I am not one who makes life easy for themselves, and often if I'm doing one job on a car I'll see if there is anything else that could be done while I'm at it. That works out for me sometimes (like it has with this thread), or it bites me on the arse (like when I went to repair the subframe of my RAV4, saw a small piece of rust in the sill, ended up spending 8 months welding it only for the brake master cylinder to fail).
While I was doing the injector work on my 120 (which has been reported on in great detail on the Injector Swap thread) I decided to also sort out the EGR on my 120. Ever since I've had the truck, it would belch black smoke on hard acceleration. I noted that doing an "italian tune up" - putting the truck in to 2nd/3rd and keeping the revs high for a period of time tended to clean the system and would solve the smoke for a period of time. But it would always come back.
Given the injector work, I reasoned I might as well sort out the EGR once and for all. I did a lot of reading and various questions were asked, and most of the time everything went back to the user TONYCY11 on the other website. So most of my own adventures here are based on his own work and guidance, although I've never asked him or spoken to him directly about any of this. What follows here is my own thoughts and experience, and I'll be adding to it while I dial everything in. I'm not going in to what an EGR does or such like, there are plenty of better explanations of what it is on the internet. This is just my experience, what I did, how I've found it. This is also specific to the 120.
Cleaning
The throttle body really did need a good clean, so it came off as one unit and straight in to a bucket of petrol. It was fairly caked up after 150,000 miles, and if you're going to do anything with the EGR you may as well just clean this out. I didn't remove the manifold though, mine didn't look too bad. It had a line of soot but wasn't nearly half as caked on as it was around the EGR.
Blanking Plate
There are two methods for this, both involve a plate which covers the port from the engine that the EGR cooler connects to. The cheap method is to stick a plate on here with a 7mm hole (which seems to be agreed upon to be the sweet spot before you end up with EML's), or you opt for the Ozbush fuel mapper thingybob. Using the fuel mapper requires you to have a proper blanking plate with no holes on it. On the 120, it is a huge faff to fit this plate. It requires (at a minimum) loosening the EGR cooler and unbolting the power steering reservoir. Even then you ought to have some thing to catch the nut that will fall, they're 10mm in size and I lost one. Thankfully I have an MG ZR on the driveway which I'm stripping for parts, and the nuts they use to hold the windscreen wiper motor are the right replacements for this. Depending how much dexterity you have in your hands, you may opt to remove the EGR cooler and other bits to get a clear path to fit the plate. While I have shovel hands, I managed it. It was a faff, it was incredibly tight, but I got it in the end. A ratchet with a flexible head is probably a good thing to have for this, as well as a wobble bar. I didn't torque them, I just got them tight. Not overly tight though as I reckon the nuts would snap with too much force.
Fuel Mapper
The fuel mapper was purchased through Ozbush Electronics, I'm not the only one to buy from them and the mapper that comes feels like a stout piece of kit. Young (the chap there) is very friendly and very helpful I found. Stressed to me that he has no control over shipping, and he gave a time of 4 weeks to get the package, although some UK buyers had got the part in 10 days. Mine was closer to a month, which is nothing to do with him and is down to AusPost. Also email/call him before you buy as the shipping to the UK is slightly more than what's quoted.
Installation is easy, it plugs in to the EGR valve and plugs in to the MAF sensor. It's light enough to be cable tied to the loom, although once it's all dialled in for me I'll be fixing it properly to the car via self tapping screws. The box itself is set to a "default" from Ozbush, and I left it like that as I felt the instructions to program the box was kind of hard to follow and would need to be read/re-read and digested properly before tinkering with it. The fuel trim knob was set to 0%.
Butterfly Removal
This is something that TONYCY11 reckons has improved the responsiveness of his Land Cruiser, and it's the removal of the butterfly plate on the throttle body. The butterfly is open, and starts to close when you apply the throttle allowing the recycled exhaust gases to be sucked in via the EGR valve. Removal of the butterfly plate (not the butterfly itself) means that doesn't (or at least, shouldn't) happen. It just sucks in clean cold air. The engine does shut down fairly abruptly now though after this removal, but I wouldn't think it's an issue.
