which engine in landy

[BrokenBiker]

which would you consider to be the best engine in a 110 landy for general on road driving most of the time and the occasional bit of off roading on slushy muddy fields?

to be honest I have wanted a 110 for a long time, either that or a p38 rangie but would prefer the 110 if I were to use it off road.

 

[mr migwire]

200Tdi is the only engine i would entertain in a landy, bullet proof and last forever...

 

[awemawson]

My 110 Defender (now sold) had had a 300TDI fitted and went like the proverbial off a shovel, whereas my TD5 disco won't pull the skin off a rice pudding. I'd choose either a 200 or 300 tdi were I looking (which I vaguely am)

 

[Robotstar5]

200 or 300 tdi, do NOT get a P38

 

[BrokenBiker]

well I am watching a 200tdi 110 on ebay but think it may go for more than I am willing to spend.

 

[BrokenBiker]

200 or 300 tdi, do NOT get a P38

whats wrong with p38's?

 

[Robotstar5]

whats wrong with p38's?

Search P38 faults on the Landy/4x4 forums

 

[HighVoltage]

I used to be really into the world of landrovering, until that was my beloved defender 90 TD5 suffered from the dreaded cracked head issue, where diesel from the injector base, makes its way into the oil, eventually: damaging the oil pump, hydraulic locking the pistons from the bottom!, and finally cracking the cam shaft in three places!! also the engine "ran on" and had to be stalled to stop it.

My recommendations would be if you want a "toy" and you don't mind spending lots of money + time tinkering then a Defender 90/110 with a 200/300 tdi would be ideal, however a 300tdi would be at least 10 - 15 years old, The TD5 are powerfull, however are a bad design and ticking time bomb, cant comment on the 2.4 / 2.2 tcdi "transit engines" but i believe them to be good. The old school 200/300tdi are simple in the electronics (there are none).

Thats my experience anyways, im working in getting another 110, with a 300tdi, and fitting a galvanised chassis and full re-build, fitting a disco transfer box for better on road performance, fitting discs etc... eventually.


How about the rover V8 petrol, they are absolutely brutal with shorted tail pipes!! and can be LPG converted to increase the gallons / mile


HV

 

[wookie]

How about the rover V8 petrol, they are absolutely brutal with shorted tail pipes!! and can be LPG converted to increase the gallons / mile

I used to have a v8 110 that I converted to LPG, if I was careful on a run I could get 18-20mpg on LPG, so price wise 36 to 40mpg and a big silly grin on your face.

You will need to start it on petrol, until it warms up enough for the vapouriser. I forgot one day and started it on LPG, got about 1/4 mile down the road and it was running like a pile of ****e. Popped the bonnet and the vapouriser was a block of ice

I hope you like the crap seating position, heavy clutch, poor heater (after LPG conversion, nicks too much heat) etc etc still a great vehicle for off-roading, with some good M+S tyres it'll go places you thought were impossible.

 

[MrFluffy]

200 or 300 tdi is the one to go for and probably what I will end up with. Though I currently drive my 90 with the original 2.5td motor in it still that everyone says expires about 100k and it has 140,000 on the clock and I haven't actually done anything to it engine wise except change a belt and new filters and oil in 6 years. Oh to have a engine thats only 10-15 years old

 

[Rig Pig]

Your lucky! My 2.5 td has zero compression and spits oil down the exhaust! I have a 300 lined up to go in.

 

[julianf]

International Engines HS 2.8 : )

Or, if you dont want to (at todays prices) re-mortgage your house, a 300tdi.
My reasoning is that the 300tdi is old now, but the 200tdi is that much older still!

(we have two landovers - one with the hs2.8 and one with a 300tdi. the 2.8 is a much nicer engine, but M&Ds current prices are about 3x what i paid for our, brand new, crated, 2.8)

In the past year or so, ive had the IP front seal fail on the 300tdi (means the cam belt gets covered, so its belt time too), the brake vac assist pump, the PAS pump, the starter motor, but theyre all cheap(ish) and available - latest was the PAS pump - £25 off ebay, plus post, for a used genuine unit.

Or, get a landcruiser - im told they dont break as often, but then you would hope not, looking at the price of them!

 

[julianf]

ps.

A friend down the road has a p38 - he had a 300tdi disco, and his wife the range rover. They got a different car for his wife, and it took him quite a while to decide if he wanted the disco or the range rover. In the end, he settled on the range rover, simply as it was nicer to drive.

