As my stereo says, it's my birthday today!
I've had the MadMan EMS2 gauge for a long time but only just installed it. This is a really nifty bit of kit that I'm very happy to have found. It can display Coolant/oil/gearbox temp, oil/boost pressure, EGT, volts, engine hours and it has programable alarms for all of those. It can also display coolant level in the engine, not just the overflow bottle like most things. I really wanted wanted something with alarms, you're not always looking at the gauges. I also didn't want to have gauges plastered everywhere so 1 gauge to do everything is a big winner.
It's also quite affordable. It was a bit under $300 with an extra 1m of wiring loom and a number of senders. Considering how much it does, thats an absolute bargain.
Here's their website.
Madman Developments - MadMan EMS2 Unit
As you might be able to see, my GF got me a VMS GPS for birthday, very pleased!
I decided to pull the dash to get the wires to fit as I wanted, I also refitted my stereo (I had a crappy eBay in it) and ran the antenna cord behind the speedo as well. I was very pleased to see the far right hand vent (which is closable) is able to be bolted in where the always open vents are. I'll be sourcing some of those.
I sorted my water pump. I ended up with a GMB W3068 which fits perfectly. It's cast iron and made in Japan. I had a heart raising moment after fitting it. I filled the cooling system, thought I had got the air out of it and drove to work (only a few KMs away). I was watching the gauge, it went from 41°c to 108 in just a few seconds and the stock gauge raised quickly also. I limped it to a house a few hundred metres away and topped it up. I guess there was large air bubble or something, I never a thought the temperature could go up that fast, easy to see how a blown hose could kill a motor before you even notice.
I had intended to fit this inside/outside temperature dash pod but the gauge is a better use of the space, I will probably mount the GPS to cover the other portion of the pod. This car originally had the inclinometer/altimeter which IMO is largely useless. My 4runner had similar and the alitimeter was quite accurate but the landcruiser one was much less sensitive. GPS makes all that obsolete anyway.
Also, I said I would update on my turbo debacle. A few pages back I picked up a T25 from a friend. I also bought a Mamba extended tip billet compressor wheel for it (standard size). I attempted to rebuild it which went fine until my GFs puppy pulled the turbine wheel off the table and bent some fins! I straighted them out but wasn't really keen on it. Whilst trying to fit that billet compressor wheel I broke the piston ring exhaust seal.
So after pricing some stuff up I hit up alibaba suppliers and bought a whole brand new CHRA for a measly $125 posted from powertecturbo! Not money well spent, as it would turn out.
This looked pretty good, it was very professionally packaged and for the most part actually had a nicer finish than the Garret. The turbine looked a bit worse (90 degree edges, rougher profile) than the Garret one but the compressor and core looked better.
But the core isn't correctly machined, the compressor housing touches compressor wheel. Also the turbine shaft doesn't appear to be incorrectly machined as the compressor wheel doesn't rotate quite concentric to the axis of rotation.
Also that Mamba billet compressor wheel? Well whilst it's a work of art, both beauty and engineering (smallest balance mark I've ever seen) it doesn't really fit. They left almost no clearance to the compressor housing and it touches with the slightest wiggle.
So I'd kinda cracked the s***s with spending money and time on this old tech turbo for no result and started looking for something else. The TD04-13T maps out well, good surge, plenty of reserve flow, can do ultra high pressure ratios (not that I'm aiming for that) and is 73% efficient at cruise.
I seriously considered second hand TD04HL-13Ts from volvos and TD04L-13Ts from WRXs on eBay but I saw Kinugawa had TD04L-13Ts on special for $616 delivered. After all my issues with second hand stuff I decided to go with that. I figured it would probably get me the most modern wheels too, the turbine is gen 3 as per dougals definitions.
Geniune MHI core, 6cm T25 flange exhaust housing, the fancy adjustable wastegate (I asked them to put in a 15psi spring and they did), all the lines/gaskets and a compressor housing that is easy to rotate. I'm very pleased.
I've got most of the bits to make my exhaust manifold (flange, elbows ect) just need some tees, exhuast/intake pipes and a downwards pointing oil filter housing. There's a very rusty BJ40 on a farm nearby I can hopefully get that from.
The BJ73 is loaded up and we are heading off to Esperance for 10 days. A few little things left to do on the car but we're leaving tomorrow. Hopefully all goes well, I'm looking forward to it!
locked the keys in the landcruiser. I tried for ages to unlock it with a coathanger down the side of the window but I don't think it's possible. Once the place opened I called the RAC guy and despite him being very confident he'd have it open in minutes it took him quite some time to get in. It certainly gives me quite some confidence in the car, I'd just assumed that being an older vehicle it'd be quite easy to break into. I had a fairly late model Suzuki that locked its self (dud battery) and once you knew how to do it you could get into the car in under 30 seconds! 
