Dye-04

As I have ranted previously, I'm a big fan of water injection.

Being slack, I haven't yet got round to fitting it to the wifes car although I did turn the fuelling up heaps.
This is a danger when you are running veg fuel as the excess can cause the rings to coke up and a loss of compression. That's the reason I originally fitted it to my vehicles.

Her car has been getting harder to start and I saw signs of the ring coking. In an attempt to make up for my slackness, I fitted up a WI system to try and reverse any effects of the veg overfueling.

Being a turbo I have done things a little different this time.
To trigger the water from a subaru washer bottle, I used a washing machine water level switch. These are far too sensative for the job requiring fractions of a pound to trigger but I wound it up as far as I could and it is workable if far from ideal.
I could put an airbleed in the line to up the actual boot pressure it triggers at but I intend to replace it with a proper adjustable hobbs switch.

I used my beloved micro mist garden watering nozzle and with a right angle adapter, I inserted the thing in the duct from the air cleaner facing straight down the air stream.
There is a lot of conjecture about putting the water before the Turbo and it causing erosion of the turbine wheels. I don't know if this is a real risk or more internet paranoia. In any case I think it would take some time to happen and I have other priorities with the engine short term.

I tapped a boost signal from the compensator on the IP to the washing machine level switch and that switches the pump. It still kicks in at anything above idle pretty much with the air con on so with one of the little garden irrigation taps in the line to the nozzle, I turned the water rate right down so the thing doesn't load up with water at low revs and on the over run. While the water rate is very low, it's also nearly constant to compensate.

One thing I noticed with this straight off as did my son when he drove the car is hw much better the thing revs out through the gears. I think that may be due to the effect of the water cooling the inlet air much better than the poorly designed in every aspect intercooler.

I have had the water on 4 days now and pumped about 16L of water through in very few KM. A lot of that was really drowning the thing when testing the flow rate and where the thing kicked in which was too early and too much.
People carry on about putting too much water in and hydrolocking the engine but it's amazing how much water you can pour in with no more than a stumble at worst. On one test run I did manage to drown the engine to the pint it stopped and took enough cranking to kill the battery to get the thing started again. No more damage than a lot of smoke, probably from washing oil and crap out of the intercooler.

Already the thing is starting MUCH easier and more reliably like it should. I think the water may have got rid of the worst of the deposits but I also think that properly cleaning the engine of any coking will take a while. I noticed with my Merc the effects were very slight but noticeable for months before the performance levelled out and given the physics of the problem I suspect with this one, I expect the process to be gradual as well.

One effect I have noticed is how much cooler the engine is running. The thing is nearly sitting on the thermostat all the time now except of course in traffic where the water isn't running. The gauge in this car is VERY sensitive. You can see the temp go up a fraction after just one squirt through a couple of gears on boost. That isn't happening now and the thing just sits on the low point of the margin when it is up to operating temp. I'm a bit surprised given how little water i'm feeding in.

Must be cooling the engine in the truck quite a bit given the amount I'm feeding that at full tilt.
I'm planning on fitting another injector to that right at the front of the duct where it comes into the engine bay to try and cool the inlet air and compensate for the engine heat. Given I think the water will all but have evaporated and what hasn't will hit the air filter element and go in as vapour only, I don't think I'll need to lower the amount of water I'm squirting right down the throat of the thing.

I plan when I get time to move the injection point to the discharge side of the inter cooler and use a 60 PSI pump I bought a while back for this job. I really want the water to enter the cylinders as drops not vapour as I believe this has a much greater cleaning effect. Again this is not what the purists and Internet experts recommend but they are also usually chasing power not cleaning.

So once again I have convinced myself of how effective WI is in cleaning engines. I didn't expect to see such a change in a few days. I was hoping to see some improvement in a week or 2 but maybe the initial saturation helped somewhat? I can see it but who knows? All I know is that we can go out and start the thing as it should now rather than have to crank it and hope the thing will fire before the battery gives out. It's still a bit temperamental when hot for some reason that defys logic ( and it's not an IP fault) but I'll give it some time and see if that improves as well.

