Chicken Drumstick

Hi, needing a new starter motor for a 1989 Diesel Turbo. Anyone know if a 200Tdi starter will fit? Paddocks list a Tdi starter for £90. But for the TD they only have listed as a smaller unit for £180. Although this smaller one also claims to fit the 200Tdi. eBay doesn’t show up any more budget prices starters either for the 19J. Thanks.

If you have been running a 1.6:1 transfer box. Changing it will make it feel a lot less peppy. I suspect a 1.2 would make you think you have major engine issues. Honestly it is a tough one to call though. We have a factory V8 90 with the 1.192:1 transfer box and LT-85. It now has a 3.9 Efi. It goes well, but does feel over geared. Quite relaxing and pulls from nothing. But isn’t anywhere near the fun you’d think it should be. On the other end of the scale. I have a Triumph TR7 V8. I used to run the factory V8 axle of 3.08:1. It went well and I clocked it at 144mph. Which is plenty quick for a 1970’s sports car. I broke the axle though and swapped on a 3.90:1 axle. What a riot it resulted in. Felt like I’d gained 50-70hp. But totally useless for cruising. I think on this basis I’d be tempted to look at an over drive unit and retain the 1.6 transfer box. They are rather spendy sadly. But at least would give you better cruising ability while retaining the peppy performance. Ashcroft Transmissions should also be able to offer to a taller 5th gear too which might help even more. If you really want to go new transfer box. My vote would be 1.4 As for the ATB. Really depends what you plan to do. I suspect you can probably spin a wheel quite well with the V8 and short gearing. The ATB may help here. Although axle diff ATBs probably more so. You might also find off road you won’t need to lock the centre diff. The p38 or RRC used the Borg Warner transfer box with has a viscous LSD and doesn’t fully lock. I’d expect the ATB to work similar, but have not tried one. On sand and the like if you are going in dunes the ATB would again save you needing to lock the diff. But ultimately unless you have a specific use case I’d expect only limited benefits. You really need to be sliding the vehicle or wheel spin or on a loose slippery surface. Cars like the Celia GT-Four or Impreza Turbo benefit from a lsd centre diff. The Jaguar X-Type had one in early years, but they dropped it for an open diff later on. On road you’d not really know unless drifting or driving in snow. But of course in a Land Rover you can always lock the diff if it is slippery out.

Have seen 2 x Grenadiers in 2 days. Hadn't seen any before this on the road. A blue one on Friday on the A428 near Cambridge coming towards us and then one this morning on a local road in green, also coming towards me. From the fleeting glances of it I thought it looked great. Easily identifiable as not a Defender, but clearly a good road presence too.

I'd guess there could be several reasons. Drive by noise regs maybe being one of them. Plus to stop water/mud splashing out over the top of the wings as happens on a Defender off road sometimes.

Don't think so. As the air pressure sets the springs rate and ride height. The front shocks are longer than the rears. So the front bags may well be a different length. The main issue with the p38 setup is, raised ride heights mean inflated air springs, thus a high and hard spring rate. When lowered there is less pressure and a softer spring. So it sort of works the wrong way round. Soft and squishy in motorway/high speed mode and stiff and bouncy in off road mode. Arnott offer some Gen 3 springs which use a different cone system and in theory they should offer a stiffer spring rate on a lowered ride height and a softer spring rate on a raised spring height. But you need take out a mortgage to buy them

Completely disagree. They are just poly bushes.... They will have some advantages over rubber bushes and some negatives, same as any other polybush. They possibly aren't the best poly bush, but that certainly doesn't automatically mean they aren't any good either.

Tbh that is quite a big question. And really comes down to how much you want to spend Vs what your end goals are. The old 2.5 TD lump really isn’t that bad either. Ok you won’t win any traffic light Grand Prix’s with it. But it should quite happily keep up with modern traffic and cruise at 65mph no problem. If you live in hilly areas such as Wales, the TD will feel really very good. Lots of grunt and torque. Where they tend to feel slower is on bigger open A roads and bypass style routes. The TD’s don’t tend to take to being thrashed though. A 200 Tdi is the easiest bolt in swap. Although there is still plenty to do. But way less than any other engine swap. Less refined than a TD but a reasonable performance hike. At least in Land Rover terms. Other swaps will be more involved. Lots of choices. And no need to go with an automatic. It is certainly worth starting a thread for more detailed info. As there are lots on here with experience of engine swaps.

