Thread: Defender Puma 130 Head Gasket, Head & Turbo Failure

Originally Posted by clive22

I have also put this in the BAS review thread. Tese two threads have merged really, but this nearly concludes this episode with my truck



Hi all


I have my 130 back from the shop a few days now and have a done a few drives. Mostly 50-100 kms in rolling terrain, low air temps - high teens, unladen.
The REDARC gauge mounted in the dash in a nice instrument, monitoring boost and EGTs.

The pyrometer is installed in the manifold upstream of the Turbo like nando (thanks nando).
The gauge reacts quickly to boost and temp changes, the mode is set as 700 centigrade whereupon the entire gauge flashes red (it's lcd) and beeps a warning.

The exhaust to the centre muffler was changed to a CAT delete pipe supplied by Bruce Davis. An extra bracket was added to improve support and stop rattling.

The head is new the exhaust is new. The radiator was flushed. Flow down 30% on a 3 year old replacement radiator!!, accordingly to the guys who did it.

The inlet manifold was cleaned out as it was clogged with oil residue caused by leaking, failing turbo

The inter cooler is BAS. It was cleaned out as part of the engine works.

Driving with the 170 hp BAS tunes in the upper Yarra ranges with large throttle openings it was not too difficult to push the EGT's over 700.
Just take it through the gears or holding speed on large throttle openings up to 90-100 km/h, ~5% gradient hills and it shot through 700 pretty quick.
Backing off dropped temps as quickly. I was trying generate heat, a bit, but not too much

I planned to de-tune it originally after the rebuild so flashed in the 150 tune and drove it again the next day, a cooler day by 5-8 degrees. Temps driving similarly seemed to top out around 650.

Early days yet and I will play keep further notes.

Limited data so far suggest the 170 may overheat the engine.

My 130 is fairly heavy with winches, bull-bars drawers, roof rack, fridges, etc. Be 2500-2700 kg rolling I reckon.

Another observation was really could not notice much difference in performance between the old and new configuration, ie the decat pipe made little difference
to the acceleration. Little to no difference in exhaust noise, bit more turbo whistle, as I did not delete the center muffler as I dislike noisy exhausts

Clive

Good to hear you've got your 130 sorted. I think you'll find the 150 tune much safer to drive on as you spend more time testing it and you'll spend less time looking at the egt gauge in time as a result. Peace of mind really

Hi

Looks like that will be the case and i'll be sticking with the 150 tune. To be honest I felt it was smoother and more pleasant to drive after trying the 150 & 170 back to back.
The 170 seems to feel up a bit lumpy over about 2,500 rpm. This rev range was where the exhaust gas temps were spiking too

But really the truck is a tourer. The 150 works fine for the normal driving and the reliability and peace of mind is worth the loss
of performance

Clive