I have learned my lesson from this, I won't run a diesel on veg without fitting WI. For vehicles with PCV problems etc, I think this would also be a preventative to any trouble with that as well.
When I have this set up right, I'll have all of about $50 invested in it. Best mod and insurance for the money I can think of for what I'm doing.

well im a happy chappy



dont mind the smoke coming off the drum.. just paint burning.. it cleared up after an hour..
With Mk1 it stopped burning with about 1/2 a liter left in the bottom. But with Mk2 and it's smaller chamber it burnt 100% of the oil.
Still have a good layer of soot in the flu, and it isn't glowing yet.. I still think I'm down on the air flow.
Will try a new thing Im thinking of which is 2 1' ball valves into a 2' outlet.
This is going to look one mean burner..

Missing me yet?

Cheers

Ray

Well we've made it to the top!! I've stuffed me rear bumper( was expecting this) but drowned the troll at noelns. !! Spewin was my own fault wrong line and in the excitement didn't let my tyres down!!(was at 22 psi) Only water in the cab truck still going well ( air bag light flashing) hopefully will go once it dries out a bit. Stayed at cape Melville for a few nights caught a good feed of salmon !! Staying at loyalty beach now for a few nights , awesome spot ! Will post pics when I get home. Cheers.

Much as I like forums and have learned so much from them, they often Chit me to tears.
And before I say anything else, none of the following comments apply to THIS forum as so far thank god, It is a refreshing exception to what I normally see.

On every forum I have been on ( bar this one) of wide and varying subject matter, a mentality of certain things develops which seems to fly in the face of reality, practicality, real world experience and evidence.
People develop a pattern of thought and parrot advise which is completely ignorant and usually in no way reflects the happenings of the real world.

Mentalities develop and are then considered fact when in many cases I have seen, the facts of Physics, laws of science and just plain common bloody sense make these parroted mantras completely stupid. Of course when anyone comes along and points out facts or asks for any sort of verifyable evidence to back up the position touted, the fact that 100 idiots have parroted the same flawed info is given as being proof in itself.

There are many I have come across which are not based on physics or science but just belief and position which are also stupid. I have to say that far and away the Yanks are the most ignorant and the worst offenders Of "Forum Mentality" garbage of all. Maybe that's why this place is free of it, we don't have any/many septic's here.

A great comment I read recently was on a photo forum where a guy was getting all sorts of impractical and stupid advise on how to price his work.
One guy who just happens to be far and away the worlds most successful at what he does and what the other guy was asking about, was getting lambasted by wanna bees for his against the grain comments.
After a bunch of clowns had said their piece, he simply asked how many people were actually following the advise they were giving in their business and pricing their work according to the formula they were insisting to be right.
He also asked whether they were full time or weekend warriors.

Despite him asking several times, not one person said they were actually following the advise they were trying to ram down everyone elses throats.
Amazing!


What I find laughable and annoying is the now numerous occasions I have spoken out against certain mantras/ practices and policy's and called them wrong and flawed and given evidence why, only to be shouted down, called an idiot etc. After a while someone else goes against the grain, tries something for themselves and discovers I was right. they pass it on and after a long while, the very thing I said becomes the mantra and the ones that push it the most are the ones that gave me the most flack for it in the first place. Of course they then go on to make out that THEY were the ones whom were responsible for this contribution to the interest group in the first place.

I swear to god there are people out there I would walk up to and smack in the face without a moments hesitation for the chit and hypocrisy they have given me. The court appearance and fines would be more than worth the satisfaction!

