How "Rare" is this P38A?

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

I came across a Range Rover P38A fitted with a diesel BMW M51 Intercooled TDI engine.

How rare are these engines in a P38A? What gear boxes are fitted to these engines?

How reliable are the BMW M51 engines compared to say something like a 300tdi or a 4BD1?

I know more about Series III Land Rovers an very, very little about newer Range Rovers so apologies for the questions.

Kind Regards
Lionel

[LandyAndy]

Pretty sure there is an owner on here with one.
They wernt available in Australia so some sort of private import.
Andrew

[Eevo]

BMW M51: like most bmw diesels of the 90's its under powered and over engineered.

[jsp]

not rare overseas, there's at least three in Australia.

Don't drive one if you have had the V8 before they leave a bit to be desired.

[loanrangie]

The X5 M57 has a vnt so it would be an easy upgrade to the M51.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AULRO mobile app

[redandy3575]

Certainly not many in Australia. Not sure about the one on here, but all the others that were offered for sale in victoria briefly weren't in the best state. Just about all of them had major engine & transmission overhauls with relative low Km's. I'd stick with the petrol models.

[Lionelgee]

Certainly not many in Australia. Not sure about the one on here, but all the others that were offered for sale in victoria briefly weren't in the best state. Just about all of them had major engine & transmission overhauls with relative low Km's. I'd stick with the petrol models.

Hello RedAndy,

Thank you for your reply. It leads back to one of my original questions in my first post: how does the BMW diesel motor in the P38A compare to an Isuzu 4BD1 or a Land Rover 300tdi?

Over the years of scanning eBay I have previously seen a Range Rover Classic that was fitted with a 4BD1 and another with a 300tdi. Of course at the time they were available my money wasn't So I am storing information away for the future.

Why am I looking at diesels in Range Rovers? Because the cost of registering a V8 powered car in Queensland is exorbitant. Whereas the cost of a four cylinder motor is just merely a mild dose of extortion.

Kind Regards
Lionel

[Keithy P38]

A 4BD1 turbo motor (and auto) in a P38 would be a great combo. It's a shame it'd probably shake the box to bits, but would go quite well and last the life of the vehicle.

4BD1 and no turbo... You'd be needing a clear kilometer to overtake a truck on the highway.

300tdi would be too underpowered for a P38.

Cheers
Keithy

[finallyrangie]

I put a tgv diesel engine (2.8 300tdi with internal improvements ) into my p38 two and a half years ago, not the most powerful engine, 100kw if I'm lucky, but almost 400nm so whilst it's not fast it's not painfully or dangerously slow either, I'm doing the limit at the end of the slip road onto the motorway no problem and that kind of thing.

I already had the engine and some good mates helped me do the work but to be honest the savings in rego don't justify the cost of the conversion, I was doing some driving to work every day at the time and having the engine already meant it cost about the same as a good lpg set up.

If you are looking at it from the beginning you would probably be better off with a good lpg system and put up with the rego, the factory diesel is a six cylinder anyway so you would only be saving a couple of hundred dollars a year.

If you do decide to do one yourself I still have the paperwork somewhere so I should be able to tell you which wires to cut!%

[Lionelgee]

Hello FinallyRangie,

Thank you for the reply and for the offer of more information. You are right about the slight difference in the registration costs between a six and a four cylinder in Queensland. There is however a significant difference between the cost of registering a V8 that a petrol P38A has and a four cylinder diesel motor.

I have a number of Series III utes that could accommodate a 300tdi. If I wanted to go for more comfort and more passenger carrying capacity and luxury it would either be a Discovery Diesel or convert a Range Rover to diesel.

I never looked at Range Rovers when I replaced my daily driver last year because the ones that were available were all petrol V8s.

Due to my current state of unemployment this is all crystal ball gazing stuff while I apply for jobs and study. One day I may be able to convert plans into action

Kind Regards
Lionel