I am a relative newcomer to this site, and in reading the various opinions about the Prado and the 2L engine, it seems that there are essentially two different vehicles. The first is a reasonably serviceable vehicle that keeps up to the traffic, is reasonably responsive to throttle pressure, can pull a small trailer, and gets reasonable fuel economy. The second can barely do 80 km/hr with a headwind, smokes and overheats. I am writing this because I have had both of these in the same vehicle, and my experience might be useful to somebody. I had the Prado for about a year and drove it about 10,000 km before I noticed air bubbles in the radiator while getting the transmission flushed. It unloaded a bunch of antifreeze on the floor and started to warm up. It was shut off before it got really hot. It only seemed to do that at an idle, but I can only theorize why. The official diagnosis was (Quelle Surprise!) A cracked head. The head was replaced with a 3L head and I picked it up from the shop and headed down the highway on a 330 km trip. They said “it runs good”, but cautioned I should get the fuel pump calibrated because it smokes. By the time I got to my destination I prepared a chart of how it was different from before the head change. It is as follows: Exhaust Before — Smoke during heavy load at low engine speed. Cleared up as soon as engine was up to speed. After — Smokes all the time at practically any engine load, sometimes very heavy on highway. Throttle response Before — Very light pedal pressure was required to get moving at a reasonable rate. After — More than half throttle is required to move. Maximum speed on level Highway Before — 140 km/hr After — 100 km/hr sometimes downshifts on apparently level road Highway hill climb Before — Maintain 110 km/hr on any hill on Highway #2 After — As slow as 80 km/hr on Highway #2. Engine temperature Before — Middle of scale at all times after warm up. After — Top end of scale at highway speed, Mid scale at city speed. Oil Pressure Before — Mid scale all the time on the road. (with 15-40 Oil) After — On Hwy hill climbs, drops to middle of lower third of scale. (With 5-30 Oil) (the Head guys changed the oil) Fuel consumption (Hwy) Before — 11.0 l/100 km (25.6 mpg) After — 20 l/100 km (14.1 mpg) Engine Noise Before — Nothing unusual After — New, minor clatter at higher than idle speeds, not a typical diesel clatter Stalling Before — Don’t recall it ever happening After — Stalled at gas station in Red Deer, twice. Three times on Deerfoot trail in heavy traffic. All this before I got to my destination in Calgary after leaving the shop. Stalled again next morning after a cold start. After a few days I drove back to the shop using the temp gauge as a guide. Any speed over 90 km/hr would cause the engine to start to heat up. I prepared the list above and delivered it to the shop. They asked if I could leave it with them and I did so. There were a number of theories about what might be wrong and the shop people said they checked them all out. One of the technicians told me that the electronic fuel pump on that model was “problematic”. 1. Compression was within specs on all cylinders. 2. Valve and fuel pump timing were correct. 3. The cover cap was removed and a sticky valve was found. It went back to the shop who installed the valves in the new head. Supposedly they freed it. 4. The injectors were sent to a diesel shop for service. Two needed repairs and were checked to be within specs and re-installed. The shop called me and said it had to be the injector pump, but they could not do that. They suggested the pump was “overfueling” (whatever that means). I picked it up to take it to the diesel injector service shop. With all the "repairs" it ran worse than ever. Getting moving at all was very slow. It might take 10-15 seconds to get the first 15 yards. It still smoked and the clatter noise was greater. The injector service people said they had a dynamometer and could test it under load in the shop. They were booked up for two weeks and I would have to wait. I told them that would be OK. I could not drive it anyway. Due to holidays and a shortage of staff, it took a month to learn that my injector pump timing was out relative to the valves and crankshaft. They re-installed the belt and it runs OK. Total elapsed time for this saga was three months. It should have been done in a week. On the first subsequent highway, with a load of wind resistance on the roof, it smoked quite a bit, and the farther I went the less it smoked. After a couple of hundred kilometers, it was clean. Fuel consumption is back to normal and I can keep up to the traffic.
LJ 78 Perfornmance Issues
- Thread starter Gene45
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Sorry to hear about your saga,
Although I'm pretty sure that halfway through your text quite a few of us here would have diagnosed the timing issue.
I suggest you carefully avoid the shop that did the "repairs" in the future, by all means.
Although I'm pretty sure that halfway through your text quite a few of us here would have diagnosed the timing issue.
I suggest you carefully avoid the shop that did the "repairs" in the future, by all means.
you should have come on here during the problem to try and get some assistance with the issues. Guys here might have been able to help.
Anyhow, good your running again. The way it should.
Anyhow, good your running again. The way it should.
- Thread starter
- #4
I agree. And that was the diagnosis when I took it back. The challenge was to get the guys who screwed it up to find their own mistake, especially since they had CORRECTLY the same belt a few weeks earlier.
2L-TE on Dynamometer
People, I'd like to get less black soot in my oil and out the pipe and better gas economy. (Still have black in my fingernails after changing and disposing of the remarkable amount of oil in this machine).
Has anyone put their turbodiesel on a dynamometer to maximize engine output, then fuel economy while minimixing emissions? Perhaps it is a dream, but I think putting a new exhaust pipe on my Prado 2L-TE and then testing it for output could help with mileage and give her a little more "push".
Anyone tried this?
People, I'd like to get less black soot in my oil and out the pipe and better gas economy. (Still have black in my fingernails after changing and disposing of the remarkable amount of oil in this machine).
Has anyone put their turbodiesel on a dynamometer to maximize engine output, then fuel economy while minimixing emissions? Perhaps it is a dream, but I think putting a new exhaust pipe on my Prado 2L-TE and then testing it for output could help with mileage and give her a little more "push".
Anyone tried this?
The diesel shop I use does it this way all the time. On the dyno,they can dial in the fuel pump while the engine is running and monitor the exhaust and HP at the same time.
As you can see from the experiences of the original poster,finding someone with knowledge of the Nippondenso injector pumps is vital to get it done right the 1st time.
The black soot in your oil is pretty much the nature of the beast with these diesels, and it's nothing to get worried about.
Black smoke from the tail pipe may be something to get worried about, but it really depends on whether you are driving your "new" Prado like a gasoline powered vehicle, or like a small diesel powered vehicle.
The 2LTE is a notorious over fueler. I do not know of anyone who has a manual for the diagnostics for this engine or any information about calibrating the pump (and if anyone has this info, please PM me).
Black smoke from the tail pipe may be something to get worried about, but it really depends on whether you are driving your "new" Prado like a gasoline powered vehicle, or like a small diesel powered vehicle.
The 2LTE is a notorious over fueler. I do not know of anyone who has a manual for the diagnostics for this engine or any information about calibrating the pump (and if anyone has this info, please PM me).
The Nippondenso rotary pumps are copies of the Bosch VE pump.
http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/vw/engine/fi/injpump.html
How different turbo and electronic versions are ,I do not know. Maybe the 2L, 5LTE or 1KZ TE pump is close enough for your purposes.
Robert Bosch also have an encyclopedia of their pumps available in volumes or the whole lot for about $100