Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Not really a challenge but trying to do a comparison.

My 89 RR with 3.5 EFI and ZF auto gets about 14.5L/100kms on the open road doing 110 - 115kph. thats with 4 people and gear.
I do alot of towing of car trailers but mainly around town. Any idea's what I would expect to get on the freeway towning say 2tonne ??

I'm also looking at converting it to a 300tdi and either Auto or manual, so would be interested to here what people get out of them towing too.

Thanks

My 300tdi Defender with 2 people all our gear and towing a offroad trailer gets around 12l/100klm on a trip.
Thats running 34's and i've had the fuel pump wound up alittle.

One thing i have really noticed with the tdi is fuel economy is never greatly affected you just go slower the heavier your load..

Guru, your vehicle is running very well.

Towing etc will knock this out to 17-19L/100klms or a lot worse......I'd say

A mate of mine has a "97 defender with a ZF auto from a 300Tdi disco.

He averaged 11.5L/100km through the canning - heavily overloaded.

His son had a county (retrofitted with an R380 and 300Tdi) and averaged 10.5.

Both vehicles had 31-32" wheels and had the fuel pumps tweaked.

My numbers.

1991 Defender 90 with 200TDI (allow had this engine for 5k)
Best 9.0, worst 12.9, average 10.2

1991 Discovery, 3 door, 3.5l EFI V8
Best 13.4, worst 29.4, average 17.7

For the cost of conversion it wouldn't be worth saving 4-5 litres per 100k I reckon

Plus you would be disappointed at the end of the day with a gutless 200 or 300 TDI IMO

A good 4.0 Rover V8 would be the go.. at least with this engine you could maintain over 100kph towing easily

Camo

Well I have a 300tdi already, so the cost of the conversion will only be afew hundred dollars. If I got this way I would also look at fitting gas injection to it which will give it heaps of power and even better fuel consumption.

but your right the V8 is nice, but by the time I bought a 4.0L and fitted it I would be up for heaps more cash.