I live in Africa
and want to give my sixpence worth. Those that say keep the original engine are spot on. Spares for the engine are available. The engine might not be fast but other than a few places in Africa you're not going to need speed. If you replace the engine source one that is widely available in Africa because if you need spares you will have trouble. Basically another popular engine would be Toyota but then again it must be one that is available here; they are not always the same as what is available in the rest of the world.
There have been many 2.25s taking travellers from Europe to Cape Town over the years. If you really want to change engines then drop in the Rover 3.5 V8. But then you have a real gas guzzler when fuel stations might be a bit far apart. The V8 would then mean a change of axle to a Salisbury and 3.54 diff ratios. Rather stick to the 2.25. As was said earlier , KEEP IT SIMPLE.
