Thread: 300TDI injector tuning/fiddling

Back in July I purchased a 98 disco 1 300tdi auto. I had it a short while then had a water leakage from somewhere. Thankfully I found this forum and soon learned about the vagrancies of water pumps, P gaskets and all sorts of other things which, as I am mechanically challenged, was all new to me.

With help from the forum and other members I soon got stuck into it. Replaced water pump and P gasket, then thought whilst I was at it, and it was sort of in pieces anyway, why not replace all hoses, serp belt tensioner, serp and A/c belt, soon it was in even more pieces and replaced timing belt, various seals, pulleys etc etc. struggled with timing but got it sorted. Had radiator out and had it rodded, anyway you get my drift.

Vehicle runs well, no difference, I know the timing is good, all marks lined up, spot on. Starts instantly, no missing, coughing burping or farting. Maybe a slight bit of a rumble from front end which I have no idea if it was there before or not as I never had the lid up. Can't be heard inside vehicle.

Which brings me (at last) to my questions...tuning the injector system. I put in a Safari snorkel, more efficient air filter and a super duper intercooler, the supplied instructions for tuning useless as the proverbial. All this in an attempt to get a bit more get up and go. So, having read Ian's brief and everything else I could find...

1. I fiddled with smoke screw and it appeared to do nothing after 4 turns CW still no smoke, do I keep screwing or leave it??
2. Fiddled with cone but still no noticeable smoke, do I keep rotating or leave it or put it back to start position.
3. Have not touched star wheel, should I?
4. How do I test if turbo is working? I have no boost gauges or anything, can I put my hand over orifice somewhere and see if it is sucking or blowing or whatever it does? I replaced all hoses with silicone ones.
5. Should I take it somewhere and get it done professionally.

Nothing I do seems to make any difference it still just plods along, I was expecting some difference.

This is the first and only land rover I have driven so have no comparison. It appears sluggish, not like my daily drive (also a diesel but a new one) in fact slow as old boot, I was told by TRS it actually runs and goes very well. "We'll above average for age etc"

Any help or contact greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Pete.

It is exceedingly hard to accurately tune a turbo diesel without measuring what you are doing...
Boost and EGT gauges are a good start.

Are you saying you had the cone rotated such that the piston was at max travel.
If that is not smokey and EGT are appropriate then leave it there!
But in my experience "smoke" is a very vague measure of tune.

If you really want play its best if you get some measurements... otherwise take it to a reputable tuner and let them sort it. A good tuner will put temporary gauges in to set the tune then remove them so you dont need to fret over them!

S