 

[Psychosaffa]

1uzfe v8 out of a lexus ls400. Alloy block, 32 valves and over 200 horses. You can pick up a complete ls400 for £500. Strip it and get your money

 

[christofloffer]

i am a big land rover man myself. currently running a series 3 with a 110 2.5n/a diesel engine in it. it wont win any races but its bombproof. it never skips a beat, really predictable and was putting out 30mpg (up to 35mpg now i have upgraded the gearbox internals). they are simple and effective engines and can cruise all day long, but if i was having a defender i would want a tdi.
stay away from 19j (2.5td) engines if you want an easy life. they are good units if they are well looked after but they do require a lot of maintenance to keep them reliable. there are plenty of good ones around but i would be wary.
200tdi is a tried and tested unit, nice and strong plenty of guts. they are usually the engine of choice for vehicles and engine upgrades as they balance out simple engineering with being a more refined unit.
300tdi is again a good engine, they got a lot of bad rep due to a major timing flaw in manufacture. 90% of these have been sorted now and i know of plenty that are still pushing on at over 200k miles. i would just recommend getting the timing belt done on purchase to ensure it stays good. because they have an aluminium cylinder head if the timing pops then it can totally destroy it. once it became common knowledge though most folks got things sorted.
V8, so much fun its hard to not live in it, but hugely expensive.

as for the p38's, i know of 5 good ones that are running lovely and never miss a beat. i also know of 15 that have destroyed the owners wallets with fault after fault, 8 of those are now off the road for parts. again, lovely motors if you keep up on maintenance and can handle electrical fault finding when they get on a bit. the problems come from the previous owners lack of interest, lots of people had them as status symbols and didnt have a clue how to maintain them which leads to problems. if you can track down a nicely looked after one that everything works on then they can be great motors, but expensive to run.

if it was me i would go for a 300tdi 110, a good mix of all areas, hold their value nicely, fun to drive, easy to fix and cheap parts. if you stay away from britpart and make sure you get the timing done then i think you would be very happy with it both on and off road.

if you go defender then invest in security, they are common targets for thieves. big visible locks will help immensely. my friend had his 90 stolen even with a steering lock on, the brought a spare steering wheel and just swapped them over. so a disc lock, isolator switch and pedal box would be my first purchases. if you have a nice solid drive then one of the bars that lock to the ground behind the car are being used more and more and work well.

 

[wookie]

if you go defender then invest in security, they are common targets for thieves.

Yup I had mine stolen, they just pushed the little window by the rear door in and then reached in and unlocked the back door, to be honest they only got about 200 yards down the road before the steering lock came on and they ran into the hedge, they wouldn't have got much further as it was running on the bit of fuel left in the SU carbs, I always left my changeover switch from Petrol to LPG on neither and it was well hidden

 

[BrokenBiker]

my father used a celver little trick on his cossie sierra. had 2 little switches hidden under the dash. had to be in the right position to allow the ignition to come on. he put them far enough back in the circuit that you would have to know they were there to bypass them. every now and then he turned one of the switches around just to change how they had to be switched

 

[waldershelf]

I've had a few landies over the years and currently have a 300tdi 90. I would say the 300tdi is the best engine they ever fitted. As long as it has regular oil changes and a belt every few years they are good for 250k miles, the chassis will have rusted away before then. If you do buy a 110, as others have said get some security or it will disappear one night, I know, I've had two nicked.

 

[zzr1200]

Search P38 faults on the Landy/4x4 forums

I'm afraid I'II have to disagree with you on that one, I've had my P38 2.5DT for over five years now, only ever needed to replace the items regarded as service items, airbags, cooling system, brakes, exhaust system, tyres and general engine service items.

Yes, I've spent money on it but it had 87,000 mls on it when purchased, I've covered over 60,000+ in it including holidays to the Southern France, Lake District, Yorkshire and various other places in the UK, to date it has always been reliable and it has always got me home.

Yes P38's can have a reputation for being unreliable, but I feel that's because the vehicles have not been service correctly or the repairs carried out properly when needed.

Lets face it if a person can afford to buy a New Range Rover then they can afford repair/service it, its generally when a s/hand vehicle it purchased by someone as a daily driver, who then tries to run it on a shoe string, then the repairs/servicing gets short changed, they can then become unreliable vehicles hence their reputation.

L322's will be be even worst due to the higher cost of parts and the control system complexities...

 

[dannyp]

2/300 TDi is a sensible good engine to fit.

the earlyer ish 2.4 transit engine is a good swap but more involved, the VP44 injector pumps are there weack point but you can buy selonoid kits cheeply now that fix 90% of Failed pumps.
the later common rail is basicly the same engine with a shed load of electronics on it, for what gains you get id say the common rail lump isn't worth the extra effort as there is a lot of electronics that are easy to upset.

TD5 had one - and it was a bit meh

best ever engine for fun in a 90, it's not the v8 but IMO the bmw 6cyl. not the sucky 2.8 that landrover fitted for the SA market but the 24 valve M power unit
did the conversion for frend of family and we were how shall we say inpressed ...... and it made lovely noises faster than any v8 he had previously had and somehow more ecomical.