***
Initial Findings
So after fitting the injectors, removing the butterfly plate, and fitting the fuel mapper I took it for a good test drive. Well, anywhere I fancied going I made damn sure I drove the Land Cruiser! I filled up with diesel, and after getting over the shock of the cost (it was 145.9p a litre when I parked it up, now 177.9p a litre at the time of filling up/writing). Before doing the injectors, I was getting about 24mpg.
Over the next 277 miles, I initially had black smoke, but that since subsided and now doesn't belch anything. So the initial black smoke I had I would say is down to crap being burnt off. I wouldn't say there was that noticeable of a difference in power, but I would say it feels more potent when pulling off from a standing start. The engine feels like it has less holding it back, rather than having more power. I filled up again, and I did the calculations and I am now getting 29mpg - a 5mpg difference.
In both cases (24mpg v 29mpg) I did similar sort of driving. I'm not Lewis Hamilton, and I'm not driving Miss.Daisy either. I drive in a smooth, considered way. The variations in speed were similar, as I mostly drive along country roads to and from work, and then a run to Birmingham every week which is either by the motorway (at a steady 60mph) or through the A roads. So use cases were the same, same weight in the car (I've not lost any unfortunately!). Tyres weren't checked for pressure either. While I had a duff injector, I do feel the fuel mapper has improved the economy of the Land Cruiser.
I'm not great with numbers, so I won't even attempt the whole ROI of the mapper. But given that this Land Cruiser is a long term proposition for me - 5 years ownership minimum, hopefully I'll be buried in it - I think the mapper will pay for itself in no time at all in terms of economy.
***
Next Steps
I've filled up the Land Cruiser again, and will inflate the tyre pressures to 32psi (which I normally run anyway). However, I am going to look through the instruction manual of the fuel mapper again, and I want to start with a 13% increase on acceleration, and 8% reduction on cruise and see how that goes. Then take an MPG calculation. The mapper can go as high as 20%, I wouldn't really want to go further than 13%, and I think from default it's set to 10% anyway.
After I'm happy with that, I'll want to look at the EGR emulation it does as this can also be changed.
While I was doing the injector work on my 120 (which has been reported on in great detail on the Injector Swap thread) I decided to also sort out the EGR on my 120. Ever since I've had the truck, it would belch black smoke on hard acceleration. I noted that doing an "italian tune up" - putting the truck in to 2nd/3rd and keeping the revs high for a period of time tended to clean the system and would solve the smoke for a period of time. But it would always come back.
Given the injector work, I reasoned I might as well sort out the EGR once and for all. I did a lot of reading and various questions were asked, and most of the time everything went back to the user TONYCY11 on the other website. So most of my own adventures here are based on his own work and guidance, although I've never asked him or spoken to him directly about any of this. What follows here is my own thoughts and experience, and I'll be adding to it while I dial everything in. I'm not going in to what an EGR does or such like, there are plenty of better explanations of what it is on the internet. This is just my experience, what I did, how I've found it. This is also specific to the 120.
Cleaning
The throttle body really did need a good clean, so it came off as one unit and straight in to a bucket of petrol. It was fairly caked up after 150,000 miles, and if you're going to do anything with the EGR you may as well just clean this out. I didn't remove the manifold though, mine didn't look too bad. It had a line of soot but wasn't nearly half as caked on as it was around the EGR.
Blanking Plate
There are two methods for this, both involve a plate which covers the port from the engine that the EGR cooler connects to. The cheap method is to stick a plate on here with a 7mm hole (which seems to be agreed upon to be the sweet spot before you end up with EML's), or you opt for the Ozbush fuel mapper thingybob. Using the fuel mapper requires you to have a proper blanking plate with no holes on it. On the 120, it is a huge faff to fit this plate. It requires (at a minimum) loosening the EGR cooler and unbolting the power steering reservoir. Even then you ought to have some thing to catch the nut that will fall, they're 10mm in size and I lost one. Thankfully I have an MG ZR on the driveway which I'm stripping for parts, and the nuts they use to hold the windscreen wiper motor are the right replacements for this. Depending how much dexterity you have in your hands, you may opt to remove the EGR cooler and other bits to get a clear path to fit the plate. While I have shovel hands, I managed it. It was a faff, it was incredibly tight, but I got it in the end. A ratchet with a flexible head is probably a good thing to have for this, as well as a wobble bar. I didn't torque them, I just got them tight. Not overly tight though as I reckon the nuts would snap with too much force.
