Diseasel or petrol.

Hi, im normally a defender owner but its just sold and i'm looking at going for a series 3 2.25 from late 70's as a project.

Question is which has more appeal, a petrol or diesel? I'll be doing a bit of off roading and 75% road use, lanes, b roads that sort of thing. Wont be doing any towing..

Whats the general pros and cons..

Watch out for rust on late 70's ones!!! BL's "Not very good stage" (Was there ever a good stage? Or where they outside to much?) Anyway... Diesels, are slow however they are not to bad on fuel, Petrols are abit faster bit very fuel heavy. I would go for a diesel as i prefer them but each to there own..

You will get a few more MPG on diesel, but of course diesel costs more anyway. I reckon they work out about the same. I was getting a max of 18MPG (as low as 12MPG on thick sand) on my 2.25 petrol on my last big trip. I dare say on a Diesel 2.25 you might get maybe 22MPG? (although according to stats on the net some say it is 19MPG - and thats before they have lsot a few MPG over the years!)

Personally I can't see a good reason to go for a Diesel Series Landie (apart from Diesels are better in the wet stuff)

Thats one all then... Not much rust in the one ive seen...i'm used to diesels but would prefer a little bit more, dare i say it, acceleration from standing....obviously top end only 55-60 thats fine...just want to get there before the end of the journey...lol

0-60 is about 45 seconds. If you are going up a hill, forget it!

rustyrhinos said:

0-60 is about 45 seconds. If you are going up a hill, forget it!

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no lol you just have to weight till your going down the hill the other side

storm99 said:

Thats one all then... Not much rust in the one ive seen...i'm used to diesels but would prefer a little bit more, dare i say it, acceleration from standing....obviously top end only 55-60 thats fine...just want to get there before the end of the journey...lol

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If you want acceleration, you'd best join the poshos in the V8 forum!

Petrol

petrol and fit a SU and skim the head , more mpg and goes a bit better as well , JMHO

2 1/4s, both petrol and diesel, seem to vary greatly in performance, regardless of condition, so best keep an open mind and make you decision based on a road test.

Yup, they do vary greatly! Take mine...when I got it I timed the 20-50 at 45 seconds...after having it for a bit (and changing to a weber carb and decent air filter) I get 30 seconds - they have a mind of their own!

ok. i'm leaning towards the petrol 2.25...it seems to have the edge over the diesel both price wise and ''acceleration'' and i do use that term loosely...as said i'm used to a 2.5n/a defender...so i'm aware that its all relative. Cheers folks...

Diesel all the way.
Much less grief once you get them running..

And you can run them on almost anyhting liquid that burns, such as hydraulic oil, and so on.

Loadsa guys running them on used engine oil.

CharlesY

I had an 1983 88" diesel. fuel ec was roughly 23mpg, 55mph was as fast as I dared there again it could have been faster not sure tho cos the guages were unreadable due to vibration lol Got a transfer box conversion from paddocks iirc that improved matters on road (aslong as its flat or downhill). Off road was compromised slighty due to the new higher ratios but easily overcome by using low range on the transfer. Now hills it was terrible with normal transfer box but even worse with the high ratio job in it. Drove a petrol just the once but things seemed slighty more civilised and would go up a hill without having to think "am i going into low range shortly?" Dont get me wrong I loved my old s3 but i'd probs still have it if it were a petrol and the front bumper mounts hadn't rotted through... and the rear cross member. Cheers BL for using quality materials

2.25 Petrol with Overdrive...

or

If you don't need to tow anything above 1.5 ton, 2.25 Petrol fitted with 3.9:1 diffs and possibly an overdrive, the overdrive won't improve the mpg but will help the engine noise (maybe)...

and consider 205 16 tyres if used mainly on the road.

Good for about 70 mph if your brave.

buy a series 3 with a shagged engine and a rotten 200tdi disco, use the engine and maybe the box (will it go in a series 3?) out of the disco. Sell what you don't use on ebay and grab some money back.

If your not fussy about originality, I'd try to get one with a more modern diesel engine fitted - Ideally a 200Tdi, or a 90/110 2.5 N/A diesel, Ford Transit, or something Japanese.

i was looky to get 20mpg with my 2 1/4 diesel and had no power to show for it so i binned it and have just finished my 200tdi converson best bit of money iv ever spent on it, was like driving a different motor dont no what my mpg is like yet but when me and my mate went out with his 200tdi s3 i would use 1/4 2 1/2 a tank more of fuel than him.