Finally got a LC v2.0! (7 Viewers)

[IanB]

Got the Dawes manual boost controller installed last night, set to stock for the time being. Had to pull the airbox lid and S-tube to the turbo to gain access to the wastegate line, but it wasn't as bad as I expected.

I had been purposely putting this off until I got through the majority of the baselining/maintenance work to keep myself motivated, I'm so close to a bump in power I can taste it! Can't wait to see what 1.5X stock boost feels like!

Also got to celebrate a milestone in the days leading up to the road trip, rolled over 110,000kms on the test drive with the boost controller in place!

 

[IanB]

Loaded up last night, and ready to roll when we get home from work today! Let the roadtrip begin!!!

 

[IanB]

Got home from work yesterday and headed out with the family on a 2 week road trip, the EGT readings I've been seeing have been a BIG eye opener!

1st leg was stock boost (10psi), stock pump settings (I assume), and on the couple of decent hills we encountered, EGT 's shot up to 1250+!! Anything above 100km/h and the boost was maxed. Cruise set at 120km/h I was seeing 1050F on flat land, I was getting anxiety thinking about the mountains I was headed towards!

Stopped at my brothers for the night, turned the MBC up to 15psi, and headed south west into North Dakota. Much better with more boost! Brought egt's down by about 100F from 100km/h and above. There's actually a bit of headroom on the boost side at 120 now, seems to sit at 13-14psi, so smaller hills the boost rises to 15 and the temps slowly creep up, very different than the day before!

At stock boost, there was no more air available, so to push the truck faster it was just adding more fuel, hence the EGT spike into the danger zone! Before I had the gauges I had no idea, scary stuff! And I live on the prairies!

 

[Douglas S]

I don't like to think about how hot mine might have been before fitting a pyrometer.

 

[bj70_guy]

I don't like to think about how hot mine might have been before fitting a pyrometer.

We don't call them the fun killer for nothing

 

[IanB]

We are now a few days into the trip, we did the Glacier National Park thing, and the views were breathtaking! Stayed off the interstate where ever possible, saw some national forests and stopped for lunch along beautiful streams, and we have had an amazing time so far! I did my best to get my nearly 3 year old daughter obsessed with mountain goats in the weeks leading up to the trip, so that has kept her occupied.

Made it to Seattle today, where we will be spending a couple days, including a trip to Olympic National Park. I'd never been farther west then Yellowstone area in the US before, and I just love this terrain. I'd like to make it to Colorado in a few years when I can talk the wife into another road trip west.

Anyone have suggestions on the best way to spend a day in the ONP area?

A few more observations on the actual driving aspect: it's likely wildly obvious to anyone from the mountainous areas, but it is FAR easier to keep EGT's under control using your right foot than with the cruise control set. Being from the prairies, and this being my first trip through the mountains with an EGT gauge, it's been a real eye opener to say he least!

I can also see where the benefits of an intercooler would come into play. And I have a hunger for more boost! I can't wait to see the difference some fuel pump tuning will make with the boost set to 15psi!

 

[IanB]

Today we explored the Olympic National Park area of the Olympic peninsula, which is a huge area! We headed across on the ferry, with a loose plan in place. Stopped in at the visitor center, and the plan got flipped when I got a chance to see some of the 3D maps they had there!

We headed up to Hurricane Ridge, and down a single lane dirt road that ran along the sides and top ridges of the mountain, rock faces to one side, 100's of feet down on the other. I was in heaven, my wife was like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, no chill, lol. Got to the end, a place called Obstruction Point, me and the kiddo played in some snow which she loved, had a bite to eat, and headed back. Amazing views up there!

It was a long climb up with a 40mph speed limit, so around 60km/h, not fast enough for the torque converter to lock up in 3rd, and for the first time I was keeping an eye on trans temps rather than just EGT's. Got up to nearly 200F, which I understand is warm, but not an issue yet.

Another observation, ambient temps make a big difference to EGT's, they climb faster, and take longer to come back down when it's hotter out. I was able to keep my foot in it longer in the morning than in he afternoons as we made our way along on this trip.

 

[BCR4619]

I was followed last night by a guy from Winnipeg! It was nice to meet up with you, you got a solid truck!

 

[IanB]

Had a great few days in the Vancouver area! Got to meet and hang out with @BCR4619 (Christian) and @Wheelingnoob (Jeremy), did some touristy stuff with the family, and had @hybric4x4diesel (John @ATEB) do a valve adjustment, and fuel pump tune for me before we hit the road again.

Truck now has even longer legs, pulled up the Coq like a champ (notoriously long, steep grade heading east out of the lower mainland), and EGT's seem even lower then before the tune! Boost is now running 21psi per John's recommendations, and the truck seems to like it. It will take some getting used to, it goes against all my internet research, whatever that's worth. It was pushing 21psi for I'm guessing 6 min at a time, and loved it. Zero smoke with the tune, runs very clean and smooth.

