Thread: my DYI Saudi grille(for D1)

I've pulled my seized ac fans out. Turns out I've got a fair bit mud behind them.... Bought some cheap 10inch fans off ebay they dont fit great but I can make them work.

Originally Posted by edddo

....
So regardless of the type of grill, the hot air route is unchanged.

That's basically what I get, except with A/C on, I'm seeing 20+ degrees increase in coolant temps with A/C on on a hot day.
The reason I tried this mod was that without grille, on a hot day up the Pentland Hills climb to Ballarat, I had no issue with coolant temps with the A/C on, and I had approx 50+ °C drop in EGT too.
Back then I had my fuelling so that EGT would peak up to about 720°C as I crested the top of the climb foot semi hard down to maintain momentum. I used to get down to about 90k/h EGT climbing up to 720, and of course I'd chicken out and backoff.
On that run without grille tho, EGT topped out at 650, and I easily maintained 95-ish k/h up the climb.



I reckon you're on the money, with the A/C condenser being a major culprit, but I'm also thinking that the fans are more of a hindrance than help too.
I haven't yet separated my radiator from the condenser(ie. pulled rad out) to see if there is any blockages behind condenser, but I can see through the two(condenser through to radiator and engine clearly .. so it seems like a clear path.
And I have hosed it out many times.

My A/C runs very cold too tho .. dunno if this makes any difference to condenser operating temps, but I'm always getting comments that the A/C works very well.

I have been eyeing off various 10" fans as replacements for the condenser fans .. a distinct possibility one day in the future.

some pics:
D800E_DSD_3079.jpg D800E_DSD_3080.jpg D800E_DSD_3081.jpg

D800E_DSD_3082.jpg D800E_DSD_3083.jpg

And yep! .. I have tried removing the lightbar too .. no difference.
As already said, in earlier posts .. only 'mod' that makes a difference to coolant temp on hot days with A/C running is removing grille completely.

On not so hot days(say up to about 30ish degrees) coolant temps are pretty much fine with A/C on .. maybe low 90's at most.

I only just noticed it now, as in looking at my pics of the front of my D1 .. and I'm thinking maybe a big part of the issue is a lack of air under the mid line of the bull bar.
Looking at a std Disco with std bar, the std bar has a scoop under the midline. I've never really bothered to notice the design of the bullbar on my D1(came on car when bought).. may look into that a bit more now.
I don't have any special steering/underside guard/protection, other than the std LR barwork down there.

Originally Posted by AK83

That's basically what I get, except with A/C on, I'm seeing 20+ degrees increase in coolant temps with A/C on on a hot day.
The reason I tried this mod was that without grille, on a hot day up the Pentland Hills climb to Ballarat, I had no issue with coolant temps with the A/C on, and I had approx 50+ °C drop in EGT too.
Back then I had my fuelling so that EGT would peak up to about 720°C as I crested the top of the climb foot semi hard down to maintain momentum. I used to get down to about 90k/h EGT climbing up to 720, and of course I'd chicken out and backoff.
On that run without grille tho, EGT topped out at 650, and I easily maintained 95-ish k/h up the climb.



I reckon you're on the money, with the A/C condenser being a major culprit, but I'm also thinking that the fans are more of a hindrance than help too.
I haven't yet separated my radiator from the condenser(ie. pulled rad out) to see if there is any blockages behind condenser, but I can see through the two(condenser through to radiator and engine clearly .. so it seems like a clear path.
And I have hosed it out many times.

My A/C runs very cold too tho .. dunno if this makes any difference to condenser operating temps, but I'm always getting comments that the A/C works very well.

I have been eyeing off various 10" fans as replacements for the condenser fans .. a distinct possibility one day in the future.

some pics:
D800E_DSD_3079.jpg D800E_DSD_3080.jpg D800E_DSD_3081.jpg

D800E_DSD_3082.jpg D800E_DSD_3083.jpg

And yep! .. I have tried removing the lightbar too .. no difference.
As already said, in earlier posts .. only 'mod' that makes a difference to coolant temp on hot days with A/C running is removing grille completely.

On not so hot days(say up to about 30ish degrees) coolant temps are pretty much fine with A/C on .. maybe low 90's at most.

