Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi everyone,

As I said in the introductions forum; 'I am now the proud owner of a Porsche 928 4.7 ltr engine! Not the whole 928 car unfortunately (though my dad used to have a 928 GT which was pretty amazing!).'

I have just bought the engine off fleabay to go in my Landy based off road racer and musing as to what it will need doing to it.

The engine (will arrive next week) has no ancillaries but does come with intake and exhaust etc but no ECU. Judging by what has been said online, it seems a new timing belt, tensioner and water pump would be a sensible thing to change on the engine firstly. Does anyone else have any other suggestions about things to change or inspect on the engine? Head gaskets? It has done 90,000 miles and is an '85 16v engine.

Also can anyone tell me how well sealed the cambelt cover is on these engines as if it is not well sealed that is something I will need to do for off road racing?

One other thing I wanted to ask is... does anyone know whether I will be able to run the engine using the standard ECU considering that it will not have most of the other electrical systems (such as the central locking etc) attached? I would rather try and avoid having to put a megasquirt system on it considering the added cost, complexity and the need to tune it. Plus I know the engines in standard tune run pretty damn well!

Any help you guys can give me would be most appreciated!

Zander

Hi Zander

As you will see from my signature, I also have a 4.7 engine with a few additions lol...

Wow you are a glutton for punishment...a Porsche 4.7 into a Landy is going to be a HUGE amount of work...

Firstly some pictures would be good so we can see exactly what you have got and what extra is needed, then we can help...

All the best Brett

Hi Brett... Yes... I read your post about putting a 2000hp nitrous kit in your car... WOW! How have you not melted your whole engine? lol. Thought it would be good to chat to you! So what have you done to the engine to handle all that power? Yank forged pistons? H-beams? Head and girdle studs? O-ringed deck/head?

Well the great thing about it being a Landy is that anything will go in it (I actually have three 4.0 SOHC V6s and a rover V8 with quad downdraft Dell'Ortos sitting in my garage that were going to go in if I hadn't bought this)! Not much Landy left though I admit. I am going to be mating it to a Tremec TKO600 with twin AP racing clutch and a 4WD box mated on the rear in place of the tail housing. Luckily the guy at Rakeway will be doing all this for me! Other than that it is just making engine mounts, wiring loom and fuel system which is all very basic.

I have attacked a pic of the engine off ebay but the engine wont actually be here for a week at least but when it does, you guys can be sure to have plenty of pics! Also included a pic of my racer for your amusment! (my avatar is it after the last off road exploit when I rolled it!)

Hi

Regarding my engine..NO engine work at all...the 4.7 is a VERY strong engine

On your engine are you getting the MAF ? if it was sold with ALL ancillaries you hopefully will have got it...(its behind those 8 spider legs in your picture , tucked down into a hole in the manifold.... it will cost a few hundred if they took it out, which they shouldn't have done...

They have not given you the airpump (that empty bracket bottom left in picture) but you dont need it, most like me remove it..they also have removed the air con compressor (again bottom left) but again you do not need it) ...enough holes in that Landy for a nice draft lol...

Umm also the viscous fan is missing and also the plug lead set....the plug leads are DRASTICALLY expensive to replace with genuine (think £400) and not easy to replace with a copy set....

When you actually get it, post some pictures here of all sides and we will put together a list of parts you NEED to ring up and demand....as I can see the best part of £1000 missing from that "full engine with ancillaries"

I hope you got it on Ebay as it will give you the clout to DEMAND whats missing....



All the best Brett

Yeah it should come with the MAF... if it doesn't I will kick off. It said on the ad that not all ancillaries were included. You are certainly right about the holes in my Landy... no need for air con! Whats the air pump for? I have a compressor and air tank in the back anyway

As for the viscous fan... I will be fitting a rear mounted radiator, roof scoop and twin electric fans so no need for that. I always use electric as then you can turn it off when you go through water I have also looked at plug leads and I can get a Magnecor set for £225. Or I can make my own up from an MSD kit or something... as you might imagine I am not bothered about originality!

Whats the belt driven item above the alternator? I assumed that was the aircon.

Thanks for your help so far mate.

Hi

Well hopefully you will get the MAF but a lot of people sell them separately so you may have to lean on them...

Dont worry about the airpump. it only pumped fresh air into the exhaust system to make it easier for American 928s to pass their stringer emissions test...not had one on mine for years and it still passes the MOT on emissions...so you wont need it

Its not the plug LEADS that are the problem...its the ENDS....that Magnecor set will assume you have the genuine ends to fit to it and you wont unless they include the lead set...plus...if you dont want water or mud in with the plugs you REALLY REALLY want the original ends as a minimum and preferably the whole set..




Maybe this will help with how much is missing.....including the whole air intake system plus air filter casing and most of the injection system....

Thinking about it.....although I will need to see precisely what they do send you...taking into account whats missing....new prices for the missing bits..at LEAST £2000 SECOND HAND prices if available....£1000 plus....

All the best Brett

Although the Porsche engine will be great in the Land Rover, you are giving yourself a huge amount of work there. Would you not be better putting in a Rover V8, maybe the 3.9 or even the 4.2? These engines pretty much drop straight in to the Land Rover, and all the parts to convert it are available.
Land Rover did fit this engine themselves of course, although it was the 3.5 litre in a very low state of tune, about 90bhp I think.
The Buick/Rover V8 can be tuned to deliver pretty high outputs, over 200bhp is fairly easy to achieve even with the 3.5 litre.

I actually have a 3.5 Rover V8 that I was rebuilding... it has quad downdraft Dell'Ortos, IR system, great valave train, the works. Though I will probably sell it all. I could make up to 250hp from it I guess, but it does require a lot of work - would still need to buy race heads, lifters, pushrods and a couple of others.

To be honest the difference in work is minimal... neither would have a Landy gearbox (the only think that will last the repeated abuse it gets racing off road is a Tremec TKO600), both would need new mounts, cooling system, wiring loom, modification of the engine bay and new fuel system. It actually makes no difference what engine I put in. And being a Landy... new mounts and engine bay modification just involves a spurt with the angle grinder and welder!

Brett, according to the blurb about the leads... 'This set uses OE Style spark plug lead boots.' Sounds promising? Or do they mean that you supply the OE ends? I guess i will have to ring and find out! What is different about the 928 ignition connectors from standard?

Again, with the intake I would have made own anyway - I find cone filters much easier to seal against water as you have a smaller sealing area compared to a big airbox. And while the original fuel rails would have been nice, I have no problem making my own. Though of course it would have been nice to get all the bits as I could have sold them probably... I will have to pester them for as much as possible.

The great thing about doing a PhD in fuel injection is that I have access to lathes, mills and even CNC

The Land Rover will be awesome with a 928 engine in it. Keep us informed as to how the conversion works out.

plug leads are not that expensive, have a word with bert gear i think i just got a set for about £150, they were beru