rkymtnflyfisher
Trout Bum
I was dealing with gelled fuel over my way this week in my Dodge, it sure didn't want to get over 45mph running wide open throttle.
Builds Another Prado in Montana (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter AirheadNut
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I was dealing with gelled fuel over my way this week in my Dodge, it sure didn't want to get over 45mph running wide open throttle.
- Thread starter
- #702
Still haven't found time to install the new injection pump, but while working with the tuner he noticed that my coolant temps (measured with the factory VW sensor at the cylinder head outlet) were higher than they should have been. Further investigation revealed that even after a hot run the bottom radiator hose was still cold, so I dug around in my parts boxes and found an OE German made thermostat.
Threw it in a pot on the stove to make sure it was operational, opened at around 85ºC (87ºC thermostat):
Friday evening I drained the coolant to swap out thermostats. All went well, until I dropped one of the thermostat housing bolts while trying to reinstall the housing and it fell down between the block and accessory bracket. No amount of fishing around with magnets, wires, or blasting the area with compressed air made it come out again. VW's parts website showed the bolts in stock at the local dealership for $6.73 each, so the next morning I borrowed a car and picked up two of them. Turns out they wanted $10.10 each, but there weren't any other options at that point.
Over $20 worth of VW hardware:
While it was still apart I decided to boil the old thermostat to see if it was actually bad and found that it opened at 87ºC as well. To be on the safe side I drilled a 1/8" hole in the new thermostat, this is not an uncommon safety measure on these thermostats and can keep the engine from seriously overheating in the event of a thermostat failure. It likely helps bleed air out of the system, especially in mine where there are several trapped high spots in cooling hoses.
Over the course of a couple of days I slowly got the system fully bled and working properly, since then coolant temps have stayed in the 185-195ºF range instead of 195-200ºF like they had been.
I also tightened up the exhaust manifold nuts on the #1 port, they had come loose and there was a pretty significant exhaust leak there. New manifold gasket, downpipe gasket and copper pinch nuts have arrived, hopefully I'll be able to swap those out when I find time to do the injection pump.
Threw it in a pot on the stove to make sure it was operational, opened at around 85ºC (87ºC thermostat):
Friday evening I drained the coolant to swap out thermostats. All went well, until I dropped one of the thermostat housing bolts while trying to reinstall the housing and it fell down between the block and accessory bracket. No amount of fishing around with magnets, wires, or blasting the area with compressed air made it come out again. VW's parts website showed the bolts in stock at the local dealership for $6.73 each, so the next morning I borrowed a car and picked up two of them. Turns out they wanted $10.10 each, but there weren't any other options at that point.
Over $20 worth of VW hardware:
While it was still apart I decided to boil the old thermostat to see if it was actually bad and found that it opened at 87ºC as well. To be on the safe side I drilled a 1/8" hole in the new thermostat, this is not an uncommon safety measure on these thermostats and can keep the engine from seriously overheating in the event of a thermostat failure. It likely helps bleed air out of the system, especially in mine where there are several trapped high spots in cooling hoses.
Over the course of a couple of days I slowly got the system fully bled and working properly, since then coolant temps have stayed in the 185-195ºF range instead of 195-200ºF like they had been.
I also tightened up the exhaust manifold nuts on the #1 port, they had come loose and there was a pretty significant exhaust leak there. New manifold gasket, downpipe gasket and copper pinch nuts have arrived, hopefully I'll be able to swap those out when I find time to do the injection pump.
- Thread starter
- #703
Finally had some free time this afternoon and the weather was unseasonably warm, so I launched into the injection pump swap. Turned out to be easier than I expected. Timing belt removal wasn't necessary, I didn't even remove the vacuum pump to use the cam lock tool. Set the engine to TDC using the pin slot on the IP sprocket, loosen the timing belt tensioner, zip tie the belt to the cam sprocket and unbolt the IP sprocket. The IP can then be unbolted and removed.
The old IP was pretty grimy from thousands of miles of leaking.
