Land Rover Defender which engine is best?

[99Chimaera]

Hi. I'm thinking buying a Land Rover Defender(old shape) my youngest is obsessed with them, he has been badgering me to get one. I used to own Defenders previously, they were not particularly reliable particularly my second one!

Which engine be best to go for? I would only use it locally. Are defenders better now in terms of reliability?

Many thanks in advance

Philip

[99Chimaera]

Ranger 6 said:

V8 of course.....

Gratuitous pic

That's a really nice Landy, is it the 3.5 or 3.9 ? What the fuel consumption like?

[99Chimaera]

Red9zero said:

300tdi of course
Reliability is relative

I had a 200 tdi 90, and it went well, but I did use a LandRover with a 300 tdi and preferred it, the gearbox was better.

[99Chimaera]

Robert-q32ja said:

07 to 2015 was a 4 cylinder diesel (2.4 & 2.2 litre ford unit used in transit etc) is pretty good but enjoys the higher revs.
1999-2006 was the five cylinder Td5 (2.5 litre volvo/ford unit) is excellent with lots of low torque where it is needed, but a little slow.
pre 1999 various 4 cylinder units and petrol v8s.

Biased recommendation (as I have one) is the Td5.

Thanks. I did ride in a landrover recently with a td5 and I thought it went well but was very noisy,as he had a soft top on.

[99Chimaera]

maturin23 said:

TD5 with a remap is a great choice.

Nice 5 cylinder noise - sounds way better than the TDCi and really responds well to the remap.

Interesting I didn't know the td5 can be remapped.

[99Chimaera]

camel_landy said:

Depends what you want...

• Bomb-proof reliability - 300TDi.
• Acceptable motorway cruising - 2.4 TDCi
• Good all-rounder - TD5

M

Thanks for info. I'll probably go for 300tdi, no dpf, my commute is only 2 miles each way.

[99Chimaera]

A.J.M said:

Td5.
Get it remapped and have a decent exhaust on it.
They have a very good exhaust note for a diesel.

Only egrs which have almost certainly been blanked by now, the oil up the loom can happen but likely will have been sorted by now.

Tdi models are nice but slow.
Tdci are very good, but expensive and may not like 2 mile runs. They do have a heater that actually works though whereas it’s an afterthought for the others.

Make sure you have good security as they are easily stolen or stripped for parts and also can use a toolkit as they are maintenance heavy at times so doing it yourself will save money over constantly using a garage for the work.

Thank you. I have had defender stolen years ago a 200 tdi it was stolen twice, never saw it again. If I bought another one, I would fit a detachable steering wheel and pedal box cover. I'm not particularly mechanically minded but could probably do simpler jobs

[99Chimaera]

Newarch said:

Btw the Td5 is a Landrover design (from the BMW era) and shares nothing in common with the similar sized Volvo/Ford engine.

Any engine is ok, buy a Defender on condition and look really carefully at the chassis and bulkhead.

Thanks I'd probably get one with a galvanised chassis.

[99Chimaera]

LooneyTunes said:

I’d add visible and invisible marking to that list. If you make all of the easily removable or high value bits traceable it won’t stop someone nicking it to go overseas but must make other vehicles more attractive for anyone wanting to steal to strip.

Retainagroup do a Land Rover specific kit, that includes enough to etch all of your glass, for about £40-50 (one time cost, no subscription) if you call them directly.

Thanks that's useful to know

[99Chimaera]

Newarch said:

I own a really old Landrover and am very fond of it, the main issue stopping me wanting a 90/110/Defender is the theft issue, even the bodywork is valuable, easy to remove and thus highly nickable.

Hmmm. Perhaps a Series landrover would be best:scratchchin

[99Chimaera]

Ranger 6 said:

It's a factory 3.5, with a 3.9 being (slowly) built to replace it.
Haven't measured mpg realistically - best tank range was 160miles with just under a quarter of a tank left.

I knew someone years ago who owned one, he converted it to automatic. It sounded good.

[99Chimaera]

JustGREENI said:

That is the ultimate, which i fitted at work with Dan.

Other than that, go for a 300tdi or td5 (post 2002)… i’ve owned lots of Defenders, with all the standard engine options, including some ‘swaps’, OM606 Mercedes, 6.2 GMC diesel (hummer lump), 3.5, 3.9/4.0 v8

Here’s mine though:

Running a GEMS 4.6 plus Auto.


Land Rovers are terrible, but you can’t help loving them.

That's a really nice land rover with the best engine;) a corvette engine isn't it? I know what land rovers are like, appalling to drive but they get under your skin. I sold my last land rover, it was very hard to let it go. My boss has three defenders and a Lightweight.

