Evening all.

I’m planning some engine upgrades for my trusty Disco seen as I have a little bit of time to kill before the new race season starts up in a month or two.

Basically what I’m thinking in my head is an Exhaust manifold & Turbo change, external wastegate, Intercooler, and a map to suit.

What’s brought this about; well the other day going to work I stumbled across an ‘Alive’ tuned Disco and I was very impressed with how well it went, granted I was in a bog standard 2.0T 200hp car; I only just had the legs on it. Also a very good friend of mine has just finished his BMW330D and he’s now making 370hp and over 500lb/ft and that goes like Hell. My sponsor who maps my race car has offered to map the Disco for me so I have all that side of things in hand.

I can do all the mechanical and Fabrication work on it myself in my workshop so that’s no problem. I just have no experience of tuning Diesel engines and I have heard nothing but bad things about the fragility of the TD5, (Hence why I’ve left it alone the past four years).

So in a nutshell, the info I’m after if anyone knows or is willing to help.

· Maximum boost a stock block / stock head can take?
· What point does the standard intercooler max out?
· What point do the standard injectors max out?
· Is there an upgrade for the injectors?
· What a realistic HP / TQ figure will be?
· Any off the shelf Turbo upgrades?
· Any pitfalls to look out for?
· Any other general advice?

If it matters I use the Disco to tow my race car and commute in so it does about 20k mikes a year. It doesn’t see any harsh off road, only farm tracks and fields around the village and at race venues.

Cheers in advance for any input.

IMO all you need is a remap to increased boost, uprated MAP sensor and a performance intercooler...that would bring the D2 to the best it can without the risk of damaging the head

Look up some chaps called TD5inside based out of Portugal they have managed to squeeze 223bhp/517nm or 232bhp/488nm from a tuned TD5 Defender.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread.php?p=2374677#post2374677

They provide the turbo, boost box and suitable map for around £700 last time I checked. Turbos are from CRTurbos in the UK.

All done on a standard dewebbed skimmed exhaust manifold with uprated studs - Either Alive rolled, extended with spacers for £90 or Wurth slightly extended rolled studs with copper nuts for about £15.

Not sure on what the max boost the stock head can take but from my own research I have found that pushing the TD5 above 200bhp they have can result in the head starting to lift. Which can be solved by fitting uprated head studs, available from two people; Alive & Chesterfield Diagnostics, they run about £900. Chesterfield also do race heads though they are expensive and not convinced they are worth the money.

Max boost you can get from the TD5 without mods/boost boxes is around 18psi before limp mode kicks in, the standard turbo should go up to about 22psi, though I have heard of some hitting 30psi. Fitting a boost box should allow you to turn the boost up to around 22 - 24psi. If you want more boost you may need an uprated MAP sensor from Alive as well or I believe it is possible to raise the boost limit while mapping.

IMO realistically I would attempt to stay below the 200bhp level to keep a good value-to-upgrade balance.

Fitting a straight thru, decat, egr blank, de-restricted airflow, full size intercooler and appropriate map would probably find you around the 180bhp mark. New turbo, boost box and adjusted map should have you around the 200bhp/450nm mark but its all relative.

Any higher and its propane injection/stroker time!

bankz5152 said:

Max boost you can get from the TD5 without mods/boost boxes is around 18psi before limp mode kicks in,.....

Click to expand...

just some short comment to not let inaccurate info here as it's about a D2 not a defender
Max boost you can get from a D2 without any mod just by shortening the wastegate rod is 20psi(at an average ambient pressure of 100KPa cos the overboost limit is set by factory to 242KPa, which means 1.42 bar = 20.5Psi)

Ahhh thats true! Got carried away in typing!