Sam Townsend’s Land Rover Defender Swaps the OM606 for an OM648
by Christopher Christopher
Published in engineswapdepot.com
Sam Townsend has been busy working on his 2004 Land Rover Defender since our last article. In that time he’s made several changes to the powertrain. In the engine bay he swapped the 3.0 L Mercedes OM606 turbodiesel inline-six for a 3.2 L Mercedes OM648 turbodiesel inline-six. Sam made the swap to bring more low-end torque to the heavy SUV. He also upgraded the cooling system with an Allisport radiator. When it came to the drivetrain, Sam swapped the Mercedes ML500 five-speed automatic transmission for a BMW ZF 8HP eight-speed automatic transmission using a Jota5sport adapter. The Defender retains the LT230 transfer case thanks to Syncro Gearboxes adapter but Sam converted it to air shifting.
Source: @samt89_