New pump slipped right in, popped the sprocket on and installed the timing lock pin to insure the new IP was set to TDC. Reset the tensioner, turned the engine over by hand a couple of times to make sure everything lined up and then it was just a matter of hooking up the injector lines.
Really looking forward to getting the new tune set up for the upgraded pump. Should see some improvement in fuel economy now that there aren't any leaks, and cold starting ought to be better too.
The old IP was pretty grimy from thousands of miles of leaking.
New pump slipped right in, popped the sprocket on and installed the timing lock pin to insure the new IP was set to TDC. Reset the tensioner, turned the engine over by hand a couple of times to make sure everything lined up and then it was just a matter of hooking up the injector lines.
Really looking forward to getting the new tune set up for the upgraded pump. Should see some improvement in fuel economy now that there aren't any leaks, and cold starting ought to be better too.
- Thread starter
- #704
Not every day that this happens:
- Thread starter
- #705
Finally got around to adjusting injection quantity and injection timing after swapping the injection pump. Getting timing where it needs to be is a little fiddly, took half a dozen attempts but it is right where it needs to be now. Once that was done I flashed the ECU with a new tune to start experimenting with. The engine runs and accelerates a lot smoother now, most noticeably boost comes on smoothly, holds much higher pressures and doesn't drop off as abruptly as it used to. Huge improvement, can't wait to start dialing it in further.
JDM Journeys
Moderator
That's awesome! Yeah even with the right tools timing is still an old school set/check/repeat, eh? I always found it hard not to do "just one more little adjustment" before leaving it be.
But you can get all fancy after and flash the ecu. That is way cool...
- Thread starter
- #707
On my older MK3 TDI the timing could be adjusted with the engine running while looking at the readout on the computer. This one has to be checked with the engine running, then adjusted with the engine off. An almost imperceptible movement of the 22mm wrench is enough to go from moderately advanced to moderately retarded timing, so it can be difficult to dial it in.
My wife tells me I can go from particularly advanced to quite retarded in an imperceptible moment of time as well, so I can commiserate.
Glad to see you have this beast back on the road!! Look forward to how much performance you can achieve from this little 1.9 TDI. They are impressive little powerplants.
- Thread starter
- #709
A couple of weeks ago a fresh set of rear cargo door hinges arrived from Germany: Toyota Landcruiser Hecktür Scharnier J7 Baureihe | eBay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/233242747941 @2gbFlashDrive helped me install them, it went pretty smoothly except for the lower RH hinge, which would not come out of the door without removing the limiter strap and finagling the bottom of the door inwards to clear the body. The original hinges were far past due for replacement, especially the lower LH one that had been so stiff it broke a spot weld on the structure inside the door. Hard to see, the broken spot weld is just above the hinge where it goes into the door:
Subsequently the hinge pin broke, I'm not sure quite what was holding it together any more.
We got the doors roughly adjusted and decided to call it quits since it had started to snow. A couple of days later I spent some time dialing in the door adjustment to get the body lines right and the latches and strikers to line up. Got them almost right, the top of the small door sits a little further in than I'd like but the adjustment on the hinges is maxed out. The large door opens with one finger now, and closes just as easily.
Subsequently the hinge pin broke, I'm not sure quite what was holding it together any more.
We got the doors roughly adjusted and decided to call it quits since it had started to snow. A couple of days later I spent some time dialing in the door adjustment to get the body lines right and the latches and strikers to line up. Got them almost right, the top of the small door sits a little further in than I'd like but the adjustment on the hinges is maxed out. The large door opens with one finger now, and closes just as easily.
- Thread starter
- #710
While I was at it I also repaired the broken spot weld, it took some fiddling to get everything lined up as close to the original location as possible. A quick zap with the welder was all it took, the lower hinge no longer flops around in the door.
