TD tuning

Rob Marshall · Unread post by **Rob Marshall** » 24 Sep 2004, 21:06

With regards to the trusty old BX TD estate, 94K on clock. A1 condition all round.
I am considering getting it "tuned". By that I mean just simply Turbo & injection pump tuning. I would prefer to leave the Max Speed as it is for safety / longeivity reasons.
The reason for wanting the old girl tuned up is that I am having to climb a lot of hills at slow speeds on the way to and from work, and am having to work it quite hard through the gears as there is virtually no pull below 2,500RPM. When I floor the throttle at around 1500 revs, the car is hesistating. It also doesn't seem quite as quick as other TD BX's I have driven: Others would wheelspin in 2nd gear in the dry: mine doesn't! I have found that when accelerating in third or forth, backing off the throttle at 3,000 revs, then flooring it again makes it go faster.
I am hoping for a modest increase in torque, power with hardly any decrease in MPG (due to not having to rag it through the gears to get the turbo in etc).
The Questions are:
1. Is TD tuning known to cause problems with the XUD TE lump in terms of longevity? (+ the Lucas injection pump?)
2. Who should I go to to do the work (prefer an established business with a rolling road used to the XUD engine)
3. Any one else find it worthwhile. Budget is around the £100 mark.
Any advice greatfully received!
Rob & J383 WAW

Kowalski · Unread post by **Kowalski** » 24 Sep 2004, 21:34

I would look into why you are down on power over other BX TDs before I looked into tuning.
If you sort out whatever problem it is you're having that will be as good as tuning.

Unread post by **RichardW** » 24 Sep 2004, 23:44

Have a good look at the pedal box where the throttle attaches - you might find it is split, which causes the pedal to bend over the right, where it fouls on the carpet, and prevents you getting full throttle. Makes a BIG difference to driveability. can be fixed by supporting the RH end off the floor, or taking the pedal box out and welding it.
Also check the air filter, and chuck some injector cleaner through it. Also give it and 'Italian tune up' - eg go flog the arse off it, getting it to 4500 rpm a few times, and holding a long run at 4000 rpm.
Neither of my BX TDs (one Bosch, one Lucas) ever felt sluggish up hill - except when the pedal box was broken on the red one......

vanny · Unread post by **vanny** » 25 Sep 2004, 00:56

You'll be hard pushed to get the car tuned up for £100 and thats the first thing to remember!
If you want it tuned then i would suggest hunting down 'The Derv Docotr' or Allards Turbo Sport. The derv doctor (gav) is new to the field (at least in respect to allards he is!) but deffinately worth everypeny. He pretty much only does the XUD and HDI engines and does it with amazing results.
If you do go down this route then you need to decide if you want a little or a lot. The XUD turbo can be taken up to 1.9BAR and i believe Stefan might have got his to 2.1BAR. But is you want to get to a million miles then its adviced to take it to about 1.6BAR, its a nice balance between power increase while not having to worry about excessive wear. BUT make sure you keep on top of those oil changes!
BUT before getting it tuned start with the basics! DONT just put in cheap and wonderfull oil. For a normal oil you want to be using AT LEAST a Turbo Diesel B3 type oil. This is a high quality sports (ish) oil that you should notice an instant imporvement in! I use CASTROL GTD Magnatec, but there are plenty of other B3 oils about. While your doing this you might want to change your oil filter! Yeah you can stick to the OEM spec filter, but, there a bit naff. Me, well after advice on a very good Pug diesel forum, i'm using a filter for a Xantia HDi. The principle is simple its a better filter which will last longer. This doesnt mean that the oil will last longer, but it will be cleaner! Basically more pores, more rubbish retained. I'm going to experiment with a V6 filter next (there cheaper than the Xantia HDi!).
Next task, get rid of the filter and buy and new one. If its sluggish, you'll notice a difference. And hell, at this point you've only spent £20!
Next flush the coolant! I have no idea why this makes a difference to power (maybe keeping the engine at a better temp). But i mean properly flush it, forward and backward, take the rad out and get its inards really clean! I notice a deffinate difference each time i do this, but i've also found a difference on two Pug 405 estates and a Land Rover Deffender 110! Weird!
Next step is expensive! about £35. go get a turbo boost guage! The cheapish TIMS one sold in Halfrauds is okay, make sure to get the 2bar one! lacate it however you choose (pretty easy) but wher eyou can see it while driving. And what you looking for is around the 3,600 rpm mark in 4th gear it should be at it's highest. If everything is normal then it should hit around .8 or .9 bar! Which is pretty useless really but its a nice insight into how the turbo works. Using this you should be able to see if there is any boost leak. THough to be honest if there is a leak you will see it as oil stains around the leak on the intercooler, turbo and hoses
after that it starts getting expensive! IE a tune up

OH, this is in addition to RichardW's comments, pedal box deffinately the first place to have a look at! Injector clean is usefull but if you use Shell Diesel then its like OPtimax for diesel! None of that silly BP rubbish though!

Rob Marshall · Unread post by **Rob Marshall** » 27 Sep 2004, 22:38

Allards Turbo Sport sounds good to me. £125 + VAT
I would have thought a nice balance between performance, economy & wear is fine. your adbice on going up to 1.6 bar sounds good. i would have thought my car wouild need tuning anyway, considering its age (1992)
My car gets oil changes with proper TD oil (usually millers) & purflux filter every 5,000 miles; and the car is always left to idle for a bit before it gets switched off.
Next task, get rid of the filter and buy and new one. If its sluggish, you'll notice a difference. And hell, at this point you've only spent £20!
Coolant flushed last month. Rad flushed internally & externally. Little bit of scale came out, and coolant nice & blue. It was changed 2 years ago & the stuff that came out was blue as well.
Something interesting you bring up is that THERE IS an oil stain on the intercooler pipe between the intercooler & the fuel pump.
Allards recommend their stage 1 tune up, which allegadly doesn't affect fuel consumption: I am constandlyt having to change down on windy roads!!!
Has anyone with an XUD TD had experience of this tuning??
Rob

boneyboy · Unread post by **boneyboy** » 27 Sep 2004, 23:42

yeah i took my 306 to allards and have had no problems and increased economy

chemexhants · Unread post by **chemexhants** » 28 Sep 2004, 01:48

Took my 1997 ZX TD to Allards last December. Pre-tuning pressure had dropped to 0.7 bar. Tuned it to 1.5 bar. Can highly reccomend them.
Stephen

rashmore · Unread post by **rashmore** » 29 Sep 2004, 19:02

Friend and I went to the derv doctor. Car is much improved. On the the test road (mile long uphill dual carriage way round the corner) my zx beat the 306 of my m8. Only went for basic tune as not worth spending wads on uprated intercoolers on mech injection system. Now if i had a HDI i could have a 190 bhp 306 (or equivalent), nice. had one there which had auto start and turn off system. spooky at first when car just starts up on its own with no one around. Like the after running as can leave car locked and will turn itself off allowing turbo to cool down. Guy said it was more fun than the evo he had b4.......also uses it for track days