Jaguar Land Rover

[DaveRoverMan]

Whilst the concept of Jag engines in Land Rovers isn't that new (the AJV8 has been in the Range Rover since 2006) mention of the AJ6 lump in the silly engines for a midget thread got me thinking.

The Rover V8 isn't bad at what it does, but performance figures are crap without spending lots of money, and on paper the 3.6 will just about equal the 4.6 Rover, and the 4 litre betters it with no tuning (225bhp/380nm torque for the 4.6 Rover and 221bhp/325nm and 245bhp/392nm for the 3.6 and 4 litre Jags) which left me thinking wondering on how it might fare in a Land Rover application.

I've seen the V12 put in a classic Range Rover, and some Germans put a 4.2 XK lump into a Series II LWB version, so the concept is workable.
Better still the auto box is a ZF4HP22/24 which was also used with the V8 in the Range Rover and Discovery, so bolting it all together and having 4WD will be nice and easy.

The one thing I can't find much useful info on is the length of the engine, or what's required to make the fuel injection work.
One assumes as the Lucas 5CU setup evolved from the same system as the 14CUX it would be similarly easy to make it work?
Whilst knowing the length of the engine will allow me to work out if I could fit it under the bonnet of a Defender without any fuss, or if I'm gonna have to shunt the gear box back to keep it all behind the radiator.

Anyone have any thoughts/knowledge to share?

[Renrut]

Its a straight 6 so add 50% onto the length of the V8 and you'll not be far off.

[brickie501]

At least one inline six was available in Defender 'from the factory'; well the BMW M50 was the petrol option in South African 90/110's for a few years.

I'm also convinced I've read a magazine article about an AJ6 transplanted into a Range Rover Classic - just don't have my stack of 'Land Rover porn' to hand!

Niether of these revalations exactly prove it will go in but, generally speaking, what's good for the old Range Rover is good for a Defender when it comes to engine swaps...

[ACE]

If you move the radiator shell forwards (like it has aircon) you gain a couple of inches. If you use a TD5 gearbox/mounts/prop shafts you gain a bit more.

Landrover fitted a six cylinder to some LWB Series II and III's (With modifications to the bulk head and other stuff).

Pretty sure I remember reading (Land Rover Owner?) about a series landrover converted to run a 4.2 jag straight six, some years back.

[DaveRoverMan]

Two excellent suggestions.

I've played with more than a few Series II six cylinders in my time, the Rover one is a fairly short block in comparason to the Jag though?

The last magazine article I saw about an XK engine in a Series II was Land Rover World last year sometime, a bit of fiddling to make it fit, but all ended up looking as if it had just rolled off the line.
A little bit of inspiration...