Bad 19J or good 19J ?

I have a 19J in a 1988 manufactured Defender 110. I know that the 19J's manufactured in the early years have notorious problems with broken pistons and blocks, while in the final few years of manufacture Land Rover had solved this problem. I know that the pivotal serial number for this manufacturing change was serial number 19J27515C.

The serial number for my 19J is 19J02989R. It is not clear to me if my serial number was manufactured before or after the pivotal 19J27515C Can someone please advise me on this? Thanks.

The reason i am keen to know the answer to this issue is that I must rebore and install new pistons in the engine (it has 330k km on it). If i knew that i had a bad engine, i would be inclined to install a 200tdi instead.

There is a Wikipedia entry on Land Rover engines. Land Rover engines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In that entry it states that the 'good' 19J engines were manufactured from 1988 to 1990.
That made me feel a whole lot better as my model is from 1988...I guess that explains the 330,000kms on it.

well, i just got some information that says that the change of manufacturing from the bad engine to the good engine was done in the middle of the 1988 model year!! Arg! If anyone has a 19J from 1988, please share your VIN and engine number with me. I really would like to find out if I have a bad engine or not. As i said the first post, my engine number does not correspond to the pivotal change in the numbering system...

After some thought I realized that my engine is not an original J19 engine. In fact it is a remanufactured engine from Turner Engineering. Hence the 19J02989R serial...

I spoke with Turner Engineering about the quality of the 1983-1988 vs 1988-1990 19J's. Turner Engineering claims that there are two differences to be aware of:
1) the early model cylinder head was of poor design
2) the early model cylinder block had different main bearings.
Turner Engineering stated that the problem with 19J is almost entirely self-inflicted by the owners through poor maintenance of the cooling system and the injection system, as well as oil changes. Turner told me that by changing the cylinder head of an older model 19J to later model version (Turner makes these for sale), a 19J owner will have the same quality of engine as the later model version of the 19J.

Turner told me that with the cause of the split blocks on 19J's is a result of multiple instances of the engine being subjected to overheating. In 200tdi's the overheating was less likely to cause split blocks as the cylinder head bolts were in different locations. Though Mr. Turner told me that he has a client that buys a remanufactured 200tdi every 10,000kms from him b/c of the poor conditions it is operating in. (a quarry).

It's £300 to £500 to get a 200tdi Disco.
Rip out the engines.
About £200 more for the extended oil and air and water pipes and for the conversion exhaust downpipe.
For that you get a strong engine, a lot more power and more MPG.
No brainer for me.

Patman1200 said:

It's £300 to £500 to get a 200tdi Disco.
Rip out the engines.
About £200 more for the extended oil and air and water pipes and for the conversion exhaust downpipe.
For that you get a strong engine, a lot more power and more MPG.
No brainer for me.

Click to expand...

Actually it is a no brainer for for me to repair my 19J. My defender is in Buenos Aires where there are no 200tdi's as they were never sold there. Only 300tdi's are available, but even the most worn out old beast is US$4000. And shipping an engine from the UK is not very smart as there are enormous duties in Argentina. Furthermore, many engines from UK breakers are worn out pieces of junk. So I would be a fool to import something like that. Sometimes it is better to go with the beast you know, and not tempt fate. As i stated in my prior posts, i have finally figured out that my 19J is actually a pretty good one, just needs a little work.

I use 2.5td every day on/off & towing.100%reliable but started with Turner engine andall new ancilliaries.Lovingly looked after,oil&filter every 3000miles(total rubia15w407400).All breathers are out of the air intake.I love it,drives and sounds great,75mph(not too often),30mpg if careful,all maintenance and most repair with normal hand tools.It was much cheaper than similar tdi too.

there are some differences between both engines , the turbo is different , the exhaust manifold is different , the breather pipe assembly is different.

how can you swap heads over if the manifolds are different?

ive got an early 19j and its not blown up yet , its been to greece twice and ive abused the crap out of it , its still going strong.

I thought you all would enjoy an update on my 'wonderful' 19J. After deciding to recondition the engine in Buenos Aires this past August-October, i drove out of the garage on November first. I made it 600kms before my new head gasket was blown out and my coolant had all been pushed out the escape valve due to the extreme pressure. Unfortunately i was not driving (a now ex-friend was) and he did not see the temp gauge go to the max until i noticed it for him. A new head gasket was installed (though not the correct one as the correct one was not avalible, so instead a 300tdi gasket was installed). Unfortunately the mechanic did not install the gasket properly and when the coolant was added to the radiator, all of it went into the oil pan instead. The mechanic decided that it was safe to just take the drain plug out and let it flow until oil was coming out and then plug it back up - thinking that all the water was gone. With this wonderful set of cirucumstances behind me, i made it another 2000kms before my engine was undrivable and i needed a mechanic...Upon completely stripping the engine we discovered that everything was wore out, like there was a problem with the lubrication system... what a mess....
So the tally is:
US$5000 to overhaul engine in Buenos Aires
US$3500 to overhaul engine a second time 2000kms later in Brazil.
For this amount of money i could have bought a brand new 300tdi engine....sadly it is a little difficult to know the future.....i am not so happy right now, though i am not sure who i should direct my frustration at...

