Listening to people on the aulro forums, the td5 does just fine at highway speeds. I also cannot imagine that a diesel that new would have any issues in cold weather... it's got glow plugs.

I will say that looking at the problems people have with the TD5, it's not MUCH more reliable than the V8. Headgastkets, oil leaks, bad turbos, oil leaks into the injector harness and ECU.

 

A tuned Td5 can spin tires on tarmac in a Defender. You can crank the boost up on them pretty nicely to get some extra power. Twisted makes nice tunes.

 

True story. A LOT of the auzzies get a nanocom and load performance tunes/maps to them, if they are the newer ECU that is programmable.

 

what about tuning a 300tdi? and how costly is it to tune a Td5 as you guys have mentioned? No matter eventually my Disco will fuse with a Diesel. The general time of thumb is that the Td5 is somewhat more reliable, much better mpg and easily to service in UK where spare parts are experienced mechanics are abundent. The rover v8 will not be benifical over there.

 

This should wet you appetite then, here is my friends 2000 D2 with a complete and running 300Tdi engine, very sweet setup.

 

That 300tdi swap in his D2 looks great but what state does he live in and you made no mention of how or if it can be tuned in the same manner as others are talking about with the Td5.

 

300tdi are completely mechanical (at least on the older versions) and would not be tuned the same way. There are certainly things you could do, but not with a computer. The guys over at defendersource would have more info.

Maybe I misunderstood what you were saying, but if you are planning on moving to the UK, just buy a D2 over there that has a TD5. It will be MUCH cheaper than converting yours and shipping it over. And then you'll still have a LHD disco in a RHD country.

One of the guys on discoweb that lives in the UK prefers the V8, though his does run on LPG instead of petrol, to save some money.

 

Don't be mistaken Julian, the 200 and 300 Tdi are far more reliable than the Td5. No computers, less to go wrong in general. Because there are no computers you'd likely just upgrade it with a manual boost controller, but they will still not be as powerful as a Td5.

 

my current V8 Disco 2 is my first ever non diesel Rover. growing up driving 200 and 300TDI 109 and 110's i have to say that lack of highway speed was never an issue. There's really no reason why you couldn't just buy a late model TD5 Disco 2 when you get to Europe and enjoy the heck out of it.

 

I've read a little about the lpg conversion but how does it fly with US state inspections? Will the vehicle still pass inspections with the lpg setup? One issue with lpg is the scarecity of lpg filling stations.... Not sure how common they are in the UK though. Now a co worker was telling me something about a inspection waiver you can get in the event that you modified your vehicle. He said it costs around $500. Ive never heard of any waivers though.