Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Hello all.
I've been on a road trip down in the high Sierras/Yosemite and am on my way back up to Portland. Probably should have asked this a while ago but it's been eating at me climbing all these hills and passes. When do people with a/t downshift?
I have an 89 low roof with roof rack/box and gear. My egt is post turbo. Cooling system is new and flushed.
Climbing up hills I try and keep it under the 1000f mark and sometimes that requires me to kick off overdrive quicker than I would if I was going by feel (the ol girl still feels like she has power to go faster but I want to keep the temps down and the rpms in the 2k-3k range.) This also requires me to downshift to 2nd on occasion when I feel like I could just keep cruising along with the od off.
What do people think of this/what are their habits climbing hills.
Thanks,
Joe

I'm pretty much the same as you- I'll turn the OD off if there's a long hill and EGTs are getting too high (or are going to be too high). Sometimes also on a shallower incline if the gearbox can't decide if it wants to be in 4th or 3rd. Or in slow-ish traffic, where 3rd saves me from using the brakes as much.

Good to know. Thanks growlerbearnz. It just seems very strange to me that this vehicle was designed but apparently has the very real capability to go beyond its cooling means. Was every person at the dealership told to not mind traffic behind them, keep it between 2 and 3k, and if your seat gets warm ease up on the throttle?

Well... designing an engine is always a balance between power, reliability, and cost.

I think Mitsubishi went for as much power as they dared* while making sure the engine would outlast the warranty period, but still using off the shelf parts. It's no problem to drive a new 4D56 like a normal engine, not worrying about EGTs or coolant temperatures**. You're not really "going beyond its cooling means", but it'll probably just need a new turbo or head around 250,000km. Which isn't actually all that bad, compared to some other engines, and certainly not something Mitsubishi would have worried about.

Still- our engines are 25 years old now, full of gaskets and seals and parts that are just looking for an excuse to fail, and it's just a lot less hassle to drive them gently, keep their temperatures under control, and try for a bit more than that 250k.

*They clearly weren't very brave.
**Obviously, you should back off before the coolant boils, which probably wasn't possible on a brand-new Delica. Probably entirely possible now though, what with 25 years of sediment buildup in the block and/or radiator.

Hey everyone

So I have some questions regarding the overdrive as well now that I have completed my first real road trip since buying our delica. We just completed a roadtrip that took us from Victoria over to the rockies, over the icefield parkway, a hike to Assiniboine and then back.

Regarding the overdrive. I have the 4 speed auto with overdrive. I was told by a number of people as was my friend when they recently got their Deli to keep the RPMs below 3000. So as I started up over the Coq I turned off the overdrive and cruised up the hills in 3rd just below 3000. I don't have an EGT yet and my temp guarge is one of the many that sits almost at cold and only starts to rise much as the engine heats up on hills. Not the ideal set up so far but m dealing with it and haven't had any issues with heat yet.

Regarding the overdrive, to me it seems that the overdrive IS the 4th gear? is this the case? My reasoning is that when I would be cruising or on my daily driving with the overdrive on I get ot aroud 80kn/h and then the van shifts to 4th. The RPMs drop stop slightly then drop a little more. I assumed this was the overdrive kicking in on the 4th gear. Now as I start going up a hill and I start ot slow once I get down to about 80km/h in 4th and the RPM are getting ow(approx. 2000) I turn off the OD and the van drops the 3rd and the RPM jump to around 3000 again. So once I got back down I started to play with it a little to learn more. So when I turn the OD off on a flat surface and speed up I get ot around 80 in 3rd and the van doesn't seem to have a 4th gear when the OD is off. I pushed it a little over 300 to see if it would shift into 4th witrh the OD off and still nothing. Then I eased off the gas thinking this might cause it to shift to 4th at around 80kn/h. This didn't happen. In the end it appeared to me that the van would not shift into the 4th gear with the OD off. I didn't want to push my luck as the van was running fine and I was a ways from home but is this normal operation of the A/T? Again it seemed to not want to go into 4th gear with the OD off, perhaps I just didn't get it going fast enough or push the RPMs enough to have it shift into 4th but again didn't want to push my luck.

On my normal daily driving I typically can cruise on the highway in 4th with the OD on and hit around 3000RPM just artound 120km/h and that's about as fast as I have pushed the van as again we have been told to keep it under 3000RPM.

Any input?

Cheers

Stu

You're absolutely correct- 4th gear is overdrive. When you push the O/D Off button you're simply disabling 4th gear.

The slight drop in engine revs you see is the torque converter locking up. Only happens in 3rd or 4th when cruising.

Keeping the revs below 3000 is really about economy and power- the engine starts to run out of puff above 3000. But don't worry that it'll explode if you go over 3000, you should be able to run at 4000 all day- but your mileage will be dreadful, and you'll be deaf, and the engine will need maintenance a bit more than normal.

awesome, thanks for all the info. There are a few of you guys on here that are a warehouse of useful info and experience on this forum. Its been a huge help to me so far. Its awesome how owning one of these vans brings you into such an awesome community of owners and help.