I might describe myself as a competent amateur mechanic. I am fortunate to have a well kitted out workshop and have been completing all the maintenance on my cars for a while now. I have built engines from scratch and have a good understanding of what is needed to make a machine run reliably and well.
As part of the project, I have looked at some of the organisations that do professional engine conversions for Defenders. Whilst these companies may have more skills and experience, those attributes certainly come at a cost and given the popularity of these conversions at the moment, I suspect the process may not be any faster. The main problem though is that as an end-to-end service; they are just too expensive for my budget.
Time will tell as this process develops, but I think the way to tackle this challenge is to aim to get a fully reconditioned M57 engine running on a stand in the workshop start with. That should minimise the risk of a non running vehicle and whilst I am not dependent on the Defender on a daily basis, I would prefer to keep it running for as long as possible whilst at least the core of the new engine is built.
I have pretty much decided to keep the Defenders MT82 gearbox and transfer box if possible. There is lots of discussion on the internet around replacing or upgrading the transmission components to deal with increased power and torque, but I need to be mindful of the scope of the project - I also believe that just because increased power is available, the Defender doesn't need to be driven hard and the power can be fed in gradually. If further transmission upgrades are required in the future, they can be completed later.
Outside of actually building an engine that runs in the workshop, on my list of things to think about at this stage are:
I am sure there will be more.....