Fueling issues

AAAAARRRRRGGHH!! frustrated as f*** today.

Everything's in place for the landy to start. It's turning over fine, but, nothing else apart from that. Even tried doping it a bit with the old gas through the map sensor port, still no luck.

I'd thought maybe the filter was clogged and affecting rail pressure, and it did make a positive difference to the pump's overall pitch, but it's still not catching, so I'll have to get a pump. local dealer has them at $2000BDS so that's a definite no go, looks like I'll have to source it out of the UK. f***.

on the upside, the weight reduction is going well, in my fit of anger I managed to slam the door and about 2 lbs of rust fell off the bulkhead

Trials and tribulations of turbocharger sizing

I've spent the past month or so trying to decide on a suitable turbo upgrade. Back when I had the 300 it was much easier, just bang in the wastegate , crank the diaphram on the fuel pump up (hmm, or is that the other way around?) and voila!!! instaboost!!

The td5, however, is a bit more tricky, rudimentary overboosting techniques would send the computer into a limp mode, which is just no good, and that leaves me with one option, that is, purchase a boost bypass module that sends a dummy signal to the ecu to get around the limp and have the ecu remapped to compensate for fuel.

Mapping choice is an issue I'll deal with in another post once I can understand it better. So for now I'll keep it turbocharger related only.

Originally, So I started doing a bit more online reading into which one would be an (almost) direct bolt on. The stock unit is a garret GT20 with an A/R of .50 so I just said that I'd just clap a larger turbo on it, "yes, a nice ball-bearing unit for lightning spool times and be happy with that, after all, it's just an old landy". Then I thought to myself "Hang on, maybe I should do this properly" so I started traipsing the interweb forums for advice on turbo selection, and there wasn't much there really. Then I found a turbo sizing calculator over on squirrel performance's website.

I figured a GT28rs sounded like a good starting point so that's what I began with, and after crunching the numbers against the GT28rs with the 0.60 A/R through squirrel performance's calculator this is what came out;

Good lord, I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but that can't be good. My understanding of turbotech is that an ideal plot would be right through the centre of those islands, as close to the dotted line as possible. The left line of the map is the surge line, which the disco-potato edges dangerously close to, I know the diesel won't surge per se because there's no throttle plate to surge against, but logical thinking tells me that it would result in my air-fuel being way out of whack, and possibly even leaning out the motor (?).

Edging certain frustration with turbo selection, I thought let me just punch in the same parameters on the GT20 and see what comes out, and this is what followed;


Great, that's that then, I'll stick with the GT20 unit and probably just have it reworked a bit by the good folks of TD5alive and that suffice. I've just gone around the world in a massive exercise to find out that Landrover had done their homework properly to begin with.

the exhaust

voila!!, one de-centre-boxed td5.

Got the flanges cut at the local engineering shop and 1# 180° mandrel U-bend later, great success!!.

EGR blanking

step 1. remove existing EGR
step 2. replace with the above shown

step 3. vinyl removal

Yesterday was vinyl removal day. The lr was littered with it. The quickest and cleanest method I found was to zap it with a heat gun for about a minute and then grab a corner and peel away. panels that have been exposed to sunshine seem to give extra problems as I think the UV rays have broken down the vinyl to the point that it's not strong enough to come off in one piece, so I've only gotten about 50% done so far.

step 1. Removing unnecessary crap Streamlining

Buying this landrover was something of a leap of faith, insomuch as that it's not a runner, but it was cheap enough for that not to make me lose any sleep over it.

The first thing I tend to do after buying a vehicle is separating what's necessary, from what's dead weight, and then going about with removal of the latter. This 'new' defender is no different. Firstly, It took me about 2 hours fiddling with a broken bonnet pull before I got pissed and just removed the front grille and pulled the cable by hand.

Then after standing, staring, smoking a cigarette and staring some more, I've decided that the EGR is the first candidate for the guillotine. Its removal was a story in itself, because, some smartass at LR research & development though it would be a good idea to use allen head bolts on the EGR valve, needless to say those broke off after a healthy dose of penetrating lube one day, heating the next and penetrating lube again the third day, so I'm off to the engineering shop to fabricate a plug. (note to self :- I think i've just found the best solution typing this in that I'll cut a threaded plug on a lathe, tap the cast iron and use a bit of loctite on the thread, will update on the final decision)

The second, would be the ventilation fan; "but why?" I hear you ask, the answer is simple, the fan on my previous lr only served to blow rust into the cab and this one is no different, therefore, I have decided that it should get the axe. All of the associated heater lines were also promptly removed as well as any radiator lines deemed unimportant according to my equation below;

more radiator hoses = more places to spring leaks

Third to go was the intake piping, now, on a Td5 the physical inlet sits on the driver's side (RHD) of the vehicle whereas the intake side of the head is on the passenger side. If like myself you plan to install a snorkel for wading, there's a whole heap of plumbing and drain valves between those two points that are designed to stop water ingress but after time harden and actually allow water in. Therefore, I have decided that I'll purchase a 200tdi snorkel, which is mounted on the vehicle's passenger side and negate approximately 50% of the intake runs.

Behold!! that which shall henceforth be known as my Td5!!

Ta-dah! I've just bought myself a 2002 Td5. It's not a runner right now but I'll get to that in a later post. Hopefully it's just a fuel pump issue.

This will be my second, I've had a landrover before, but it was a 1997 300tdi, and it set the bar pretty high. Of course it did all of the usual landrover peculiarities i.e.

1.The lights worked when they felt like it.
2.Any part that carried oil, leaked it.
3.The bulkhead t'were rusty like nobody's business.
4.There was that 'knock of death' coming from below.

But, that aside, I loved it and anyone that's owned a landrover before knows that owning a landrover is an intricate love-hate relationship, and you'll never be satisfied with a lesser vehicle again.