Project Grover

Today's progress. No more air bubbles coming from the tank! Just a good, steady stream of clean diesel.

A couple of shots of the fuel pump assembly in the P38:
20210110_101618.jpg

20210110_101855.jpg


While I had it apart, I took the time to clean the screen on the bottom of the pump, and completely drained the tank to extract a bit of particulate that was down there.

Unfortunately however, the problem still remains. Under power at 3000 RPM, the engine cuts out, and logs a low fuel pressure fault.

I swapped out the fuel pressure regulator with the one from my daily driver 406 HDi. The problem didn't move with the regulator, so I've ruled that out.

Next step is to replace the engine fuel filter (which I've ordered), but if that doesn't fix it, the next thing will be to look at a replacement injection pump.
 
Oops, forgot to show what I did.

in the base of the assembly is the pump, surrounded by a filter. I have bypassed the filter, so the fuel now goes through a strainer into the pump, then straight out the top. Fuel volume from the pump is greatly increased now.
20210117_104214.jpg
 
Finally got it sorted!

After all that, the modification above actually made the problem worse. Fuel flow was increased, but the air bubbles actually occurred sooner.

Turns out that the fuel pump (the bit encased in black plastic and surrounded by the filter) is immersed in a 'bucket' of fuel. This bucket is replenished by a small (6mm aperture) one-way valve. With the original configuration with the fuel pressure regulator in the pump assembly, excess fuel is bled off and back into this bucket. Thus the 6mm aperture is plenty to cope with the actual consumption of the V8 engine.

However, with the diesel, all of the fuel pumped goes to the engine, and returns via a separate return line. Herein lies the problem - my return line did not go back into the bucket! As such, if the fuel level in the tank is below the level of the top rim of the bucket, it would soon empty the bucket and air would be pumped to the engine.

The solution was very simple. I took the strainer off, drilled half a dozen holes in the bottom of the bucket and refitted the strainer.

Problem solved! No more fuel problems. I can climb a mountain and drive continuously at speed - no problems. Very happy tonight.

Unless something catastrophic happens between now and then, I'll take it for a run down to the PCCV meeting this Friday night.

20210131_200857.jpg
 
Oh man .... I should have contacted you ..... You have a 4.6 motor sitting in your shed doing nothing!
 
That's true. Although I have dismantled it and had the heads reco'ed, the plan is to put a new set of rings, bearings and full gasket set through it and sell it to retrospectively fund the rest of this project.
 
Demannu said:
That's true. Although I have dismantled it and had the heads reco'ed, the plan is to put a new set of rings, bearings and full gasket set through it and sell it to retrospectively fund the rest of this project.
Click to expand...

They are worth good money .... I wouldn't spend the money on rings, bearings etc..... To make it really saleable you want it to have top hat liners fitted (the 4.6s seem to be renowned for slipping liners).

Having these liners fitted will be pretty much "everyones" first check.
 
DoubleChevron said:
They are worth good money .... I wouldn't spend the money on rings, bearings etc..... To make it really saleable you want it to have top hat liners fitted (the 4.6s seem to be renowned for slipping liners).

Having these liners fitted will be pretty much "everyones" first check.
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Yep, top hats are on the cards too!
 
I guess it's time to provide some closure to anyone watching along at home!

I've been cruising around in Grover for a while now, and I love it! I haven't taken the time to remap the engine yet, but the mighty DW10 really doesn't need it. It has plenty of power, even with the big hills around here and big loads. It's been carrying 10x6 trailer loads of firewood around in the past couple of weeks, and does it effortlessly.

I've still been making tweaks to the transmission controller code, but I'm pretty happy with where it is now - the recent changes have all been very, very small (for example, changing shift points and throttle position limits for torque converter lockup by 1% increments).

I'm very happy with fuel consumption, which was the main driver for this conversion. Due to covid restrictions, I haven't been able to do any interstate or long-distance highway runs, but just running errands around here I've been averaging between 10-12 L/100Km. For a 2.4 ton vehicle in mountainous terrain, I think that's pretty good. It's about the same as my wife's 5008 gets, and that's 1000kg lighter.

There are still a few jobs left to do:
- Build a bracket for the coolant pipes and paint them
- Connect cruise control
- Plumb in the water side of the intercooler (yes, I'm still running it basically non-intercooled).

20210716_171144.jpg
 
Great effort Scott, this will have to be one a kind. How's fuel usage going?

Any updates on the 504?
 
Pug72 said:
Great effort Scott, this will have to be one a kind. How's fuel usage going?

Any updates on the 504?
Click to expand...

The initial design aspiration for this project was to achieve under 10 litres per hundred km on a run. With the 100 litre fuel tank, this would give me a 1000km range.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to do a decent run to test this, but all indications are that it is going to be easily achievable.

The 504 has spent the last couple of years hidden in the back of the shed, made inaccessible by the immobile Range Rover in front of it. Hopefully now that Grover is out of the way, I can put some time into the 504!
 
Demannu said:
I guess it's time to provide some closure to anyone watching along at home!

I've been cruising around in Grover for a while now, and I love it! I haven't taken the time to remap the engine yet, but the mighty DW10 really doesn't need it. It has plenty of power, even with the big hills around here and big loads. It's been carrying 10x6 trailer loads of firewood around in the past couple of weeks, and does it effortlessly.

I've still been making tweaks to the transmission controller code, but I'm pretty happy with where it is now - the recent changes have all been very, very small (for example, changing shift points and throttle position limits for torque converter lockup by 1% increments).

