All,
I have an idea for a project, to take the 4.4L SDV8 from either L322 (preferred), or L405, and use it in something else (either Defender or Ford Transit).

But, is there a way to make the engine run without it being part of a Range Rover?, as if it were a crate engine?

It was doable with the Thor V8 from a Range Rover P38 with a bit of expense, but I can't seem to find anybody who's done it with the SDV8.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Chris. L405 - 4.4SDV8 Vogue
P38 - 4.6V8 HSE
Land Rover series IIA V8

If you know what you're doing with wiring and mapping then anything's possible, although you'll probably need to use a standalone ECU like a Links or Syvecs etc. That way you can essentially map the sensors into the appropriate channels, and then custom map it. It might be possible to use the original RR ECU for some of the engine channels, but if you were then integrating an original digital (Rather than mechanical) dash cluster you may run into trouble given they'll not be speaking the same language. An engine is an engine basically, and it'll have sensors like any other engine. There's nothing special about them per se, and thus anything can be made to work given the time, budget and ability.

I have often wondered if the N57 and ZF8 from a crashed 335d with the twin turbo setup could be stuck into the early TD6 cars (given the M57 and N57 are pretty similar). They can take 400bhp all day long which would definitely allow it to keep up with the later cars! Having less digital crap in there it would theoretically be quite an easy swap...he says optimistically.