I thought you all would enjoy an update on my 'wonderful' 19J. After deciding to recondition the engine in Buenos Aires this past August-October, i drove out of the garage on November first. I made it 600kms before my new head gasket was blown out and my coolant had all been pushed out the escape valve due to the extreme pressure. Unfortunately i was not driving (a now ex-friend was) and he did not see the temp gauge go to the max until i noticed it for him. A new head gasket was installed (though not the correct one as the correct one was not avalible, so instead a 300tdi gasket was installed). Unfortunately the mechanic did not install the gasket properly and when the coolant was added to the radiator, all of it went into the oil pan instead. The mechanic decided that it was safe to just take the drain plug out and let it flow until oil was coming out and then plug it back up - thinking that all the water was gone. With this wonderful set of cirucumstances behind me, i made it another 2000kms before my engine was undrivable and i needed a mechanic...Upon completely stripping the engine we discovered that everything was wore out, like there was a problem with the lubrication system... what a mess....
So the tally is:
US$5000 to overhaul engine in Buenos Aires
US$3500 to overhaul engine a second time 2000kms later in Brazil.
For this amount of money i could have bought a brand new 300tdi engine....sadly it is a little difficult to know the future.....i am not so happy right now, though i am not sure who i should direct my frustration at...

Your very dodgy garage man by the sounds of it, im a having a few problems with my new 19j now, hope it does not work out the same way!! Hope you have got sorted now.

If you do more than 8000 miles a year then changing (even expensively) from a 19J to a 200TDi will pay for itself in 2 years.

here's the calcs i did 2 years ago (note fuel prices are the same!!)

the later engines just had teflon coated pistons to help cope with the higher combustion temps with the turbo,earlier engines split piston crown ,these red block engines are prone for bore and piston wear,wolud happily rebore fit new pistons and bearings

Hey Man ,
I am in this limbo also, try to make a better decision about what to do with my 19j.
Its number 19j31952c so that means it is a latter (better) made one but I just don't read much of good things about this engine.
I've got an advice from Turboman he sad that "I would rebuild your engine as 2.5 n/a,excellent engine for a series."
I am still on the fence to spend any more money on this.

well i made the hard decision and yanked out my 2.5TD and installed a 300tdi. That is the only type of motor available here in Brasil where i am now. The mechanics were unable to mate the 300tdi motor with my LT77 gear box. Well, that is not exactly true, we mated it, but there wasn't any space in the engine compartment for the vacuum pump and some other ancillary items. The problem was that the we needed to use the 300tdi bell housing to achieve the correct spacing, but then the main shaft on the LT77 was too short...so in the end i had to purchase a new gear box as well (R380). We mated the R380 to my existing LT230 transfer box.

All in all, work, motor, and gearbox, the cost was about US$10,000. It is an insane price by most standards, but it is actually a fair price for Brasil. I left my 19J motor with the mechanics as i don't want to see it anymore. I don't know exactly was was causing my problems, but i do know that i was unable to stop the symptom of air bubbles in my water coolant. My water coolant was always pressurized...

**** the bed that's a lot of money

A letter to all those people with a 19J...get rid of it. I was a doubter of the 200tdi and 300tdi until i installed a 300tdi last week in my defender. I also installed the R380 gearbox. My Defender is like a completely different machine. top speed used to by 90kms, now it is 150kms. i used to climb hills on the highway in 3rd gear, now i use 5th gear. i used to be afraid to pass cars, now i have so much power that passing cars isn't even something that i worry about. i paid a lot of money for my motor and transmission, but i am very happy i made the change.

I am here again posting about the virtues of the 300tdi versus the 19J. I have used my 300tdi for 2 years now without any problems, while in very harsh conditions in the Andes. Bad fuel, dusty gravel roads, high altitude, etc. Nevertheless, the 300tdi has performed as advertized. Always full of power, easy to start on first revolution, no leaks, lots of torque. It is almost as nice as having a Toyota!! I highly recommend the 300tdi for anyone doing overland expedition travel. It's a great engine with plenty of power, simple to repair, very reliable, and very easy to get parts most anywhere. Here in South America, the 300tdi was manufactured by International Motors (MWM) of Brazil for many years and it was called a Maxion motor. The motor was installed in all the Ford Ranger, Chevrolet S-10, Mercedes Sprinter, and Landrover vehicles. It is probably the most common motor on the road, so parts and mechanics are everywhere. No need to carry years supply of oil filters anymore!! Actually MWM created a later generation of the 300tdi as well, which was 2.8 liters. Then they also created a 3.0 liter engine. Navas Motors of Buenos Aires has actually converted an old 300tdi into a 2.8 liter Maxion motor if you want even more power.