Long term project, 110 station wagon.

Disco 300tdi engine is identical to defender. R380 manual boxes are slightly different. I know nothing of autos.

Given the choice of 300 or 200 I would, and have, gone for the 300.

Very similar in most respects, but the 300 is way more plentiful and hence cheaper - unless its purchased in the defender (ie stock fittment)

You could get a 300 but as I said there's no difference in power I think only some had the tweaks from the factory. So you'll end up with effectively the same engine yet have more work to get it in for very little gain. I prefer the 200's the debate of 300 vs 200 is a debate that will never end until the supply of one dries up. The 200 personally is more robust.
Go for the auto box if that's what you want unless you can get a 300tdi with the factory horsepower of 120 odd then you'll end up doing a lot of work and not making much progress.

I'd definitely wait until you actually properly look over the vehicle with your own eyes instead of going by others opinions. The engine in it might be sweet as a nut and would be silly to swap it. Same with the chassis if it only needed a rear crossmember it's much cheaper to put a new one on and as strong as factory if your welds are good.
I wouldn't bin anything and scrap anything if it's perfectly usable.

Ok, well that's sort of made that decision then. One of the main criteria is that it will run on the waste oil just to keep the day to day driving costs down. I'm happy to put the money in at the beginning to get it 'right' as I only want to do it once. As mentioned previously, the auto box is for a nice lazy drive and so the wife can live with it.
I talked her into this instead of a Cayenne, I've got to get it right!!

109inches said:

You could get a 300 but as I said there's no difference in power I think only some had the tweaks from the factory. So you'll end up with effectively the same engine yet have more work to get it in for very little gain. I prefer the 200's the debate of 300 vs 200 is a debate that will never end until the supply of one dries up. The 200 personally is more robust.
Go for the auto box if that's what you want unless you can get a 300tdi with the factory horsepower of 120 odd then you'll end up doing a lot of work and not making much progress.

I'd definitely wait until you actually properly look over the vehicle with your own eyes instead of going by others opinions. The engine in it might be sweet as a nut and would be silly to swap it. Same with the chassis if it only needed a rear crossmember it's much cheaper to put a new one on and as strong as factory if your welds are good.
I wouldn't bin anything and scrap anything if it's perfectly usable.

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I'm going to book it in for a MOT when I get home and take things from there but, as I'm going to need to source an auto gearbox and everything else that is needed, buying the discovery that's local to me does seem to make sense if she's good mechanically as I'll wind up with nearly everything I'll need in one go as opposed to buying things individually which always costs more and, I can use the discovery as a test bed to make sure it all works 100% before swapping it across.

mike.gamble said:

Ok, well that's sort of made that decision then. One of the main criteria is that it will run on the waste oil just to keep the day to day driving costs down. I'm happy to put the money in at the beginning to get it 'right' as I only want to do it once. As mentioned previously, the auto box is for a nice lazy drive and so the wife can live with it.
I talked her into this instead of a Cayenne, I've got to get it right!!



I'm going to book it in for a MOT when I get home and take things from there but, as I'm going to need to source an auto gearbox and everything else that is needed, buying the discovery that's local to me does seem to make sense if she's good mechanically as I'll wind up with nearly everything I'll need in one go as opposed to buying things individually which always costs more and, I can use the discovery as a test bed to make sure it all works 100% before swapping it across.

Click to expand...

The defender 200tdi's like you've got should pay for a complete rotted disco. Making the auto box install look neat is probably the hardest part. Good luck

mike.gamble said:

One of the main criteria is that it will run on the waste oil

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...and then -

mike.gamble said:

I talked her into this instead of a Cayenne, I've got to get it right!!

Click to expand...

Makes me a little confused!


Anyhow, to run either the 200 or the 300 on waste oil, you'll need to fit another fuel tank.
There will be plenty of people here, down the pub, etc. who say otherwise, but very few (close to zero, i think) who have longer term experience of such things would advise running a direct injection on veg from start-up.

Another option would be to fit something like a eberspacher d4w, but then you would need a tank to run that, so you would be back to square one.

It seems that, with the right (off the shelf) brackets, a s3 millitary tank will fit under the seat in the CSW, to allow you a separate body of fuel. As i understand it, a similar arrangement was fitted to some CSW by landrover, but the exact part numbers are discontinued.

The higher power 300 TDi's were fitted with EDC - (122 as opposed to 111 Hp), a sort of halfway house between fully mechanical and common rail, which is long in the tooth now, and parts availability suffers...

Non EDC is essentially bullet proof, and can be tuned to well in excess of the EDC power levels without issue - well, without issue excepting cost ! - but scrap yards are your friend !! Full width intercoolers and VNT turbos can take the power and torque to serious levels, after serious investment, but, IMHO, it is worth it.....

If you are lucky, the disco you mention might be pre EDC, or even a 200 TDi Auto ( even better for your purposes ). Plenty of experience on here about putting auto's in 90's/110's, and there is even a kit to do it, available from:-

www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk