Hemi vs CRD longevity

[TyronR]

Hi, so during my search for replacement CV shafts, I stumbled across an 06 CRD Laredo with QDII and the works. It was dirt cheap from a car dealer that was going to wholesale it and it had the last few mods I wanted to do to my car to finish it. I was going to paint the bull bar, throw it on mine. Along with the tow bar, roof racks, spotlights and a few other small things. Oh and the stock CV shafts!

However the CRD looks to be in pretty good condition. It's a 1 owner car with full service history. The only drawbacks being an oil leak (probably the turbo intake leak I've read about), that it has 300,000km and I know it was used for towing a caravan. I like the noise and power of the hemi, but it may be a better option to just transfer my wheels and lift kit to the CRD and call it a day. Other than that it looks to be pretty close to roadworthy.

How long do these CRDs last? I'm not worried about rego costs or fuel consumption. More so reliability in the medium term (2-3 years).

[JamesLaugesen]

Random stuff could go wrong with either, so you'd be taking a stab in the dark either way. But I'd say your chances would be better with the hemi.

The CRD is a more complicated engine with more things to go wrong (turbo, high pressure fuel system, etc.), combined with the higher Ks probably has more chance of an issue.

The hemi is in a crapload of vehicles and failures are pretty rare (mostly just the valve seat drop after heat-soak issue.).

But you're in a pretty cool position... maybe play with the CRD for a while (if not too much hassle to register.) and see if it grows on you.

PS; Not suggesting the CRD is unreliable in any way, just that all CRDs are inherently more complicated than a big NA pushrod V8 like the hemi.

[eksjay]

You can always drop a new engine in, even a crate engine if the CRD has seen better days.

I think these engines will be pushed here once the manufacturers get their production runs at full steam...

https://www.cummins.com/engines/repower

[dwalker747]

Have a crd with a mix of all driving conditions over its 220000km life. Only replaced oil, filters, glow plugs, battery and a starter motor.

Over all an excellent engine, and don’t have to visit the bowser as often either.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[07commander]

The injectors on crd's are the big thing they are about $2500 plus labour with 300 on the clock they might have been done. I have 270k on mine injectors are due its been driven hard, it tows and i give it a hard time in the bush only thing that has gone wrong was a cam angle sensor which just pushed up my fuel consumption.

[TyronR]

Thanks for the input. Decided to stick with the hemi. I already own 4x 20L jerry cans for the longer adventures anyway

I have already transferred over the CV shafts and suspension to mine. Only have the 2" tower spacers on the front now. The rear is likely set up for load bearing, so I will lose some flex but it will probably save my tyres from touching the guards unless I do need to carry a fair bit of cargo which would only be on the bitumen anyway. It actually handles very well on the road, and isn't too rough of a ride considering I still haven't put the bullbar on (so the front is sitting about 1" higher than the rear) and I only have about 50-100kg in the boot.

Going to just sell the CRD. Would be a good cheap rig with QDII for someone to do up. Or even a cheap parts car. I will be advertising it on the forums asking for around the $3500 mark. It runs and moves, but I haven't driven it more than on and off the tow truck as I live on a main road. It won't have the bull bar, tow bar or battery but it is otherwise complete. It will have a custom 2-tone look though with my black bumper on the front of it, with extra vent holes where the sensors once lived. Starter motor needs refurb/cleaning (does not fully disengage - grinds on flywheel occasionally), drivers mirror needs replacing (but may pass RWC as it is only the swivel/fold-in joint that is no good), tyres need replacing, but it looks tidy for the most part and the engine and turbo sound healthy.