Deisel conversion leagle?

rrefx

Registered User
Deisel conversion legal?

I have a friend who's trying to talk me into converting my '96 Land Rover Discovery to a diesel. I am tempted, I am just curious about the legal implications. I don't want to own a vehicle that's "grey area". I live in Utah county, don't know if that makes a difference or not. I know it's not legal to import a diesel out of a land rover defender TD5, which I would do in a heart beat if I could, but what about domestic deisels? Is it legal?

Thanks,
Ryan
 
Last edited:

Badger

I am the Brute squad
Location
South Salt Lake
my guess would be that if it is a engine that is an option on your vehicle then it should be all good.but i do have to say do you understand all that is needed to do the conversion?

you will have to replace all of the gas lines,tank,pump,possibly the entire engine harness,computer,is the trans going to be swap able between the two ?will the stock original one handle the extra torque produced by the new diesel engine.

in my opinion its not worth the trouble.start looking for a Rover thats all ready diesel and sell or trade yours for it.
 

Samarig

Registered User
Location
Spanish Fork
the vehicle is tested for emissions based on what engine came in it from the factory. but you may be able to get an engine swap form from the utah county emissions station located at the north end of spanish fork main. it is just north of the county jail. I believe the address is something around 3522 north main.
 

Rot Box

Diesel and Dust
Supporting Member
Location
Smithfield Utah
Not sure on Legality, (Cache County doesn't care about this kind of stuff yet) but what swap are you planning on performing? If you can't inport the TD5 than I am assuming you are going to do a GM 6.2L/6.5L swap do to simplicity. If you are I would be happy to help you answer any questions you have regarding do's and don'ts.
 

lenny

formerly known as PokeyYJ
Location
Bountiful, UT
You cannot legally swap in a Land Rover diesel engine. None of the Rover diesel's are approved by the EPA for use in the U.S., I spent many hours looking at the EPA website looking for the answer to this same question. You might be able to get away with doing it in a county that does not have I.M. testing, but anywhere that does would throw a red flag if they saw a diesel. You may be able to register the vehicle as a kit car- or custom vehicle, but those have restrictions as to how far you can drive them each year.
 

rrefx

Registered User
I know it's costly, and know I can't go with the rover TDI's. I don't want to register it as a kit car, so may be out of options. My friend says he has some 4 cylinder cummings deisel engines, I don't know which ones, and he wanted me to swap one into the disco. Can't find much on them, so I'm a little skeptical. I've been looking into it a little, and found a lot of people swap in the International 2.8 turbodeisel. Appearantly it's better than my Disco's 4.0, and gets better miliage. Once again, I couldn't find anything on wheather this engine was legal here, I will still look into it, it seems like it would be fun and unique, but won't try anything till I know it's not something that will give me legal problems in the future.

Thanks,
Ryan
 
Top