Thread: My Discovery is a Slug

your car seems to be the same as mine '97 300tdi auto. these are not race cars as you have found out however mine is quite nimble and doesn't lose very much on the hills. I use 15w/40 oil changed every 5k's as well as the filter, use a Finer Filter for the air with a snorkel. All these in combo are good. I have just changed the Cam Timing belt with a gear upgrade and tensioners at 100k's. When I compared the overall lenght of new v old belt it appeared old was 'stretched' and this alone probably retarded the injecter timing. With the new belt installed and the timing correctly placed, the seat of the pants feel was an extra 15kw!!! As yours is around this mileage might be worth checking. By the way turbo won't start making boost until around 1800 / 2000rpm but excessive turbo lag could also be attributed to wastgate not allowing full pressure to form or possibly restriction in exhaust system. This probably just gives you more to think about but make sure everything is at std spec then look further to make more power.

Guys what you say is corrct, a friedn of mine who is a landrover mechanic tells me that a stretched timing belt can increase the fuel timing giving a loss of power.

http://www.aulro.com/modules.php?name=Foru...viewtopic&t=356

this post also discusses his ideas on changing the timing belt at 100,000 km as well as servicing the radiator.

They are not race cars, but the poor performance you havce quoted seems extraordinarily bad.

Good luck

mick

For what its worth ,have you cleaned the fuel sedimenter(in front of fuel tank under vehicle) 20min job or less? :roll:

It must be built into all 300tdi auto's, if you think it's bad off the mark
try it with the AC on, you will think its a rocket with it turned OFF.
your inter cooler might need cleaning out as well,as they collect a bit of oil over time,I am having mine done in the next fortnight,so i'll let you know if it makes a difference.my disco has 194000 k's on the clock.

I like the potential of cleaning the intercooller, the original is rather small to start with so if the heat exchange efficiency is compromised by oil/slodge build up in such a small area, then this has potential to make power. I also see that in the Land Rover Owner International magazine that intercoollers that replace the original with a full radiater size that goes across the front are popular in the UK and they are claiming upto 20kw over standard. Enquiries in Aus are proving very expensive at $1000 plus!! I think a clean will be a good starting point.
Anyone else got any ideas on tweeking the 300tdi for more grunt?????

Yeah, I cleaned my intercooler out a couple of weeks ago myself,but didnt have your probs to start with,just did it as per service schedule.My truck has just turned over 80,000K since new.

after cleaning the intercooler, did it make any difference to power overall, was it quicker off the mark? how much sludge did you get out after 80k's? what did you use to clean it? Where were you on the night of the 12th? is this light too bright?
Bad joke, but I am sure that the after cleaning effects would make good reading.

It is interesting to see the lack of power is reasonably common.
For those of you with the varying suggestions, the timing belt was replaced by the previous owner at 75,000 km(according to the log/service book) funnily enough it was here in Lismore.(I bought it in Sydney)
I know you should never compare cars or engines, but our pajero has a 2.5 T/diesel in it as well, even when towing a trailer and laden it performs better than the discovery, it even will spin the wheels where the disco is flat out pulling up a hill in one of my paddocks with a large load on board(found this out the other day) low range made it move though.
I know Pajero engines backwards and what idiosyncrasies they have. Based on all your advice I think I'll start from the back, fuel sedimenter and work my way forward then get the timing checked and so on.
Many thanks for the suggestions and help , I'll let you know how I fare.

je