seriesthinkin
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Getting the most out of a 2.25 diesel
- Thread starter seriesthinkin
- Start date
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90truckcab
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seriesthinkin
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more than enough
Cool, Cheers
90truckcab
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as for usable power thats as good as it gets , trust me
iannotts
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unless thers an 8 blader on it, then yer need to cut 4 off it, or swap fer a newer one, ****ed if yer gona need 8 blades in the UK , specialy not this time of year
I thought the 8 blade fans were mil spec??
seriesthinkin
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So thats pretty much it then.
No tweaks with fuel pump or timing etc. (I don't know so thats why I'm asking)
Cheers for all the input though
jessejazza
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What members have said so far goes for any classic in the main. They got it right in the beginning. Best air filters to have are without doubt paper ones inserted in original airbox. Rad fans driven by water pump or crankshaft are much better than electric ones. Folk always like to say you lose hp... 1 or 2 not the 10 hp that some folk like to claim but never put the vehicle on a rolling road to prove it [cos they're happy spending £100 as they've decided it's better]. Unless you have a cross flow rad designed for a particular motor - they are not worth it. Should your vehicle get a bit hot then consider replacing the metal one with a plastic one as the blades will be more efficient. But then again more likely to be cooling trouble and silt building up in the system... perhaps due to the motor living in a hard water area and an owner being economical with how much antifreeze to put it.
seriesthinkin
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Thanks for that.
At the moment I am rebuilding this swb pickup, having all the other work needed on it to do. I really didn't want to have to swap an engine right now, I just wondered what could be done with the original engine to get a little more power out of it. At the end of the day If an engine swap was needed I will just have to look at that in the future, just work with what I've got right now.
You never know I might even find I don't want to swap the engine.
Anyway a BIG thank you to everyone who's put a two-pence worth in
Cheers
Chris
the way to get the best out of a 2.25d is to make sure that it is all set up as per the book, this engine oftun suffers from worn timing chain, this will retard the timing and caise a lack of power and poor cold starting ( and a lot of smoke). there is a timing mark in side the pump, you will need a mirror to see it, it will be wouth the efort
seriesthinkin
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spitfiremk1uk
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Just read this lot and thought I would throw in my 2pence worth. Some has been said allready.
1. Fan blades.
You need a lot of power to turn fan blades at high speed. Fine at low rpm they use bugger all power. Turn these babes at 3000 rpm and you will soak up power and a LOT more than 1-2bhp. You only need to lose a few bhp and you will feel the difference.
keep the std 4 blades and make sure they are the correct way around. This is the safest option for normal running in the UK.
electric fans are the only way to keep as much BHP going to the wheels as possible. However. if you ever find yourself in a traffic jam and the fan fails to start just once! Say goodbye to your cylinder head gasket and possibly more.
Modern option is a viscous fan unit. it will turn at slow speeds allowing cooling whilst stationary but soaks up no more power when you want more rpms.
For the skeptice out there on how much power a fan can use I have copied and pasted a short article from a performance test carried out on a dyno (power testing)
Kevin felt that the large engine-driven fan was a major culprit in this dramatic power loss, so he tested the little 357ci small-block again after removing the fan blade. The results showed that the fan killed as much as 22 hp at 5,200 rpm. More typical was a loss of between 13 and 19 hp between 3,600 and 5,900 rpm (see Test B). The accompanying charts reveal that the average power loss with just the simple engine-driven fan was 18 hp.
And land rover blades are not exactly scientificly produced. ie No airfoil section just a bent slab of metal riveted to another piece of steel!
So anyone still think the fan blades make no difference?
2. Air filter.
A diesel does not need mixture control. The pump does that for you. You will get more oxegen in the engine by allowing cold fresh air to be sucked in. if you can creat a positive pressure at the air inlet ie face the opening forwards you can overcome any restrictions and actualy give yourself a "turbo like" increase in manifold pressure. This will only help when moving and in reality will only give a little more power. paper filters can be the least restrictive. However they soon clog. you will need a large capacity/size to keep it good for longer. Dont write off the oil bath filter. The faster the air flow the better they work. They are expencive to make and service. hence the move towards paper.
