TD5 Temps, when to worry?

[CraigE]

Ok today another small issue has arisen.
Background moving to Newman and towing a car trailer weighing in at a GCM of around 2.5 tonnes. Esperance to Cue all good. Temp sat around 93 occasionally jumping to 94/95 for very short periods according to Nanocom. Then today left Cue all good to Meekathara, after Meeka temp climbed to 95/96/97 consistently. From Kumarina to Newman sat on 98/99 and on two occasions hit 100 for a few seconds before settling around 99. The road from Meeka is pretty much uphill all the way getting to 650 metres elevation. Sitting on around 80-90kmph about the limit it would do. Ambient temp was around 30, there was a strong cross wind coming in side on and slightly from rear, so may have been restricting air flow a bit. Even all the truckies were complaining about the wind and how much grief it was giving them. Did not use any coolant at all, did not smell hot, felt a bit warm to touch pipes and coolant reservoir but not real hot. Was no issue with releasing coolant cap at all, no spurting or steam. Did not boil. Oil was good etc.
Only other inconsistency was that my Nanocom had been playing up a little and not clearing faults on the odd occasion.
Is the Nanocom coolant temp accurate?
Could a bad batch of fuel have had any effect?
Coolant less than 6 months old.
The old girl had been working harder than normal towing this load.
Thanks for any input.
Craig

[LOVEMYRANGIE]

Towing 2.5T???? I would have expected maybe a bit more than that. Don't forget though that as the cooling system is pressurized, boiling point is raised and is also controlled by coolant additive too.
Anytime you put it under extra load it's going to rise.
Sounds like a pretty normal scenario.
Get an EGT gauge, this will tell you more about how much load your putting on the engine.

Cheers

Andrew

[LandyAndy]

Craig
I would say your temps are OK,but watch them close.Use lower gears when under load.
The sister we just purchased is turning very low temp readings,less than 1/2 on the temp gauge,80 to 90 deg on Nannocom.
BlackBetty registers 88 to 101 in the same hills,but is chipped.
5teve was getting the same temp readings as my D2 before ECU upgrade on his Deefer.Nanocom gets the real temp,from steering this Deefer of ours I believe the Deefer has a real temp temp display,the D2 stays in the middle despite the real temp.
May be better cruising a tad harder in 4th than using 5th???
Andrew

[CraigE]

Towing 2.5T???? I would have expected maybe a bit more than that. Don't forget though that as the cooling system is pressurized, boiling point is raised and is also controlled by coolant additive too.
Anytime you put it under extra load it's going to rise.
Sounds like a pretty normal scenario.
Get an EGT gauge, this will tell you more about how much load your putting on the engine.

Cheers

Andrew

Thanks,
Thought that maybe the case, but as I have not seen the temp go above 95 before thought I would pick some brains.
Thinking about getting a 3" exhaust to help the exhaust gases flow better and control EGT so will get the shop to fit a port for a lambda sensor and fit a gauge.
What is the best location for it?
Amazed me that it was all uphill for 500kms from Cue to Newman. Truck drivers and other travellers confirmed this and from a park bay nth of meeka elevation rose from 430m to over 600m. Wind was a real drama but still managed to cruise at around 80kmph most of the way.
Around 2.5 tonne and the Fender actually towed it great but it is also a really good trailer, enclosed canvas about 1.8m from deck, deck 5m long x 2.5m wide. Trailer 900kg, Torana 1200kg plus DRZ400, TTR110 and some other stuff.
Cheers
Craig
On the plus side I should be able to roll all the way from Newman to Perth.;)

[CraigE]

Craig
I would say your temps are OK,but watch them close.Use lower gears when under load.
The sister we just purchased is turning very low temp readings,less than 1/2 on the temp gauge,80 to 90 deg on Nannocom.
BlackBetty registers 88 to 101 in the same hills,but is chipped.
5teve was getting the same temp readings as my D2 before ECU upgrade on his Deefer.Nanocom gets the real temp,from steering this Deefer of ours I believe the Deefer has a real temp temp display,the D2 stays in the middle despite the real temp.
May be better cruising a tad harder in 4th than using 5th???
Andrew
Hey Andy, yeah Shrek usually runs 80s to maybe 90 not towing and up to 93 towing the van on hot days, just first time I had seen it hit 100. But as said did not seem hot at all to touch or smell.
In Newman tonight, so here to a new life.
Cheers
Craig

[LOVEMYRANGIE]

I wouldn't bother with 3" exhaust. Your better off getting a highflow muffler or a straight pipe replacement for the centre.
Going too large in the pipe can cause the turbo to overspool and the nest way to do this is use a too large exhaust.
A exhaust with a nominal I.D of 10% larger than the turbo pipe is ideal and this is the size of the turbo pipe.

As for the EGT, you need to drill and tap a hole in the exhaust manifold right at the turbo mount as it's the hottest part. Post turbo won't give you a true reading.

Cheers

Andrew

[Catmatt]

I am not being a cynic nor do I write this with any malice whatsover.......It's just that I flew fixed wing and helicopters for years before settling down to a 'real job' :cool:

One of the benefits of aviation is that most aircraft have a gauge or a 'tell-tale' to tell you the temp or measure metal fragments of just about every moving part or liquid on the aircraft.....whether you want to know or not!

Aviation is quite safe....it's just very unforgiving if you suffer a component failure at height so it pays to know what is going to fail and when.:o

With that mind set, a fellow TD5 owner and former aircraft engineer I knew when we worked in WA decided to fit temp gauges to both front and rear diffs, his gearbox, engine oil and fuel tank as well as an EGT so he could continually monitor the condition of his running gear.

