can i turbo charge?

i live in Canada and to find people with knowledge of older landrovers and the mechanics of them is very hard.
my question: i have a 1987 2.5 n/a diesel 110 defender pickup that i imported from the UK. can a turbo charger be installed on that engine without damaging it?

Hi Burnetty,

I asked this question a while ago and as it turns out, yes you can turbo charge your engine but there are two different ways of going about it. The 2.5 turbo diesel (which is basically your engine with the turbo shoved on) is known as "land rovers worst ever engine" because the extra power given by the turbo and the heavier fuel injection pump leads to cracks in the cylinder head and detrimental stuff to that effect. There are some modifications that you can make to your N/A without damaging the engine or decreasing its reliability however, and it does still involve fitting a turbo!

If you buy yourself the exhaust manifold that fits the 2.5 turbo diesel engine you can then stick a 'garrett' (or other brand) turbo onto your engine. This will not damage your engine but should increase power, fuel efficiency and lower emissions because you are basically cramming a lot more air into the cylinder for a "cleaner" burn of the diesel that is injected into the cylinder.

What you don't want to do however is fit an up-rated fuel injection pump because this is when you do start having problems. More air is fine, but more air and more fuel means a bigger explosion and a lot more heat and internal damage. You can "tweak" your injection pump timing so that it pumps in the absolute spot on quantity of fuel to get the best bang and not have any unburned fuel left over. (search for injection pump timing).

Apparently fitting a turbo charger will give you noticeable results, but you're heading for trouble if you put a stronger injection pump on your engine. With regards to the N/A and 2.5 turbo diesel engines, you might have noticed that they're totally crap up hills. A turbo wont really make too much difference in this case, it's just the way that the engines are unfortunately.

Good luck and I hope it all goes well for you!
-Pos

Will his injun be a 12J or a 19J though? An would that make any difference to fitting a different IP? I dunno I'm just chucking ****e at the wall to see wot sticks in the interest of discussion.

i think the reply he was after was "yes do it it's easy, your engine will last for ever and you'll get 78 MPG"

as opposed to the reply he got when he asked the same question the other day

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f20/help-51377.html#post446206

senility perhaps ?

think it would be a 12J with a modification wouldn't it? He'd still have to insure it as a 2.5 turbo diesel though regardless of whether or not it has an up-rated fuel injection pump. So I suppose it would be a more reliable yet slightly less powerful 19J

i bought an exhaust manifold with a garrett turbocharger attached from a used parts supplier in the UK. but there doesn't seem to be enough space for it under the intake manifold. i looked the part number up on the computer, and it is the correct one. any suggestions?

burnetty said:

any suggestions?

Click to expand...

stop wasting yer time and money and get a 200Tdi instead

dint yer get the inlet manifold as well?

i still can't understand why someone is trying to ruin a reliable engine (the n/a) by fitting a turbo

the 19J used a different, stronger engine block casting for all but the very early versions of that engine type

Cos he's from North Merkinland an they know best.