 

[IanB]

Well, we're back. 17 days and over 5500kms, in the truck with my wife and nearly 3 year old daughter. Trip was awesome! Saw a lot of really cool stuff, gave my daughter a whole new set of experiences and spent some amazing quality time with the family! My daughter has now seen a mountain goat (which was a BIG deal for weeks leading up to the trip), seen the mountains (a lot of them), taken a ferry ride (where you drive right onto a boat!), ridden a gondola, ridden a roller coaster (which was a big hit), and met my grandpa, who isn't able to travel anymore.

We ducked into the states from MB, and stayed off the interstate. Pretty boring till western Montanna, then the terrain got more interesting. Went all the way west through Washington to the Olympic Peninsula, up into Vancouver, and back on the Canada side. Lots of mountains, a couple of National Parks and lots of National Forests, visiting with family and friends, old and new! Overall we clocked 5500+ kms, and averaged 17.6mpg (13.4L/100km). The truck is a lot different than when we left too!

TUNING NOTES:

We left Friday night with the MBC set to stock boost level, about 10psi. There's really just one significant hill in the stretch, where you drive down into the river valley and climb back out the other side at Brandon, but otherwise a great drive to get flat terrain gauge readings, yay. This is where I live, lol. I found that at anything over 100km/h I was pushing max boost, 10psi with the cruise control set. On that one big hill, EGT's raced for the 1250F danger zone, and I had to kick the cruise control off and get out of the throttle to keep from exceeding that very scary 1250F mark! I later learned, that cruise does a much worse job of balancing the truck's power level required, and the EGT level than your right foot. Prairie kid mistake. I cringe to think of how hot this truck, and my last HDJ81, and my Hilux Surf would have gotten on their maiden voyages home from the coast...this truck is essentially stock powerwise at this point. Yikes! I was having some real anxiety that this was going to be a very tough trip for the old girl.

With no additional air available, to exceed the 100km/h point that requires 10psi, it's dumping in additional fuel to make the extra power, resulting in higher EGT's. The speed limit is 110km/h on the #1 in MB now (finally), and with the cruise set to 120km/h the EGT's were already at 1050F+, only leaves 200F for when you try to climb a hill or pass a car, that's not much. It also has the cumulative effect of heat soaking the cooling system, contributing to making EGT's slow to drop back down it seemed. On a diesel, lean = cool=safe, fuel adds heat, and heat is what kills diesels. Before you have gauges, you make a LOT of assumptions about things that influence your driving style, ignorance is bliss, lol. 1250F is obviously not a drop dead limit, or everyone's diesel would be a lump. It was shockingly easy to blast past with the stock tune.

That night I adjusted the MBC to 15-16psi, pushing my luck a bit I felt, as everything you read will tell you 14.7psi is the max safe limit for the stock turbo. Truck felt much better! Best described as an extension to the power band of the engine. Where it would start to run out of steam around 3000rpm, and revving higher didn't seem to equal getting anywhere faster than downshifting, it would now pull to higher rev while making power. Probably 500rpm higher, which on an engine with a 4K rpm redline is a big deal. There wasn't really anything in the way of an increase down low where the turbo hadn't hit it's previous limits. The extra air up top was all you got, but it was very nice to have.

It also ran cooler, which was great! 120km/h now required 14psi, and pushed a steady 950F across the hot prairies. Started getting into some bigger hills as we headed west. Trying to maintain 120 means using your 2psi in reserve, and a bunch more fuel on top. If you hit hills with even a little bit of momentum it helps a lot. If you have to fight to reverse a downward trend, it spikes EGT's noticeably. I think this is where the cruise control falls short. The truck makes enough power to blast through the hills, but keeping it in the safe temp range is a balancing act, you really need to keep an eye on things. Getting into the foothills and bigger mountains there were climbs I held it at 1250F for minutes at a time, even dropping down into 3rd where necessary (often). It was much better than what we started with, and adequate to get us through, but lacking.

When we got to Vancouver, I dropped the truck off with my mechanic, for a valve adjustment, fuel pump timing check, and "power rod mod" tuning. Didn't get to talk to him when I dropped it off, so I made some assumptions about what I was in for. I was surprised to find when I picked it up, he upped the boost further to 21-22psi! We discussed it, and he's confident the stock turbo can take this boost level safely, and all his tuning was done with this level of air in mind, so I took his word for it. He's always done right by me, so be it.

Truck felt great! Much longer legs again, not as much increase down low as I was hoping for, but in talking to him it sounds like all of the grinding on the fuel pin would affect 15psi+, so that makes sense I guess. I had assumed the "power rod mod" was a pretty standard upgrade, but I left with the impression that this is a custom tune, and I could have put some more time into it and got more out of it. That's fine, I want to learn to tune it myself anyways.

