On the road again...

[300bhp/ton]

At LAST my Discovery is back on the road.

For those that don't know a while back I managed to blow the engine up after I tweeked it a bit .

I got a replacement 200Tdi and installed it along with a fresh turbo and injector pump. But just as I was getting ready to road test I found the rear floor had rusted out, so since then I've built a custom aluminum floor to replace the crappy factory steel one and installed it. Also made up some new wheel are support brackets to stops the arches flapping about since I hacked the arches up and added flares.

Also did a few other jobs, better headlights, customized the front and rear bumpers and added some nice beefy NATO hooks.

Went for an MOT yesterday and sailed thru no worries.

Only done about 60 mies so far but she seems to be driving well. Not quite as pokey as the modified 200Tdi before but better than the orignal engine was when stock.

Anyhow I've booked her in for a large intercooler upgrade, injector pump and turbo tuning upgrade for next month so it should be back to hauling ass pretty soon. Gonna let a pro mess with the engine this time.

I'm just pleased I don't have to keep borrowing my brothers Range Rover or one of my Uncle's 90's each time I want to go off road.

Will post pics when I get them and write a review on the intercooler upgrade.

[pavel]

Wow, that's alot of work done! My work rate is considerably below yours (as is my Disco budget) - I fixed the wiper arms... All the best offroading!

[Funrover]

Woo Hoo!!!! good to hear!

[Badger1]

Wow that's alot of work done. Looking forward to seeing some pics of the work done on the floor boards. Just curious.....what does a 200tdi motor go for in the UK....? Alot of people here in the States would love to have diesels in their LR's.

[300bhp/ton]

200Tdi's are pretty rare as LR didn't make them for long this has kept the prices relativly high.

300Tdi's are much more common but being newer cost similar to a 200Tdi.

Typically a 2nd hand unit on Ebay would fetch £700-800 compared to a 3.9 Rover V8 which would be £500-800.

I actually only paid £475 off Ebay for mine

New engines are going to be £2500 or so. Not really all that different pricing to a Rover V8 to be honst.

Strangly enough TD5 units can be had with less milage on them for as little as £900. But you do need the ECU, different fuel tank and other items to make it work. Plus it doesn't quite just bolt straight in either. I so nearly went this route but decided I couldn't quite warrant the extra cost of hassle of making it fit and work in the timescale I had.

Now I know once you convert £ to $ the prices may look expensive but it's all relative.

Generally the Tdi units are good for 150-200k miles before needing any real work. Plus you can buy ported heads on an exchange basis for about £300-350 and all other components are cheapish and available.

If someone in the US wanted one they could easily buy a decent 2nd hand one, ship it to the US and then do a part rebuild on it for not all that much money considering how much people are prepared to spend rebuilding a V8 and buying performance parts.

One thing to note though while the Tdi's are very good off road, are easy to work on and in all but the very last 300Tdi's in the Discovery have no electronics at all so are very good in water. They are not that powerful.

Stock 200Tdi only has 111bhp and 195lb ft compared to 182bhp and 232lb ft for the 3.9 Rover V8. So in speed terms it's a lot slower. But it does have the ability to return 26-32mpg compared to 12-16mpg for the V8.

Modified Tdi's are really the only way to go. A large intercooler and tweeking of the injector pump are most common and on 200Tdi's they up the boost to match the 300Tdi. This results in about a 35% increase in power. So 150bhp and 250lb ft but it should be noted that Peak torque is like 1700rpm or something.

These changes will make it feel as though you gained a 100bhp not 40. The diesel changes it's whole character and even with statistically less HP a modified Tdi will normally out accelarate a V8 in gear. From a dig it would be much closer. I think this is becuase the modifed Tdi ends up making more power more of the time (percentage of rpm range), although when wound out the V8 still produces more PEAK power overall.

The TD5 has produced over 200bhp when modified. Will be interesting to see what the new 2.4 DOHC 16v diesel in the revamped Defender will be capable of when the aftermarket gets it's hands on it.

[96owner]

any pics yet i want to see your aluminum floor

[300bhp/ton]

I'll see if I can sort some out tonight.