I think it really comes down to too many people sitting on their computers and not actually having any experience in what they talk about. I have got into debates where people were incessant in their position and would not hear of there being any possibility of anything being right other than their position. You then find out that they have NO actual experience with what they are talking about. It's all what they think based on what they have read on forums or wherever.
You might have been doing something for years or dozens of times but still, you are wrong and they are right and if you point out the real world experience difference, you are just being a smartarse or a mongeral or whatever.

Loads of times I have read something, got up, walked out and tested the theroy, come back and written what I found and people have said it is wrong. Again, when you can get them to finally admit it or ask for their findings, they admit they have never done the test or tried what they are saying. Somehow though, you are wrong and they are right!

There is a whole world of things you can learn from the net and forums but you really have to learn first what to take notice of and what to ignore. The commonly parroted mantras can be real traps and it's wise to ask the people championing them about their actual real world hands on experience before you put too much credibility in anything.

oh i almost forgot, i made this as well. My Daughter Zoe

oh i almost forgot, i made this as well. My Daughter Zoe

I made this, probably one of the better things i've achieved in my life...

oh i almost forgot, i made this as well. My Daughter Zoe

Recently, I started to hear odd whistling noises under the bonnet when the engine was relatively cold and under high boost, and also when warm and under high boost. After a bit of investigation, I discovered that my intecooler was affected by cracks where the cooler pipes attach to the header tank. This is not uncommon and mine has probably been exacerbated by my intercooler fan attachment. This is probably due to not being entirely careful as to how I tensioned the bolts attaching the fan to the intercooler, causing stress, as evidenced by the fact that the cracks have occurred at opposite corners of the intercooler.

Here's a shot of one crack, just visible where you see the darker mark:



Anyhow, I wasn't in a position to get a new intercooler at the moment, so I sought ways to fix the problem as best I could. As it turns out, I had a tube of Loctite Metal Magic 98853, which had never been used and after some internet searching, found out that it might just do the trick. So after letting the intercooler cool down fully, I removed it and found the offending cracks, one on top (as in the photo) and two underneath, which required removal of the fan assembly. The Metal Magic is a two part epoxy resin that comes in a roll inside a plastic tube, all you do is tear off a small piece and start kneading it vigrously for a few minutes until is turns dark grey. You need to use rubber gloves for this, as the stuff will stick to your hands like the proverbial and is near impossible to wash off. Once ready to use, you have about 3 mins to work it into place before it sets and after about 10 mins, it's almost rock hard.

Before I filled the crack with the Metal Magic, I cleaned the area with liberal use of contact spray to get rid of any oil and muck, and then followed up with MAF cleaner to remove any residue left by the contact cleaner. By rolling the Metal Magic into a very thin roll, I used a tooth pick to push the epoxy into and around the cracks and once finished, left the intercooler overnight before starting the Patrol the next day. This is what one of the repairs looked like:



After about three or so weeks of driving around, the fix has certainly worked. I can still sometimes hear just a slight whistle when cold, but that could be a crack that I've missed. But as the whistle is so minor, I will probably live with it unless it gets worse and by that time I might look at a replacement intercooler.

If there was a more 'liquidy' sealant about that had similar properties to the Metal Magic, then it would have been very easy to fix these minor cracks. That said, I would heartily recommend carrying a tube of Metal Magic if going out bush etc, as this stuff is able to reapir many things that may break or leak when out and about.

Cheers

Ray

My TD42T

It was stock when i bought it 3 months ago. I bought it due to the old Grandpa that owned it, its only done 140,000klms



So far I've added:
33" muddies
Tradies roof cage
High lift jack and shovel
3" exhaust no mufflers
15psi
Maxed out stock injector pump
UHF
Autometer boost and pyro gauges
Alarm system and central locking
tigerz11 winch
Narva 225's with HID conversion

Just for you Jacket, I have started writing a Veg oil guide.

Yes, it is long but I am trying to make it informative so it answers more questions than it creates.
I'll also do a bit specifically on the 4.2 based on my experience of 2 years with one.

There must be a set limit - it would be a forum default. I can probably change that.