Defender 90 2.0 MPI experience wanted

Hey all,

It's been a while since i've been here. Had to sell my beloved 110 2.5na due to treehugging zones here in town. The guys who bought it loved it, even though 3 months later the 2.5na died on him He rebuild it back to a radio wagen with radio's and all. I ended with a XC70 from 2006. Nice car, but i miss my defender. Past weeks some 90's with 2.0 mpi's have catching my eye and i was wondering how bad these are I've read that it is a powerless engine, but so was my 2.5 n/a I was kinda wondering about the lifetime for these engines and what issues i can expect. The one i've seen got 140k miles on it. The car looks ok on the pics but i still have to look at it in real life. I don't really need a heavy offroader, but some offroad will be fun if i ever get to play. I don't drive that much a year as i normally take the motorbike to work, if i do 4000 miles a year it's a lot. Anyway, any info will be welcome

Cheers

Why do people bash the 2.0mpi???

As for them in 90's very rare. Weren't they only made for the Italian Police or something?

As for the engine. 136'ish bhp. So a fair chunk more than any stock Tdi and probably more than most tweaked ones. Also more than a stock TD5 Defender and the same as a low CR 3.5 V8. But without the silly tall gearing the V8's had.

All in all it should pull well and if you use the revs would likely **** all over most other Defenders in a straight line.

It obviously won't have the turbo induced torque spike at low rpm that TD's. So won't maybe be such a good tow car for heavy loads. But is probably ok otherwise.

Mpg if not thrashed everywhere is probably slightly better than a V8.

As for the torque. Well many people manage fine with the old 2.25 petrol in 88's and 109's. and they make about half the Horse Power of the T-Series. And while you'll get people claim the old 2.25 was more torquey. It really isn't. The 2.25 is just flat after mid rpm and doesn't rev. The 16v T-Series does rev by comparison. When I looked up some dyno figures for the T-Series it seems it makes more torque at 1500rpm than the 2.25 makes peak torque.

I wasn't aware of a 2 ltr petrol defender.
Disco, yes.

Ahhh.... Holland
Driven a disco with that engine and remember it being ok tbh.
Long time ago though.

Holland yeah. Thx for the info. Indeed the 2.0 was in disco's for the main land market and in the italian police cars. If i can haul a motorbike or two i'll be happy, but i assume that will be fine

You should buy it if it's got a petrol engine.
Diesel is killing us all, don't you know. The government has now decided diesel is bad and should be banned.
If that happens your Defender MPi will be worth a fortune!

Well it is happening. here in Rotterdam all diesels older than 2001 and petrols older than 1992 are not allow to enter city center limits ... i live 400 yards inside

Bummer..
Without checking I guess a disco mpi weighs more than a 90?
And like I said, the disco mpi I drove, from memory, went ok.
I'm still friends with the guy who owned that disco, I'll ask him his opinion as he drove it every day .

As others have said, the 2.0 MPi was a special build for the Italian Police and possibly others. The 2.0 MPi Discovery, which used the same engine and transmission, was I believe, produced in response to U.K. company car tax rules.
I remember press reports at the time said that the 2.0 MPi Discovery economy wasn't much better than the good old V8 and I doubt the torque was anything like the V8 either.
If your previous Land Rover experience has been a 2.5 N/A diesel then I suspect that you will be pleasantly surprised by the MPi.