I only just noticed it now, as in looking at my pics of the front of my D1 .. and I'm thinking maybe a big part of the issue is a lack of air under the mid line of the bull bar.
Looking at a std Disco with std bar, the std bar has a scoop under the midline. I've never really bothered to notice the design of the bullbar on my D1(came on car when bought).. may look into that a bit more now.
I don't have any special steering/underside guard/protection, other than the std LR barwork down there.

Something for you to consider is the placement of your light bar. I have mine installed under the top bar so as not to impede air flow to the radiator. I also have two six inch hellas mounted at each side and I mounted them sideways, also not to impede the airflow so much. When I put my a/c on, it puts the temp up by about 10 degrees. I have also removed my radiator (over 12 months ago) and blown it all out with air (I was taught years ago not to use a water hose at it will only make some grass/seed swell).

I have been across the Nullarbor on a 47 degreeday and it got to 98 degrees if I tried to maintain 100 kmh (into a headwind so I had to pedal as hard as I could), but backing of to 80-85 kmh bought it down to 88-89 degrees. Even on hot days around here at about 37 - 40 degrees with a/c on it only gets to 85 or so. My EGT is set to max at ~630.

Thanks for your input BT.
I'm 99.9% sure that the light bar has no impact on 'the issue' of running hot on hot day with A/C.
I removed it for a while and made zero difference. In fact with the light removed, I saw the hottest temp trying to collect data on the issue.
On a run out to Cobar/Broken Hill. Overnight temps approx mid 20's, A/C on(I don't like it, but did for testing) .. Tdi sat on about 85(normally 80-83).
I was two hours early getting into Cobar, so pulled up at a stop .. bored out of my brain, I removed the bar(but left the two side brackets). I doubt the side brackets made any difference at all.
From 6AM(after brekky) I'm off towards Wilcannia, and up to about 11AM temps felt in the low 30's .. A/C on, coolant in the high 80's low 90's .. I'd be happy with that.
Had to deal with a deflating tyre. From then on, temps were high 30's to low 40's, and with A/C ran consistently in the low 100's to 110. On one slight rise I noticed 115 for a while, switched off A/C ... as would be the normal thing to do.
Pulled up again to add air to tyre, sitting in the shade, I thought remove the grille.
With that done, max temp I saw was a spike to 102, but generally in the mid to high 90's.
Left grille off for rest of the drive and for a while after till cooler weather came about.
Hence my interest in the Saudi grille since early last year.

My bullbar is a TJM. I only know this after chasing about for a indicator for it. Local TJM place had them in stock .. changed. Old ones totally rusted out inside. The bar is a winch type .. ie. has the access openings for a winch.
About to remove number plate and keep it in car to open up the winch access for more air through to the rad .. see if that makes a difference.
The more I think about it, the more I think I see that the bar design is the issue.

ie. hypothetically. Normal LR bumper has the scoop under the number plate bar line. Estimate about 50% air coming under that and through to the rads.
Me taking off grille on my Broken Hill run, allowed about 25-30%(minimum) more air back through the rad/condenser .. made up for the loss of the scoop underneath.
If I remove the number plate, I'm hoping it'll allow about 15% more air back through to the radiators.

I've had heating up issues in previous cars due to A/C(XF Falcon, Rodeo ute, Frontera, many Rovers of the SD1 type .. etc. Always primarily due to restriction between condenser and radiator. Blow out with hose and in some instances removed rad(on the Rovers) due to stuff collecting and not being able to flush out).In every instance of that issue type, A/C has always been affected. Once cleaned out, AC would always recover some cooling ability. Hence my confusion with my Tdi .. A/C is fridge cold, all the time.

When the fans on our D1 failed we replaced them with ones from a Ford Falcon.
Removing the two big Lightforce driving lights made a big improvement to the airflow.
On our D1 the electric fans switched on with the air-con. Turn off the air-con and the electric fans stopped.
Make sure your radiator has fresh coolant too.

Has your air-con been serviced and re-gassed? There may be a filter that is blocked too.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Has your air-con been serviced and re-gassed? There may be a filter that is blocked too.

A/C works perfectly .. some say too cold!

Which Falcon(model) A/C fans did you replace with?

Is there anyone out there with a D1 with the stock grill and front bumper?
It would be good to know what role the bullbar is playing here.
Mine is also a TJM, with winch fitted.
I have the original bumper but I sure am not going to swap it over to find out....