Big Diesel, MPG increase ideas?

[ps2fixer]

Quick update on the truck, my dad swapped out the rear drive shaft for me from the parts truck, new U joints installed in it and it still has the drive line vibration. Either case, it needed the parts, just more fun trying to track down the root cause.

He also drained the transfercase fluid and found a lot of metal flakes, not a good sign. It was a bit hard shifting in and out of 4x4 at first, the indicator switch sticks fairly often now but the physical shifting was working pretty good since I've been putting it in 4x4 and low fairly often to get the linkages working good again. Going to refill and probably check it again at the next oil change, possible it's just way over due on a fluid change.

Talking about the transfer case, it was removed at some point or replaced, it's cleaner than everything else and appears to have been painted gray. Besides the metal shavings, it hasn't made any noises and such that I've heard. Hopefully the vibration isn't a bad bearing in the transfer case. Worst case, I do have a parts truck, it vibrated a lot, but it has extremely badly cupped front tires and the vibration is in the front end on that truck, someone didn't get an alignment for a long time.

Water pump gasket is weeping some, shouldn't be too big of a deal to get sealed back up. A new water pump is fairly expensive so if the bearings are good and the seals are good, I'll probably just keep running it. Thermostat housing I noticed was getting pretty rusty on the truck, and it's also leaking a little at the base where the thermostat is, so bought a new housing (dirt cheap just over $8) and a 203 deg thermostat.

Kind of crazy just how many things were neglected on this truck. I think once all is said and done, it will still be cheaper than any other truck in this area I've seen with the diesel and manual trans, 4x4, and extended cab that I could find. Next cheapest was about $8-10k with a bit better body.

I also have a possible trailer I might be buying, 12k lb 18ft low deck, no dove tail with dual axle brakes for $2600. Most I've been seeing are $3k-6k. The guy has to transfer the title into his name yet, so have around 2 weeks min to wait for that process and I'll have a 2.5hr drive to go grab it (roughly $45 in fuel).

[Piotrsko]

Metal shavings do not tell you when they got shaved off. Sounds like a loose chain sometimes in the past.

If you're running green coolant, the waterpump becomes a consistant failure point since the seal is on the coolant side and green coolant with additives is abrasive to that seal. I'm running Cat ELC nowadays which is supposed to make the pump last the duration of the coolant. Ate a pump seal every 4 years, so I'm good at replacing pumps.

[ps2fixer]

Yea don't really know the story on the transfer case, being painted like that suggests it was either rebuilt, or atleast a used replacement. Seeing how the rest of the truck is, wouldn't surprise me if it was rebuilt and the fluid never got replaced. He did say the fluid appeared to be correct

Not sure what coolant type is in it, was planning to flush the system and get it up to par in the spring/summer time. My dad said it's leaking at the point on the water pump housing gasket, not the bearings, but he couldn't get a mirror in there to make 100% sure the bearing seal wasn't leaking.

All of this almost makes me want to switch back to a Toyota truck lol, they require such little work to keep going. My T100 effectively was a parts truck that I just fixed it enough to get it on the road and started driving it. I didn't even change the oil till later.

Anyway, eventually I'll have all the bugs worked out of this Ford, or atleast good enough to get some miles on it. If the leak isn't bad, I'll just drive it till spring/summer and keep an eye on the coolant level.

The engine oil came out good, it was low, about 10qt came out, and change capacity is 14. I guess the little bit down on the dip stick is actually a lot of oil. I don't remember what the reading was at, but on a normal engine it I think it was like 1/2 qt low area (mid cross hash area). The EBPV leaks oil out the shaft so I'm guessing that's where most of the oil is going. Sounds like the best fix is to buy another turbo pedestal that doesn't have the EBPV and the o ring kit to replace the seals. People online say it's about a 6hr job, so might be another task that gets pushed off till spring/summer.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

I'm planning to experiment with propane injection (low to mild amounts, not for power, but for the mpg effect). Most people claim 25-30% gains in mpg, cleaner burn, oil lasts longer, lower EGT's at low loads, but higher at higher loads.

Most claims I see are of lower EGTs all around.

[ps2fixer]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Most claims I see are of lower EGTs all around.

Yea the propane stuff seems to be full of mystery and not a whole lot of hard data on the subject. It can't be too hard to state diesel mpg + "mpg" for the propane and figure out the ratio they are running (roughly) and a fair idea if the system is overall better vs just running diesel.

EGT's seems to not be talked about too much, I think I only saw one mention that while pulling a trailer up a hill the person saw around 100f hotter EGT's with propane on.

If/when I plug away of the propane stuff, I might make a new thread dedicated about it to try to help clear up some of the lacking data on the subject.

The biggest thing I'm not 100% sure on is how to "tune" the propane levels. Pretty much everyone I see that claims success are running 10-20% propane. I've seen claims as high as 30% in one case. The best numbers I've seen from people work out at about 14-20% but there's not much for data in the 10% or lower range. One person with an NA IDI diesel stated the propane actually made their engine run worse and smoked more, I'm guessing the propane was using too much of the oxygen up or something, probably means propane in diesel is only for turboed or supercharged engines.

