EGT gauge will be serious overkill on a 200
An EGT gauge is incredibly useful, especially on a tweaked Tdi. It makes for a very good tuning tool if you are tweaking the injector pump yourself and a very good indicator when to back off, as you seriously won't believe how quickly EGT's can rise on a tweaked Tdi.
Therefore it is no more overkill than any other sensible instrumentation on any other modified vehicle.
quite possibly one of the toughest land rover engines ever made
Yes HG failures and even cracked blocks are not so uncommon.
The Tdi's are indeed nice old lumps (I own two of them). But they are very old school in design and tolerances. This doesn't make them less tough, but there is nothing particularly remarkable about their durability either.
A 2.25 diesel lump uses essentially the same block, but with much less stress. So logic would suggest it would be more durable. Albeit far less potent.
there cant be many if any that havent been tweaked?
There are 1000's. Modifying any vehicle in the UK has always been a niche. Yes the Tdi's are easy to tune. And people into the "scene" are more likely to have done this. But the reality is, most will not be tuned.
Lets face it as std they are seriously lacking in power and need the tweaking!
They where one of the most powerful diesel engines LR had produced at launch with a significant power and torque increase over the engine it replaced. So calling it "lacking in power" is complete and utter fool hardy.
The Tdi's also faired well against the competition in terms of power output. Even those that used much bigger displacement engines.
Pedestrian is a good word to describe the acceleration
A good Tdi is certainly more than fast enough for normal road use, even in standard trim. And much faster than many vehicles on the roads. I know you what you are trying to say. But when talking Land Rover's and off roaders in general, such a comment is pretty daft. As the Tdi Defenders where at the time of lunch the quickest production Land Rover (excluding RR's) that you could have bought since 1948. A factory 3.5 V8 might have been a bit quicker, but taller gearing and the LT85 levels the playing field pretty well.