Elecronic Diesel Tuning Devices

[Beau]

I've never attempted it on the truck so I have no idea about space...I know a few Surf guys who've done it on there trucks so it may be possible. If you feel it'll be trouble getting the bolt back in then it's probably best to call it a day and re-access.

Also stuff a cloth down that turbo entrance, you wouldn't want anything falling down there by mistake!

 

[Shayne]

It can be done this

Now lives here

The spring is considerably heavier than i anticipated and it realy does make it a bugger of a job so what i did in the end is remove the top bracket bolt then loosen the bottom bolt as much as i dared . Then i placed a spare over sized nut behind where the top bolt goes and replaced the original bolt and tightened it up . This achieved what i couldn't otherwise which is to separate the bottom of the bracket from the casing face . Then i made that spanner shaped piece of junk and slotted it over the bottom nut . Removed the over sized nut and replaced it with a washer made from the same steel as the spanner and tightened it all back up .

 

[Shayne]

Turbo whine can be heard now from 1300rpm

 

[Beau]

Excellent work Shayne! How thick was the washer you placed then?

 

[Shayne]

2mm or there abouts according to an old plastic school ruler , it was the only metal i had so yeah it was the right size

 

[Shayne]

Hey Beau i've just been told a friend has access to a rolling road so i'm thinking of asking to get on it and sort my fuel air mix out , what do you think .

It won't be for free and i'm not sure it will work coz even though i get to find out whats happening while i'm moving surely the intercooler won't be doing its work with no air being pushed through it .

 

[Beau]

Would sure be interested in finding out the gains of your truck shayne, but yes you are right regarding the intercooler. Some rolling roads have a massive fan in front of the vehicle to provide good air flow, in this case you'll have good solid results.

Generally speaking though, tuning these trucks are somewhat hard, and so I'm not sure how much a rolling road will help. When I was tuning the fuelling on mine, I did it over a period of time, taking into account how the car drove, Exhaust smoke and MPG. Temp readings would have been good too!

Shayne, being that you've gone so far with your mods, you should be looking at getting a proper fuel tune, not just from the spill control valve. Like discussed throughout this thread, you should look into investing into a good chip to get max gains. Alternatively get a Mechanical Pump. I know guys who are running 200bhp+ and heaps load of torque with the mechanical pump as it is surprisingly more responsive (Drive by wire) and therefore picks up better. It also has the capability of chucking more fuel in when the power is needed. Only down fall from this is extra heat. In your case, you've got a excellent down pipe/Exhaust and Intercooler. Anyway I wont go into one...

 

[fridayman]

You could fit an intercooler fan and shroud.

I wired mine via a relay switching off the wiper motor live wire. I've also fitted a 50c temp sensor so that it switches off when not needed.

Btw I've made a more permanent shroud since that pic was taken.

 

[Shayne]

Mechanical pump nice thought but i'm not confident i have the necessary know how to make it work . Truth is there's enough power now and i'm not really bothered about adding more . I was thinking the rolling road might just help to get things running more efficiently , a spurt of black smoke on start up always makes me cringe thinking about where else carbon might be building up as time goes by . As for tuning chips as far as i can tell all the do is turn up the fuel anyway on these old trucks , am i wrong ?

Fridayman i did think about adding a fan when i first put the cooler on but in the end decided not to because again i could not work out any real advantage of having one , if i was in OZ then yeah i'd want one but ..... ?

 

[Shayne]

Have to wonder Fridayman if a cowl or shroud as you call it is a good idea ? I suppose for you keeping the engine cool is the main purpose of the intercooler whereas for me the intercooler is about increasing air so i can increase fuel = more power . I reckon the same set up on my truck would cause it to lose some grunt .

 

[fridayman]

I fitted the intercooler to keep egt's down (because I have the fuel and boost turned up). When I fitted the fan some of the air was escaping past the sides of the fan as the intercooler presents a bit of resistance. With the shroud fitted all the air from the fan goes through the intercooler and none escapes. The fan itself is particularly useful at slow speeds eg traffic, mud or soft sand, where there is very little air being fed through the bonnet scoop, and hot air from around the engine was rising and soaking into the intercooler making it much less efficient. I imagine the heat soak problem is even more pronounced if you don't have a bonnet scoop.

 

[Shayne]

I was just thinking it will work well when the fans doing its work but at speed much of the air from your scoops will bypass the cooler , i'd have the fan on constantly i think as the air will never get to cold to burn .

 

[fridayman]

I don't use the grill scoops, instead I have fitted a bonnet scoop. I also have the original intercooler bonnet seal to prevent the air from "leaking" past the intercooler. It doesn't seal 100%, but does the job for a old diesel 4x4. So all the air from the bonnet scoop goes through the fan and intercooler, and at low speeds I still get a decent volume of air going through. With the temp sensor set to switch on at 50C I thought that it would be always on, but last week driving around the beach at Moreton Island there was a nice cool sea breeze and often it wasn't coming on (wasn't needed), but as soon as we hit a soft patch or a climb the temps would start to rise and the fan would come on.