Earlier this week I was driving into town and started hearing an unusual whistling noise. Suddenly there was a loud pop and the engine lost all power. Finding the closest parking lot I popped the hood and immediately found the issue:
Blew off the charge pipe near the turbo. Normally this would have been the work of a couple of minutes to fix, but coincidentally I had removed everything I keep in the back the day before. My entire tool kit, paper towels, everything. All I needed was a single 10mm wrench, so I ended up calling a friend who happened to be fairly nearby. Got the pipe clamped back together and I was on my way again. There is a little more oil in my intake than I'd like, but I put it down to running a cheap Chinesium CHRA in my turbo. As soon as I got home that day I threw in a small tool bag again!
The reason I removed all the gear from the cargo area:
A Di-Acro No.4 24" finger brake, the stand that came with it took up most of the cargo space.
Earlier this week I was driving into town and started hearing an unusual whistling noise. Suddenly there was a loud pop and the engine lost all power. Finding the closest parking lot I popped the hood and immediately found the issue:
Blew off the charge pipe near the turbo. Normally this would have been the work of a couple of minutes to fix, but coincidentally I had removed everything I keep in the back the day before. My entire tool kit, paper towels, everything. All I needed was a single 10mm wrench, so I ended up calling a friend who happened to be fairly nearby. Got the pipe clamped back together and I was on my way again. There is a little more oil in my intake than I'd like, but I put it down to running a cheap Chinesium CHRA in my turbo. As soon as I got home that day I threw in a small tool bag again!
The reason I removed all the gear from the cargo area:
A Di-Acro No.4 24" finger brake, the stand that came with it took up most of the cargo space.
- Thread starter
- #711
Finally got the finger brake unloaded. The Prado rode a lot better with 350lbs of cast iron and steel in the back.
Got a new universal joint installed in the rear driveshaft this evening. Was hoping to get rid of a vibration at low speeds, ended up with a vibration at high speeds instead. Thinking the slip joint might be getting worn, I might have to take it to a local driveshaft shop to have them check it out.
Took a spin and found some snow. This winter didn't bring a lot of snowfall but over the last couple of weeks we have been getting consistent small snowstorms, usually an inch in the valleys but the mountains have gotten foot or two. Winter hasn't quite given up yet.
Going on 75,000km on this rig, nearly 70,000km since the engine swap:
Got a new universal joint installed in the rear driveshaft this evening. Was hoping to get rid of a vibration at low speeds, ended up with a vibration at high speeds instead. Thinking the slip joint might be getting worn, I might have to take it to a local driveshaft shop to have them check it out.
Took a spin and found some snow. This winter didn't bring a lot of snowfall but over the last couple of weeks we have been getting consistent small snowstorms, usually an inch in the valleys but the mountains have gotten foot or two. Winter hasn't quite given up yet.
Going on 75,000km on this rig, nearly 70,000km since the engine swap:
- Thread starter
- #713
72°F here day before yesterday, this morning I woke up to this:
For about a week I’ve been rocking a Bluetooth rear driveshaft, I dropped mine off at the local driveline repair shop due to significant vibration. After a balance job ($198 later, ouch!) it runs smooth as can be. Driving 300 miles tomorrow over a couple of mountain passes, glad to have all four wheels powered again, it may well be slick out there!
For about a week I’ve been rocking a Bluetooth rear driveshaft, I dropped mine off at the local driveline repair shop due to significant vibration. After a balance job ($198 later, ouch!) it runs smooth as can be. Driving 300 miles tomorrow over a couple of mountain passes, glad to have all four wheels powered again, it may well be slick out there!
- Thread starter
- #714
Spent Easter weekend with family in Whitefish and then trailered the Prado back home. Amazing what a 3x larger displacement engine can accomplish; I was able to pull most hills faster with the Prado on the trailer than it would have been able to pull them under its own power!
The plan is to rewire the engine bay over the next couple of weeks. Currently it is a rats nest of original Toyota wiring, modified VW harness, and random aftermarket parts. I will mainly focus on the battery supply and charging circuits, keeping the Toyota body harness and VW engine harness mostly intact. Fusible links and the VW power distribution block will both be replaced by a BlueSea SafetyHub 150 with MIDI Slo-blow fuses. Power and ground busbars will be added for any large aftermarket loads I put on in the future, like a secondary battery system and air compressor.
