overheating

[ccautos]

I expect a temperature gauge to be around the half way mark . My own van tends to run around 1/3 on the gauge now I have all my cooling fans running correctly .
Peterborough you say !!! Your just down the road from my home town of Leicester . Best curries in England in Leicester (if you lke east indian curries !!!) . Also has some good breweries around there . Nice beer , nice curry , good fish and chips but I wouldn`t move back there if you paid me !!!!!

[deLOOKA]

Hm! Everytime i drive up the upper levels from the 2nd Narrows Bridge my temp gauge hits half. Driving on the slow lane at about 75k. Looks like the van wouldn't survive Coq hwy climb.

Isaac

[mararmeisto]

I expect a temperature gauge to be around the half way mark . My own van tends to run around 1/3 on the gauge now I have all my cooling fans running correctly...

How does one check one's fans? Is there a way to 'trick' the thermostat to on in order to fire up the fan?

[Todd64]

Nothing to do with a Delica but I had a few friends that have muscle cars and they have their fan switched on the dash. When the gauge stars going up they flick the switch.

[delicat]

Was recently reading a post on the UK forum where they replaced their fan with a electical (double fans) and adjustable thermostat. That way they can keep the temp to their desired level.

It might work but I'd rather find what's not working properly in the first place before starting to do those mods... and fixing it.

Glen, Leicester! Going there in the next few days. Will PM you.

David

[Green1]

the thermostat seems to make a big difference, when I got the van it never got up to even 1/4 of the scale except on long steep climbs, it also never really warmed up in the winter... I just got a new thermostat, and now the needle sits around the middle, all the time, even on long steep climbs, I suspect this is more the way things are "supposed to be"...

[g_man1972]

Okay I don't get it. I just attempted to replace my thermostat (read my post "replacing thermostat" for a description of the disaster that turned into) . And I confirmed that my thermostat works correctly by putting it in a pot of water and it started opening 5-10 seconds before the water started to boil which would indicate that it's opening at around 180. But my temp gauge is 95% of the time settled on the first thin line above the thick one on the C. No where near the middle, even a climb up the cut only raises it maybe 1/2 a cm above that thin line, well below what would be considered half, maybe 1/4 at a push.

Also my fan is belt driven, is that weird? Are they suppose to be electric as people are talking about tricking sensors to get it to turn on and so on.

Cheers
Gary

[loki]

it sounds weird but my van was running the temp gauge just above the C most of the time and climbing up over half on long climbs, it get really high on a long logging road climb and boiled over, a week or two later I took it to CCautos and the Rad was jammed with calcium so most of the rad was blocked off. I had a full service done, new rad, thermostat, rad cap and other stuff unrelated, now my temp is just under half and climbs to just over half on climbs (it did get close to the top once since but I'm pretty sure it was a combination of climbing mount Washington and bad fuel). So I would suggest looking in the top of your rad to see how much build up there is, remembering that there is more and more as you go farther down in the rad, if the ports are looking at all constricted get a new/re-cored/cleaned rad. Also replacing the thermostat is great but don't underestimate the importance of the rad cap, the system needs to maintain the proper pressure or things don't work well and your gauge could be reading low but your engine could be red hot (steam doesn't cool the engine well, water pump is made to pump water not steam and the temp gauge is meant to read water temp, I had a car once and when it got really hot the temp gauge would drop to the bottom because there was no water on the guage just steam)

[Profister]

This is unfortunate that I have to add to this topic but I am puzzled with my recent drive issue.
This past long weekend I had a trip from Vancouver to Princeton and further. It started on Friday after work and was uneventful until I hit Hwy 3. Driving uphill to the Hope slide at a speed of 55-60 km/h @ 2500 rpm I noticed that the temperature gauge is going up faster that usually and it went from 1/4 to 3/4 of the scale in less than 3 minutes. I was a few hundred meters away from the top of the hill but had to pull over and idle for almost 15 minutes to cool the engine down. When I stopped I noticed a burning smell, opened the door, looked down and found that it was an oil leak on the right side. It was raining and the water running under the vehicle was colored with oil. The second stop I made was on Allison Pass. Note: the outside temperature was about +16C. The temperature gauge behaved in the same manner but there was no leakage this time. The rest of the trip to Princeton was OK. The next day I was driving on steep and rough logging roads climbing up to 1100 meters with no problems at all. Two days later I was driving back to Vancouver with the air temperature much higher (+30C) and the max temp gauge reading I got was 1/2 scale and it happened only once. And not to mention I was still driving in the same manner as before.
A month ago I had a 4500 km trip across Northern BC in an air temperature range from +15C to +32C and did not have any overheating issues at all. Could it be the certain grade of fuel causing this? That day on Friday I filled up the tank on Petro Canada in Langley (200 St and 72 Ave). Usually I use Mohawk or Husky with their 'diesel max' and I refilled on Husky in Princeton upon my arrival and just before I hit Hwy 3 coming back home, so the only part of the trip I ran on Petro Canada fuel was from Langley to Princeton. I am not sure if this was a fuel related glitch or there is something else I have check of fix. I wonder if someone else has the same or similar experience.

