Found recipes for more power, looking for help to impliment

[grolly6]

I ended up going with Muffler Tech out of PoCo. It cost a lot more but I got a custom 2.5" stainless steel setup with with mandrel bending. While they were looking under my Delica, they spotted some extremely worn out bushings in the rear suspension and they replaced those along with installing air bags. It certainly wasn't cheap, but I can move on to the next steps. I ordered some gauges from these guys: http://www.ebay.com/usr/auberinstruments and once those arrive I can pass them on to Butch for installation prior to starting the other tweaks...

[.:FoRuM56:.]

I ran a set of those gauges in my Oz Paj. They work a treat for the price!

[bosc]

My 2 cents... Boost power where practical, but don't be overly concerned about going slowly. Truckers generally are going slow up hills anyway, and are therefore unaffected. Passing lanes are abundant, and everyone drives far too fast anyway. I enjoy my slow hills when heavy. Those places are often the most scenic, and with the RHD we get the best view from the drivers seat looking down into the river bottom and such. Simply a change of expectations.
Good luck.

[grolly6]

I hear what you're saying and I have respect for the "enjoy the journey and don't sweat the details" view. That's a far more zen approach to things. But, if I can throw some money at the issue of slow towing speeds and make things better with bolt on mods, it will give me a level of satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment that will warm my thoughts for a long time:-) [Yes, I recognize that the zen approach would/could take me to the same state of contentment without having to mess with my engine and spend lots of money, but sadly I'm not as enlightened as I'd like to be at this point. Besides, I like tweaking machinery;-) ]


As an update, my turbo boost controller has arrived along with the gauges and a few other parts. But, I'm on hold with the installation steps while I focus on a work project that has landed heavily on my lap.

My 2 cents... Boost power where practical, but don't be overly concerned about going slowly. Truckers generally are going slow up hills anyway, and are therefore unaffected. Passing lanes are abundant, and everyone drives far too fast anyway. I enjoy my slow hills when heavy. Those places are often the most scenic, and with the RHD we get the best view from the drivers seat looking down into the river bottom and such. Simply a change of expectations.
Good luck.

[grolly6]

Glad to read your vote of endorsement:-)

The gauges are in my possession and waiting to be installed. It might take a bit of time as I've been overwhelmed with a new work project.

I ran a set of those gauges in my Oz Paj. They work a treat for the price!

[grolly6]

With camping season approaching I finally got back to focusing on my Delica towing preparation project.

On Monday I had an EGR blanking plate installed and while I was at the shop, I upgraded to a 120amp alternator. The alternator didn't help at all with the voltmeter's slow drop while idling at an intersection with both hvac fans running on high. But, hopefully it'll help with the voltage drop I was seeing when driving with the trailer & air-con fans drawing more power than the alt could provide while under way. As an aside, anyone else have this problem?

Last night I rolled up my sleeves and installed my Auber boost gauge. Turns out my stock boost hits 12.1 psi while accelerating up a hill and typically hits ~10psi while accelerating on flat ground.

Next will be the installation of the boost controller with the intent of hitting 16psi(supposedly that is max psi for my turbo while still in an efficient operating zone.). I have a Hallman boost controller waiting to hook up along with the remote control so I can adjust from the drivers seat. With the lighter spring and ceramic ball, the Hallman website says their controller should be good for 4 to 5psi extra boost, preventing me from exceeding my target zone.


I'm going to cap off the boost bleed valve at the back of the intake manifold as I keep reading reports that it pops open around 13psi. Not sure how I'm going to do this as I hear it's tough to remove. I may try to put a metal strap over it and clamp it tight from outside (just for testing purposes) while I look for a better solution.

I've left a message with CVI looking to book time to get a EGT bung welded on so that I can install the Auber EGT gauge. But, they seem to be busy so I may take it to another shop as this task really doesn't require specific Delica knowledge/skills.

I've been reading that I shouldn't have too much trouble with EGT issues until I increase the fueling. Anyway, once I get the EGT sensor in I'll start cranking boost and then turn my attention to getting the injector pump dialed in along with addressing any cooling issues.

Hopefully the end result is ~20% more power and better towing performance. If not, onto Craigslist it goes...

[Firesong]

I'm thinking you aren't going to get close to 20%. Hopefully you don't hurt it by overheating or toasting the turbo. These L400's aren't power horses.

[grolly6]

I'm thinking you aren't going to get close to 20%. Hopefully you don't hurt it by overheating or toasting the turbo. These L400's aren't power horses.

You may be right about my not hitting 20%, but others have reported hitting about that while still keeping their vans reliably towing during Australian summers. So, I'm going to give it a shot. I've got the EGT gauge lined up and extra cooling plans to protect against cooking things. I've spent many nights surfing through the recipes posted on the UK and AU websites describing the hacks and upgrades that others have turned to(some after learning lessons the hard way). Worst case scenario is I have to replace a lot of damaged gear;-)

[nxski]

I'm thinking you aren't going to get close to 20%. Hopefully you don't hurt it by overheating or toasting the turbo. These L400's aren't power horses.

You could have fooled me after driving an L300!

[grolly6]

I ended up installing the boost controller yesterday. Drilled a hole in the firewall, passed through the remote control cable, spliced into the boost line going from the turbo to the waste gate(had to replace the factory hose), and then went for some test drives. My pop off value would trigger around 14.5psi to 14.7psi. I dialed back the boost to max out at 14.2 and drove around. Steepest hill I tried was the north van cut and I didn't notice any power advantage.

Today I put some metal straps over the pop off valve and clamped them tight. I've got the boost set to hit and hover close to 16psi going up long, steep hills with occasional fleeting spikes to 17.1psi when I hit the throttle is some settings. Typically around town when I hit the pedal and try to accelerate I see more like 15psi with rare blips to 16psi in town. Still no real power boost, but I expected that would be the case until more fuel was added.

