2.5 Turbo, Power?

Know I have been away for a good while, but have been lurking for a while. I picked up a 1988 Defender 110 pickup (non-hicap) a few weeks ago. I am really enjoying driving the RHD, but I do have a few questions on the turbo. The engine runs ok and always starts easily, but it doesn't seem to have any power. I mean I have driven 2.25 petrols with more power...

I noticed a split in the air hose coming from the air cleaner to the turbo, and it appears to have been there for a while, meaning air was bypassing the air filter. I replaced the hose, but also checked the play in the turbo shaft and it seems excessive. Checked it by rocking it up and down, like checking a wheel bearing.

Is there an easy way to check to see if the turbo is doing anything at all? And when I say no power, I mean it won't pull even a slight hill in 5th gear without needing to downshift, and this is without hauling or towing anything. What kind of power should I be expecting out of the TD?

P.S. - So I'm at the auto parts store Saturday, and someone walks up and says, my buddy has one of these, but he never drives it. I think he wants to sell it. So am going to look at a 71 IIA tonight. As if I needed any more Rovers!

One can never have too many Rovers! My wife keeps count of mine but I don't.

Update: I finally convinced myself that the turbo was bad. The previous owner, who is a nice enough fellow, sent me a new boost diaphragm and a used turbo. I got these installed and drove the truck. I could finally hear the distinctive turbo whine, and it seemed to have slightly more power, but not dramatically so. I called the PO again and he said to just drive the truck for a bit. Ok no problem I thought. So I headed out to my mother’s house about 20 miles away. About 2 miles out, the turbo whine changed pitch slightly. About 5 miles out, all hell broke loose. I was going 40mph on a narrow two lane road in 4th gear when the engine went into overspeed. The damned motor finally found some power! I shifted to 5th gear quickly to bog the engine down and keep from blowing the motor. Smoke was billowing out the exhaust. Tapping the accelerator, I was able to get the motor to slow down for a minute. Quickly approaching a stop sign, I slowed as much as possible without stalling, was ecstatic to see no cars, blew through the stop sign, down shifted to 2nd, and made a u-turn just as the engine took off again. I had no choice but to take a second chance on the narrow road, with ditches on either side. Getting stuck on this road would be bad, since the 40mph limit is almost completely disregarded (shamefully admitting that I myself had been 120mph on it in a BMW), and there are two blind hills. She was pulling like a freight train in 2nd gear, quickly approaching the redline. A quick shift to 4th and I was ok. Getting to the opposite stop sign there was one car almost at the sign. I knew I couldn’t shift this time, and just braked down to 30mph and held down the horn, blowing smoke the whole way through. It was touch and go, but I made it home. Making my driveway turn would have been impossible, so right through the grass and shallow ditch I went at 30mph!, but that was not a problem. She pulled the hill in 4th and stalled just at the top of the drive. I had made it!

The motor was hot as a firecracker. Pulling off the intake hoses revealed the cause. Turbo bearing failure. It was burning its own oil.

Wow, close call.
So, next stop a new Turbo?

Getting it rebuilt now. But the most important thing I learned is that this engine is starved for fuel. LR must have really cut the mixture back to meet fuel economy and emissions regs...

Have to figure out how to turn the fuel up on this baby to get some power! Got any tips on adjusting the injector pump?

Finally, back on the road. Turbo rebuild place still has my old turbo. They originally told me three weeks to get a new turbo cartridge, and they would have me back on the road. I called after three weeks and they gave me attitude about it being three weeks before it even got to them, and I'm like guys this is 2017 the information age. Ship the damn thing overnight and I'll pay the costs... Gave them another week, then said f it. Apparently the 2.5 turbos have lots of issues and are rarer than hens teeth. So what to do? and no, paying $1200 for a turbo is not an option on an engine I am going to replace eventually. A: $300 ebay turbo for 200tdi. Yeah, it took me a whole day to make it work and a few retrofit parts from RN (thanks guys). As a bonus the inlet on the turbo is 2.5" not the 2" on the original turbo, so I was able to keep my 2.5" duct work all the way to the turbo. I also added a Bosch boost gauge. It fit perfectly in the hole for the Lucas clock (which wasn't working anyway!). Finally hitting 10psi in 3rd and 4th gear, but yeah it's still slower than Christmas.

Realized that I forgot to update everyone on the 71 IIA 88". It was a beautiful truck. I mean I got there and I couldn't see a dent on the thing. But then I looked underneath. All kinds of patch work frame repairs. One new front horn which was clearly poorly welded on and certainly not lined up. A new rear crossmember, which was the only decently welded piece on the whole frame. Then we went for a drive. He said, "it usually takes her a while to warm up." I said, "even with the choke?" "It has a choke?!" "Yes," I said pulling it out and the engine revving up smartly. "Wow," he said. It steered all over the road. After just a few miles, I felt like I had been driving for hours. It was a constant battle of turning left, then right, then left to stay in my lane. Steering column, relay, ball joints all shot, check. Brakes were ok, surprisingly, and the motor ran fine, but occasionally didn't want to take gas, likely a fuel filter or pump issue. So we get back and he says, "what do you think." This is where I feel bad, because I don't want to be a jerk here, but I finally tell him it needs to be completely gone through with a new frame. For a minute, I don't think he believes me, like maybe I am just trying to talk him down, but that was never my intention. I listed off all the problems and he wanted me to tell him a price, so instead I start naming parts costs. You are looking at $6000 in parts easy, and the labor to do all the work. Finally he asks what is it worth, again I know I'm going to come off like a jerk here, so I finally say $1500. He is blown away and I'm lucky to not get thrown off the property right then. He said it's probably worth more in parts, to which I agreed and said that the pristine body alone was worth a good bit, but he didn't want to part it, understandably.

Before I left, I asked him if he had ever looked in the compartment under the seat. He didn't know it was there. We removed the seat, the aluminum panel, and there was a rusty old jack and lug wrench. The battery having been relocated under the hood many years ago.