I wanted to start on topic on this subject as I recently picked up a 24' Defender 130 S and haven't seen too many definitive discussions around it. General rumor/knowledge seems to indicate that the P300 is basically a "detuned" version of the P400 engine but not clear on how exactly. Is the P300 lacking the additional Battery assist in HP/Torque? Does it have the battery assist and the difference is in amount of Turbo boost or ECU tuning? Based on that would be interesting to understand options for tuning down the road post-warranty...

For me I was happy with the power of the P300 and felt it moved plenty quick enough for a 6000lb SUV. Given my hope for a long life in the vehicle I'm hoping to understand the engine design a bit better as that would obviously drive reliability/failure rate.

 

P300 in the 90 and 110 is a 2.0 liter Ingenium turbocharged I4. The P300 in the 130 is the same 3.0 liter Ingenium MHEV I6 as the P400. The only difference is the ECU tuning. Lower boost pressure and peak torque comes in 500 rpm lower than the P400. LR USA's marketing/press material claims the 130 P300 isn't an MHEV, but it is.

 

Thanks, is there any info online that corroborates that assertion (not that I don't trust you ) as I'd love to read more. It definitely makes sense from a business perspective and has been done by other manufacturers before to simplify the overall supply/delivery chain. If they are truly identical execpt for the ECU setup then it seems feasible someone could come up with a flash to "upgrade" you to a P400...

 

There isn't anything online that I could find about it. This info I got directly from one of my friends in the UK who was one of the development engineers on the L663, as well as speaking with techs at my dealer. There are companies like JLR Active that can reconfigure CCF settings in the powertrain control module to P400 spec. Contact @markjlr or @GarrettSD from JLR Active to see what they can do. I had them activate features on my Defender and they were excellent to deal with. You might be able to adjust the PCM with a GAP tool, but I'm not 100% sure. That would be a question for @stevemfr.

https://www.jlractive.com/

 

Thanks for the background. Personally I'm happy with the P300 output today and am hopeful that the "detuned" spec will prove to be more robust/reliable in the long run versus P400 spec... Time will certainly tell.

 

Unlikely that it will be more reliable since they are mechanically identical. I was a bit apprehensive with the P400 when I ordered my Defender 110, but so far the Ingenium I6 engines have been pretty damn solid.