Thread: Quandary: P38A+County or Defender

Keep the County if that is what you plan on doing more off-road work. The P38 is a ripper unit and knowing what Hardys does off-road they're not a soft cock 4WD

But like you said, the County is simple and basic, but nowhere near as comfortable as a everyday 4WD. I presonally hate diesels and would never own one myself, but each to there own. I've always said if I was to buy a 'real' Land Rover i would pick the V8 County over any crap diesel any day, but that's just me.

Regards,

Trav

Just for you Ron........................





Don't drool.....................



2

After your P38A I can't see you being happy with defender or county as a daily driver.

My opinion......sell the county, get the genuine workshop manuals and start learning your P38A. They do pretty good circuit diagrams and it's surprising what you can do yourself once you begin to understand it all.

Next best step down to latest model Vogue SE prior to the P38A. When the air suapension starts to play up scrap it and use conventional springing. Climate control may not be as good but mine pushes out plenty of cold air ...and thats the main thing.

I'd only use LPG if the tanks replaced the fuel tank then if you want duel fuel you need sill tanks. Inside the car they just take up too much room.

There's no substitute for the V8 though the RR ones are pretty crappy in terms of power. Ican't afford the $300 + + per week for fuel So I'm putting in a TDI300 with large fmic, 3" exhaust and a bigger turbo...it won't come close to the supercharged 3.9l but it should be at least drivable.

The Landrovers may be the last word in off track ability but the RR isn't that far behind and like you...I'm partial to a bit of comfort.
The TD5 Discos are far too complicated for long time reliability and everything costs heaps.

Well thats my semi coherent 2 bits worth.

Originally posted by Noddy
Would the Defender be your daily drive or is that your Subby?

1. Sell both P38 & County and get a D90 (great offroad and good for belting around the city)

2. Sell County and keep P38 (rip out EAS and anything else that it about to bung in a big way)

3. Sell P38 and invest in the County to make more comfy and a weekend play thing.

4. Sell P38, County, Subby and buy a D3 (hoping it does not go bung!!!) :wink: 8O

No, it will be daily driver. I rarely drive the Forester - that's wife's car.

1. D90 too small.

2. I like EAS and it has been quite reliable. To replace EAS would require Engineer's Certificate as the car was never sold with coils springs.

3. Not sure I'd like the County as a daily driver. Too noisy, too cramped, manual gearbox (bloody awful LT95), etc. The Defender addressed some of the County issues but I'm not sure about it being a daily driver either. Weekends? I get one weekend off each month if I'm lucky and I don't get called out.

4. D3? Going from the frying pan into the fire if moving from a P38A. The D3 is even more complex.

Ron

Originally posted by abaddonxi
I thought that one of the things that made the County a County was air-conditioning and closed off vents?

More elbow room, just, in County.

Better brakes, by far, on Defender.

I'm not keen on V8s, but I'm reckoning that if you are you aren't going to be happy with a tdi, sure that td5 is the same.

I'm guessing LPG fumigation would improve the low rev pick up that tdi has before turbo spools up and performance, but I doubt you're going to feel like you've got a lion in your pants.

I don't know if the 4BD1-engined Countys had air con - the ones I've seen haven't. But they seem to have opening vents. I think it was the carpet that made them Countys (or is that Counties?).

More elbow room in a County? Jeez! I thought the Defender had the seats moved inward and that would have improved that.

Brakes? Absolutely. Every Defender (with rear discs) I've driven has been a better stopper than the County. Next to the P38A, the County a shocker.

re V8/diesel, I don't have any real preference except for fuel economy. I think acceptance of the vibration and noise of a 4BD1 must be an acquired thing. I've driven a number of Tdi and TD5s and I'm impressed by them, especially after LPG fumigation. The only way to get a lion in your pants with a V8 County, is to get rid of the 3.5 and put in the 4.6 I have on the garage floor.

Ron

Ron,

You are discounting a lot of options there ... guess the only thing left to suggest is a late model D1/300tdi or D2/TD5. You can also get that in a V8 option for a third of the price and spend some dosh on the lpg convertion. The Disco isn't far behind the fender in offroad ability and will be up there with the P38 in comfort levels.

Henry

Originally posted by 51jay
My opinion......sell the county, get the genuine workshop manuals and start learning your P38A. They do pretty good circuit diagrams and it's surprising what you can do yourself once you begin to understand it all.

Yep, I've got them and have done most of the work on the P38A since buying it 4 years ago - even down to replacing the engine. I have written a few of the P38A repair pages on http://www.rangerovers.net so I'm not afraid of doing any work on them. I've just finished (yesterday) doing the heater O-rings (again) - that's a mongrel of a job. Even though I wrote the instructions on Range Rovers,net, I still had a bugger of a time doing the rings. I'll update the instructions this week.

I'm overhauling the LPG converter right now - it's on the bench.

Originally posted by 51jay+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(51jay)</div><div class='quotemain'>Next best step down to latest model Vogue SE prior to the P38A. When the air susension starts to play up scrap it and use conventional springing. Climate control may not be as good but mine pushes out plenty of cold air ...and thats the main thing.[/b]

The P38A EAS is not as problematical as the Classic. Besides, replacing the EAS with coil springs requires engineering certification - the P38A was never sold with coils. Climate control on a P38A gives more problems than EAS but I've done the repairs on the climate control.

<!--QuoteBegin-51jay
I'd only use LPG if the tanks replaced the fuel tank then if you want duel fuel you need sill tanks. Inside the car they just take up too much room.[/quote]

The LPG tank used to be behind the seat. I've pulled it out and fitted a toroidal tank in the wheel well. The spare is on a Kaymar rear stepbar/swing away wheel carrier. - see my car at http://rangerovers.net/outfitting/bumpers/...ump.html#kaymar

Unlike a RR classic or D1, LPG tanks can't be installed in the sills of a P38A, the chassis swings outward in the sill area so there is no room for tanks.

Ron

What about this one ron?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/land-rover-county-3...1QQcmdZViewItem

The 3.9L Izuzu is one of the best diesel engines they ever put in land rovers. This thing is well set up and the pop top set up is awsome. If i was shopping for a Landy now and saw that i would consider it myself. Matt