3. Timing.
Check and reset your injector timing. it is not an easy job and few land rover dealerships or independants even have the tools let alone the knowledge on how to do this properly. Chose your mechanic carefully. Sure the timing chain can be a little stretched but this may in fact aid high rpm performance rather than lose power. Again we are not talking a lot but every little helps. Oh and the injector pump has to be set in relation to the crank so having a worn chain but correctly adjusted pump will work fine. It has been known for some people to use a rolling road to set the pump timing. This method will give you the best possible setting for road use. Starting and low speed MAY be affected though so make sure the engine is in good nick in other respects.
4. Injectors.
Have your injectors checked, serviced or replaced and keep them in good shape with injector cleaners.
5. Exhaust pipe.
Old exhaust pipes get clogged with soot. A simple act of buying a new cheap exhaust can give you a little more power. its like takeing your hand off the end of the pipe. You allow the engine to breath just a little better. You can buy large performance pipes but in my experience a std diesel wont benefit much.
6. Normal tuning methods.
Gas flowing the head, inlet and exhaust ports and valves will help a lot! You will also need to consider port matching the inlet and exhaust manifolds. A mismatched gasket here can cause a hell of a restriction.
7. The infamous Swirling air inlet devices.
These MAY help emmisions. These MAY help economy. They will not give you any more BHP! In fact a restriction in the inlet manifold may actually hurt max power. You takes your choice with this one.
8. Get a compression test done.
Before trying any of the above i would suggest you make sure you are starting with a good engine. There is no point in trying this if your basic engine is lacking in some way.
Be realistic! You are starting with a very low power unit to start with. But this also means just a few extra horse power made combined with a few horse power saved or not soaked up with binding brakes or held back with roof racks etc you will feel a difference.
A 2.5 diesel NA will offer just 6 more horse power when in std condition. Yet a conversion to this engine is considered a step up. Acceleration aside (because torque does the talking here) a 6 HP (Nearlly 10%) increase will give a noticable increase in road speed over the std engine! Food for thought...
Where am I coming from. I am a land rover mechanic of 22 years factory trained and have built and played with, many an engine in my time.
Good luck.
1. Fan blades.
You need a lot of power to turn fan blades at high speed. Fine at low rpm they use bugger all power. Turn these babes at 3000 rpm and you will soak up power and a LOT more than 1-2bhp. You only need to lose a few bhp and you will feel the difference.
keep the std 4 blades and make sure they are the correct way around. This is the safest option for normal running in the UK.
electric fans are the only way to keep as much BHP going to the wheels as possible. However. if you ever find yourself in a traffic jam and the fan fails to start just once! Say goodbye to your cylinder head gasket and possibly more.
Modern option is a viscous fan unit. it will turn at slow speeds allowing cooling whilst stationary but soaks up no more power when you want more rpms.
For the skeptice out there on how much power a fan can use I have copied and pasted a short article from a performance test carried out on a dyno (power testing)
Kevin felt that the large engine-driven fan was a major culprit in this dramatic power loss, so he tested the little 357ci small-block again after removing the fan blade. The results showed that the fan killed as much as 22 hp at 5,200 rpm. More typical was a loss of between 13 and 19 hp between 3,600 and 5,900 rpm (see Test B). The accompanying charts reveal that the average power loss with just the simple engine-driven fan was 18 hp.
And land rover blades are not exactly scientificly produced. ie No airfoil section just a bent slab of metal riveted to another piece of steel!
So anyone still think the fan blades make no difference?
2. Air filter.
A diesel does not need mixture control. The pump does that for you. You will get more oxegen in the engine by allowing cold fresh air to be sucked in. if you can creat a positive pressure at the air inlet ie face the opening forwards you can overcome any restrictions and actualy give yourself a "turbo like" increase in manifold pressure. This will only help when moving and in reality will only give a little more power. paper filters can be the least restrictive. However they soon clog. you will need a large capacity/size to keep it good for longer. Dont write off the oil bath filter. The faster the air flow the better they work. They are expencive to make and service. hence the move towards paper.
3. Timing.
Check and reset your injector timing. it is not an easy job and few land rover dealerships or independants even have the tools let alone the knowledge on how to do this properly. Chose your mechanic carefully. Sure the timing chain can be a little stretched but this may in fact aid high rpm performance rather than lose power. Again we are not talking a lot but every little helps. Oh and the injector pump has to be set in relation to the crank so having a worn chain but correctly adjusted pump will work fine. It has been known for some people to use a rolling road to set the pump timing. This method will give you the best possible setting for road use. Starting and low speed MAY be affected though so make sure the engine is in good nick in other respects.
