Hi all,
I've had my Rodeo (4JB1 2.8L turbo) for about 20 months now and can honestly say of the 15 or so cars I've ever owned, it is hands-down the most gutless of them all. I was on the Hume Highway just south of Sydney the other day and was nearly down to 3rd gear and 75 km/h on Catherine Hill and had a semi rapidly gaining on me in the slow vehicle lane! Pantecs regularly burn me off at the lights! It won't even spin the wheels in loose gravel……..
It has always been a bit slow, but I think it is getting worse. I only put one tank of dino through it when I bought it, then straight to B100 and its been there ever since, so not a lot to compare fuel-wise, through I do recall it having more power and torque on dino. The lack of grunt is most notable on very hot days and I assumed it was just heat soak through the turbo and manifold as it has no intercooler, but I'm starting to wonder if it is something else. Cold weather is noticeably better power-wise, as it is for most turbo vehicles, but torque is still pretty bad. It is like the thing has a built-in hill detection unit…the slightest grade will shave the speed off and I regularly have to drop it down a cog or two on hills. It will easily do 130 - 140 km/h on the flat, but get a grade involved and I struggle to maintain 100. Some things I've already checked / considered:
Any thoughts?
3DB
I've had my Rodeo (4JB1 2.8L turbo) for about 20 months now and can honestly say of the 15 or so cars I've ever owned, it is hands-down the most gutless of them all. I was on the Hume Highway just south of Sydney the other day and was nearly down to 3rd gear and 75 km/h on Catherine Hill and had a semi rapidly gaining on me in the slow vehicle lane! Pantecs regularly burn me off at the lights! It won't even spin the wheels in loose gravel……..
It has always been a bit slow, but I think it is getting worse. I only put one tank of dino through it when I bought it, then straight to B100 and its been there ever since, so not a lot to compare fuel-wise, through I do recall it having more power and torque on dino. The lack of grunt is most notable on very hot days and I assumed it was just heat soak through the turbo and manifold as it has no intercooler, but I'm starting to wonder if it is something else. Cold weather is noticeably better power-wise, as it is for most turbo vehicles, but torque is still pretty bad. It is like the thing has a built-in hill detection unit…the slightest grade will shave the speed off and I regularly have to drop it down a cog or two on hills. It will easily do 130 - 140 km/h on the flat, but get a grade involved and I struggle to maintain 100. Some things I've already checked / considered:
- Air filter is clean;
- Fuel filter is new;
- Doesn't blow much smoke except at idle on startup;
- Uses no oil between 5,000 km changes, although I wonder if I am burning some and getting some dilution by fuel at the same rate?
- It has 225,000km and the previous owner (from basically new) was a meticulous diesel mechanic who had full service history for it;
- Injector pump was replaced about 12 months before I bought it;
- I disconnected the crankcase vent running into the pre-turbo intake pipe and let it vent to air to save the turbo (pipework was surprisingly clean, though);
- It has no EGR;
- It has a full 2.5" exhaust from the turbo back, installed by the previous owner (I'd hate to see how it would go with the stock exhaust!);
- It is running 11 PSI of boost stock from its tiny little turbo, but suffers from terrible lag below 2,500 RPM and runs out of revs by about 3,750 RPM - redline is about 4,100. You can get about 12 PSI out of it disconnecting the wastegate. Horespower feels like it doubles when it is on boost, but it doesn't have the torque to hold it in the right rev range when you hit any sort of a hill, even when you hit it in the maximum torque sweet-spot.
- Fuel consumption was about 9.5L/100km on that first tank of dino and has been about 12L/100 km on B100 since.
Any thoughts?
3DB
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