I was hoping to start work on it this past week but needed the Prado available to pre-run the route for the Great Divide TSD rally @SnowVersion and I are organizing: Great Divide Rally - https://noncours.wordpress.com/great-divide-rally/
This past weekend I met up with @SnowVersion and another fellow TDI enthusiast and drove our route over the Continental Divide a couple of times, getting mileages, times and confirming route details. During the course of the day I noticed the Prado was low on boost and power, we did a scan for codes and came up with a fault code for a Fuel Shutoff Solenoid Malfunction. After some troubleshooting and research we determined there wasn't much that could be done about it on the side of the road, so that evening I drove the ~100 miles back home at a top speed of 55mph in limp mode. Pretty sure I either have a fuel system problem or the ECU is failing.
Some route planning and a bit of impromptu mine exploration:
The plan is to rewire the engine bay over the next couple of weeks. Currently it is a rats nest of original Toyota wiring, modified VW harness, and random aftermarket parts. I will mainly focus on the battery supply and charging circuits, keeping the Toyota body harness and VW engine harness mostly intact. Fusible links and the VW power distribution block will both be replaced by a BlueSea SafetyHub 150 with MIDI Slo-blow fuses. Power and ground busbars will be added for any large aftermarket loads I put on in the future, like a secondary battery system and air compressor.
I was hoping to start work on it this past week but needed the Prado available to pre-run the route for the Great Divide TSD rally @SnowVersion and I are organizing: Great Divide Rally - https://noncours.wordpress.com/great-divide-rally/
This past weekend I met up with @SnowVersion and another fellow TDI enthusiast and drove our route over the Continental Divide a couple of times, getting mileages, times and confirming route details. During the course of the day I noticed the Prado was low on boost and power, we did a scan for codes and came up with a fault code for a Fuel Shutoff Solenoid Malfunction. After some troubleshooting and research we determined there wasn't much that could be done about it on the side of the road, so that evening I drove the ~100 miles back home at a top speed of 55mph in limp mode. Pretty sure I either have a fuel system problem or the ECU is failing.
Some route planning and a bit of impromptu mine exploration:
- Thread starter
- #715
Lots of research and diagnostic work last week regarding the strange limp mode issue. Fuel shutoff solenoid works as it should, all wiring is good. The error code and limp mode was persistent, it would come back as soon as I cleared codes. I borrowed an ECU with immobilizer delete from @2gbFlashDrive to try, the engine started and ran with that ECU and did not trigger any error codes.
As a last ditch effort I put my original ECU back in and loaded a new tune on it. No codes, everything worked great. Took it for a test drive and it ran well but boost was very slow to build. Went through the procedures to reset the Quantity Adjuster and injection quantity at idle, it now builds boost much better but could use a little further tweaking. My tuner sent me a list of adaptations to change in the ECU to dial things in, but even now my EGT's are down by about 150ºF at 110km/h and peak temperatures are lower and take longer to reach under heavy throttle. Power seems down slightly but I can stay in the throttle a lot longer than I used to be able to. A good tradeoff in my book.
As a last ditch effort I put my original ECU back in and loaded a new tune on it. No codes, everything worked great. Took it for a test drive and it ran well but boost was very slow to build. Went through the procedures to reset the Quantity Adjuster and injection quantity at idle, it now builds boost much better but could use a little further tweaking. My tuner sent me a list of adaptations to change in the ECU to dial things in, but even now my EGT's are down by about 150ºF at 110km/h and peak temperatures are lower and take longer to reach under heavy throttle. Power seems down slightly but I can stay in the throttle a lot longer than I used to be able to. A good tradeoff in my book.
- Thread starter
- #716
Did an oil change a few days back, while I had the oil out I put some thread tape on the oil pressure sending unit. It seems to have taken care of at least one of the engine's oil leaks, pretty sure the issue was between the sending unit and the adapter to fit it to the TDI oil filter housing. Still have a perpetually leaky turbo oil return line, the exhaust manifold gasket needs replacing so I'll make a new oil return line and put some sealant on it while it is all out.
