Range Rover LS Swap Blog

This blog will cover the process of swapping my 2008 Range Rover Sport HSE with the GM 5.3 iron block twin turbo setup. 

-May 2017, vehicle acquired. 

I purchased this 2008 Range Rover Sport HSE from a private seller. Although I am mechanically savvy and inspected the vehicle prior to purchasing, the seller was hiding some nasty headgasket issues and the engine started overheating about 2 weeks after owning it. I considered repairing the existing engine however in the back of my mind I knew that was not really the route I wanted to go.

After a couple weeks of daydreaming and considering options to get the vehicle back on the road, I determined that I would swap in a GM drivetrain. I began searching local craigslist ads and eventually purchased a gen 3 5.3 iron block out of a Chevy Silverado. These are very popular engines and they can be found in multiples almost anywhere you search. Parts are available on every store shelf and repairs/upgrades are very reasonably priced. 

The engine I purchased did not live an easy life, as can be seen by the amount of gunk built up in the cylinder heads. Seeing this was enough for me to justify a full rebuild including new rod and main bearing, piston rings and a cylinder refresh at my local machine shop. 

All cleaned up and ready for the heads to be installed. While I had the engine apart I upgraded to gen 4 rods and pistons which are known to be stronger due to the floating wrist pin design. Here is a breakdown of the engine setup I chose:

-Factory bore 5.3 iron block

-Gen 4 rods and pistons 

-317 heads refreshed and decked 

-Valve springs/retainers/pushrods/trunion upgraded

-LS9 head gaskets with upgraded head studs 

-LJMS twin turbo camshaft

-LS1 intake manifold 

-F body accessories for more clearance on the front of the engine

Once I installed the engine into the Range Rover I began the process of fabricating the turbo setup. This consists of factory GM truck exhaust manifolds which have been modified using a nice set up machined stainless steel T4 open flanges. This setup uses twin Borg Warner S366 turbos, (2) Turbosmart CompGate 40s and a Turbosmart Raceport BOV. To keep things cool I am using a Be cool radiator with large single electric fan. The factory AC condenser has been mounted to the aftermarket radiator. In front of that is the dual core charge air cooler to handle the intake temps.

                         It is a pretty tight fit once the accessories are installed. Fitting the twin turbos took some creativity but nothing too crazy. I toyed with the idea of using an air to water heat exchanger to free up some room but ended up going with an air to air. 

Since the vehicle will be seeing lots of abuse, I decided to ditch the factory air suspension during this process. I am running K Sport fully adjustable coilovers which will provide a much more predictable and stable setup for hard launches. The truck will be on drag radials 24/7. 

More photos and info to come soon as I make progress! 

UPDATE 7.19.18:

after tinkering with a few ideas for charge air coolers and various core arrangements, I have decided to use an air to water intercooler setup along with a front mounted heat exchanger to keep the temps low during street driving. This simplifies the overall piping and packaging as the air to water core is much smaller than the air to air setup.

This is the final arrangement.