As for the EGT sensor, I'm quite disappointed in the Budget Brake and Muffler I made an appointment with this morning. They couldn't get a bung installed as they said they didn't have the right one. Then, when I proposed they weld a suitable nut onto my EGR blanking plate, they did a lot of head scratching over not being able to find the right sized nut. Their installer looked at my EGR blanking plate and told me I'd need to order a new gasket as the original one had cracked with old age. He didn't respond when I told him it had only been installed two weeks ago. I ended up leaving to go buy my own parts with the intent of bringing it back to them to install. But, the more I thought about it the less confidence I had in using them(The manager told me there are all different kinds of thread patterns. I commented "You mean like Imperial and Metric?" He stated "Well, there is 'British' too". He didn't seem to happy when I asked "Isn't Imperial = British?") I'm not keen on paying people to do stuff for me when they come across as knowing even less than I do. I ended up at Lordco buying a tap so that I could drill my own hole in the blanking plate and thread it to match my EGT sensor. Hopefully I'll get around to removing the blanking plate and drilling/threading a new hole tomorrow.

Once I have the EGT gauge working, given all the trouble I've had finding people I trust to do the work(or booking their time) , I'm likely to do the injector pump tweaks myself...

[yojimbo]

British threads arent imperial, well they are measured in imperial measures but arent known as imperial, they are Whitworth threads. Saying that though, most things are metric here now. But I wouldnt trust anyone that couldnt identify a thread, its really not that hard!

[grolly6]

British threads arent imperial, well they are measured in imperial measures but arent known as imperial, they are Whitworth threads. Saying that though, most things are metric here now. But I wouldnt trust anyone that couldnt identify a thread, its really not that hard!

Thanks for clarifying that for me:-)

On a related note, I pulled off my egr blanking plate, drilled a hole, threaded it(M10x1) for my egt probe, reinstalled, and everything is working fine now.

I ended up driving around to see how hot I could get things. I managed to hit 900F once after a long acceleration up a hill.

Anyone else have comparison temperatures from an L400 with an EGT probe in the EGR blanking plate?

Oh, and although I haven't messed with the fuel yet, today I was able to see that my earlier power observations weren't accurate. I definitely notice an increase in power off the line once the turbo spools up. From a standing start, pushing deep on the throttle causes a quick jump to ~15psi and the Delica has a pronounced increase in thrust. Acceleration up to 80km/h is brisker than previously. I'm not sure why I didn't feel the power increase yesterday. Perhaps I was able to better compare performance on the habitual routes I used today whereas yesterday I was driving on less familiar turf.

[grolly6]

I finished the steps to increase the fueling as per the recipe in one of the links in my first post. It took me about 2 hours to go through everything, but it probably would have been less than an hour if I wasn't so cautious with triple checking everything along the way. There were a number of wires and hoses that weren't mentioned in the recipe and that needed to be moved aside or disconnected.

Anyway, there is definitely a lot more power available for acceleration(not my objective) but it still remains to be seen if the noticeable improvements will translate to the towing performance I was chasing. I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to drag my trailer around, but hopefully it will be this month...

[thelazygreenfox]

G6
After all these mods I hope you get the trailer pull power you're seeking.

My new V6 is in port now and should be in my hands next week. I'd love to trade off vehicles for a drive to feel the power difference.

My present stock 4 cyl gasser is faster than the 4M40 but I doubt it could pull a trailer like yours. I just changed it's cracked radiator and was amazed at how much larger the diesel radiator is over the gas radiator.

TLGF
Wayne

[grolly6]

G6
After all these mods I hope you get the trailer pull power you're seeking.

Thanks for the friendly sentiments:-)

Today I hitched up the trailer and dragged it from Vancouver to PoCo via the #1 then up the Mary Hill bypass. Then, over to Pitt Meadows and southbound over the Golden Ears bridge. This time, with all the mods, I was able to hold 80km/h up the steepest section of that bridge. After stopping to visit with relatives, for the return path home took the #1 all the way back to Vancouver. When leaving intersections or merging onto the highway I could comfortably accelerate up to 60 or 70km/h at the same pace as most of civilized cars around me. Beyond 70km/h, my speedo kept climbing but not fast enough to prevent people from rapidly pulling away from me.

Regardless, pulling the trailer was easier and in general I could comfortably hold an additional 10km/h up grades. I kept a close eye on my EGT readings, and the only scary numbers were on that steep section of the Golden Ears bridge where I momentarily got close to 1,100F before backing off. All the other inclines I was able to keep the EGT numbers under 1,000F just by slightly reducing my foot pressure on the fuel pedal. There were a few sections were I held the EGT readings just shy of 900F for extended periods of time and I didn't see any noticeable increase in engine temperature(But, it was 14C today so my cooling system probably wasn't being challenged to dissipate heat).

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the engine noise holding 100km/h up the inclines at ~3,500rpm with the O/D button off. On flat sections, I did a couple of short tests with the O/D on and van had no problems holding 100km/h at ~2,500rpm. But, I didn't want to risk cooking the tranny(lots of people have said to keep the O/D off when towing) so I only did that a couple of times for brief moments.

I recall reading about some people installing switches to manually control the 'lock up' of the torque convertor. Does anyone know if that kind of thing might be useful for me? (with the goal of using 4th gear more often when towing on flat or downhill)

Finally, holy cow did my fuel economy suffer! I went through 3/8ths of a tank of diesel, far more than I'd usually use for the route I followed. I'm guessing it isn't so much the extra weight as it was the added drag of the parachute I was towing while doing ~3,500rpm at 100km/h...