M57 Defender Engine Mounts

M57 Defender Engine Mounts

This is the mounting half of a Defender engine conversion, sold on its own. Five items locate a BMW M57 in the chassis and fix it there, bolted to points the vehicle already has, so no welding, cutting or bracket fabrication is involved at any stage of the fitment.

It is specified for four donor Defenders — 200Tdi, 300Tdi, Td5 and TDCi — against a published list of M57 engine codes, which is set out in the compatibility table further down this page. Read it before ordering, because the four lists are not identical.

The part most conversions get wrong

Engine mounts look like the easy bit of a swap and they are the part that ruins the most projects. Where the engine sits decides everything downstream of it: the angle the gearbox hangs at, whether the propshaft is running at a sensible angle, how much room is left at the bulkhead, and how much clearance there is around the engine. Get it a centimetre out and you do not find out on the bench, you find out with the whole drivetrain assembled and a vibration that nobody can trace.

Fabricating mounts also means measuring off a chassis that is thirty years old and may not be square any more. This kit takes the position out of your hands and puts it in a bracket, which is why it exists as a separate product: it is the single piece of a conversion that is worth buying rather than making, even for a workshop that can weld.

Who buys mounts on their own

People who already have an engine and already know what they are doing about the gearbox. That covers the builder who bought a donor car and is using its engine and loom, the workshop repeating a conversion it has done before, and anyone assembling a build in stages over a winter rather than in one go. If you want the whole conversion solved in one order instead, that is the 6HP or 8HP Defender kit, and both already include a bolt in engine mounting system, so you do not need this kit as well as one of those.

Kit Contents

• Left hand engine mounting bracket
• Right hand engine mounting bracket
• Heavy duty engine mount assemblies
• Chassis mounting plates
• Mounting bolts and fasteners

What those five items do not cover

This is brackets, mounts, plates and bolts. It holds an engine in a chassis and does nothing else. There is no gearbox adapter here, no transfer case adapter, no wiring, no ECU, no cooling or intercooler pipework and no exhaust. Every one of those is a separate problem and most of them have their own answer on this site: the 6HP and 8HP to LT230 adapter for the transfer case end, the M57N2 to 8HP swap kit for an eight speed behind the engine, or the M57 to R380 kit if you are keeping the original manual gearbox.

Vehicle Compatibility

200Tdi Defender

• BMW M57 306D1
• BMW M57N
• BMW M57TUE
• BMW M57 306D4
• BMW M57 306D5

300Tdi Defender

• BMW M57 306D1
• BMW M57N
• BMW M57TUE
• BMW M57 306D4
• BMW M57 306D5

Td5 Defender

• BMW M57N
• BMW M57 306D4
• BMW M57 306D5

TDCi Defender

• BMW M57 306D1
• BMW M57N 306D2
• BMW M57TUE
• BMW M57 306D4
• BMW M57 306D5

Check both halves of that table before ordering

The lists above are organised by donor Defender and then by engine code, and they are not all the same length. The Td5 column is shorter than the others. So find two things before you order: which of the four Defender variants yours is, and which M57 code is actually stamped on the engine you have bought. Builders regularly know the first and are guessing at the second.

If your combination is not in the table, do not assume it is close enough. Send us the engine code and the vehicle and we will confirm whether it fits or not.

Simple Installation

A fabricated mount means heat, grinding and modification to the Defender chassis. This kit means neither: the brackets and plates go on with the fasteners supplied in the box, to holes the chassis already has. The practical difference is hours saved on the first installation and the same result on the tenth.

That also matters if the vehicle is sitting on a galvanised chassis. Welding mounts to one means grinding the zinc away first, exactly where you least want to lose it. Our Defender chassis solves the same problem from the other direction, with removable bare steel plates for engines that have no bolt in mount kit at all.

Contact us for inquiry : sales@nordwerk4x4.com