[99Chimaera]

A.J.M said:

Unless I’ve missed it.

You haven’t stated a budget for this car?

Which is likely the largest factor in all of this, from seeing 300tdi examples going for 12k to rotten Td5s going for less than 7k.

Is it a daily driver or a weekend car for fun?

No I didn't state a budget, but I would probably pay about £15kish for either a 90 hard top or a station wagon or 110 hard top. My previous land rovers were hard tops. It would be used as a daily driver and it would used on our farm from time to time and occasionally pull a twin axle trailer. I wouldn't want to buy an immaculate one, as it will be parked up outside in all weathers.

[99Chimaera]

Sisu9 said:

I went for a TD5 for the all the aforesaid reasons.

Craddocks & Auto Express seem to agree:

https://www.johncraddockltd.co.uk/magazine/what-is...
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/land-rover/defender/...

TD5's here in the Nordics seem to be commanding a higher price than TDCi's. Not sure if this is a trend, but if you want one at decent price might be wise to not hang around.

Pic, naturally:

Thanks for articles, very interesting reading. I've owned Defenders with 2.5 na and 200tdi and had driven 300 tdi but never experienced the TD5.
Very nice Defender, I like the colour, is the interior brown?

[99Chimaera]

eltax91 said:

Rebuilt this last year onto a galvanised GKN chassis. 300TDi. Agricultural but bombproof and fixable with very basic tools.

Itch has begun for a new project…. Might be tempted to part with it.

Sorry for the very late reply. That looks really good... and very tempting. 🙂

[99Chimaera]

Hard-Drive said:

To answer the original question, "which engine is best", it depends entirely what you want to do with your vehicle. People are getting into minutiae about vents etc, which although part of the package, is not the engine.

You mention only using it locally, in which case I'd be tempted by a V8. But, being frank, if it's just local use and I was in your shoes, I'd almost not care about the engine at all, and I'd just buy the best example of a Defender I can get within budget, and I would not care about which engine was under the bonnet. I'd much rather have a very tidy Tdi than a bubbling blistering Td5.

I'm currently rebuilding a 200Tdi and fitting an R380 short bellhousing gearbox with a tweaked 5th gear ratio to replace the early and weak LT77. For me, it should be perfect, giving sensible ratios around town but with a taller 5th to give me decent cruising speed that the Tdi should be able to push along quite happily. I'm sticking with the 200Tdi (and therefore the whole vehicle) for life now as in a few years my Landy will turn 40 and go tax and MOT free, and I have a long term plan of an "expedition" style drive across Africa or similar when I retire, and having something as basic as the Tdi, with absolutely no electronics or ECUs to screw up somewhere remote, seems to make perfect sense to me.

Thank you for your reply. I would probably prefer to go the Tdi route (if i cant find a V8), for the same reasons you've mentioned, 20 years ago I bought a Defender 90 200 tdi, other than a Rebuilt gearbox, it was reliable, I would have kept it if it wasn't stolen twice, I recovered it 1st time it was stolen again months later and I never saw it again 😩.

I like your idea of mating the 300 tdi gearbox, it was nicer to use than the original. Good luck with long term plan, hope you get there.🙂

[99Chimaera]

300bhp/ton said:

You can't actually replace the gearbox with a 300 one. The 300 used the R380 and the 200 the LT-77. They really are quite comparable gearboxes tbh. The shift quality is almost identical between them. From the drivers seat the only real difference is where Reverse is.

What you can do on a 200 is replace the LT-77 with an R380 Stumpy box. These were designed as a dealer fit replacement for the LT-77 while the LT-77 and vehicles were under warranty, but after LT-77 production stopped. The R380 Stumpy is slightly different to a regular R380 and is considerably more money to buy or rebuild. I'd only look to doing this if you had an actual issue with the gearbox that was already in there.

Thanks for your reply, interesting point about the R380 stumpy gearbox, I thought you could swap to a R380 gearbox without too much modification. What is the difference between a "normal" R380 gearbox and a stumpy box?

I think tdi would the be way to go, as they are pre dpf engines. I only drive 2 miles to work each way and would be used locally.
Many thanks for your help 🙂

[99Chimaera]

Register1 said:

Defender with Toyota engine and running gear

https://youtu.be/iCykhn3qqxE

Thanks for sharing, That Defender 130 is a beast. 😀

[99Chimaera]

Just to update this topic. I bought a Land Rover defender 110 hard top Tdci model 2012 with 58k miles. Very pleased with it. Very good heater😎

[99Chimaera]

Ranger 6 said:

Enjoy it and keep the pics coming

Thanks will do. My 9 year old son adores it😎