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Land Rover Discovery 300tdi: An off-road conversion - Part 3
9th Sep 2009
ENGINE BAY
Turbo
My turbo was showing some weaknesses, not dead, just in agony stage. I was facing the choice of either buying a new standard turbo, fitting a full hybrid turbo (with all the associated cost) or having it rebuilt. I chose the latter solutions.
It is a cost effective way to get a “new” turbo as such, rebuild properly with the option to have some a-la-carte improvements.
After a bit of searching I contacted TurboTechnics (www.turbotechnics.com) for the work. I just had to send them my turbo and one week later a shinny new turbo with manifold came back. In addition to the standard rebuild they advised to fit their 360deg thrust bearing as my engine was tuned. This bearing is a lot stronger than the standard one.
I will write a more complete build-up review of the turbo rebuild with detailed pictures and publish it very soon.
Fitting it was easy, as long you follow the detailed instruction (provided) to ensure you do not ruin your new turbo on day one.
Manifold
I spotted something unusual on eBay. A performance manifold got my attention.
As I always want to try the new bits, the call to CS Components (www.cscomponents.co.uk) happened very quickly.
They take the standard manifold, sand blast the interior to make it smoother than the standard version to improve a bit the airflow. They also put an air outlet in order to plug a turbo boost gauge if required and supply it in the color you want.
I choose it blue to match my other air silicone hoses.
The location of the air outlet for the pressure gauge is well thought as by measuring the boost pressure at the inlet manifold point you get the true figure of what gets into the engine. If you also run a gauge at the turbo level you could actually measure any loss or any delay due to a blocked intercooler or else. (When you put you foot down on the throttle you can actually see a depression in the manifold before the air from the turbo arrives)
Putting aside the “bling” factor of a blue manifold and having a clean parts in the engine, I have to say that I did not really notice an increase in performance. However the delivery of the power seems a notch smoother, a bit like if the engine was breathing very well. My view is that every little help added all together make the end state a lot better, and this is one of the products that deliver that.
Injectors
A diesel engine with over 100,000 miles is still very strong, as long as you maintain it well. The injectors deliver with very precise measure the right amount of fuel. After 10 years and that sort of mileage, you cannot expect them to be as new and be as efficient.
The true test is usually at the MOT centre when the tester checks your emissions and a big black clouds comes out of your exhaust (I agree that other factors could cause it, but worn injectors are in the usual suspect list).
Oil Catch Tank
Even with a good engine, the tdi always tend to vent oil out of the breather. Most of it goes back to the sump, but some goes back into the air intake and you end up with a fairly oily turbo and intercooler.
As I fitted a lot of new kit and change all my hoses, I decided to re-route the breather outlet into an oil catch tank. It’s cheap, easy to install and will keep my air intake clean. There are a lot of choice in the market, but I got mine from 800bhp (www.800bhp.com) as the shape and the connectors were the closest to what I wanted.
Batteries
With the help of Devon4x4 (www.devon4x4.com), two Odyssey batteries (www.odysseybatteries.com) were chosen.
A PC1230 twinned to a PC1500. The smaller PC1230 will be connected to the main loom of the vehicle and with 1230 (hence the name) cranking amps should be sufficient to fire up an Discovery diesel with an autobox even in the coldest weather (have you noticed how hard it is to start autobox vehicle in the winter).
The larger PC1500 will be connected to the PC1230 via a simple split charger and be used for the winch.
Odyssey batteries are very well known in the hardcore 4x4 competitor’s world. They are known to last long, be resistant, be care free and offer plenty of power without taking too much volume. The Odyssey batteries are designed to military specifications, which should be plenty enough for our needs.
People may argue that these batteries are expensive. True, they are not cheap. But compared to other well known brands, they are on par. If you compare to a battery from Halfords or else, yes they are expensive, but they are not comparable. You would not use a standard battery for winching, or even think about using one of those in off-roading event
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