- Thread starter
- #717
Finally found a weigh bridge that was turned on and unmanned, I’ve been wanting to get an actual curb weight on the Prado for quite a while. With half a tank of fuel, the rooftop tent, a bunch of tools and recovery gear in the back and me in the drivers seat it came to 4900lbs. I’d like to take everything out and weigh the bare vehicle with a full fuel tank, I’m guessing it will be around 4500lbs. Fully loaded for a trip is probably 6000+. Pretty impressive that the little TDI can pull that kind of weight around as well as it does.
- Thread starter
- #718
A couple of weeks ago I took the Prado along as a support vehicle for the Great Divide Rally. The rally went great, I was on start line/sweep duty and no one broke down or got lost, so that was nice.
The Prado performed pretty well overall (very happy with the current tune) but as the day went on it started to squeal under boost. That evening @2gbFlashDrive was going to drive it back to Bozeman but hadn't gotten out of town before the exhaust manifold gasket gave out and triggered underboost limp mode. I ended up trailering the Prado back the next day.
Initial cleaning of the very dirty, oily engine in preparation for tearing the intake and turbo off:
Turned out that out of the 8 exhaust manifold nuts, 5 were loose, 2 were tight and one was missing altogether! No wonder it was leaking...
I was reminded of how unpleasant it is to work on the intake or exhaust manifolds or turbo in this thing. Everything is extremely tight with very limited access. Now that I have it apart I am strongly considering getting a different style of exhaust manifold, and since that will require new exhaust, intake, charge piping, oil drain and turbo adapter I am thinking now would be the time to upgrade to a more modern turbo. Thinking about a midrange GTD series turbo, possibly a GTD1752vrk or a GTD1756vrk. The benefits would include better boost response, more efficient turbo, better flow meaning cooler EGT's, and more overall boost if that should be necessary. They also use a v-band exhaust outlet, which would be really nice for building a new, larger downpipe.
The Prado performed pretty well overall (very happy with the current tune) but as the day went on it started to squeal under boost. That evening @2gbFlashDrive was going to drive it back to Bozeman but hadn't gotten out of town before the exhaust manifold gasket gave out and triggered underboost limp mode. I ended up trailering the Prado back the next day.
Initial cleaning of the very dirty, oily engine in preparation for tearing the intake and turbo off:
Turned out that out of the 8 exhaust manifold nuts, 5 were loose, 2 were tight and one was missing altogether! No wonder it was leaking...
I was reminded of how unpleasant it is to work on the intake or exhaust manifolds or turbo in this thing. Everything is extremely tight with very limited access. Now that I have it apart I am strongly considering getting a different style of exhaust manifold, and since that will require new exhaust, intake, charge piping, oil drain and turbo adapter I am thinking now would be the time to upgrade to a more modern turbo. Thinking about a midrange GTD series turbo, possibly a GTD1752vrk or a GTD1756vrk. The benefits would include better boost response, more efficient turbo, better flow meaning cooler EGT's, and more overall boost if that should be necessary. They also use a v-band exhaust outlet, which would be really nice for building a new, larger downpipe.
- Thread starter
- #719
Fortunately I was able to get a new water pump installed in the new-to-me Mercedes W116, so at least I have a second car to drive while I figure out the best course of action with the Prado.
Absolutely loving driving it, despite the 3FE levels of fuel consumption! Single owner car, garaged all its life. There are a few small issues to sort out but it cruises beautifully.
Absolutely loving driving it, despite the 3FE levels of fuel consumption! Single owner car, garaged all its life. There are a few small issues to sort out but it cruises beautifully.
I was reading your post and thinking, wow, it must be SO EASY to work on the TDI with it oriented lengthwise like that.... then you went and said how awful it is working on the exhaust manifold... lol.
I replaced my wife's exhaust manifold and turbo on her car. As you know, all that is behind the engine and against the firewall. What a pain that is.... just trying to put it into perspective for you!! Your setup is a dream to work on in comparison. I am impressed with how well the little 1.9 is moving about that 70 series metal box around for you as well as it is. They are indeed impressive motors for those who know how to look after them.
