Diesel good enough for off-road?

Datatek said:

Diesel torque is more suited to off road IMO. Chip it and the auto box will fail sooner or later as I know to my cost

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Think it's more chipping and towing that knackers the boxes Keith. Normal driving should not bother them. However chipping one with 100,000 miles on it that has had the gearbox oil changed every Preston guild may have a consequence.

wammers said:

Think it's more chipping and towing that knackers the boxes Keith. Normal driving should not bother them. However chipping one with 100,000 miles on it that has had the gearbox oil changed every Preston guild may have a consequence.

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IMO it's the lack of torque reduction on shifts and exceeding the torque limit that knackers the auto box on chipped diesel P38's. Failing to change the oil and towing will hasten the demise.

I have down-loaded RAVE but it doesn't appear to work. Is it compatable with windows 7?

Yes, it should be just a bunch of PDF documents...

After a bit of random folder opening I have found a few overhaul manuals for the T-series engine and a couple of owners hand books for the Range-Rover. They are all cryptically labelled too. Does this sound right? Have I down-loaded the right thing? If so I'll keep on trawling and rename the files.

Yep totally compatible with Win7....

Unzip the file, you'll find a Land Rover logo application, double click (if you have the Adobe updater running in the background Ctrl+alt+Del select task manager and check the running processes and turn it off - RAVE uses its own copy of Adobe reader and hates it when other Adobe products or updaters are running at the same time)

This will open up a splash screen, click this, then select a vehilce from the list....and off you go.....

if you still have trouble try this....

Land Rover Workshop Manuals

or this....

pdf Land Rover Manuals | Landroverweb.com

hth

Auto-TaT said:

After a bit of random folder opening I have found a few overhaul manuals for the T-series engine and a couple of owners hand books for the Range-Rover. They are all cryptically labelled too. Does this sound right? Have I down-loaded the right thing? If so I'll keep on trawling and rename the files.

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Dont rename....the RAVE application uses them as embedded documents within RAVE...renaming them will make RAVE not be able to find them....

I suspected there was supposed to be a form of 'user interface' as with other such programs. There is an autorun file but it doesn't do anything. I'll have a play to see what happens.

As below....

BMW M51 engine tends to be a bit sluggish below 1,800 rpm. It's just the nature of the beast. Having said that, I go laning in mine, and have no problem recommending it for anything but deep water (you don't want to get the various ECUs wet). Engine-wise, it's at least as good as the TD5. If you plan to get it very wet you're probably best off with an early (mechanically controlled injection pump) 300tdi. Depends on how far you want to go with your off-roading.

Both of the ones we have at home have manual rather than automatic gearbox so I cannot say anything about the latter - in general I tend to avoid automatics because life expectancy of automatic gearbox for me on any car seems to be about 30,000 miles (Ford, Jaguar/ZF (possibly same gearbox as in the automatic P38). And I've never actually broken a manual gearbox, so I make a point of avoiding anything with an automatic box.

I haven't got the Application file, just the logo file. I have managed to make it work to a fashion after unzipping manually and using the rave-lr file.

I wish I'd found this (or thought of looking for it) when I had my BMW TDS as I never did find a manual for the engine. I might have to post a link on the BMW forum I used to visit.

Life expectancy of an autobox was something I was wondering about. The last auto I had (a rubbish '88 mk3 Granada) failed within the first month of ownership at approx 98,000 which apparently was about right for them. Are there many high mileage Rangies on there original autoboxes?

Auto-TaT said:

I haven't got the Application file, just the logo file. I have managed to make it work to a fashion after unzipping manually and using the rave-lr file.

I wish I'd found this (or thought of looking for it) when I had my BMW TDS as I never did find a manual for the engine. I might have to post a link on the BMW forum I used to visit.

Life expectancy of an autobox was something I was wondering about. The last auto I had (a rubbish '88 mk3 Granada) failed within the first month of ownership at approx 98,000 which apparently was about right for them. Are there many high mileage Rangies on there original autoboxes?

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My DSE was 141K and going strong when I part ex'd.....

They will last a lifetime if well maintained and the Torque spec isn't exceeded with a performance chip or such like....

Don't know about autoboxes, but the two I have here have 236K and 262K miles on them - both manuals, and I've seen no evidence that the gearbox on either had ever been changed.

You could, of course, do yourself a favour and unless the one you are looking for is _really_ cheap and in very good condition, get a manual - you'll get more mpg and won't have to worry about when/if the box will expire. Of course, the manuals have their own expensive issues from time to time (somebody thought it'd be a great idea to fit them with a "dual mass flywheel", which I'm told is about £600 (+ labour) or something disgusting like that). But in 70K miles having driven one I've never had a transmission problem, which is more than I can say for the ZF auto box (I seem to remember it's the 4HP22 as fitted to the XJ40 Jaguar, but I could be wrong). Having said that, the slightly later 4HP24 box I've not managed to break yet, even though it's bolted to a 7.6 litre V12 engine in one of my other toys.

Clearly, YMMV.

Saint.V8 said:

My DSE was 141K and going strong when I part ex'd.....

They will last a lifetime if well maintained and the Torque spec isn't exceeded with a performance chip or such like....

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I could be wrong but ZF 4HP22 was rated for 220lbf, and 4HP24 for 240lbf. The latter, however, was much stronger due to a redesigned forward clutch (you can fit the 4HP24 innards into a 4HP22 if you want it cable rather than electronically controlled - it's what I have in the 7.6 litre V12 I mentioned).

Having said all that - there's a long running joke (?) that ZF boxes aren't rated the same way as the old Leyland boxes. ZFs' ratings generally mean that if something is rated to 220lbf, it won't break at least up to 220lbf (except through long term material fatigue and wear). On a Leyland, being rated for 220lbf merely meant that 221lbf was _guaranteed_ to break it.

Well it's looking like a diesel P38 shouldn't cause too much heart-ache and so deserves a place on the shortlist of future working vehicles.

The previous daily BMW 525 TDS Tourer made a great work horse (Manual & Chipped) but was killed of by rusted sills (much like most of its brethren). It also couldn't really double as a play thing in the mud, though it was pretty good on fuel (32-38 MPG). The auto version of the BMW tended to give better economy as top gear gave noticeably lower engine rpm.

After its demise it was replaced by a '53 plate Rover 75 1.8T Saloon. A very nice and capable car but too nice to use and abuse as a work horse. The fact that it's a saloon doesn't help either.

Yeah, I had a 525tds once upon a time. Awesome car. Got written off by an uninsured driver.
I keep pondering getting another one every once in a while, but can't really sensibly justify having yet another vehicle...

You'll have a job finding one with solid sills, unless of course you find one without the sunroof.Most will be wanting the rear subframe bushes replaced by now too. Fantastic engine in that car though, it really did drive like a petrol.

I'm selling my P38 DSE - at a bargain price, too! Has had loads of work done, still has a handful of jobs that need doing. I'll be putting up an ad in For Sale soon...

I'm interested obviously, but as stated earlier, I am not in a position to buy just yet. Unfortunately I have an Escort I need to finish and flog to raise funds

I l keep an eye out for your add though to get some kind of water mark.

Cheers.