Thread: What happened to your Discovery 2 today?

Originally Posted by PhilipA

After I found my leak from the centrifugal filter drain, I have NO leaks for the first time in 8 years.
How long will it last? any bets? (probably until tomorrow)
Regards PhilipA

You should not have made that public,

I think the car will be "challenge accepted" !!!

Originally Posted by PhilipA

After I found my leak from the centrifugal filter drain, I have NO leaks for the first time in 8 years.
How long will it last? any bets? (probably until tomorrow)
Regards PhilipA

I'll bet she's leaving her mark as you typed that!

Actually .. I came in here today to explain my current D2-less(kind'a sort'a) situation.

Stupid bro has decided that he wants it back now! .. doh!
After the few little tweaks I've made over the past few months .. D2 drives better than a lot of newer cars!
Really, the new suspension is what grabbed his attention.

I'll get him onto Shack at some point to get a better tune for it one day.
Needs a few mechanicals sorted first tho.

BTW, when I say I'm D2-less .. not strictly true .. I still have a long term, half abandoned V8 I want to get on the road one day ... it still needs to wait a bit more.

So I'll still come visit and continue to annoy, as I have been for the past 6 years ...


... I suppose I'll have to be demoted back into D1 forums again

You'll always be welcome here, Arthur. You could go upmarket and annoy the snobs in the Range Rover forum.

Thanks to Shack, investigated the method of boost control and I was wrong, it does use positive boost pressure to control the VNT and not vacuum and just checked the original ad Defender / Discovery ad and it was vacuum listed as with the picture on the web still showing a vacuum controller. So early this morning changed the piping over and went back to the boost controller but this time hooked to positive boost rather than vacuum I used initially and disconnected the VNT vacuum controller (anybody want to buy a barely used vacuum VNT boost controller LOL).

Still smiling, with it turned all the way out and barely making standard boost (max on the Nancom logs was only 15psi and mostly around 12psi) and yet it gave a good shove in the back. IT was almost surreal as to the difference. The D2a which I drove after it to work, even with WOT gave nothing of the sort, it sort of starts alright but loses it pretty quickly. At a steady 60 up a reasonable incline the readings were down under 5psi which is almost out of sight and the EGTs were low, very low around the 300C mark.

More interestingly was the fact that the engine temps on the EWPC were barely reaching 80C whereas before when trying to sort the problem it was showing up at times into the 90's no doubt due to the high boost (hitting 31psi at 2500rpm with any hint of firm throttle application) and I was pushing it a lot harder as per throttle applications. Surmise now it was the excessive EMP with turbo vanes closed that was acting as an exhaust brake and not the fueling / MAP cutting the power. The EWP icon did not when I looked ever go solid so it was just pulsing the whole time.

So imaging the cooling system will be dependent on the boost pressures, right now I am confident of the system being able to cope as will only be max mid 20's psi. Still got an intermittent issue of leaking so will be off to the BIL's to get it pressure tested - am going to take of the hose assembly I made up for Thermostat removal from the radiator to front coolant pipe and find a suitable single pipe to replace it as well.

I cant quite imagine what the performance will be like with basically double the boost or even if I will need to go so high. Darkside Developments in correspondence told me of one customer running it 35psi, but that's a defender with a manual, not an auto.

So am going to use brake line for the porting to the turbo and boost pressure controller as well as the boost gauge at least, in through the firewall, got the piping as was thinking one possibility of the problem could be the silicon piping being sucked and blocking the vacuum supply and hence VNT actuation.

Now the turbo is sorted to the 90th degree, going to book it in for the Auto V8 TC changeover as I start to turn up the boost levels its going to be necessary.

360,000 Kim oil flush with Cost Effective Maintenance flush, Mahle filter replacement and fill with Penrite Vantage 10w 40 that i have found to be the best oil for my 4.6. Good run along a quiet, hilly road. Beautiful. Cheers

Driving out to BIL's to do the pressure test of the coolant system, had reset the Thermostat to 92C as per the advice of Davies Craig and along the eastern freeway the temps slowly rose, 98, a few minutes later 99, few more 100 and onwards to 108 on a 103kph cruise. Hung around 108C and a spike to 112C when turning it off some 20k's later which included about 12K's of suburbs driving.

Fitted a top shroud to stop air escaping this way over the top of radiator as well as a support for the EF, no way am I going to suffer this if the last hope of containing temps did not work.

20220206_163308.jpg

Then to stop it escaping at the ends fitted some pieces of rubber
20220206_163440.jpg


The other intent was to straighten out the input to the turbo as due to the angles, was creating a kink in the rubber just before the turbo, so took off about inch of tubing and pretty much removed the kink by at least 90% ( the red hose in the return from the Boost controller rather than little boy farts in the cabin.

20220206_163317.jpg


So going home, the temps did not go down in fact they went up within 4-5k's back to 100C then up to 102C but stayed stable at a 60kph cruise. Pretty absolutely sure that the EF had to go now, only 33C outside and this, was not able to cool a worked engine at all...Re did some wiring (just to the right of the radiator), checked the fuses, all AOK, checked the relay, its a relay and was plugged in - nothing else to check. Went back to BIL's and the fan was working, must have been the wiring it seemed. Heading back home and the temps were fine, up to around 96C and back down then as I was coming off the freeway the temps started to climb again. Stopped again and the EWPC was on and showing 108C but no noise from the fan being on. Opened the bonnet again, checked the wiring and it was fine, then the fuses, fine and touched the relay and the fan came back on.... Went off, flicked the relay again and the fan stayed on, pretty sure now, not the fan, its the relay (makes note to self, make sure I have a spare or two in future).

With the fan back on it was only minutes down to 92C on the EWPC. What I am sure of though, is that the shroud did as it should and the temps at the 100kph cruise were well contained compared to going out and previously.

Was luckier than I thought at this save as when starting the car up again, had the M & S flashing, so being stuck in third good opportunity to test out the WOT levels, goes very well by the way and quicker even starting in third than the D2a.

So getting verbose here but was pretty astounded that the engine did not overheat with no fan and I mean NO FAN for over 30k's of driving on the highway and streets, the EWP I would recommend FULL STOP. Sure it is playing a greater part in temp control than the fan even, so even not going with the Electric Fan, the Electric Water Pump, absolutely.

First 4WD trip next weekend will decide on the absolute viability of the EF hopefully.

The original viscous fan is simple, very reliable and works - why did you remove it?