Looking for a diesel defender. which engine is best?

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Macca 110

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I'll be in the market soon for a Defender 110.

I've been looking at the autotrader for a while now and there seems to be so many diesel options or conversions.

I dont expect any to be a race horse but want somthing that can commute in daily traffic and not be too much of a slouch. I also want reasonable MPG and plan on using my own blend of Bio Diesel. Deffo want a Turbo of some description.

Any suggestions??

Andy
 
id say if your lookin to spend up to £4or£5k then a 200TDI, over that then a 300TDI and over £8k or so your probably into TD5 money. All 3 of these are good engines, but the TDi's are better for home servicing cos less electricy.

TD5 has the most power, but I dont know how well it runs on veg oil etc.
 
roughly whats ur budget?

Not a huge budget, probably about 2.5k. I have seen a few older landies(1990) come up for this kind of money with the 200TDI or Nissan turbo conversions. Not sure if that buys a reasonable example though, havent been out to look at any yet.

Cheers

Andy
 
Hi Andy,

I've got an old 1986 90 with a 2.5 litre Naturally Aspirated Diesel engine (19J) and it's a good solid runner. It is one of the slowest diesel engines still about but its got plenty of power and keeps up with the traffic no problem at all. It'll reach 70 if you're on the motor way, and 78 if you really need to push it. I run mine on a diesel / Straight veg oil mix and it runs sweet as a nut. The only thing to worry about with an engine of this age is the fuel lines and the injection pump. Your own brand bio diesel will no doubt contain ethanol which will steadily rot through the fuel lines but I'll assume you already know about that! As far as the engine is concerned, you can run it on anything and it will be as happy as Larry, but the old Lucas / Cav injection pump doesn't really like the strain of a thicker fuel (i.e. Straight veg oil), but bio diesel would be fine.

There is also a turbo version of this engine which is basically the exact same engine but with a slightly more powerful but just as weak fuel injection pump and a turbo block bolted on. This is when the older engines start to be troublesome. The Naturally Aspirated diesel is a decent engine, but when they stuck a turbo on it, things started to go wrong because the engine generally wasn't designed for the extra power that a turbo would force through it.

The 200 and 300 Tdi engines seem to be the favoured engines, especially the 200 down to its simplicty and easey access to work on. Both engines will run fine on bio diesel and should run well for years and years. The only thing to consider is securing a defender with a 200 or 300 tdi engine. They are a very desirable engine and if there's a model of defender to be nicked, that's the one.

The TD5 is a powerful engine, but it's packed with electronics and is meant to be an absolute bugger to work on. The injectors and pumps are all electronically controlled and there are even sensors that monitor the crankshaft which can potentially cause problems down the line. You're best avoiding one of these engines if you want a totally relaible runner that you can work on for yourself and run dirt cheap.

Generally speaking, the 2.5 N/A and 2.5 Turbo engines are the cheapest ones you'll find, but the 200 and 300 tdi engines aren't that far off, and can in some cases be even cheaper to get hold of on ebay or auto trader. TD5's are more expensive, more powerful and quieter but they wont take well to straight veg oil or a straight veg oil and diesel mix. They would work fine with bio diesel.

Hope this helps!
-Pos
 
If you can get a 200TDI then go for it, although the condition of the chassis and bulkhead is actually more important than the engine.

If not then I personally think the 2.5TD is better than the NA, mine has done 135k with no problems at all (that I know of). If you are a fairly reasonable mechanic, then it is a very popular mod to buy a 200TDI engine out of a discovery for a few hundred £££££, and stick it in the earlier diesels.
 
300 then 200 then turbo then NA. The turbo is'nt just an NA with a turbo added it's a lot stronger, got a bad name at the start but if it's still running now it's not a bad motor, it doesn't really compare to the 200 or the 300.
The 200 and 300 are essentially the same, the 300 has some differences to help with noise and smoother running i think. I've owned all three turbo -non electrickery versions and they are all OK.
 
2495cc diesel, overhead valve: Land Rover reworked the old 'two and a quarter' diesel for the Eighties. The injection pump was now driven off a toothed belt at the front of the engine (together with the camshaft) which sorted the pump timing drift problem of the older diesels, and the increase in capacity provided a bit more power. Slow but strong, simple and dependable, this engine remains rightly popular.