I'm very happy with fuel consumption, which was the main driver for this conversion. Due to covid restrictions, I haven't been able to do any interstate or long-distance highway runs, but just running errands around here I've been averaging between 10-12 L/100Km. For a 2.4 ton vehicle in mountainous terrain, I think that's pretty good. It's about the same as my wife's 5008 gets, and that's 1000kg lighter.

There are still a few jobs left to do:
- Build a bracket for the coolant pipes and paint them
- Connect cruise control
- Plumb in the water side of the intercooler (yes, I'm still running it basically non-intercooled).

View attachment 134874
Click to expand...
Impressive big fella. You certainly have achieved what many would say was impossible or even try to accomplish.
 
For anyone interested, I guess it's been a while since I posted an update.

Grover has been very reliable. To date, I've only had one 'failed to proceed' incident, but that was only at the end of my street, about 50m from home. A transmission hose ruptured, dumping all the fluid onto the road, leaving me with a gearbox full of neutrals.

Average fuel consumption seems to be around 8.5L/100km. I've had trips around 12L/100km towing a car trailer around town, and I'm happy even with that. Best I've seen was on a run to Traralgon and back, average was 6.8L/100km.

Being a 'prototype' kind of project, it will never be finished. Recent work includes the fitment of a much larger heat exchanger for the intercooler fluid. It's enormous compared to the old one, and when previously the coolant line into the intercooler itself would get hot after some mild work, it now stays at ambient in all conditions I've been able to throw at it.

Intercooler liquid heat exchanger fitment between radiator and AC condensor:
321929577_970339247658903_6888482058667426597_n.jpg


I have also recommissioned the cruise control, so that has made long trips much more pleasant. As is common with many modern low-revving diesels, it's difficult to hear a change in engine speed on the highway, so you quite often look down and suddenly see that you are travelling much faster than anticipated. Having cruise has solved this.

The next project I'm going to tackle is to improve the airflow through the radiator at low speeds. At anything above 80km/h, the engine temperature is very steady, regardless of load and conditions. But below that speed, if towing a heavy load up a long incline, or if climbing at 4WDing speeds, the temperature tends to climb.

At the moment it only has a 16" Davies-Craig fan on the back of the radiator, and the AC condensor fans on the front. My plan is to replace the rear D-C fan with a fan from the original 406, shrouded to cover about 2/3 of the Range Rover radiator. Hopefully this will keep temps under control. If that still doesn't succeed, I'll be putting an engine-driven viscous-coupled fan on the front of the Peugeot engine.

The last project to tackle will be air conditioning. It's something I've not worried about to now, but as we are using this car more and more and starting to travel further afield, it is becoming a requirement. My two options at the moment are to use a 12v marine type AC compressor, or to change the power steering over to an electric pump and fit the engine-driven AC compressor in place of the original power steering pump. At the moment, I'm leaning towards the latter.
 
Demannu said:
For anyone interested, I guess it's been a while since I posted an update.

Grover has been very reliable. To date, I've only had one 'failed to proceed' incident, but that was only at the end of my street, about 50m from home. A transmission hose ruptured, dumping all the fluid onto the road, leaving me with a gearbox full of neutrals.

Average fuel consumption seems to be around 8.5L/100km. I've had trips around 12L/100km towing a car trailer around town, and I'm happy even with that. Best I've seen was on a run to Traralgon and back, average was 6.8L/100km.

Being a 'prototype' kind of project, it will never be finished. Recent work includes the fitment of a much larger heat exchanger for the intercooler fluid. It's enormous compared to the old one, and when previously the coolant line into the intercooler itself would get hot after some mild work, it now stays at ambient in all conditions I've been able to throw at it.

Intercooler liquid heat exchanger fitment between radiator and AC condensor:
321929577_970339247658903_6888482058667426597_n.jpg


I have also recommissioned the cruise control, so that has made long trips much more pleasant. As is common with many modern low-revving diesels, it's difficult to hear a change in engine speed on the highway, so you quite often look down and suddenly see that you are travelling much faster than anticipated. Having cruise has solved this.

The next project I'm going to tackle is to improve the airflow through the radiator at low speeds. At anything above 80km/h, the engine temperature is very steady, regardless of load and conditions. But below that speed, if towing a heavy load up a long incline, or if climbing at 4WDing speeds, the temperature tends to climb.

At the moment it only has a 16" Davies-Craig fan on the back of the radiator, and the AC condensor fans on the front. My plan is to replace the rear D-C fan with a fan from the original 406, shrouded to cover about 2/3 of the Range Rover radiator. Hopefully this will keep temps under control. If that still doesn't succeed, I'll be putting an engine-driven viscous-coupled fan on the front of the Peugeot engine.

The last project to tackle will be air conditioning. It's something I've not worried about to now, but as we are using this car more and more and starting to travel further afield, it is becoming a requirement. My two options at the moment are to use a 12v marine type AC compressor, or to change the power steering over to an electric pump and fit the engine-driven AC compressor in place of the original power steering pump. At the moment, I'm leaning towards the latter.
Click to expand...
Seriously interesting post - glad you are still out there!! :)
 
Demannu said:
Grover being useful!View attachment 215165
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Hi mate, nice project and very impressive multi talented skill set, I just joined to ask a question specifically about your transmission controller, is it a design of your own or something you have found on the internet ? I just did the V8 torque converter upgrade on my Td5 and am also using the Transmission Controller from a V8 disco but it needs some tweaking, but it is not programmable over the obd port, I have a desire to follow in your footsteps and dyi a controller . I can't seem to message you so maybe too new a member at this point.
 
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