I guess the tune question is, what's a sign of too much besides potential spark knock noises or going to the point of damaging the engine? I'd assume EGT would increase with too much propane.

I kind of wish I had a little single cylinder diesel engine to test the propane logic on. Like say one that powers a generator so a consistent load can be put on it and EGT and such could be monitored at different levels, and get a fairly reproduce-able change in diesel usage. Of course measuring propane usage would be a little harder, probably would have to use a 1lb bottle and weigh it to get accurate usage. Would be interesting to use an engine like that to push the limits and see what exactly happens, like EGT's indicate the failure before damage happens and such. Of course this would be a NA engine, so the testing would be somewhat limited.

Maybe I can find a VW TDI parts car for cheap and toy around with that. Looked and cheapest atm appears to be $1000, kind of expensive to experiment on lol.

[Isaac Zachary]

It deffinitely sounds complicated.

If the engine has too high of a compression ratio, the propane will burn up too soon, cause knock and lower efficiency. This also could happen with too much boost for the propane. It seems like there should be a cut off pressure and above that propane should be shut off.

If too little propane is use, well, no real effect. If too much, it could make everything too rich if mixed with too much diesel. There are likely operating conditions that benefit from very little propane, and others that need a lot more, and other in which there is no benefit and maybe even a disadvantage.

Then add ambient temperature and humidity to the mix of variables. Oh, and the nut behind the wheel variable.

I'm not saying don't try it. And it could be easy or could be a nightmare. You never know unless you try it.

P.S. Adding water injection along with propane should lower the chances of detonation.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Diesels already run quite lean, so even a relatively small amount of propane (or CNG which I am more used to) won't be so bad even if you tune the engine to inject fewer Diesel while running on propane to keep the standard AFR. I would also rather resort to a liquid-phase sequential injection, in order to not only decrease the amount of wasted propane during valve overlap but also to increase its cooling effect on the intake charge.

I'm more used to CNG anyway, which is quite simpler as it's harder to knock, and recently I have even seen a Mercedes-Benz semi-truck with CNG enhancement which AFAIK has not been so unusual at all in some parts of Brazil.

[ps2fixer]

Small update, with the truck loaded about half the time, I'm averaging around 15mpg. Empty seems to run around 20mpg. Still have the vibration at 35-45mph, and it comes back around 72mph.

talking about 72mph, was in a rush with my trailer one day and drove 70mph (fastest I could go with out the vibration) and napkin math got around 8-10mpg, crazy how much it drops 70mph vs 60mph. It used roughly 5 gals in 40 miles.

First trip with my dolly instead of the trailer gave way better mpg. I didn't even go through one tank (19gal) and have 270 miles on it. Car only weighs around 2020 lbs though xD.

Talking about the car, new addition to my line up, a 2000 Toyota Echo, 1.5L manual 4 door. Bunch of people say 40mpg is super easy to get with it, I hope to hit closer to 50mpg with my style of driving as long as I'm not in a rush. I fit in it better than my 97 corolla which is really odd to me, it's smaller in every dimension on the exterior. Couldn't pass up the price, has 4 brand new tires (3 not mounted) + the car for $450. Needs muffler put on, rear bumper got pulled off, and one of the gauge cluster lights are out for the back light. Besides that, give it an oil change and it's pretty much ready to tear up the roads. It's rusty and a bit ugly, plastic everywhere, but it runs and drives great.

I haven't had a chance to do much research, but while looking up info on the car, I found a video that mentioned they put a "big block" corolla engine in their echo. I wonder which engine is interchangeable with the trans bolt pattern, or maybe they had to make up an adapter (lack of info really sucks sometimes). Car has 291k miles on it (468k km), but it runs great so not looking to swap the engine unless it dies. I never had a manual car, and that thing drives/shifts amazing, like 10x better/easier than the trucks. It might be a beater, but it's really growing on me lol. I suspect the main mods it needs is a rear belly pan (already has a plastic one in front), and a lower or upper grill block.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

I haven't had a chance to do much research, but while looking up info on the car, I found a video that mentioned they put a "big block" corolla engine in their echo.

1ZZ/2ZZ engines bolt up to the C56, C59, C60, C64, C65 transmissions, among others. These transmissions and engines are not compatible with anything else AFAIK.

The 1NZ bolts up to the C160, C50, C52, C54 off the top of my head. The 2ZR from the newer Corolla comes with an EC60 standard, but I think it bolts up to all the above, and they're also compatible with the older transmissions that came with the 3A, 4A engines.

Toyota's bigger engines are a little more swap friendly, the S, E, and EB transmissions fit all just about everything that ever came on a Camry, possibly with some grinding and moving the starter and exhaust and coolant pipes around.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

Talking about the car, new addition to my line up, a 2000 Toyota Echo, 1.5L manual 4 door. Bunch of people say 40mpg is super easy to get with it, I hope to hit closer to 50mpg with my style of driving as long as I'm not in a rush. I fit in it better than my 97 corolla which is really odd to me, it's smaller in every dimension on the exterior.

Surprisingly, some econoboxes which cater to countries where they're often the only car of the household are surprisingly more comfortable than their size may suggest.