300tdi or 2.25 petrol LPG

Hi, I have another question. I couldn't find a thread on it but apologies if this has been covered before.

I'm switching my daily drive work truck. I've been using a SIIA 88 for 18 months or so, but am moving on up to a S3 109 (for the load space etc.)

Now I have the choice of 2 engine set-ups for the 109 and I was curious to see if anyone had any thoughts on them.

Option A is a 300tdi + gearbox that is currently on the 109 chassis. Option B is a 2.25 petrol with an LPG conversion and overdrive, currently in use on the 88.

Driven every day locally, very rarely with a full load. Usually a 100+ mile drive once a month. Not an off-roader. The 2.25 in the 88 has coped extremely well over the last 18 months, I think I've put close to 8000 miles on the clock and other than the usual minor leaks nothing has gone a miss. I don't have any personal experience with the 300tdi, so any advise would be gratefully received. Which ever engine I don't use will be put in the 88 and sold in the next 6 months or so.

Cheers

Personally, I would choose the petrol both engines are good but no complicated diesel pump to worry about.

Col

I would go petrol LPG. The low emission zones are really taking hold around here and if you are not tax exempt I would expct tax on diesels to be on a steady upward path. the LPG is reversible and its looking like petrol engines are starting to get a premium. I run a diesel but if it wasn't tax exempt I think I'd be looking for petrol LPG.

Ok, thanks for the feedback. Looks like the old reliable 2.25 is staying with me. Cheers

Yes I agree, stick with the petrol/lpg option. It, will be (slightly) quieter than a tdi too. Overall running costs should be slightly cheaper too. You'll probably get 17 or 18 mpg running on gas, at current prices lpg is less than half the price of diesel so that means a tdi would need to get 37 mpg to be cheaper to run.

wireman - well put, thanks

A 300 tdi should give 25-30 mpg personally I'd go for that....still an unfashionable fan of the diesel and going a bit deaf now so the noise doesn't bother me half as much as it used to.
As said though if you're not tax exempt then a price hike is probably down the line somewhere.

The more I think about it the more I think the tax exempt issue is going to effect our engine choices.

In regards to conversions and such? I spoke to a man through the federation of british historical vehicle clubs a while back to double check the dos and donts for keeping my 109 and 88 tax and mot exempt throughout my truck building adventures, and his words were -

"You can have any engine which has been factory fitted to any land rover, from 1948 through to and including the 300 tdi, plus, perkins and essex v6 that were popular conversions in the day."

So that's all fairly straight forward, but then could the DVLA theoretically revoke exempts if they change the rules? For example if it becomes against legislation to fit a 300tdi, would they then insist of getting every series with a 300tdi to convert back to original engines on pain of losing tax exempt class? How on earth would they enforce it? Nightmare. That or proof it was fitted before new legislation was put in place? Also nightmare.

His words may be a bit wrong.
If you have a 1980 LR you can use any engine LR fitted up to that year.
Therefore no TDIs but yes to V8 as long as no EFI.

Stay standard & LPG it.

elk said:

In regards to conversions and such? I spoke to a man through the federation of british historical vehicle clubs a while back to double check the dos and donts for keeping my 109 and 88 tax and mot exempt throughout my truck building adventures, and his words were -

"You can have any engine which has been factory fitted to any land rover, from 1948 through to and including the 300 tdi, plus, perkins and essex v6 that were popular conversions in the day."

So that's all fairly straight forward, but then could the DVLA theoretically revoke exempts if they change the rules? For example if it becomes against legislation to fit a 300tdi, would they then insist of getting every series with a 300tdi to convert back to original engines on pain of losing tax exempt class? How on earth would they enforce it? Nightmare. That or proof it was fitted before new legislation was put in place? Also nightmare.

Click to expand...

Normally new rules aren't retrospective so any vehicle that already had historic exemptions would retain it, new applications would have to satisfy new rules.

Hicap phill said:

His words may be a bit wrong.
If you have a 1980 LR you can use any engine LR fitted up to that year.
Therefore no TDIs but yes to V8 as long as no EFI.

Stay standard & LPG it.

Click to expand...

I suspect the same though no doubt there's a lot of undeclared engine swaps that are winging it.

Hicap phill said:

His words may be a bit wrong.
If you have a 1980 LR you can use any engine LR fitted up to that year.
Therefore no TDIs but yes to V8 as long as no EFI.

Stay standard & LPG it.

Click to expand...

To add to that it does say that if its the same basic engine then its ok therefore 300tdis are alright as they are essentially the same as the 2.25s

Yer I'm not sure anymore, I see series with tdi conversions for sale quite a lot that claim to be tax exempt. Surely not every single one of them is a chancer who hasn't declared the conversion?

No they're not. The 200 tdi is a perfectly legit engine swap so therefore the 300 which is basically the same is ok as well.
I have a 2.5n/a diesel in my series 3, all declared with the dvla and tax/mot exempt.

I wasn't thinking about the DVLA and points scores, although that could be an issue. As I have a 1970 Series with a 1960's diesel I'm rather hoping nothing is retrospctive. I was more concered about the low emmison zones (at the moment historics are exempt) the posibility of some steep road tax rises for diesels (again historics are exempt so far) and fuel tax rises. My point was - if you are tax exempt diesels are an option, if not they could end up being costly. I was looking at buying a SWB non-runner and converting it to electric, but its perfectly possible to end up taking a petrol tax and MOT exempt vehile, spending loads and ending up with a Q plate and tax and MOTs. While electric vehiles are currently zero tax once there are a lot that is sure to change. I put that idea on hold for now, it could be a huge effort for more running costs.

Just checked the London LEZ and ULEZ. My historic (1970) diesel is not exempt the ULEZ (its £12.50 / day) but is exempt the LEZ. Can someone put a historic petrol in and see what comes up?
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/low-emission-zone/check-if-your-vehicle-is-affected

Just put my 1960 petrol in and LEZ exempt but not ULEZ.
Not an issue for me coz I will never take it there but if Downham Market decides to create an LEZ I could be in trouble.
Tbh I don't see why historic vehicles should be exempt anyway (from the LEZ).

If the LEZ was anything about health I'd agree, but it looks more like another tax from where I'm sitting - 3 miles from the proposed 3rd runway at Heathrow and right next to the LEZ..

Yes can see your point, the pollution caused by the odd historic chugging through the city would be nothing compared to that raining down on the city from above.

Actually can anyone recommend someone to rebuild the 2.25 for me? I thought as I'm going through the effort of swapping it over it would be great if someone with more working knowledge than me could give it the best chance of lasting another life time. I'm looking for someone with a meticulous eye for detail to do all the bits that I don't fully understand. Much like this -

I'm based in Frome so anywhere in the west country