 

[Shayne]

Ah didn't know you had a scoop , never seen your truck before

 

[Beau]

Mechanical pump nice thought but i'm not confident i have the necessary know how to make it work . Truth is there's enough power now and i'm not really bothered about adding more . I was thinking the rolling road might just help to get things running more efficiently , a spurt of black smoke on start up always makes me cringe thinking about where else carbon might be building up as time goes by . As for tuning chips as far as i can tell all the do is turn up the fuel anyway on these old trucks , am i wrong ?

Fridayman i did think about adding a fan when i first put the cooler on but in the end decided not to because again i could not work out any real advantage of having one , if i was in OZ then yeah i'd want one but ..... ?

A bit of black smoke on start up is just a bit of un-burnt fuel which fine. When driving and foot flat, do you get any black smoke, and if so how much? If you get a touch then this is fine, if you get a lot then wind back down the fuelling. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I've heard that diesels actually run better when richer than leaner, and generally speaking they come out the factory more on the lean side for emissions/MPG control.

Regarding the Pump Shayne, it's a very easy task. Firstly being that your truck is manual there is actually no real need to have a TPS sensor. With auto boxes a lot of the readings feedback to the ECU which deals with the engine alongside the autobox, but for a manual the ECU just controls the engine side of things. It's basically a matter of swapping the fuel pump and running the accelerator peddle cable to the fuel pump instead of the TPS sensor. I've been so very tempted to do this myself but being I have a auto I can see myself having a few problems!

Oh the hardest thing, is getting hold of a mechanical pump, and when you do, prepare to pay near £300 for one.

Turning up the fuelling on the spill control valve isn't really efficient. It increases fuelling throughout the range even on idle. Firstly during pre-boost, lets say anything below 1400RPM, there is no need to demand as much fuel as when boost it coming on, yet it's still chucking in a fair amount during those pre-boost times. On the other hand on high peak boost you may need that little bit of fuel which you're not getting. Basically you can't really fine tune the fuelling. Certain chips will take into account how much boost you're getting and possibly air flow to moderate how much fuel is going in at various RPM's. This is effective and efficient.

 

[Shayne]

No black smoke when i'm moving no matter how much i turn up the spill valve , just lots of it on take off which makes me think its probably still running lean while on the move with the intercooler doing its work . Damned if you do and damned if you don't it seems like . In the end i settled on just making cold start black smoke thick enough for me to see easily (side exit exhaust) but not so bad anyone stood nearby might comment on it . It's not bad at all when shes warm .

I imagine a mechanical pump opens and closes the spill valve to match the revs which is what it needs to do if i'm gonna get the mix right throughout the range . My doubt's about fitting a pump are not from like physically fitting it but from lack of knowledge , for example i will prob spend an hour on the com now trying to find out what i tps sensor actually is , where it is on my truck , what it does and so on . I'm sure you know asking anyone qualified in mechanics for advice about backyard tuning will instantly get a glazed eye thousand yard stare of incomprehension so if i started the conversion i'd be on my own until it was finished .

From what you say tuning chips sounds like the way to go . But i know little about them and the sales pitch of most just puts me to sleep so i don't trust myself to choose the right one . I would automatically be inclined to look at chips from OZ as they have a huge market for them so anything you get is likely to have been tried and tested by many but some of the prices i've seen are just as huge .

 

[fridayman]

I think that the best value chip in the UK is Tunit. From memory they charged me £400 including fitting and dyno setup.

 

[Shayne]

Chris Green offered to let me try his tunit a while back and i said no coz i wanted to see what could be achieved without digital tuning . Oddly enough that's where this thread started from .

Just been reading about pump conversions and its not exactly straightforward given a fair bit of fabrication is involved but from what i can tell a square Prado (read 70 series shape) 2LT engine is the most likely candidate for a pump ?

 

[wobbly]

Shayne - just a thought, have you checked the buzzbar/heater plugs are all working ok? Just wondered if maybe one had broken down.

On the 70 series the 2LT has a mechanical pump, the 2LT/E is controlled by the ecu, dont know if a manual conversion is possible, but tbh thats the last engine you want getting any hotter!

 

[Shayne]

Buzzbar/heater plugs ? would that be glow plugs by any chance ? .

Regardless i've been flogging a dead horse trying to get the mix right as a thorough investigation of an oil leak today revealed a leak in the intercooler silicone pipe work .

I bought Chris Greens Tunit so we will see how that changes things when it arrives . The mechanical pump conversions i've read about are all on 4runners but even if a pump turned up (i think i know where i can get one) i think i would have to pay Beau a visit if i wanted to fit it .