Land Rover Defender 90 – Cummins R2.8 Swap
We have another engine swap build blog for you guys! A little change of pace this time, we’re going to be swapping a Cummins R2.8 Diesel engine into a Land Rover Defender 90. Those of our readers with some Land Rover knowledge may notice that this one did not come with the usual Diesel, nor did it come with the 4.0L V8 that they stuffed into D90s in the U.S. in the late 90s…
No, this truck came with a 2.0L Rover T16 4 cylinder engine. They were more commonly found in Rover cars like the 620ti, 220 coupe, and 820 sedan. From 1989 to 1998 however, Land Rover used this as the power plant for the special equipped Italian Carabinieri Defenders! In other words, this old Defender was actually a police truck at one time in its life. Hard to say what kind of action this truck saw, no bullet holes were found.
In addition to the Cummins Diesel swap, we were tasked with adding some accessories to this truck to turn it into a good all-around overlanding truck. The bones are certainly solid, but there are a few odds and ends needed to turn this into a proper offroading machine. Let’s get to it!