4. Injectors.
Have your injectors checked, serviced or replaced and keep them in good shape with injector cleaners.
5. Exhaust pipe.
Old exhaust pipes get clogged with soot. A simple act of buying a new cheap exhaust can give you a little more power. its like takeing your hand off the end of the pipe. You allow the engine to breath just a little better. You can buy large performance pipes but in my experience a std diesel wont benefit much.
6. Normal tuning methods.
Gas flowing the head, inlet and exhaust ports and valves will help a lot! You will also need to consider port matching the inlet and exhaust manifolds. A mismatched gasket here can cause a hell of a restriction.
7. The infamous Swirling air inlet devices.
These MAY help emmisions. These MAY help economy. They will not give you any more BHP! In fact a restriction in the inlet manifold may actually hurt max power. You takes your choice with this one.
8. Get a compression test done.
Before trying any of the above i would suggest you make sure you are starting with a good engine. There is no point in trying this if your basic engine is lacking in some way.
Be realistic! You are starting with a very low power unit to start with. But this also means just a few extra horse power made combined with a few horse power saved or not soaked up with binding brakes or held back with roof racks etc you will feel a difference.
A 2.5 diesel NA will offer just 6 more horse power when in std condition. Yet a conversion to this engine is considered a step up. Acceleration aside (because torque does the talking here) a 6 HP (Nearlly 10%) increase will give a noticable increase in road speed over the std engine! Food for thought...
Where am I coming from. I am a land rover mechanic of 22 years factory trained and have built and played with, many an engine in my time.
Good luck.
Last edited:
ciderman
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Speaking as one who has just given away, ie no money changed hands, his fully working 2.25 diesel, I wonder why you didn't do your research diligently before you got the vehicle?
it is not a very good engine.
in 1983 a chap who was a land rover research engineer, with lots of letters after his name, told me that they used to have people (farmers) turn up and abandon land rovers at the Solihull plant because they couldn't believe how bad the engine was.
i had one for 4 years and suffered out of some sort of loyalty to the brand. i have just fitted a transit 2.5 di.
lovely.
and the heater works!
it is not a very good engine.
in 1983 a chap who was a land rover research engineer, with lots of letters after his name, told me that they used to have people (farmers) turn up and abandon land rovers at the Solihull plant because they couldn't believe how bad the engine was.
i had one for 4 years and suffered out of some sort of loyalty to the brand. i have just fitted a transit 2.5 di.
lovely.
and the heater works!
Goldminer
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I'm putting a 2A back together and have the option of putting either 2.25 diesel or petrol back in it. Which is the best way to go? Its only going to be used to run around town, to work etc.
spitfiremk1uk
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2 1/4 Petrol.
90truckcab
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petrol
iannotts
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ermmmm am putting a TD in my series 3 :behindsofa::bolt:
spitfiremk1uk
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A landy turbo D will go great guns.
Until of course the front pulley falls off and damages the crank, the pistons crack and if it gets a sniff of overheating the head will crack.
Other than that they are great pulling engines.
If you can graft in an intercooler you can get the same power by lowering the boost pressure. This will lower the combustion temperatures loads and take the strain off the pistons which may help with the life span!
Until of course the front pulley falls off and damages the crank, the pistons crack and if it gets a sniff of overheating the head will crack.
Other than that they are great pulling engines.
If you can graft in an intercooler you can get the same power by lowering the boost pressure. This will lower the combustion temperatures loads and take the strain off the pistons which may help with the life span!
ciderman
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- sunny worcestershire
take off the fan and fit an electric one.
er....
that's it
er....
that's it
series3109
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Take what Ciderman says with a pinch of salt - there have of course been concerns about the 2286cc engine and its modest power output. In response, Land Rover produced the 2.6 and stage one. However, this was largely a response to businesses needing an uprated machine for heavy towing etc. It is my feeling that the 2286 is more than capable for farming usage and off-roading, given its low-rev torque peak. It is a durable, overbuilt and, if maintained, reliable workhorse that will pull like a train at slow speeds and runs when well worn with only modest reductions in power and torque. So ignore comments that it's a rubbish engine - it isn't up to motorway cruising, but who wants to do that in a series?
