Originally Posted by
edddo
Gday Aurthur
Ok that makes some sense then.
I would just about gaurantee that low range hilly 4wding on a hot day would highlight why the shroud is a good thing.
But i wouldnt mind being proven wrong.
....
Last weekend ended up at Murray Sunset NP.
The bulk of the trip in and around the park was easy gravel tracks(ie. non 4WD) but there was also some deep sandy tracks to play in.
The 30-ish k drive up to Mopoke Hut didn't cause any heat build up, and the sand dunes were what I would describe medium. ie. not too hard but definitely 4WD and I set to low range too. Brother drove most of the tracks so couldn't really tell how hard(or actually soft and boggy) they were.
Was too lazy to lower tyre pressures too(have compressor, but I only a portable Chinese cheapie which takes forever to do it's thing). So poor little D1 struggled more than it should have in the sand.
On the way back tho, I drove out and we took an even harder track .. sand dunes were much harder, low ratio again. Hit one (the last one) dune at about 40k/h(remembering that tyre pressures were still highway level, and she got bogged.
Struggled to reverse back too(steering more than bogging) to line it up again and choose a different line. Had to hit 60k/h at the base of this dune, feathering and pushing throttle to get over. Made it at a very slow walking pace by the top of the ridge and had it been a couple more meters higher would have got bogged again.
Of course lower tyre pressures would have allowed fuss free movement, but were were only 30km from the end of the park where the smooth gravel started again.
Most of my efforts were focused more on the coolant and oil temps, rather than the track and getting over the dunes in one go(should have let brother drive ).
Coolant temp never budged from it's 83, oil temp did creep up from a normal 60-ish to about 70-75. By the time we hit Ouyen 50k later I noticed oil temp back down to 65(coolant still at 83)
My guess is that engine struggled a bit more than I thought it was(I feel less feedback from an auto than a manual in these conditions).
My sand driving style is more 'feather and push' as needed rather than the typical push hard, hard charging style I've seen from many others.
At the risk of taking the thread off topic, what happened next was that at some point between mopoke/Ouyen and home, stupid harmonic balancer started coming loose again(2nd time). Don't remember hearing it at Ouyen, and not once on the drive home.
Loose balancer then took out the alternator pulley(completely loose) and must have stressed the water pump shaft as it was leaking out of the weep hole.
So at some point, the poor 300 Tdi also had to deal with this issue as well .. just don't know at exactly which point it started(ie. in the N.P, at Ouyen, or on the easy 5 hr drive home from up there).
Stupid me tho .. these dunes would have been an ideal test to see if the coolant still heats up as it used too with the A/C on.
The replacement waterpump I was advised by the parts chap was a ProFlow branded one. My only request was that it not be a cheapie .. just a very good one. That's what he sold me.
Since the new pump change, I now notice that (with all the other changes/mods) the coolant now seems to be happier at about 80 or so .. dropping to 79 too in traffic(and as a test without fan).
It peaked at 83 briefly(a few seconds) but then dropped again on this test run.
Old pump seems to have the exact same impeller blades as the new ProFlow type, and other than the small drip from the weep hole it was otherwise in good nik and clean
But, yeah .. have it in the back of my mind to keep an eye on it if we hit any harder tracks or steepish hill climbs.
Had plans to do a short drive into some hilly country today, but another curve ball was thrown my way .. dad's Exploder did a clutch so had to orgainse some transport for him while we work out what to do with that now.
Arthur.
'99 D1 300Tdi Auto
'03 D2 Td5 Auto
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