216/228 551/551 114 Cam
317 Heads-S.S. valves,Ported
T.B.S.S. Intake,90mm T.B.
4L80e Trans and Transfercase
Custom driveshafts

Pictures:

The car drives like a normal LR3 when on all motor (maybe even a little faster than OEM).

If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask. I hope this will be inspiration to spawn more swaps in this community.

 

[waspjr123]

Cool i love out of the box thinking

 

[bushway9172]

Interesting. Any idea on performance numbers?

 

[no-pistons]

That's pretty cool. Couple questions for you:

-How much did engine swap run you if you don't mind me asking?

-Does everything on the dash still work? How do you operate the transfer case? I assume no more functioning terrain response?

How do you like the coil conversion?

 

[jwest]

Totally cool idea. Makes me think a Cummins 4Bt should go into mine.


I think the cold air intake should be routed into the fender like factory. Those cone things aren't actually "better" as they pull hotter air from the engine bay. You're not going to be running it like a race car so it just doesn't help any.

 

[William48151623]

Cool i love out of the box thinking

Thanks, I appreciate it!

Interesting. Any idea on performance numbers?

Thanks! There's no official numbers as of yet. I hope to get it on the dyno and to the drag strip soon. If I had to guess though, on motor only it's probably at 350hp and with a 100 shot it's probably at 600-700hp. When I get official numbers I'll update the first post.

That's pretty cool. Couple questions for you:

-How much did engine swap run you if you don't mind me asking?

-Does everything on the dash still work? How do you operate the transfer case? I assume no more functioning terrain response?

How do you like the coil conversion?

- The build originally started out as just a basic 6.0/4L80E swap and was priced at $13,000 due to everything needing to be custom fabricated. Mid build I decided I wanted to go balls to the walls so we forged the internals and added some higher hp parts. It wound up costing a few thousand more, but it was totally worth it.

- Right now I have the OEM gauge cluster in it.

As to be expected, I have almost all error lights imaginable lit up. I bought the 4Dcan tool (Land Rover LR3 - 4Dcan Diagnostics) in an attempt to disable the lights. That didn't work. So now we've ordered VDO's new CB500 cluster which should fit the dimensions.

The OEM cluster has very few features which still work. The speedometer works and the digital information panel works which is nice because it displays fuel range. Fuel economy has increased with the swap. I now get 400-450 miles per tank.

- The transfer case is operated by a mechanical lever we put on the inside of the vehicle next to the console. It allows me to switch from 2WD to 4WD.

- You're absolutely right in that the Terrain Response no longer works. To me, the coilover conversion makes up for that. I absolutely love it!

Totally cool idea. Makes me think a Cummins 4Bt should go into mine.


I think the cold air intake should be routed into the fender like factory. Those cone things aren't actually "better" as they pull hotter air from the engine bay. You're not going to be running it like a race car so it just doesn't help any.

You totally should give it a try! We need more swaps to start popping up.

We had the same idea about the CAI so we wound up modifying the OEM airbox. Fitment worked so we were happy. Until we drove the car around... Performance was bogged down and airflow was restricted. So basically the car performed better when sucking in a lot of hotter air than just a little bit of cooler air. With that realization we put the CAI back on. Right now we're working on adding a heat shield or sealing off with plexiglass. Stay tuned for that.

 

[morrisdl]

Wow! I'm impressed. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Karim]

Hi,
Thank you very much for posting this. I'm not well versed on engines. Is the diesel engine you used a fancy one, can we get a less expensive engine for the conversion. Have you learned about anything new now that its been a couple of years you posted this.

Thank you again and sorry to bother,

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