Thread: 2.7 D4 on loan.

Originally Posted by trobbo

did you ever do any remote desert trips or long range touring in it and if so how did you go with fuel usage and real life range

Alas, the alloy V8 was melted by the thieves' fire before any good long offroad trips. Longest I had was about 600km of mostly 200 mm deep mud pulling a 700kg camping trailer. Needed mud/ruts mode to keep on the road. It consumed on average 18 litres/100km but that was being light on the throttle (not to save fuel but to avoid running into the trees). Also did quite a few 60km beach runs in very soft sand (engine struggling to keep from overheating and was nearly floored - but the V8 sounded ). On the sand the computer said 22 l/100 km, so that means it was in reality more like 24 l/100 km.

One other thing about the V8 is that a bug/sand screen can be put in front of the radiator, which I understand is a no-no for the diesel's intercooler.

Originally Posted by Dingmark Jim

One other thing about the V8 is that a bug/sand screen can be put in front of the radiator, which I understand is a no-no for the diesel's intercooler.

I haven't heard that one....

Bugger the bugs, a cleaner intercooler has to work better, but there may be less room to put one in.

The old man's TDV6 has one in place, not LR approved I am sure... but then what is?

AP

Your kidding! How come the engine was struggling with the heat. I have towed very heavy campers and vans in deep sand with my V8 Manual D2 and never had that problem (with a scangauge II to see what is actually going on too)...is the cooling system only just good enough and is it only a V8 D3 thing?

Cheers

Originally Posted by powella

The old man's TDV6 has one in place, not LR approved I am sure... but then what is?

My 3.0 got flyscreen from top to bottom from day 1. It looks a bit rough but I'll make it more presentable when a bullbar goes on. However I recently cleaned the strained insect debris from my D2's radiator which was almost totally clogged even though the I/C was in front of it and it had a commercially available insect screen from new. Regardless, I'm sure that straining the bigger bugs like grasshoppers increases the time between cleanings.

In answer to a couple of the above queries:

The engine was barely holding its temperature as my at the time 20 yr old daughter was having a lesson driving on sand (there's about 60km of beach south of Mandurah we were on). She was deliberately driving up onto the driest part of the beach where if walking, one would sink to above your ankles (ie, rediculously soft sand). The V8 was floored and at redline for about 15 minutes straight and was barely able to keep the D3 afloat on the sand. After said 15 minutes I asked her, "Umm, why are you driving so far from the water where the sand is so hot and soft?" Her answer, heard barely above the roar of the RAI and the engine fan, was, "Because it's more fun!". It was also a 40C day. Most engines will get a bit warm if treated this way. When the coolant temperature started to drift upwards, the engine fan would make a marked change in its roar, and the coolant would slowly cool back down.

Regarding the flyscreen, I know I read somewhere important (The owners manual? This website?) something to the effect that diesels can't have bugscreens or anything else in front of the intercooler to keep from overheating the air intake system. Who knows, maybe sniffing all that 98 octane when filling the V8 has had a deleterious effect on my memory I took note of this as back in the mountains of Colorado, where I grew up, we put cardboard over about 95% of the radiator to keep some heat in the engine. Turns out when it's about -50C (Not kidding. It can get colder than that and the cows still need food) the coolant, which has to be 80% glycol, 20% water, in the radiator gets so cold that it glugs up and won't flow, effectively freezing off in the radiator. This leads to no coolant flow in the engine, which as I painfully learned, can cause the cylinder sleeves to crack. Now you all know why I like living so far from snow.

Originally Posted by Graeme

My 3.0 got flyscreen from top to bottom from day 1. It looks a bit rough but I'll make it more presentable when a bullbar goes on. .

I put my screen behind the grille. The grille pops out easily and I cable-tied aluminium mesh to the frame behind. It extends down to the air scoop under the bumper. It fitted very nicely. And is not visible. I haven't noticed any problems with performance or overheating.