Prima Perkins Conversion-Worth it?

On or around 4 Jan 2007 15:00:25 -0800, "ScoutTech" enlightened us thusly:

The standard Prima is not all that potent. a turbo one would go nicely, ex-mondeo, say, but it's a transverse motor in mondeo guise. also a possibility and there may be more good uns around is the non-turbo transit Di.

Transit turbo is a good motor but they're EDC (Lucas EPIC) and you thus need the ECU and the harness and the throttle unit in the cab; earlier ones have the throttle unit under the bonnet and a cable from there to the pedal.

quite an easy swap is the engines from LDV 300 and 400 vans - one of which is a rover engine and almost identical to the 2.5 NAD. Others use peugeot

2.5 in turbo and non-turbo form.

Are you sure they were in Mondeos? Or did you mean Montegos?

I'd stay away from any of those and try to get hold of a 200 Tdi from a rotting early Disco. Probably your best bet.

Martin

On or around Fri, 5 Jan 2007 00:01:22 -0000, "Oily" enlightened us thusly:

yer right. I knew what I meant :-)

Montego, yes. not a bad motor for an SWB.

Consider looking at some US web sites about running on Ethanol and even breqing your own (dubious legality ATM) or doing what ever needs doing to run E85. Depending on whether it is carb or injection, it may run E85 as is, or with a carb rejet. Injection is harder.

Thanks for that both. I have heard of a couple of 200 TDI conversions but thought it would be rather more expensive due to it being a newer engine. But can't hurt to look at it too. Anyone know rough costs?

Doesn't cost much to convert to 200 Tdi, it fits straight on to the series box with the usual stud removed but the position of the steering relay can necessitate using a 90" front and bonnet and you're better off cutting the chassis engine mounts from the Disco and welding them in the series chassis rather than using the series engine mountings. Depends which box you have as you may have a bit of work to do on the exhaust front pipe to clear the clutch slave.

Martin

|| Lord Austin the Ebullient of Happy Bottomshire wrote: || ||| On or around Fri, 5 Jan 2007 00:01:22 -0000, "Oily" ||| enlightened us thusly: ||| |||| Are you sure they were in Mondeos? Or did you mean Montegos? ||| ||| yer right. I knew what I meant :-) ||| ||| Montego, yes. not a bad motor for an SWB.

|| Anyone know rough costs?

For the Prima conversion, have a look at the Series 2 Club

and follow links. It's been done lots. They have a huge amount of material on the Prima conversion, and links to a lot more. Plenty of pics. From memory, rough costs would be a ton for a dead Montego, another ton for the conversion plates and probably another for bits and bobs. Say about 300 all in. I looked into this quite seriously last year, and I reckon it's a good plan - how does 35 mpg and better performance strike you? FWIU the Tdi route is a lot more involved. The Prima is actually smaller than the 2.25 lump, whereas the Tdi may well need extra space, like moving the front panel, plus a lot of arsing about with moving turbos and manifolds.

It looks like a good project see

Derek

"Richard Brookman" wrote :-

AFAICR you needed the flywheel, backplate and starter from the Sherpa inline version of the Prima engine which might prove very hard to find, but yes, it's a good option.

Martin

Thanks for all the info. Prima looks good going then. I think I'll have to save a bit more, Found the conversion kit and it is 280 on it's own. Worth it but as always money is at a premium. They do have a Mk2 kit though so the Sherpa bits are no longer needed. So time to talk to the garage then and see what they think!

Ta again.