2.5 Turbo Diesel, top speed 55mph, how can I make faster

[wolffey]

I own a 1987 Defender 90 TD which has a top speed of 55mph, if lucky can hit 60mph but you have to work hard with some slick gear changes. I am having restored and have decided to have the engine looked at. Needing some feed back to find out what I can do to make fatser.

Bigger Air Filter ?

High Lift Cam ?

Bigger Turbo ?

Engine Rebuild ?

Any words of wisdom grately recieved

Kind regards

wolffey

[Happyoldgit]

A TD in standard form is stressed enough as it is, depending on your location of course an easier solution would be to ditch the TD and fit a 200Tdi.

[Orgasmic Farmer]

replace with a tdi. Cheapest long term solution. More power, more economy, more refinement (relative). The 200 tdi will fit straight in if taken from a defender and a Dsico one is equally easy to make fit with a couple of extra bits. For the price of the conversion you won't be able to do half of those things you list and you will still have a TD motor at the end of it. I have a 300 tdi (coupled to a Disco transfer box) in my 110 and it will cruise all day at 75-80. though the economy does suffer at that speed. Easily keeps up with modern traffic though and will do 32 mpg on a run

[reb78]

It sounds like it has a 1.6:1 transfer box, but i think that would be unlikely, but not impossible, in a 90! I would check to see if there is a sticker on the transfer box stating the ratio and/or cross reference the serial number of the box with the info on the Ashcroft website to see what they say.

My 110 would reach 85 with the old TD engine (and a 1.4:1 transfer box), so your 90 should be capable of similar.

[Snagger]

Something is wrong there - the engine is governed to 4000 rpm like the Tdi, so you should achieve a similar speed on the flat given a longer run up. Witha 12J, I used to get 70mph out of my 109, eventually, with a roof rack!

You could rebuild the engine, but it's less powerful, less robust and less economical than the Tdi. I'd say get a Tdi, overhaul that and retrofit it.

[bluespanner]

What about a can of ether in the cab with a small pipe to the air inlet?

[Adam001]

Do you have any other symptons? Difficult to start? smoke colour?

I/we had that engine for over 16 years so know it fairly well, like others on here I got 85 from it ok. I did swap to the 200tdi as it is a much better engine, but the 19J is not actually as bad as some people make out.

Piston rings are a common failure on them which cause a significant loss of power. A compression test will show that up.

[sheppy]

intresting people say these speeds are an issue, ive had 2 td 90's one'89 and my current '87 and both hit a max of 55 the same as the op.

[Retroanaconda]

I had a 110 CSW TD last summer that easily kept up with traffic on the motorway, it wasn't particularly slow. Could easily do 70mph if pushed - wasn't a pleasant experience but then 70mph in any pre-Td5 Defender isn't!

[mickeyw]

It sounds like it has a 1.6:1 transfer box, but i think that would be unlikely, but not impossible, in a 90! I would check to see if there is a sticker on the transfer box stating the ratio and/or cross reference the serial number of the box with the info on the Ashcroft website to see what they say.

My 110 would reach 85 with the old TD engine (and a 1.4:1 transfer box), so your 90 should be capable of similar.

We had a D reg 90TD from new. That would do 85 given enough space, but gawd it was noisy inside, even in full CSW trim. In a 110 it would have to work really hard to hit top speeds.

The original engine was replaced at 85000 miles due to excessive piston blow by, a common fault with these units. Symptoms include the air filter clogging with engine oil, which hit performance and economy.

If you aren't worried about originality a 200 tdi is an excellent alternative and not to hard to fit.

[Ian Barrett]

55 - god almighty.

Does it feel like it's run out of oomph or that it's hitting a wall and should have more to give.

Does it accelerate ok or struggle?

Have you disconnected the air filter and run without it. It would disprove the filter or collapsing pipe work

As a bit of a radical thought, ditch the roof and fit a tilt, or get more radical and fit a truck cab roof in mohair

I've done the latter and my 2.5td will cruise all day at 65 and happily spin to 75 to overtake.

I have to admit though, you need to be committed to owning a fabric roof because it's going to cost a lot more than the price of ditching the 2.5td and dropping in a 200tdi, especially if you are able to do the engine transplant yourself.

[wolffey]

Guys, Thank you for all your posts, best bet is probably to change it to a 200TDi, will look into

Cheers

Mark

[Yostumpy]

As Said, chech the T box, there should be a sticker on it, either 1.61 in which case a 55-60 its screaming, or 1.41. Check the throttle cable connection, in the engine bay, to ensure that there is no slack, sometimes they become vERY slack, and foot to the floor is only 1/2 throttle!

[sheppy]

is it common to find td's with 1.61 transfer boxes??

