Power Upgrade

Kirko
We pulled our BT #1 with a 4.2 TD Patrol and had the same problems you describe.
The van was an 18' model so we were pulling upwards of 3 tonnes.
I had a diesel tune done by the mob on the southern highlands, about $700.00 worth but no significant improvement.
Then had an aftercooler fitted, I think it was Safari.
Significant improvement in power and pulled the van with ease.
The BIG BUT.
But it overheated badly on hills, especially long ones where engine revs were up and road speed and airflow down.
It would boil on a good climb such as from the coast up to the Vic high country.
The aftercooler fits in front of the radiator and restricts the air flow.
After much discussion with the supplier who would accept no resposibility I did the best thing I have ever done.
Purchased an F250.

I do not think that apart from an engine swap to a Chev diesel that you can overcome your problem.
The 4.2 TD just doesn't have the grunt for our job.

Best Regards
Turist

Turist Do you have a snorkel on the F250? Cheers, tgintl/jay

Maybe not, I have read many good reports about the Dtronic piggyback
computer on Nissan TD engines.
I have recently installed a Dtronic on my 2003 LC100 4.2 TD and 'oh what
feeling'. Torque has increased from 430 nM to 530 nM all the way from 1200
rpm to redline. kW also increased, can't recall how much.
Towing the BT is a different experience now.
David

Kirko, As Bob has said .... Slapping an intercooler in front of the aircon condenser which is in front of the radiator then upping boost/fuelling to increase engine power up by 10 -20% puts a heavy load on the radiator. Intercoolers come in two configurations ... one is Tube and Fin and from memory allows more airflow through the intercooler ( less restriction of air to radiator) but is a less efficient at intercooling. The other is Bar and Plate .... with good intercooling but harder to pass air through. You might think that putting a bigger radiator on would solve the problem but it wont do its job if you cant get air through it .... it just takes longer to overheat because your heating a larger volume of water ..... The solution to intercooling and not slapping a huge intercooler on the front is what is called a "water to air intercooler". In simple terms it is an intercooler inside a box and in this box is water/inhibitor mix like in a radiator so the water cools the intercooler not air ... much more efficient as the thermal efficiency or water is 30 times that of air (from memory). This boxed intercooler is so efficient that one required to intercool a cruiser turbo diesel is about 500mm x 200mm x 100mm and can be placed in the engine bay near the intake manifold at any angle or orientation. It also stops another problem in front mount intercooler, that is, pipe friction from the big pipes that go all the way from turbo to the front, into intercooler and then all the way back to the engine intake. When you try to pass large amounts of air through a pipe the walls of the pipe hold air by friction and the centre stream of air moves faster the air near the pipe leading to more inefficiencies. A water to air overcomes this by pipe work only being about 500mm long as against 2 metres. Also the smaller intercooler core has less friction across the area between intake and outlet as it is a quarter of the size. The water in the water to air is cooled by a small separate baby radiator mounted in front but being much smaller offers far less restriction of air to the engine radiator. Water is circulated by a electric water pump in the heater hose size lines going from the intercooler to the baby radiator. If this pump ever plays up or you blow a water line the car can still be driven, you just dont have intercooler cooling until fixed which reverts the engine to how it is now .... you are still able to drive with safety. Cost is comparable to a front mount I believe ..... ???? Might be worth investigating ??? Also ... Because you are pushing a turbo diesel engine a bit you might consider fitting an exhaust temperature gauge in the exhaust to keep an eye on it when pushing up hills or ranges. If it gets a bit hot you can see it and back off a bit ..... If running an auto box you might also include a trans temp gauge for the same reason. VDO now make suitable gauges for this purpose and are a reasonable price. Recently a friend of mine placed a temp gauge in his Patrols auto (Petrol) and we discovered 110/120 c in the auto .... far too high ... after fitting a fan forced cooler it runs around 80/90c now ..... towing. Regards Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ..tow a Bushtracker