Why Do Mice like Delicas

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lrp374
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Why Do Mice like Delicas

Post by lrp374 »

On my recent trip to Silence lake I came home to find another mouse nest on my batteries. This is @ least the third time it's happened and I'm concerned they'll do more than chew up the paper towel I use to check my oil. I've also had other occasions where I can hear them chewing somewhere under the drivers seat. A blast on my air horn usually quiets that down but that is best used when your the only one in the camp site. Has anyone else had this issue or found a simple solution?
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Why Do Mice like Delicas

Post by Growlerbearnz »

Is it because we store comfortable nesting material close to the warm engine and delicious wire insulation?

...wow. When I say it out loud it's humorous, but written down it sounds properly snarky. Which in itself amusing, so it stays ;-)

How's the Hyundai engine going? I'm up to 9000km on mine and it's getting better and better as it breaks in.
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lrp374
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Post by lrp374 »

Your eagle eye has caught an unusual sight! I got the engine provided and installed by Benn @ Comox Valley Delica in January. So far so good after about 3500 km. I have just increased my boost to about 15 psi which was quite the chore. It brought back a few curses I'm surprised I even remembered.The only issue I seem to have , now that my A/C is working again, is it appears to run hot after long uphill grades even if I shift down as low as second and keep the RPM's up. I had this issue ( note NO Problem ) with my old engine but I don't think it was quite as bad. This mostly happens when I have my boat on top and the inside full of camping gear. The temperature will rise with just the van as well but of course it is much more manageable. I had the radiator recored a couple of years ago and it really didn't seem to make any difference. I'm not sure what to try next. Maybe a mouse is in there somewhere as well!
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Why Do Mice like Delicas

Post by Growlerbearnz »

My temperature gauge sits a little higher with the new engine too- I think the Hyundai sender has a slightly different response curve. I have a second gauge on the radiator header tank, and that reads about the same as on the old engine (Radiator was re-cored about 4 years ago) so I'm fairly confident the new engine isn't running any hotter. The radiator takes longer to heat up too, which suggests the new engine is running cooler, or at least more efficiently.

EGTs are dramatically lower with the new engine (Cruises at 600F, where the old engine was cruising at 900F. Absolute maximum I can provoke is about 1200F, whereas the old engine would happily zoom past 1400F if you let it.)

The temperature gauge now sits at 1/3 or below around town, can rise to halfway when going up a long hill unloaded. When towing the caravan or with a load of plywood in the back the same hill will get the temperature gauge up to 2/3, maybe 3/4, but always comfortably below H. With the old engine I would back off when it got above 2/3, but the new engine seems to stabilise there and doesn't get any hotter.

My boost is also set to 15psi max. The Hyundai turbo is allegedly good to 17psi, but it doesn't seem to make any more power above 15. I've also turned up the fuelling a little, using an air/fuel ratio meter to make sure it never gets below 18:1 (at anything above 1300rpm the turbo is working, so it's difficult to provoke anything less than 25:1. Usual cruise is around 40:1).

My engine is approaching 9000km. It's still loosening up, running quieter and more efficiently with just a bit more power. The other day I had to lower my idle speed; I'd set it to 750rpm when the engine was new, and it had crept up to 1000rpm as the engine bedded in.
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lrp374
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Why Do Mice like Delicas

Post by lrp374 »

Thanks for the info Growler. Your EGT readings are interesting. Mine is exactly the opposite! My old engine had the probe after the turbo and I never let it go above 1100 and if the Boost was still 15 I could go quite a awhile before the water temp went up. The new motor has the same probe installed in the EGR blanking plate. It is very fast to respond and can easily reach 1200 or more if I let it. The temp gauge does take quite a while to go up but I've let it go to within likely an 1/8 " of the upper line. That makes me nervous. Once up @ that point it takes a long time to go down even on level ground. Do you think my fuel ratio could be off? I know Benn said he did make some adjustments.
Now back to my mouse problem. I was out for a week of fishing, camped in a very nice area where I didn't even see a mouse or any other rodent for that matter but I know they are there!!!
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Why Do Mice like Delicas

Post by Growlerbearnz »

lrp374 wrote: Once up @ that point it takes a long time to go down even on level ground. Do you think my fuel ratio could be off?
Interesting. My coolant temperature fairly plummets once I'm not hauling uphill- it certainly cools down *way* faster than it heats up. Is your engine fan and radiator shroud in place, fan around the right way (concave surface of fan blades towards the engine), and you're using the new Hyundai fan clutch?
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Your air/fuel ratio might be a bit rich. Above 1500rpm you shouldn't see any smoke from the exhaust, except for a brief puff if you slam your foot down. It's difficult to tune a diesel without being able to see the air/fuel ratio in real time. I fitted one of these https://www.amazon.com/Innovate-Motorsp ... B071RSKR4Z because it was about a quarter the price of a tune-up on a dyno. Plus it's kind of cool. Easy to see if it's regularly going below 18:1, and needs the fuel screw tweaked.

If your exhaust temperatures are a higher than they should be, the water-cooled turbo will be transferring some of that extra heat to the cooling system too, which won't be helping. Well, it'll be helping the turbo, but not your radiator.

