Kind'a .. sort'a ... sorted(itself) ... ?
Just an update for those interested:
His occasional/random/intermittent rough running has been a source of frustration for a long time .. but car still drove.
Up until this 'shutdown problem'.
Last time I tested on Monday night 10-15mins drive to and from my house up into some 80k/h roads, it still had the 'shutdown' issue.
This morning I checked the intercooler hose fittings(brother had changed them to silicon types) and all I did was violently wriggle the inlet side to be sure it was tight at the fittings.
Jumped into car to start 'er up, and she needed about 30 sec to 1min of cranking. Unusual coz it starts with a short 1-2 sec turn of the key.
Not wanting to kill starter, I gave it about 10-15 sec of starter, off .. ign on to let pump pressure the system, try starter again(10-15 sec) no good, ign on for pump to prime a bit more .. eventually it started with a lot of protesting.
LRA(in Thomastown) isn't far up from me, brother instructed me to go see them to book it in.
Now that the TD5 is aware that it's going into surgery .. of course she's running sweet as a nut.
No more rough running, and as Jeremy Clarkson would say ... POWWWERRRR!!!!
I don't normally speed, but after 20 mins at 70k/h in an 80 zone, I detoured away from LRA and onto the Ring Rd(freeway).
Hit 110k/h torque converter lockup smooth as silk, plenty of power(ie. I'm not a petrol head type).
Up and down freeway for about an hour .. all good.
Got me thinking it must be ECU or ECU loom(not injector loom as it's been replaced less than 2K klms ago).
One of the things that I did as we were making room to get in and out of the area near the fuel cooler spill return line, was to loop the loom from the injector plug at the head around a bit to keep it out of the way.
Disconnected the plug first and then manoeuvred the loom this way and that way making sure not to stress it(too much) .. knowing that it's 20 year old or so and probably a bit fragile from the heat.
So there's a strong chance that I stressed that part of the ECU loom enough to cause a failing connection.
When I got home and the engine bay cooled a bit, I pulled out the ECU, triple checked plugs for oil(from memory it's the red plug that cops it??) then opened up the ECU case to be sure (at least) no oil within .. as well as just a plain ol visual inspection.
Gave it a spray of Contact Cleaner to be sure .. and no grime or other unwanted colouration of the spray residue built up anywhere within.
One minor thing that I noticed tho was that there are rows of mosfets on both sides of the inside. One side about 8 or so all in a row, and on the other side there are two rows of three mosfets.
On that side with the two rows of three mosfets, the three furthest from the two ECU plugs had a different finish to their heatsink connection.
All the others had a nice shiny(very shiny) finish to them and those other three had a more dull finish to the heatsink connection(where they're stuck to the conductive strip for connection to the chassis.
All connections on the top side of the board looked OK .. just a small amount of goopyness to the transformer(??) thing on the copper wrap.
Didn't check the underside of the board tho(didn't want to push my luck).
Sprayed and cleaned up as best as I could both the ECU connectors, so that they're a better sliding fit with a more reassuring click to lock into place.
Also sprayed what looked like a sub connector tied into the black plug's loom too grey 8 way type connector.
Test drove again to be sure it still ran OK .. perfect!
So I'm thinking if any intermittent roughness returns we'll concentrate our efforts on checking over the ECU connections and the entire loom from ECU to front of engine.
The other thing I noticed in this successful drive via the nanocom. The cylinder balances seemed to be more tightly bound values. More like -3 to 3 or so.
On the bad Monday night run, I saw cylinder balances of wildly different values relative to each other. -20's -15's and 10's and 15's .. all over the place.
So the question is to those that have had to do the injector seals/o-rings .. would that cause intermittent rough running and or this partial shutdown situation. Do they suddenly come good for no apparent reason then play up again.
One last thing with the ECU.
I'd always had suspected that the engine has been fuel mapped in some way .. feels like too much power for a TD5, even considering the open exhaust(and hence noise).
So on checking the ECU, not only has it been opened before, but it had a sticker on it from TRS claiming a ECU performance flash upgrade.
Can't see the year as the sticker has been rubbed off at that point .. only the 13/4 is still visible.
Could a possibly corrupted or otherwise not well thought out fuel map cause intermittent issues.
ECU is a NNN type.
to all that helped ... massive thanks once again.