Off-Roading Petrol or Diesel?????

Off-Roading - Which is best? Petrol or Diesel??

Petrol

Thats What i thought. I took my diesel series off roading a couple of times and thought it was lacking a bit. So picked up a petrol series which i am currently restoring to offroad instead

Petrols more responsive and more powerful for the same size engine / weight etc as long as your careful with water they're better IMHO or mega squirt and have no worries

Depends, if you go wading a lot, I'd go for diesel just because they're better with water than a petrol

If your talking standard engines I'd say petrol......oh,and non standard engines I'd say petrol too

standard engines for me its the petrol non standard 200tdi but I do really love that v8 burble so it would be close for me

what can you with a 200tdi which would make it better?

m4drx said:

what can you with a 200tdi which would make it better?

Click to expand...

fit it for starters you have power economy everything

m4drx said:

what can you with a 200tdi which would make it better?

Click to expand...

i agree with CJ2a (fit it), they can be tweaked but don't really need it, my 109 with 200tdi does everything i need/want of it reasonably economically, it gets used for everything from daily driver to workhorse and laning/camping


just learn to be careful with the power application or you'll start breaking things

Descending on a diesel engine is nicer than a petrol, especially when the seatbelt is keeping your face off the windscreen. The compression slows everything down

darius said:

Descending on a diesel engine is nicer than a petrol, especially when the seatbelt is keeping your face off the windscreen. The compression slows everything down

Click to expand...

That is a fallacy. The compression on a diesel engine does nothing to aid engine braking. The compression works both ways, yes it slows the piston down on the compression stroke, but the compressed air forces the piston the other way on the power stroke which comes immediately afterwards. So in effect, the compression acts like a spring. Most of the engine braking from a diesel engine comes from either an exhaust brake, or back pressure from the turbo charger.

NiteMare said:

just learn to be careful with the power application or you'll start breaking things

Click to expand...

Sounds like you have Std G Box and diffs etc. Whats the landy like for say holding 60 / 70 mph on hills etc Also how much noise and vibration is there ?

Sorry to hijack couldnt help myself

dvb668w said:

Sounds like you have Std G Box and diffs etc. Whats the landy like for say holding 60 / 70 mph on hills etc Also how much noise and vibration is there ?

Sorry to hijack couldnt help myself

Click to expand...

my 109 will sit at 60 all day (and will clear 80), it would be quieter if i refit my overdrive to drop the revs, i also have 3.54 diffs fitted, i personally wouldn't entertain a 200tdi fitment without having 3.54 diffs to complement it as mine is a daily driver, a real bonus for motorway use is to also fit an overdrive they then purr quietly at 60mph (purr quietly is relative )

noise is a difficult thing to assess really, i've minimal carpet in the front, a hole in the tunnel where my overdrive lever was and no boot on my handbrake lever, doorseals are missing so i get wind noise and my turbo whistles when i lean on the loud pedal, plus to cap it all off mine is van bodied so any noise inside is reflected off the bare panels

i don't really notice any vibration except on tickover which makes my bonnet rattle along with one of the locking pins on my catflap

driven gently at around 50-55mph it's not really a noisy motor in my opinion but others will say differently, it depends on what you're used to and how deaf you are

I have a SWB series 3 lots of sound proofing with 200DI fitted ,overdrive standard diffs doing 50MPH noise level is 95DB on Iphone app.
15DB above ear protection level , have an Ashcroft hi ratio transfer case to fit shortly.

oil burner

thanks for the info nitemare.

Think i have to give it some thought. would transform the 109 and maybe allow me to sell the car.

Was it a lot of work fitting the engine?

Thanks Andy

I'm converting to petrol so I hope it's better

dvb668w said:

thanks for the info nitemare.

Think i have to give it some thought. would transform the 109 and maybe allow me to sell the car.

Was it a lot of work fitting the engine?

Thanks Andy

Click to expand...

my first one took me 3.5-4 days of hard graft including building my own exhaust from scratch (that was my 88")

i spent 9 months building my 109 with a plan that evolved on how i wanted it finished

an actual engine swap done properly with two or three spanner savvy blokes working together can easily be done in a weekend, don't forget you'll need fuel return lines if converting from a petrol engine

there's been plenty of conversions done now and loads documented on the web, i suggest a bit of time spent searching and seeing how different folks have done thiers to allow you to decide how and if you want to do yours

you ask "was it easy ?", for "me" yes it was but i've spent nearly 40 years with my own tools tinkering with cars, bikes, trucks, i've learnt to weld/fabricate and see other things that can be used in place of original bits

i've absolutely no idea of your spanner experience