Thanks,
Sergiy.

[vixentd]

Have been reading the posts almost since the beginning of the web page. Have a number of turbo diesel vehicles and thought that overheating is caused by a number of factors.
1. Injection pump timing. If you have not had your injection timing checked have it done by a qualified person.
2. Radiator, and thermostat as mentioned
3. With a turbo the amount of boost will drastically increase the temperatures. On the Delicas I do not believe you have a boost gauge. On certain hills in BC, the slopes can be just ideal for overheating based on engine rpm and boost from the turbo. Truckers you a pyrometer to measure the cylinder head temperatures and adjust their throttle accordingly. Without a gauge try backing of just a bit on the throttle which will decrease the boost and help to lower temperatures.

On my turbo diesel, I have a boost gauge and can adjust the boost pressure by small movements of the throttle. A slight letting up of the throttle may not decrease the speed but drastically lower the temperatures as less fuel is injected.

I don't believe the type of diesel will make a difference on temperature.

My ride is 7000 lbs and averages 35 mpg on a 2.4 bmw diesel. Will one day have a delica for some travelling off road. Will add it to the stable of Passat turbo diesel, jetta turbo diesel, landcruser bj60 and Rabbit diesel.

Below is a link for those who are not familar with the Vixen.
www.vixenrv.org

[mararmeisto]

Interesting point on monitoring the turbo boost - is there a way to install one of these gauges? A relatively inexpensive, in-my-driveway installation? Or is this something a shop would have to do?

There probably isn't a gauge because, again, we in Canada are probably putting the van through a little more than it was originally designed: heavier right foot, bigger people/families, towing around reasonable-sized trailers loaded with lots of stuff (instead of something the size of a motorcycle trailer), etc. Mitsubishi didn't put one in because it was probably deemed not necessary.

Agree with the 'backing off on the rpms' because that is what helped me over Kootenay Pass. Now I know/appreciate why there is a tachometer in an automatic vehicle (never really understood that one before). Lifted the foot a bit, dropped the revs and although the temperature didn't go down, at least it would stop creeping up.

If this is such an issue (especially in BC where we've got all these mountainy things), I would suggest this would be the second thing I think these vans are lacking: an indicator for the glow plug circuits (mostly because I live on a very busy road and can't always hear the 'click'), and a boost gauge for when towing.

[marsgal42]

FWIW, I just got back from a road trip that involved both the Coquihalla (BC route 5 from Hope to Kamloops for the non-BC folks) and the Connector (97C, Merritt to Kelowna/Westbank).

Unless provoked, Gumdrop rarely gets more than a needle width off the first line above the bottom of the temperature gauge. This trip was different: just below 9 o'clock on the Coquihalla grades, just above 9 o'clock on the Connector, like that interminable grade heading east of Merritt. I didn't dare use the air conditioning going up hill, and had only me and some telescope and camping gear in the van. Outside temperature 40 in Merritt, 38 in Kelowna, "only" 32 at the summit.

Typical speed on the grades 70 km/h, 3000 RPM in 3rd gear. The transmission wanted to lug up the hills at 2000 in 4th, but I held it in 3rd to cut down on the smokescreen.

This is a little engine with lots of work to do. Sometimes you have to cut it some slack...

...laura

[Profister]

Aha, that explains why I saw a Deli with GUMDROP plates yesterday on Hwy 1 in Surrey heading East at around 5 PM.
Thanks guys for the ideas but I am still not sure why the temperature gauge behaved differently in the same road conditions with the same driving style and actually the engine was running cooler when it was hot outside. I did not exceed 60 km/h @ 2500 rpm on 3rd gear while climbing and noticed that the temperature was raising even faster if shifted to 4th gear dropping rpm's. Why? I will do the cooling system check but I am still thinking about fuel I put in that day.

[marsgal42]

Aha, that explains why I saw a Deli with GUMDROP plates yesterday on Hwy 1 in Surrey heading East at around 5 PM.

Yep, 'twas me. Port Mann was backed up to 200th Street. Ugh. I generally shy away from personalized license plates, but if you're going to drive something that stands out anyway, you might as well have some fun with it.

The only other Delica I saw on the trip was about lunch time Thursday, coming across the new bridge in Kelowna. Also saw a kei pickup in Kelowna and a couple of JDM Land Cruisers.

...laura

[docsavage]

Marameisto,

A boost gauge is an easy install for the do-it-yourselfer. The hardest part is running the line to the dash location. A reasonable boost gauge can be had for around $30. I used an Equus brand one, but I can't recall the model. It is a vacuum/boost type. I believe EricN had posted something about installing one a little while ago.

James