Might be buying a classic Range Rover
Discussion
Hi folks,
Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions or warnings for me
I'm looking at a 91 vogue se
Was a 3.9 auto is now running 300tdi manual
I've known the car for a while and has had good money spent on it over time including a respray only 12 months ago and barely driven since , outside is pretty mint , interior needs some tidying mostly headlining (obviously, lol)
Have had land rovers in the family for some time so I'm not totally green and clueless, but this would Personally be my first
Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions or warnings for me
I'm looking at a 91 vogue se
Was a 3.9 auto is now running 300tdi manual
I've known the car for a while and has had good money spent on it over time including a respray only 12 months ago and barely driven since , outside is pretty mint , interior needs some tidying mostly headlining (obviously, lol)
Have had land rovers in the family for some time so I'm not totally green and clueless, but this would Personally be my first
Do it! I have a 91 3.9 SE and I love it. Mines a weekend car and by no means immaculate but I paid little for it and it keeps going up in value. It's just needed £400 for service and MOT which seems to be what I need to spend each year to keep it on the road.
Have you been all over the one you're considering? As everyone will tell you, rust is the biggest issue. Mine also suffered overheating until I had the radiator re-cored. I also changed the viscous coupling as these only last about 100k miles. Has yours been done?
Check all electrics and that the heater fan works on all speeds as that is a pain in the butt job to change!
Have you been all over the one you're considering? As everyone will tell you, rust is the biggest issue. Mine also suffered overheating until I had the radiator re-cored. I also changed the viscous coupling as these only last about 100k miles. Has yours been done?
Check all electrics and that the heater fan works on all speeds as that is a pain in the butt job to change!
Catduck said:
Hi folks,
Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions or warnings for me
I'm looking at a 91 vogue se
Was a 3.9 auto is now running 300tdi manual
I've known the car for a while and has had good money spent on it over time including a respray only 12 months ago and barely driven since , outside is pretty mint , interior needs some tidying mostly headlining (obviously, lol)
Have had land rovers in the family for some time so I'm not totally green and clueless, but this would Personally be my first
Never really understood the fascination with Tdi's in classics. Would be much nicer as a V8.Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions or warnings for me
I'm looking at a 91 vogue se
Was a 3.9 auto is now running 300tdi manual
I've known the car for a while and has had good money spent on it over time including a respray only 12 months ago and barely driven since , outside is pretty mint , interior needs some tidying mostly headlining (obviously, lol)
Have had land rovers in the family for some time so I'm not totally green and clueless, but this would Personally be my first
300bhp/ton said:
Never really understood the fascination with Tdi's in classics. Would be much nicer as a V8.
I'd love a V8 Landy someday for the noise and power delivery - but as someone who does his own servicing/working on vehicles I'd much rather have to deal with a 200/300 tdi than a 3.9/4.0 v8 on an everyday basis. Tdi is easier to live with compared to the V8 - less to go wrong and easier to fix if it does, still offers enough grunt to shift something the size of an RRC and easier to stomach in terms of MPG. Not that you tend to buy a Landy with fuel economy as the main consideration....
Not sure i can agree about servicing, maintenance or anything else. RV8's are easy to maintain. Why do you think they are more difficult?
MPG, there is a difference. But not a massive one. V8's should manage 16-18mpg average. While a Tdi one will be more like 24-26mpg. If you are only doing 4000 miles a year or less, the fuel cost difference is nothing compared to the cost of running a vehicle.
MPG, there is a difference. But not a massive one. V8's should manage 16-18mpg average. While a Tdi one will be more like 24-26mpg. If you are only doing 4000 miles a year or less, the fuel cost difference is nothing compared to the cost of running a vehicle.
300bhp/ton said:
Not sure i can agree about servicing, maintenance or anything else. RV8's are easy to maintain. Why do you think they are more difficult?
MPG, there is a difference. But not a massive one. V8's should manage 16-18mpg average. While a Tdi one will be more like 24-26mpg. If you are only doing 4000 miles a year or less, the fuel cost difference is nothing compared to the cost of running a vehicle.
My personal experiences with them are admittedly jaded due to dealing with the later V8 variants (which were not it's best incarnation admittedly) - the 4.0 and 4.6 were the cause of no end of grief in terms of overheating issues, blocks which couldn't hold their water, liners whacking up and down with the pistons, and the tendency for the valve-train to let go after X amount of time/miles (never seemed to be any consistency to that particular failure). MPG, there is a difference. But not a massive one. V8's should manage 16-18mpg average. While a Tdi one will be more like 24-26mpg. If you are only doing 4000 miles a year or less, the fuel cost difference is nothing compared to the cost of running a vehicle.
That doesn't include the added layer of spark ignition/electrics that a diesel doesn't have and the simple fact that a V8 has more moving parts / more complexity than a simple inline-4 diesel of the pre-common-rail era. I'm of the 'less moving parts the less there is to go wrong' school of engineering.
Subjective evidence admittedly, but I used to help out in a workshop for someone who made his living off fixing Range Rovers - he had a regular stream of V8s always on the ramp but virtually no work from people with TD flavours of the same models (Disco I, RRC, P38, etc.). I'm also biased because most of my Land Rovers have been diesel (which have given me little trouble), most of the LR V8s I've come across were ones at the 'wallet-emptying stage' for their owners at the point in time they entered the workshop.
I still cant agree. The RV8 is a simple engine, as is the ignition side of it. As for moving parts, well 4 pistons and 4 push rods more is about it over a Tdi and minus 1 turbo and a complex injector pump.
BTW - what sort valve train issues are you referring too? RV8 has a very simple valve train.
BTW - what sort valve train issues are you referring too? RV8 has a very simple valve train.
Don't get me wrong - I like a V8 Landy as much as anyone else and don't think that they're any less reliable than any other petrol v-motor of the same age/technology. There are probably plenty of people who are the opposite to me and rate the Tdis as being a bit flakey and V8s as paragons of reliability based on their personal experiences firsthand. Bear in mind that most of the V8s I came across were ones of the poorly variety - rather than examples still running happily and giving their owners no grief. Had my time been spent stripping down Tdis - I would possibly think differently.
My experience with the valve-train was mainly camshaft wear and related issues with swarf working it's way around the engine. The owner fixes the primary failure (the camshaft) but there may often be secondary issues further down the line with bearing wear, etc. if a significant amount of metal has been circulating round the engine before the camshaft failure is diagnosed. Mileage/age seemed to be irrelevant - some engines had 60,000 miles while others had gone past the 100,000 barrier.
One of the lower-mileage engines I helped strip had an impeccable service history (the vehicle it came from was immaculate inside and out) - but an utterly pulped camshaft. The parts themselves were not expensive in the scheme of things - but the labour costs for the owner of having the engine taken apart and fixed certainly were. Would the same failure have occurred on a Tdi? - possibly - but it's not something I've come across.
My experience with the valve-train was mainly camshaft wear and related issues with swarf working it's way around the engine. The owner fixes the primary failure (the camshaft) but there may often be secondary issues further down the line with bearing wear, etc. if a significant amount of metal has been circulating round the engine before the camshaft failure is diagnosed. Mileage/age seemed to be irrelevant - some engines had 60,000 miles while others had gone past the 100,000 barrier.
One of the lower-mileage engines I helped strip had an impeccable service history (the vehicle it came from was immaculate inside and out) - but an utterly pulped camshaft. The parts themselves were not expensive in the scheme of things - but the labour costs for the owner of having the engine taken apart and fixed certainly were. Would the same failure have occurred on a Tdi? - possibly - but it's not something I've come across.
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