2.8 vs 3 litre GU

No I'm not in the market for a plastic fantastic but Im interested to hear the pros and cons of both engines.
I have two mates that have the 2.8, both chipped and both have had thousands of ks of hassle free driving, albeit mainly road and medium offroad.
I also have two mates (yes that's four mates!, Im friends with the whole of tassie!), that have the 3 litre. I'm not sure if they're Di or crd but I think they're both whichever is earlier. One is stock and new to him and not many ks done. The other is the grenade year but heavily modified and previously owned by a diesel mechanic that did all the nads etc. It's on 37s, airlockers etc etc...
I've driven one 2.8 and the stock 3 litre but only in town and months apart so can't really guage the power difference.

I'm guessing the 3 litre has more power but is susceptible to the grenade issue. The 2.8 has a bit less power but you have the piece of mind of reliability.
Do they use a similar amount of fuel?
I've not checked the power or economy figures on paper.

What do you have or what would you buy and why?

I'm not interested in hearing about the mighty td42 in this thread lol

IMO, i bought a 98 GU 2.8, at the time i was looking for a ZD30 model, but only found horrible condition ones for my pricing..... So I ventured into looking at RD28 models, honestly mines great, 350,000 km's and still going strong, ive done the usual upgrades including exhaust, egr block, inter-cooler butterfly removal, catch can, chip, snorkel etc and its been great! Certainly not the most powerful engine out, and one day would love to do a TD42 conversion, but for now it does great :) reliable and easy to maintain, only downside is more rego costs being a 6 cylinder compared to the cheaper 4 cylinder ZD30 (bloody Queensland registration laws), sounds better 2 :p

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Originally Posted by iRide

IMO, i bought a 98 GU 2.8, at the time i was looking for a ZD30 model, but only found horrible condition ones for my pricing..... So I ventured into looking at RD28 models, honestly mines great, 350,000 km's and still going strong, ive done the usual upgrades including exhaust, egr block, inter-cooler butterfly removal, catch can, chip, snorkel etc and its been great! Certainly not the most powerful engine out, and one day would love to do a TD42 conversion, but for now it does great :) reliable and easy to maintain, only downside is more rego costs being a 6 cylinder compared to the cheaper 4 cylinder ZD30 (bloody Queensland registration laws), sounds better 2 :p

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hey, I got the same engine and looking to do slight modifications like you did there, my purpose is to make it run a bit better than stock while maintaining reliability... since stock is just painfully slow.

i don't know much about this engine as i just got the car not long ago, heard about 3" straight pipe exhaust, and egr block... but the other mods haven't heard much about them... can you give me a little guide on where to look for parts or tutorials.

I ask because where I live they don't deal very much with the RD28 engine when it comes to patrols, they are mostly into td42 and zd30s...

I was also told recently that the injection pump is electronic.. i am not even sure if it is adjustable like mechanic ones, which maybe a disadvantage when it comes to needing more fuel when you do the mods (don't quote me on this, i'm a newbie lol)...

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Originally Posted by Eddie9684

I ask because where I live

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...And where is it that you live, Eddie9684?
Do you live at 2014?

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Originally Posted by mihit

...And where is it that you live, Eddie9684?
Do you live at 2014?

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in Panama.

glad to see people still using forums =p

Panama. Far canal.

O...K...

Anyone who knows "engines" should be able to work things out, regardless if they prefer a different one.

You didn't mention a turbo, which nullifies the intercooler mod.
"Chipping" requires sending/swapping/locally flashing your ECU with a company that does that. (or building an RPi interface and doing it yourself, assuming you can find/write the code)
If the IP is electronic, the chip tune will deal with your timing etc. But in terms of how much fuel you can flow, crack pressure etc, you're probably limited by mechanical things.

I'm not sure how well the RD heads flow but a port-n-polish (the 3" exhaust you mention seems excessive... but you'd want to match that on intake at least) will help most engines. Good matched extractors/manifolds...

Unless you're suffering serious blow by (which you should fix) or pushing a turbo, an oil catch-can serves little purpose (to my mind) on a diesel. The things are literally designed to burn oil and a bit richer mix isn't going to hurt them.

EGR delete is a worthwhile mod, but may be illegal if you have ignorant misguided dopes making govt policy... or you need to pass an emmissions check.

But your best bang-for-buck is going to be "slap a turbo on it"

I have CRD 3.0 with 218,000kms, no real problems other than my aircon air blowing at windscreen only, the knob got stuck one day so I forced it back and a clip fell down from behind the speedo .... I poked a torch up there but have no idea what I'm lookin at. I can live with it.

The drivers door feels like it sags and takes extra force to close, the rear barn doors need to be slammed to keep the dash light off.

Mods include, catchcan, exhaust, retune with manual boost control and EGR delete, I do the oil every 3000-4000kms.