Fuel Mapper
The fuel mapper was purchased through Ozbush Electronics, I'm not the only one to buy from them and the mapper that comes feels like a stout piece of kit. Young (the chap there) is very friendly and very helpful I found. Stressed to me that he has no control over shipping, and he gave a time of 4 weeks to get the package, although some UK buyers had got the part in 10 days. Mine was closer to a month, which is nothing to do with him and is down to AusPost. Also email/call him before you buy as the shipping to the UK is slightly more than what's quoted.
Installation is easy, it plugs in to the EGR valve and plugs in to the MAF sensor. It's light enough to be cable tied to the loom, although once it's all dialled in for me I'll be fixing it properly to the car via self tapping screws. The box itself is set to a "default" from Ozbush, and I left it like that as I felt the instructions to program the box was kind of hard to follow and would need to be read/re-read and digested properly before tinkering with it. The fuel trim knob was set to 0%.
Butterfly Removal
This is something that TONYCY11 reckons has improved the responsiveness of his Land Cruiser, and it's the removal of the butterfly plate on the throttle body. The butterfly is open, and starts to close when you apply the throttle allowing the recycled exhaust gases to be sucked in via the EGR valve. Removal of the butterfly plate (not the butterfly itself) means that doesn't (or at least, shouldn't) happen. It just sucks in clean cold air. The engine does shut down fairly abruptly now though after this removal, but I wouldn't think it's an issue.
***
Initial Findings
So after fitting the injectors, removing the butterfly plate, and fitting the fuel mapper I took it for a good test drive. Well, anywhere I fancied going I made damn sure I drove the Land Cruiser! I filled up with diesel, and after getting over the shock of the cost (it was 145.9p a litre when I parked it up, now 177.9p a litre at the time of filling up/writing). Before doing the injectors, I was getting about 24mpg.
Over the next 277 miles, I initially had black smoke, but that since subsided and now doesn't belch anything. So the initial black smoke I had I would say is down to crap being burnt off. I wouldn't say there was that noticeable of a difference in power, but I would say it feels more potent when pulling off from a standing start. The engine feels like it has less holding it back, rather than having more power. I filled up again, and I did the calculations and I am now getting 29mpg - a 5mpg difference.
In both cases (24mpg v 29mpg) I did similar sort of driving. I'm not Lewis Hamilton, and I'm not driving Miss.Daisy either. I drive in a smooth, considered way. The variations in speed were similar, as I mostly drive along country roads to and from work, and then a run to Birmingham every week which is either by the motorway (at a steady 60mph) or through the A roads. So use cases were the same, same weight in the car (I've not lost any unfortunately!). Tyres weren't checked for pressure either. While I had a duff injector, I do feel the fuel mapper has improved the economy of the Land Cruiser.
I'm not great with numbers, so I won't even attempt the whole ROI of the mapper. But given that this Land Cruiser is a long term proposition for me - 5 years ownership minimum, hopefully I'll be buried in it - I think the mapper will pay for itself in no time at all in terms of economy.
***
Next Steps
I've filled up the Land Cruiser again, and will inflate the tyre pressures to 32psi (which I normally run anyway). However, I am going to look through the instruction manual of the fuel mapper again, and I want to start with a 13% increase on acceleration, and 8% reduction on cruise and see how that goes. Then take an MPG calculation. The mapper can go as high as 20%, I wouldn't really want to go further than 13%, and I think from default it's set to 10% anyway.
After I'm happy with that, I'll want to look at the EGR emulation it does as this can also be changed.
