is the old td engine really that fragile?

[Crazy Fool]

there are a huge number of affordable (to me) 90s in the classifieds running the old td engine. i've read that these are prone to going pop. are they really that fragile or should i not worry about it?

[Barreti]

My old engine went bang at 86k
The previous engine broke the crank, which in turn took half the bottom end of the engine apart and it was unsalvagable.
Apparently the damage to the crank was probably done within in the first couple of years of the engines life and as she used to belong to a welsh hill farmer I'd guess he never bothered changing the oil.
I bought it at 8yrs old and religiously changed the oil etc because I'd heard the stories of the engines being fragile.

I replaced it with a reconditioned engine from err.. god, I can't remember now , I'll come back to this bit.. and have only done 30k since - in 10 years - but its all been trouble free but I do still change the oil a couple of times a year.

Well, actually 'trouble free' is not quite true, I had a new cylinder head a couple of years after the bottom end of the engine, after the head gasket went and damaged the soft(ish) head.

With the relatively cheap cost of the 200tdi engine now I wouldn't worry about the 2.5TD, its a straightforward swap apparently and quite a bit less than a grand will get you one.
I've even been considering getting one and refurbishing it then shoving it in the old girl, because there is about a 20% performance difference between the two engines.

Edited by Barreti on Wednesday 6th February 17:39

[GreenLandy]

Crazy Fool said:

there are a huge number of affordable (to me) 90s in the classifieds running the old td engine. i've read that these are prone to going pop. are they really that fragile or should i not worry about it?

They are bad engines get one if you must but after doing the head twice you'll be scouring fleabay for a Tdi.

HTH Matt

[BLUETHUNDER]

Crazy Fool said:

there are a huge number of affordable (to me) 90s in the classifieds running the old td engine. i've read that these are prone to going pop. are they really that fragile or should i not worry about it?

The old TD engine was a complete disaster.Plonking a turbo on to a (then)already old engine was looking for trouble.It was this reason alone that LR nearly lost the complete contract from the M.O.D in the early eighties during the vehicle trials stage.It proved to be to unreliable and suffered to many engine failures.A compromise was struck,and thats why up until the introduction of the Wolf in 98.The armed forces fleet of LR,s remained naturally aspirated.

Edited by BLUETHUNDER on Wednesday 6th February 17:56

[pugwash4x4]

dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful dreadful


they're not very good

[Crazy Fool]

thats that one sorted then. cheers guys.

[cpas]

They are a cheap vehicle (but a lot at this age don' have PAS), and apparently the engines are fairly cheap to replace if they go bang. You can, however, buy a 200TDi Disco as an MOT failure for about £500 (I recently sold mine for this amount because it had a broken gearbox) and transplant the lump. All this can work out cheaper than buying a 200TDi Defender as long as you can do the work yourself.

[Hard-Drive]

Agreed with above...however a firend of mine who is apparently "in the know" says that TD delivers the torque lower down (so in many ways it's better for tick-over off road stuff), where the TDi delivers it in a big dollop at 2000rpm. This apprently can mash Series gearboxes if that's what you are planning on putting it onto.

No idea if this is correct, it's just what I've been told. All I know is that 300Tdi in my Disco hums away on veggie oil and still goes beautifully after 160000 miles. Can't see a TD doing that...

[cpas]

That would make sense. I've driven 200 and 300TDi's and they are both very 'flat' when off-turbo. If the TD and N/A engines were like this al the time then they would not get anywhere. I know people who swear by the N/A for its simplicity.