With the boost limit at 22psi, there was lots of room to rev and still make power now! It really can be best described as though you raised your rev limiter as far as useable powerband is concerned, really wakes the engine up! I had made up my mind that I trusted my tuner, and I was going to drive this thing like I didn't think it was going to fly apart, lol. I was rewarded! Climbing out of the lower mainland, there were several grades where I was pushing 22psi for like 6 min at a time, it was great! Much easier to control EGT's again, with more power to play with. It was much harder to get into trouble temp wise, which I equate to a much safer tune, and was much, much easier to drive in the mountains. More fun too!

It was a few days of hooning around in the mountains before I got to flat land, and found that I was pushing 16psi and 875F at 120km/h with the new tune, there was lots of room with both power and temp to accelerate to pass. It's no rocket, but it's more than adequate now. Much more enjoyable to drive. And it would seem that fuel economy is unchanged. Winning.

Now I need to clean 2 weeks of bugs off the front, and cracker crumbs out of the backseat, lol. My daughter stopped eating supper tonight, and turned to me, and said "Thanks for taking me on vacation". That's a big part of why I own my Land Cruiser, and why it gets a spot in the garage.

 

[Douglas S]

22psi goes right up against my research as well. I'm interested, but also somewhat apprehensive. I know when I was dialing my MBC in I hit pressures in that range and it felt strong.

 

[IanB]

22psi goes right up against my research as well. I'm interested, but also somewhat apprehensive. I know when I was dialing my MBC in I hit pressures in that range and it felt strong.

Yup, I'd have set it to 15-16psi and started saving if I wanted more out of it, but I'm here now, and it held up to some decent abuse on the way home, so might as well ride it into the dirt, lol. I'd have expected EGT's to become an issue as "it's just blowing hot air at that point", but it runs much cooler now than when it was stock. It's funny as I was really nervous about "overboosting" when setting up my MBC at the beginning of the trip. Being able to see the engine's air requirements on the gauges really changes how you look at things.

One other thing I forgot to add, trans temps were a complete non-issue on the trip. The A442F with electronic controls (as opposed to the fully hydraulic version in the earlier HDJ's) locks up in 3rd at 85km/h or so, as long as I was able to keep it locked up temps stayed around 130F, barely registering on the gauge. There was one long climb in Olympic National Park where the speed limit was equivalent to about 60km/h and it wasn't able to lock up, temps got up to nearly 200F, which is still pretty cool in relative terms.

 

[IanB]

About half way through the roadtrip the truck developed a "screech" from the rear driver's side corner when backing out of a parking spot, but I didn't investigate until last night. Rear brake pads are shot, rotors look to be fine still. Considered going with Hawk LTS like I have up front, but decided against it as the rears don't do enough of the braking to warrant IMO. Ordered some new OEM pads, should be here on Tuesday. Truck is laid up till I get those switched over.

 

[IanB]

Been a while since I've updated this, got some work done this week though so I finally have some news.

Following the road trip I noticed my rear pinion seal was seeping, so I ordered up a new seal and stake nut, and u-joints for the front and rear driveshafts. Then I got all crazy and ordered the Aisin manual hubs, figured if I'm going to do some tuning on my own this would make it much easier to throw it on a dyno so I can simulate some hills...cause it's flat here. That, and winter doughnuts, lol.

Thanks again to @beno for the parts, and the tech support, always a pleasure sir!

 

[IanB]

Also got out wheeling for the 1st time since the last time, about a year ago. Back to the same area, about 2 hours from my place, NE into the Canadian Shield. Smaller group this time, no chainsawing this year, no beaver dams, no damage. Did a little light rock crawling this time out, really had no idea how much room I have underneath as I just pulled off the running boards and rear bumper so I can get sliders and a rear bumper made up. Found an old rock quarry which was pretty cool!

 

[DrStrangevelo]

Beautiful 81 (and I love that benz wagon too). See you around!

 

[OGBeno]

Awesome Ian.

 

[IanB]

Pulled the hitch off tonight, gained about 10" of departure clearance. Dragged the hitch a few times when we were out wheeling a few weeks ago, shouldn't be an issue going forward. Going to see my buddies about designing a rear bumper and sliders shortly. Receiver will be integrated into the new rear bumper.

 

[IanB]

Dropped it off last night to get measured up for sliders and rear bumper, and discussed design with my buddy. Sounds like they're going to call the shop "Arc Lab".

 

[IanB]

Had the bodywork done over the last couple of weeks:
-refinished used HDJ81 lower tailgate to repair the trail damage from wheeling trip a year ago
-small dent repaired under LHS taillight
-small rust spot repaired on RHS cargo window surround
-PDR on small dent on windshield cowl

Shop did a great job, I'm very happy with their work! No pics of the work as you can't have a clean vehicle here right now.

Took the truck on a trip out to my brother's for a few days, and towed back a double snowmobile trailer. This thing tows better than the wife's GX470, which is surprising.

Planning on going snowmobiling tomorrow before heading back to work. Happy New Years everyone!