300tdi Vs Td5

Probably a question thats been asked a million times before and i apologise.

For the money im looking to spend on a 90 im looking at either a late 300tdi or an early td5.

My question is, where am i better putting my cash? A decent 300tdi or a slightly higher mileage td5?

Thanks in advance.

Doesnt matter.....just by the best example you can afford.

td5 goes much better

Personally I'd be tempted to go for the 300tdi. The TD5 will offer higher speeds and more torque out of the box (though the tdi's, the 200tdi in particular, can be tweaked to outperform even a remapped TD5 ) but it has it's flaws. The early TD5 engines suffered from an errouness (porous) aluminium cylinder-head casting which ultimately resulted in the high pressure fuel rail (internal to the cylinder head) leaking diesel into the cylinder block. Land Rover did fix this problem with the later TD5 engines and as far as I am aware, they also developed the design of the head to remove potential weak-spots. Then there are the so-called "improvements" such as the in-tank fuel pump (a necessary part of the common rail diesel injection system) which is a flimsy, plastic component that isn't particularly reliable, and very expensive to replace when it does go wrong. My local specialist (where I help out) seems to replace TD5 pumps on quite a regular basis. The 300tdi is quite a simple, reliable engine, with no un-necessary electronics or computer governance, besides the later 'EDC' 300tdi engines which had a potentiometer fitted to one of the injectors, and a fly-by wire accelerator which were syncronised through a computer to try and meet emissions requirements. It won't have as much power as the TD5 as standard (that's if it hasn't been messed with of course) but it will pull like a train, run on veg / bio diesel without kicking up a fuss and return a little more mileage than a TD5. Both engines have their advantages and their flaws and a lot of what'll make your mind up will come to light with a test drive. Also, never really worry about mileage with a land rover because a lot of the time, it is completely irrelevant. If it's been serviced on a regular basis (once a year or more) then it should be in good shape.

Engines aside, you really need to have a good look at the condition of the motor it's self. Engines can be swapped without too much hassle if needs be in the future, but you don't really want to end up with a rusting heap of s h i t for the sake of a "better" engine. Check the chassis and bulkhead for rot and if you take them both for a test drive, see which you feel handles better, has less slack in the drive train etc.

-Pos

Thanks for the replies guys. Id been nudged towards a 300tdi by another tdi owner as he had heard of the issues with the early td5.

Buying a defender is a whole new world to me, ive had the use of jap 4x4s before which dont seem to rot. Im guessing im going to be spending time on my hands and knees under a few trucks looking for chassis rot.

get a td5 if you can no more problems with td5 than any other yes when it first came out they had some engine problems but then so did 300tdi any problems to do with thatt would have shown up a long time ago once driven td5 you wouldnt go back