[Snagger]

Do you have any other symptons? Difficult to start? smoke colour?

I/we had that engine for over 16 years so know it fairly well, like others on here I got 85 from it ok. I did swap to the 200tdi as it is a much better engine, but the 19J is not actually as bad as some people make out.

Piston rings are a common failure on them which cause a significant loss of power. A compression test will show that up.

It's not the rings that go but the pistons themselves - they crack right across and through the crowns. The head also cracks between the valves in each cylinder. The 12J was a very robust engine, but it just wasn't up to a cheap lash-up of bolting on a turbo - the compression ratio was too high, which is part of the reason for the cracking. A tdi has 19:1 CR, but the 12 and 19Js have 23:1. The metalurgy wasn't right either. I know from personal experience - I've had two of these engines and have seen several others with the same failures.

[vulcan bomber]

is it common to find td's with 1.61 transfer boxes??

nope.

[sheppy]

sounds like i need to strip mine down and check it out then!

[reb78]

is it common to find td's with 1.61 transfer boxes??

May be uncommon, but you never know what has been fitted.

Even in its worst health - spitting oil out of the breather and four cracked pistons, my 110 TD would still pull 70mph plus. So there is something up with the OPs one.

[Snagger]

If the timing is out, or the turbo has failed (causing a restriction in the intake and exhaust, dropping performance below that of a 12J), then you could have this bad performance, but I'd expect a fairly heavy plume of black smoke in either case (or whitish grey if the timing is retarded).

[Adam001]

It's not the rings that go but the pistons themselves - they crack right across and through the crowns. The head also cracks between the valves in each cylinder. The 12J was a very robust engine, but it just wasn't up to a cheap lash-up of bolting on a turbo - the compression ratio was too high, which is part of the reason for the cracking. A tdi has 19:1 CR, but the 12 and 19Js have 23:1. The metalurgy wasn't right either. I know from personal experience - I've had two of these engines and have seen several others with the same failures.

Fair enough, I'm going partly by what I've heard from other users and the fact we ran one for 250'000 miles and changed the rings twice.

[tukko]

Hey Wolffey,

Last year i bought a cheap late 19J. The engine production date was month 12 year 1990. One of the latest. I did a complete overhaul and i must tell you despite i learned a lot about rebuilding engines it was a waste. The engine did'nt perform better only the oil consumption was better. But still noisy, not that fast. After i found out that the injectorpump was leaking i had enough of it and i decided to replace for a 200tdi defender. I must say that this is the best decision i've made. This engine is 10 times better. More power, less noise and smoother butt most important more reliable.

Stop wasting time and money on your 19J and get a 200 or 300 tdi

[Green Bob]

My old 19j had an intercooler fitted and the pump turned up by a previous owner, it certainly went. The worst engine-related fault was a blown hg between 2 and 3, it did about 150 miles on 2 and a half cylinders to get me home, top speed of around 50, pouring smoke out the back. When we pulled the head, all 4 pistons were cracked right across and the the head was cracked at all the injector ports and the hg had blown seemingly eons ago between one of the cylinders and an oil channel.

We just replaced the head gasket and it ran better than it ever had: no longer pressurising the oil, so it stopped breathing as heavily. The pistons and head must have been cracked for a long while, but they never did let go while I was still running that engine. (Even while running it on straight veg oil for many thousands of miles)

As for top speeds, according to the high score things that tell you your speed, my speedo underreads by about 10% and, months prior to the head gasket replacement, on a private road (much resembling a downhil stretch of the westbound m62), the speedo indicated 100.

So the TD is underrated, or certainly mine was, it kept up with normal traffic and still returned the right side of 30mpg. I'd stick an intercooler in it and tweak the fueling a small amount. Then when it inevitably blows up or you have the time, you can swap it for a tdi and you'll have a huge radiator and an intercooler already there.

[frie2u]

i had about 130km/h on highway..

[Snagger]

Hey Wolffey,

Last year i bought a cheap late 19J. The engine production date was month 12 year 1990. One of the latest. I did a complete overhaul and i must tell you despite i learned a lot about rebuilding engines it was a waste. The engine did'nt perform better only the oil consumption was better. But still noisy, not that fast. After i found out that the injectorpump was leaking i had enough of it and i decided to replace for a 200tdi defender. I must say that this is the best decision i've made. This engine is 10 times better. More power, less noise and smoother butt most important more reliable.

Stop wasting time and money on your 19J and get a 200 or 300 tdi

You might have had a timing fault on the 19J - they should be smoother and quieter than a 200 Tdi because of the indirect injection, and a timing fault would also hamper performance. They have higher fuel consumption and less performance than the Tdi, though, and aren't anywhere near as robust.