ALH upgrades maybe ALH/BHW??? advice

[fjdiesel]

I have a 76 fj40 (so I am pushing a brick) that I put a 02 ALH into. Here is my current setup.

Bosio 520 Race nozzles on stock injectors set at 230/320 bar with Automatic car IP, 03G145702H BV43 turbo from Darkside Development, Head studs, 2 ½ in mandrel bent exhaust, No egr, VR6 MAF, PD150 intake upgrade with racepipe, 2 ½ in intercooler and piping, 3 bar MAP, I have about 2500 miles on this setup. Getting about 22-25 miles per gallon. Intake air runs about 2 degrees F over ambient temp.

Its not bad. The couple things I don't like are high egt's. Or, I think so, 1100-1200 F when cruising. Easily hits 1300 on an incline. We plan to go out west a lot with it and I am concerned about the higher ambient temps.. And the mileage. I would like that a little better. And thirdly, I think it spools up a little slower than I would like.

My first thought was to swap in a BV43A. But then I read some posts about a BHW block and an ALH head. And I kinda liked that idea. So I am not opposed to that either. I have access to a BHW motor and I have a spare ALH on the garage floor. Maybe a Colt stage 2 cam? With a GTB2056VK?? As any project, I have a lot of time and money in it so I want to get it to perform a little better. Absolutely a riot to drive.

Let me know what you guys think.... Thanks.


And we all love pics..

 

[PickleRick]

What is your gearing, tire size and transmission?

What's your exhaust set up?

 

[Mozambiquer]

I have a 76 fj40 (so I am pushing a brick) that I put a 02 ALH into. Here is my current setup.

Bosio 520 Race nozzles on stock injectors set at 230/320 bar with Automatic car IP, 03G145702H BV43 turbo from Darkside Development, Head studs, 2 ½ in mandrel bent exhaust, No egr, VR6 MAF, PD150 intake upgrade with racepipe, 2 ½ in intercooler and piping, 3 bar MAP, I have about 2500 miles on this setup. Getting about 22-25 miles per gallon. Intake air runs about 2 degrees F over ambient temp.

Its not bad. The couple things I don't like are high egt's. Or, I think so, 1100-1200 F when cruising. Easily hits 1300 on an incline. We plan to go out west a lot with it and I am concerned about the higher ambient temps.. And the mileage. I would like that a little better. And thirdly, I think it spools up a little slower than I would like.

My first thought was to swap in a BV43A. But then I read some posts about a BHW block and an ALH head. And I kinda liked that idea. So I am not opposed to that either. I have access to a BHW motor and I have a spare ALH on the garage floor. Maybe a Colt stage 2 cam? With a GTB2056VK?? As any project, I have a lot of time and money in it so I want to get it to perform a little better. Absolutely a riot to drive.

Let me know what you guys think.... Thanks.


And we all love pics..

Photos didn't show for me. That isn't too much egts if you're talking just going up a hill or something, and I don't think it sounds too bad, just a bit high. How's your timing? If the timing is off it can raise the egts. Also, what's the injector IQ?

 

[fjdiesel]

What is your gearing, tire size and transmission?

What's your exhaust set up?

Gearing is 4.10's with 34 inch tall tires. The transmission is a Jeep NV3550
NV3550 is 1st 4.01:1; 2nd 2.32:1; 3rd 1.40:1; 4th 1.00:1; 5th 0.78:1

Exhaust is 2.5 inch mandrel bends. With a Flowmaster dbx muffler.

 

[jmodge]

Per post #2, what rpm and speed are you at when these cruising temps occur. These engines like cruising close to 3000rpm, especially with a load.

 

[fjdiesel]

Photos didn't show for me. That isn't too much egts if you're talking just going up a hill or something, and I don't think it sounds too bad, just a bit high. How's your timing? If the timing is off it can raise the egts. Also, what's the injector IQ?

The egts are flat driving. Doesn't take much of an incline to be 1300.

I can't answer the timing and IQ. Malone did the tune and greengeeker did the timing belt before the conversion. Back when it was still in the Jetta.

When you say timing, do you mean hard adjustment or in the tune?

And what is the IQ?
Thanks.

 

[fjdiesel]

@jmodge when I set up rpms I tried to make it the same as it was in the jetta. 55 is 2000 rpm and 70 is 2500. So maybe they are a bit on the low side..