All of a sudden, this amiable guy became obsessed with every single temp change or thermal spike (As he called them) and would even pull over regularly and peer under the bonnet or climb under the car to check nothing was amiss. It was worse on a long boring trip when he would regularly call me on radio and give a running commentary on - a 3 degree change in the rear diff! :p

Dare I suggest that may be we are starting a trend of doing the same with the ever availability of instruments that supply a lot of real-time 'nice-to-have' data, but not necessarily useful information. :angel:????

I can see this same 'obsession' emerging with many other 4WD owners who in the past, would drive in 40+C ambient temps, aircon at 17C and towing over loaded trailers blissfully unaware that they were doing no damage whatsoever to their vehicles apart from minimal (Less than 10%)thermal overload that would stabilise once the temp or load decreased.

Keep an open mind - I mean no offence, just putting a point out there!

[PAT303]

Could not agree more.I have met,and there is quite a few on this forum who start carrying on about oil testing and the results and how this is wrong blah blah.The worst thing about it is people will spend money on things like overtemp warning alarms instead of proper maintenance to stop the thing overheating in the first place.Craig,as long as it stays under 110degree's I wouldn't worry,you are towing a heavy load. Pat

[Col.Coleman]

With that mind set, a fellow TD5 owner and former aircraft engineer I knew when we worked in WA decided to fit temp gauges to both front and rear diffs, his gearbox, engine oil and fuel tank as well as an EGT so he could continually monitor the condition of his running gear.



Do you know how many times I have contemplated doing this very thing?:D:D:D

Don't worry Craig I have seen spikes to 104* in mine when towing at 7t GCVM.

CC

[5teve]

Craig
I would say your temps are OK,but watch them close.Use lower gears when under load.
The sister we just purchased is turning very low temp readings,less than 1/2 on the temp gauge,80 to 90 deg on Nannocom.
BlackBetty registers 88 to 101 in the same hills,but is chipped.
5teve was getting the same temp readings as my D2 before ECU upgrade on his Deefer.Nanocom gets the real temp,from steering this Deefer of ours I believe the Deefer has a real temp temp display,the D2 stays in the middle despite the real temp.
May be better cruising a tad harder in 4th than using 5th???
Andrew

As Andy said Craig... i was seeing up to 100 in the deefer unchipped on the way to Kalbarri.. 4 adults on board and the rear full of crap and i mean full. the 100 was seen on a long climb while i was pushing it to maintain 110. it was 40deg tho :)

I should of checked it when i was towing the boat to Jurien too... but didnt. It had just been chipped at that point didnt notice anything out of the ordinary but was holding 100k's on all but the steepest of hills. i may be towing this weekend down to mandurah (which will be fairly flat) but it should give an indication of whether its running hotter. if i remember i'll update the post.

I now have removed the centre muffler which is cheap and easy... i wouldnt go 3" either i beleive that Tombie swears by the vortex mufflers too.

I think the temp gauge on the deefer is also normalised as per disco.. but on mine always sits left of centre.. It just seems like Andy's runs very cool, mine runs on the hot side. The disco from memory sits at around 92-94...

I wouldnt be worrying not towing that much!

Steve

[Tombie]

Just some extra insight...

Inline 6 Falcons often see coolant temps over 120'c on hot days up hills with no ill effects...

[Blknight.aus]

you worry when the temp gauge moves from its normal "in the middle" position to about the 3/4 mark. Once its over there you are very near the maximum operating temperature but dont panic yet, you still have a couple of degrees to go before you are actually overheating. Back off, change down 2 gears and keep about 2K rpm on the engine, if the engine is still working hard or the temp gauge doesnt come back after about 30 seconds change down to first and keep the revs at high idle till you can pull it over.

its got a compensated gauge in it for a reason. and that reason is so that every tom dick and harry who has no idea about the fluctuation of a diesels engine temperature doesnt ring up to whinge about an overheating engine or one that wont heat up. These people are the same ones that I dread purchasing nanocoms and the like.

[Catmatt]

Can I add that when I lived in the NT I had my 1st great automobile love - a 1993 TDI manual. (My 1st was a Bell 47G5 that was so versatile I used to call it "the LandRover of the sky")

Returning back to Darwin after a weekend fishing in Kakadu and surrounds.....4 of us on-board with car full of camping gear, fully loaded 19'tinny behind also full of eskies, fishing gear, 85HP Yamaha etc, etc.

The highway back to Darwin was very similar to Cue to Newman...it was mainly a gentle, steady climb that was so decieving it usually caught me out everytime!

Typically....as we slowed down I'd boot more fuel into it until the old girl would be on full boost for 30-45 minutes and the temp would climb to critical. Finally I'd think - wow I better back off and....as wisely suggested below, I'd get out of overdrive and stop lugging away in low revs with full throttle and low road speed!
The old girl would always stabilise with temp dropping to midway and no other issues........all this from as simple 15KPH lower speed and higher gear.

Great things these LandRover aren't they? :)

[Fluids]

My D2a Td5 Auto runs around 88deg most of the time ... pull in for a quick stop, left idling for a minute or two, it'll rise to 91-93deg, then drop back to 88deg as soon as you drive away. It doesn't vary by much.

Got it to 100deg once ... hot dry sand on stockton beach last boxing day ... pushing it hard whilst playing ... brother-in-law was driving ... hit 100deg, Nanocom red warning light started flashing, and about 15 sec's later it dropped back to about 95deg.

If I leave mine idling, with the heater on and door/s open, after a few minutes, the temp drops ... seen it go as low as 65deg!, with the temp guage back towards the blue base line ... first time that happened I paniced and expected coolant loss ... opened the bonnet to find all intact ... then put 1 + 1 together and realised the cabin heater was blasting away with the doors open ! Phew!

It's a quick way to get large amounts of heat out of the cooling system.

Kev..