2495cc turbodiesel, overhead valve, type 19J: Given the strength and reliability of the 2.5 diesel, you can understand why Land Rover thought it would cope with turbocharging, but the result was a warranty nightmare. 2.5TDs can fail in any number of ways, but the most common seems to be internal cracks developing in the cylinder block. This gives the same symptoms as a blown head gasket or cracked cylinder head, but is not repairable. Due to a defective design of crankcase breather, these engines also tend to dump large amounts of engine oil into the air filter housing, which turns the paper air filter into a soggy black lump. This in turn leads to oil being drawn into the air intake, causing the engine to 'run away' and self-destruct.

Land Rover introduced a new cylinder block for the 2.5 Turbodiesel (part no. ERR479) from engine number 19J27515C. I have not been able to confirm, but suspect that this block was strengthened to get round the block cracking problems I would consider rebuilding a later engine, but not one of the earlier ones. In general, if the vehicle itself is any good, the sensible thing to do is to upgrade to a 200TDi (see below), or for old and tatty TDs the 2495cc non-turbo engine is a very straightforward swap, with only the air intake hose and exhaust system needing to be changed.

2495cc turbodiesel, overhead valve, 200TDi and 300TDi: Second time lucky for Land Rover. The lessons learned from the 2.5TD were incorporated into the new TDi engines available in the Defender and Discovery from 1990. The cylinder block still looked familiar (although strengthened internally with an aluminium ladder frame bolted to the bearing caps) but the cylinder head was all-new and a direct injection fuel system was used. These engines have gained an impressive reputation for power and durability. Defender engines produced 107bhp, Discovery engines (with different manifolding and a couple of other small changes) 111bhp. The 300TDi has a single serpentine drive belt for alternator, power steering etc, better soundproofing and a few small internal differences compare to the 200TDi. Power outputs of the two engines are identical. Though no longer offered in Europe (due to emissions regulations) the 300TDi remains available in some export markets.

2495cc turbodiesel, 5 cylinder, TD5: New and much stricter Euro emissions regulations for diesel engines led Land Rover to develop an all-new engine for the second generation Discovery, and this also found its way into the Defender. The TD5 features electronic control of the fuel injection system (with a control unit under the driver's seat), 'drive by wire' throttle and other refinements, all aimed at minimising exhaust emissions. Early reaction was mixed: the TD5 was much easier to stall than the earlier diesel engines (a characteristic shared by many of the latest generation of environment-friendly diesels) and there were reports of oil pump failures, cylinder head problems and other reliability issues - but not on anything like the scale of the 2.5TD fiasco in the Eighties. In any case, these issues appear to have been resolved, and the TD5 has turned out to be a lovely engine - much smoother than the old TDi, and it sounds better too.
 
You have the 12J, the 19J is the TD.

If you know that your pump doesn't much like SVO then why do you run it on it?

Hi Disco, 12J! Sorry about that, I stand corrected. As for the Lucas / CAV fuel injection pump, they don't like Straight veg oil because it is too thick. I run mine with a mixture of veg oil, and diesel so it shouldn't do any harm (touch wood), even though there is that little bit more strain. It runs well enough at the moment, and it's been running on this mixture sinse June.

-pos
 
Chris, my old TD ran fine on 100% when hot, usually kept it to about 75/35 veg/diesel and when it's winter just lower the veg content.

Even with high veg ratios it starts fine just a bit lumpy till the engine and associated components starts to impart some heat to the veg to lower it's viscosity a bit
 
pos what ratio is the mix of disel/svo you run on?

Hi chris,

I put between 6 or 9 litres of SVO to every 30 litres of diesel, so often just under one third. My engine should handle 100% SVO no problem, but I'm not doing that at the moment because it really needs pre-heating to thin it down a little before it starts passing through my injection pump and then into the engine (hence mixing it with diesel to thin it down).

I have been looking at preheating the fuel filter with an electric heat exchanger before I start the engine, and then using a hot oil / water heat exchanger once the engine is warm, which would come into action instead of the electronic heat exchanger.

The potential is there!
 
That's the kinda thing Daft, but i'll bet that uses an always on glow plug, rather than a coil or something along those lines
 
Some great feedback there, thankyou!

I think finding a clean body is paramount so I may have to settle for the NA for the moment with the budget I want to spend. I'm a heavy equipment mechanic so an engine change should be no problem. I expect I'll be keeping my eye out for a decent 200TDI engine aswell.

Just out of curiosity, is there much tuning potential for these 200 lumps? Ie, how much boost, uprated headgaskets, fuel pumps, intercoolers etc. What are some realistic torque figures that may be achieved without spending a fortune?
 
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