 

[jmodge]

@jmodge when I set up rpms I tried to make it the same as it was in the jetta. 55 is 2000 rpm and 70 is 2500. So maybe they are a bit on the low side..

Can you put a smaller tire on it to bring the rpms up just to see what happens? IQ is injection quantity, adjusted via VCDS. Rich and lean adjustment basically. It can be adjusted to produce just a light haze under full throttle acceleration. The more fuel the higher the temps

 

[fjdiesel]

I can put a smaller tire on. I will do that and see what the readings are. Thanks.

 

[jimbote]

running 285 65 17's, 4.10's, .81 fifth... i run around 28-2900 at 80...my egt's rarely eclipse 1100 even on climbs.

 

[oilhammer]

My guess is that you have too high a load at too low of RPM. The EGTs are not crazy high, but would likely be lower if the engine was spinning closer to 3000 RPM. Those big tires are really going to make it work. Instead of doing all the work to swap smaller ones on just to test this theory, just drive in fourth gear at about 3000 RPMs on level ground and see if the EGTs drop some. Does it smoke at all under load?

 

[Mozambiquer]

The egts are flat driving. Doesn't take much of an incline to be 1300.

I can't answer the timing and IQ. Malone did the tune and greengeeker did the timing belt before the conversion. Back when it was still in the Jetta.

When you say timing, do you mean hard adjustment or in the tune?

And what is the IQ?
Thanks.

So, the timing would be the fine adjustment that you adjust with vag-com. Do you have vag-com? The injector IQ is the injected quantity. That's also read with vag-com.

 

[fjdiesel]

@jimbote I am running 285 75 17's (Toyo calls them 34x11.5 but mounted they measure 33.4) I will run it to 80 to see how it compares. @oilhammer I will check that at the same time.

@Mozambiquer I did buy a vag com recently to do a road dyno for Malone. Not gonna lie, I am really green. Willing to learn. But green..

 

[PickleRick]

Exhaust doesn't sound too restrictive. Could you possibly run an open down pipe to see if that lowers the egts a bit, get rid of some exhaust back pressure? Anything to help the turbo spool quicker, get more psi at lower rpms.

Have you talked to Malone about the tune? Is she smokey when you are driving? That's a lot of mods to factor in. I wouldnt want a laggy turbo on a 4x4, a race car sure but on a big, lifted off road rig i want power right off idle. The trade off in turbo size to have full torque at sub 2k and a hair dryer at 4500 rpms isn't a big deal to me in a vehicle like a 40.


A BHW, bone stock other than the balance shaft delete, will hit 170 hp and 300 ft lbs of torque with a stage 2 tune.

That's much more power than the F series that came in that rig at approximately half the weight.

I didn't have issues accelerating with my 4bd2t swapped,

 

[fjdiesel]

@PickleRick I can look through my left over parts to see if I have another flange to weld up a downpipe quick.

I did a road dyno for Malone not too long ago and he adjusted some things on the tune. It is better. But the temps had me concerned the most. It may have a little haze when cruising. But not bad. I can down shift and lug it a little and really roll the coal..

I do agree, I only drove the 40 once at 4500 rpm. Well, actually it was 5 runs for Malone, But only 1 time. Not really a sweet spot in that rig. It would seem that full torque lower would be just fine.

Even the ALH now has more power than the 2F the 40 came with. It moves it along nicely.

I did a 4bd2t in my 60 that I sold when I bought this project. What do you have the Isuzu in?

 

[fjdiesel]

At 58 in 4th gear the rpms are 2450. At 80 in 5th gear the rpms are 2675. The egt's only varied by about 50 degrees F. From 60 in 5th gear at 1950 rpms to any of the other speeds.

 

[Mozambiquer]

@jimbote I am running 285 75 17's (Toyo calls them 34x11.5 but mounted they measure 33.4) I will run it to 80 to see how it compares. @oilhammer I will check that at the same time.

@Mozambiquer I did buy a vag com recently to do a road dyno for Malone. Not gonna lie, I am really green. Willing to learn. But green..

Look up tdi timing on Ross tech HERE and then from the interview
Injector IQ adjusting below.
Adjusting injector IQ

 

[jmodge]

If you have a haze at cruise and black smoke on acceleration, either your feeding it to much fuel or you have a boost leak. Google checking IQ on TDI

 

[PickleRick]

I have done a 4bd1t in a 60 and a 4bd2t in a 40. I have long since traded away both. Now all my vehicles and boat are factory diesels

 

[PickleRick]

When maintaining hwy speeds do you feel you are lugging the motor?