Doubt you'll find any specs easily for a CA spec vehicle. Might be worth contacting Land Rover N. America direct and asking if there were any changes. As for performance, the NAS and 50th models used the 3.9 EFI RV8 with 182bhp (UK spec) and the same ZF 4 speed auto as found in Range Rover classics and Disco 1's. The 90 weighs less than either of those, so with the same final drive (3.54:1 diffs as standard) and same gearbox/engine, it would likely out perform both the Disco or RRC. Of course it would be very easy to tweak such a vehicle for more performance these days.

You need to hold the key in position manually for the glow plugs. They like a real 30 seconds, even in the summer of glow plug time. If cold out maybe even 45 seconds. I have a clock in the dash with a second hand, which makes it easier than counting. They should start well given enough glow plug. But tend not to start very well if you don’t give them enough. Even when warmed up you may find it’ll still start better with a bit of glow plug before cranking.

I think you need to take a bit of a wider look to be honest. People and industry have been tuning car engines for the best part of 120 years or more. It’s not as if it is a new fangled thing that someone just thought of in the past 24 months. As a mass market production engine it needs to meet many criteria. Including emissions for Type Approval, often on a global market, not just regional. Be capable of running on fuels from all over the world. Meet mpg expectations. As well as the criteria for the vehicle it is going in. Not every car needs to be making the most power straight from the dealership floor. Durability and reliability will be concerns. But when a car maker might make a million or more engines, they’d usually opt on the safer side than not in its tuning. As a one off and very tiny percentage of the total engine production run, you can tweak the boundaries and probably not impact the engines durability to any great extent. As for how long they last. Well Puma Defenders have been around and been tuned since 2007. With an engine that put out more power in other applications as standard. TD5’s have been around even longer. So it is pretty well established how durable either of these engines are to being tuned. Should an engine instantly blow up that can be traced to the tuning. Yes a company could be legally liable or accountable for it. But that is a complex question with far too many variables (ifs buts and maybes) to have a singular answer. Fact is. There are lots and lots of tuned vehicles out there. While some may have issues, the vast majority probably don’t.

Found the picture, right hand pressure plate was the new HD one, as you can see it was a lot taller, despite supposedly being the correct one for the engine/vehicle. (200Tdi).

From what you are saying, you can't actually disengage the clutch, ie. if you put it in gear and turn the engine over with your foot on the clutch pedal, it will move the vehicle. Many things could cause this, sadly I don't see any way of doing anything without removing the engine. If you have bled the clutch and the pedal feels ok, it isn't likely to be this. A wrong slave cylinder might cause a problem, as LR sell several different ones. Could be clutch fork, bearing moved or something else. When we rebuilt my brothers 90 we had the same symptoms. We must have had the engine in and out 6 or 7 times. We eventually traced it to being the new pressure plate (HD one from Paddacks, think it was Britpart). It was slightly taller than the other two clutch plates we had laying about, swapping it out for another one solved the problem. Paddocks did eventually refund, but wanted the pressure plate to send back to the manufacturer. Not saying this is what is wrong with yours, but even when you think you are doing all the right things with the right parts, it sometimes doesn't work as should. Was a real head scratcher to try and figure out. Hence taking the engine in and out many times, checking things like the release bearing, was the friction plate in the wrong round and trying many different clutch cylinders.

I agree. I'm really liking everything about the Grenadier, bar the price. But mostly because it is so far beyond my means!! Only other observation, the options list is extensive. Which means you'll end up with all sorts of specs used and likely missing many things you'd have wanted to spec when buying new. So I image buying used will be a right pain in the butt and you'll end up getting a spec you don't really want or missing items you'd love to have got. Personally I have no benefit in it being registered as a commercial vehicle, so not sure if it can still be registered as a car. Price seems to be £60-64k for the spec I'd like. I was going to say a Wrangler would be cheaper, as they where £49-52k not so long ago. Looking at the Jeep website now a 4 door starts at £61k I think in the UK car makers are just greedy f'ers!!!! Where is the £35-38k off roader? In the USA a base model 4 door Wrangler starts at $31k. Ranger Raptor comes in at about £61k on the road inc VAT too. More performance focused than the Grenadier. Would certainly be a toss up if I was able to afford such a vehicle. The new Defender wouldn't get a look in.