Rodents: are they *living* in your van?! They seem to follow you around, maybe they found a nice place to hang out inside somewhere. Time for some mouse traps or poison bait?
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lrp374
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Why Do Mice like Delicas

Post by lrp374 »

Well, as per usual, you give me something to think about. I'm pretty sure the fan, shroud and new clutch are all in place correctly as they only fit one way. The smoke comment is interesting as I have never noticed any smoke except @ start up. There may be a slight puff but I've never noticed it. I know what smoke looks like as I also have a 5.9 cummins that can really produce smoke if floored @ low rpm. The turbo adding to the heat is interesting as I never thought of that. I know last week on the Coquihalla the EGT was almost 1200 F and the water near max in 2nd gear with 3000 rpm. I think the grade was only about 6% most of the time. It was only 25 C. I've done that previously @ 40 C with my old engine. ( No A/C on for either case.) I think I need more info and your suggestion of the air/fuel ratio instrument could likely provide it. Where did you mount the sensor? In the meantime a fuel adjustment may be in order. I haven't done it before so will need to read up on it a bit and find the screw. The one thing I keep coming back to is my recored radiator. The shop I took it to does all kinds to recores so I would think they know what they are doing. They said my old rad basically disintegrated when they started to acid wash it. When I installed the new rad it made little or no difference. At that time I thought my problem may be somewhere else. Now I'm not sure. Thanks for your help so far.

The mouse is definitely not living in the van! The first mouse was 150 km north of Kamloops and the second was 150 km south. For the time it is @ home I've never had a mouse. I've had a few camp problems over the years but never 2 in a row. My solution for now is no more paper towel to check oil level. Hopefully that will help.
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Why Do Mice like Delicas

Post by Growlerbearnz »

The gauge comes with a weld-on steel bung. I put mine just after the turbo, before the bend.
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There's plenty of cable to make it into the cab, either through the air filter cover and under the carpet, or through the right side of the engine bay, past the radiator, and up where the main wiring loom comes through the floor, below the dashboard.

Tuning the injection pump isn't as difficult as it sounds, but I had a false start or two when I had to swap my Mitsubishi accelerator lever onto the Hyundai pump- I ended up one spline out, and it made tuning it difficult until I figured it out.

On closer inspection of your photo it looks like your idle screw is almost all the way in, which suggests your lever might be a spline or two out as well. Hmm. Thinking out loud here... that would limit the lever's travel. If it's idling ok at that point, the restricted travel means it's not going to reach the full power point. Which *could* be compensated for by screwing the max fuel screw in... except that would tilt the geometry of the governor assembly, which would make the response non-linear as fuelling increases. Hmm! That might be something. Have you noticed that your accelerator pedal doesn't move as far as it used to? (Though it might be subtle).

Maybe I should measure all the adjustments on my pump, so we've got a baseline to work from.
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Post by lrp374 »

Funny you should mention the accelerator cable. I purchased a used one from a supplier before I changed engines as my old one had stripped threads. Apparently they are slightly different for different years and the one I got was supposed to be right but I thought it was a little long. I did a temporary fix to take it down and took the old one as well in case Benn couldn't make it work. He said after a little adjustment he thought it was okay. I noticed right away that the feel of the pedal wasn't quite right and as you say it is very stiff to get it all the way down. Maybe I should think about putting the old one back? Or ----
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Post by Growlerbearnz »

I've updated the D4BF thread in the technical reference library with details of my final tune, including measurements/orientation of the various adjustments, and how to replicate it on another D4BF installed in an L300. I was going to put it here, but figured it's probably better to have it all in the one place.

viewtopic.php?f=94&t=18908&p=139125#p139125

Since the TRL post is locked, if you have any questions it's probably best to ask here (though I believe this is what they call "thread drift").
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lrp374
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Post by lrp374 »

Thanks for the info Growler. What you've said makes sense and I'll follow the post. I'm gone for a week but will be back @ it next week . I'd like to get this sorted out before my major fishing trip of the year in late July. I'm not concerned about the "thread drift" as I'm sure no one else is. Maybe Mice Is a secret code for Hyundai engines!
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Why Do Mice like Delicas

Post by chonchito »

I had mice problems (is roommates the correct word here??) In my last van, an 87 4wd Toyota from the states. Here's my 2¢:

If you are living in the van (I was living in my van for ~4 years), guarantee some crumbs or leftovers somewhere have attracted the buggers and they have somehow marked the secret way to access your home. I used to wake up to them climbing the leaf springs directly below my head! Always the same sound, different campsites throughout NA... Then I could hear them next running around inside and below the bed! Sometimes they were in the head liner. I didn't want to go with poison for fear of them dying (then roasting and stinking) in the headliner. Waking up to a snap style trap is also a terrible way to start your day...

I bought a live mousetrap, little rectangular metal box that traps mice. I was able to extract probably 10 mice in 4 years with this trick. I also put peppermint oil on cotton swabs near where they entered, that seemed to help for a while. For your battery area, maybe spray some of that around the insulation?

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Post by lrp374 »

Thanks for the idea chonchito. I'll try the peppermint spray as I only get mice when camping and they only build nests on the batteries. Now all I need to do is find some!
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lrp374
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Post by lrp374 »

Well Growler I've started to change the settings as per your info for new Hyundai engines and have got the fuel and boost compensation done which I thought would be the difficult part. However, I need your definition of a nubbin to continue. I presume it is the yellowish plastic piece that joins the accelerator and transmission cable thingys. I haven't removed it yet as I think something else is quite different than yours. I set the idle as you suggested and there is no way I can see it ever touching the idle stop. I've taken a few pictures which hopefully will mean something to you. After completing the first 2 items I marvel @ your picture taking as with my hand in there I have no room for a camera. Great job!
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Post by lrp374 »

I think I may be getting in a little over my head here so I thought I'd ask the expert before I do some damage!. Without changing the accelerator stuff I thought I'd start the van to make sure it would run. It did but only an idle with full throttle. I don't understand how the changes I've made so far did this. I feel it must be the boost compensation as changing the fuel should do nothing when sitting still. I put the diaphragm in like shown in the photo and also put it back the way it came out. It was better with the front position. Was I supposed to put the plastic collar back in?
Could you please confirm which nut to loosen and rotate for the accelerator. It may be a dumb question but it certainly isn't the first I've asked and I'm sure it won't be the last!!
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