 

[fjdiesel]

At 55 it does seem like it a little. I generally drive around 62 on the hwy. Then is seems like it feels good.

 

[PickleRick]

I suspect the lagging turbo is the issue if the exhaust, tune tweak and possible boost leaks don't take care of it. In a little jetta it might not be an issue. Im guessing the 40 is in the 3800/4000 plus lbs range, HEAVY drive train and huge meaty tires. You have the best off road rig ever made, designed for some of the harshest terrain known to man but has the aerodynamics of a dumpster. There is a ton of engine load to maintain speed in that rig. You're doing that with a little 1.9. I think, and im just spit balling here, you have the equivalent to what my 7.3 excursion sees when I'm towing 10k worth of boat to the lake. The egts soar when I'm hitting grades so I have to down shift to increase rpm and boost and at times slow down.

I bet once you get the turbo and tune down you'll increase your mpgs and she'll drive like she belongs in there. The rest of the world got the little H, 2H and 3B diesels they didn't make near the power you're putting out.

I think your transmisson, tire and gear ratios are perfect for a daily driver as well as moderate trail rig.

 

[fjdiesel]

Thanks. I appreciate the tips. I will play with the vag com the next few days and get the readings to see where to go.

I weighed it right after getting it done. With me and a full tank of full it came in right at 3800#.

 

[oilhammer]

The curb weight is not really the problem. Aerodynamics plays a part over about 40 MPH (gets exponentially more of an issue as speeds increase). But as Rick pointed out, the massive girth of the powertrain and the tires is a lot of weight to spin, and I am sure the rolling resistance of the tires is substantial.

 

[TDIMeister]

What boost levels are you running, say at cruise where the EGTs are 1100-1200? And what do you mean by cruise? 80 MPH is very different than 60. You need about 2.4X more HP to overcome aerodynamic drag alone at the higher speed - drag force increases to the square of speed, drag power increases to the cube.

Edit: Sorry, you wrote above that your normally cruise at 62. I missed it above. Still would like to know your boost behavior.

 

[Mozambiquer]

One other thought, what cam are you running? Stock alh? I've heard that a stage two Colt or Franko6 cam can help with egts, though I've never checked myself. I have a stage two Colt on my ALH golf, but I haven't installed an egt gauge to know what I'm running. (I have one, but haven't installed it yet)

 

[TDIMeister]

Many years ago, I made an Excel spreadsheet that would calculate, among other things, the MPG at a steady-state operating point of vehicle and engine. I've been trying to find that file, but unfortunately, it seems to be lost. However, I did calculate a specific case of a TDI conversion that, while quite different from your specific build specs, should not be too far off, if to give some insight and rough (but still reasonably accurate numbers). Here it is:

Basically, I assumed a 4600 lb car (I think it was a camperized Vanagon) but with 31" tires and shorter final drive ratio than yours, and I calculated about 24 MPG doing a steady, level 75 MPH cruise. All the input data (the green fields) are critical to the calculations, which is why I asked you for all these in our PM correspondence.

All this to say that I should expect you to get better mileage than this example - if not, then we need to do some sleuthing and problem-solving.

 

[PickleRick]

75 in a 40, better have a good life insurance policy.


I got approx 25 mpgs around town with the 4bd2t. Similar tires and 4 inch lift. Soft top. About the same in my heavier 60 with the slightly more efficient di 4bd1t.

Id expect low to mid 20s would be about as good as expected on any lifted land crusier with mud or at tires. Still double the factory F variation engine.

That being said id have used a quicker spooling turbo in my build or a bone stock stage 2 tune BHW engine. No inspections in my state so I never run mufflers on turbo diesel conversions. I really like the bhw specs for the smaller suvs, jeeps and 1/4 ton trucks

 

[TDIMeister]

The OP is concerned mostly with EGTs at steady cruise @ 60 and maybe would like the mileage and spool to be a bit better. So we're gathering the data and facts to figure out what might be not as they should and what he'll just have to live with.

 

[fjdiesel]

@TDIMeister that's a prety sweet spreadsheet. The 23.8 is pretty spot on for the last tank of fuel too.. I should have the boost numbers for you tonight. I have some shop time tonight.

@PickleRick I felt the same as you about the life insurance policy until recently when I road dynoed the 40 for Malone.. I was pretty surprised to see 90mph at redline 5K. Not that I would plan to do that, Ever again. lol.