Are they really issues? It's not as if you could fold the middle row seats flat in a traditional Defender 110. And logically the only way to achieve it in the Grenadier would be to raise the boot floor, which isn't all that desirable either. Lowering the seats would probably make for very poor ergonomics. MPG wise, they didn't say how many miles they had done, but clearly they did put their foot down a bit and said it was all short town work. A Td5 Disco 2 or p38 diesel Range Rover won't be doing any better with an automatic, but they would be 100 Horse Power down. The new Defender 240 Edition One 110 was only doing 23'ish mpg when I had one on demo.

IIRC One Ton and Wolf are 6.5j

You are probably right about the rims/offset. Not sure if we are talking 90 or 110 either. 255/85 KM3’s on 8j one ton replica rims does rub. And 33.10.50R15’s (slightly wider and shorter) also on 8 j rims also rubs.

255/85 might rub under flex unless you have a lift.

I'd have thought something like this would be a pretty good all rounder. https://tyresdirectuk.co.uk/products/lt235-85r16-120-116q-falken-wildpeak-mt?taxon_id=8 Quite like the look of these too. https://tyresdirectuk.co.uk/products/235-85r16-120-116n-maxxis-bighorn-mt-764-bsw?taxon_id=8

Not sure what part of the country/world you are in. In my experience I’ve found MT’s better than AT’s in deeper and fresh snow. Compacted snow and ice might be different and favour the AT with more sipes. On road. I have some General Grabber X3’s. They are for all intensive purposes just as nice as any AT I’ve used. For an unrefined vehicle a good quality MT should be more than suitable. And in some parts of the World vehicles come with MT’s direct from the factory. That said. I run some Maxxis Wormdrive AT’s on another 90 and my Jimny. Very good on road and better in the mud than expected. But I found them less good in the snow compared to some MT’s I’ve run.

I bought a new rad for my 200Tdi, the oil cooler pipe fitment is slightly different. The current pipes are the beveled connectors at both the engine and rad end. The new rad requires the flat connectors with the o-ring. I've found a set of oil cooler pipes in the shed with o-ring ends, but these don't fit the engine. Anyone know if there are some off the shelf pipes that have the beveled end for the engine and the flat o-ring end at the rad? Or if there are any screw on adapters. Thanks.

Can't really see a Tdi sustaining 85-90mph on 35" tyres. EGT's would be through the roof, even in a cold climate. I'd say you'd want to re-rear for 35's too. As for upgrading, yes you can, when I looked last it was all fairly clear on the Ashcroft site, you just need to know what you have and read all the info, probably easier to read on a proper PC over a phone though. What sort of off roading do you do in Malta? Is it rock crawling, if so, a re-gear would be even more of a must IMO, else you'll be slipping the clitch. I'd be tempted to look at the Ashcroft ATB's over lockers, but depends on use and expectations. Bear in mind, I think most upgraded diff centres use the 24 spline shaft. Ashcroft allows you to upgrade a 10 spline setup to make use of the diff centres. But you are then running a custom setup, so should something break, you won't be able to fix with stock parts. You'd need a spare of the custom shaft.

Toyos seem a good price: https://tyresdirectuk.co.uk/products/255-85r16-119p-toyo-open-country-m-t?taxon_id=8 But as said, I’d treat them more as an aggressive All Terrain than an MT. Sometimes get a Maxxis tyre in this size too. But can’t see any at the mo. I’ve found the 255/85 to be taller than a 285/75. Might need a small lift to ensure they don’t rub. 285 is wide and likely stick out of standard wheel arches. But a few offerings cheaper than the KM3’s https://tyresdirectuk.co.uk/t/tyres?utf8=✓&per_page=&search[tyre_width][]=285&search[tyre_profile][]=75&search[tyre_diameter][]=16#searchResults

Don’t think they are. A site I use specifically says they aren’t a remould.

Not bad on the road. But more of an AT in the mud IMO. Not run the 255’s but the 235’s.