From 0 to Hero...

well today i was checking out around my engine bay after my recent 780km trip down south to windy harbour and i felt like i should reset the ecu and get it to learn again as 5 hours of doing 140 being cruising speed cant be very good for it.

while i was at it i decided to ditch my 3 inch silicone hose and metal tube setup with a pod filter on the end getting direct air flow and chucked on the standard box and paper filter.

unplugged the batt, pressed the brake pedal a bunch of times and flicked the lights to make sure all the power was drained.

started her up, set my clocks, etc and had a 5min warm up.

i drove out of my driveway and bloody hell! i was just thrown into my seat!

first corner of my street came up and i went into 2nd then accelerated out only to find my tail end slipped out and i had a bit of smoke from the tires.

any start from a stop with around 1500 revs in 1st gear and the tires just smoke.

i dont get it though, how does the low air flow and restricted filter give the engine such a boost over a high flow and direct cold air intake system?

beats me, but it just bloody rips!

the revs seem to be the same at speeds. eg. 2050 revs at 100km/h in 5th so i dont think i'm using up more fuel.

but yer, any idea as to how i magically got all this power? lol

May of had a fault code logged before. Which restricted the engine power.

Rev's wont change unless you change the gearing.

If you never see gravel roads and dusty conditions use the pod if your happy with it.

If you see dusty conditions reguarly, stick with the factory airbox.

Dave.

pod saw one dusty sandy area and after i was done i took it off and stuck the air compressor blower inside it.

stacks upon stacks of dust just puffed out from every place.

seems to have done a pretty good job.

fault code makes me think no because i've reset the ecu a few times after doing a few exhaust tests and i reset the ecu every time and i had the pod filter on at the time.

maybe the turbo works better when it has to really suck the air in, not just freely take it in?

hmm

Not sure about the turbo wanting to draw air theory, are there any sensors in any of the factory stuff you had removed to put in your pod filter?

Don't overestimate how fully sik pod filters are. Fuel consumption isn't entirely determined by revs, but that doesn't mean you won't be better or worse off now.

theres the MAF sensor which i ran in the joint of one of the 90 degree elbows.

like the stock setup, its just after the filter

Th e factory filter might just be better in certain rev ranges (ie low revs)

Also its getting colder Turbos LOVE cold air!

i had the last setup so it was directly getting fresh air from the front of the car in a way that prevented rain getting to it, so cold air was fine.

i might try chucking the pod filter itself inside the stock casing and see how that goes?

i dont wanna go resetting the ecu now as its bloody kick ass!

maddogrc said:

theres the MAF sensor which i ran in the joint of one of the 90 degree elbows.

like the stock setup, its just after the filter

Click to expand...

I only obsess over the MAF sensor because it's so crucial for perfect fuel ratios. Bearing in mind I've never been under the bonnet of any Navara besides the D21, consider things like this half-baked idea: if the MAF sensor were of the hot wire type and were placed in the intake pipework immediately following a sharp bend (90 deg), and the wire was in the perfect position to be within the flow separated area (my sedan's MAF is right near the wall of the pipe), it would barely cool and would give a false reading, ruining your fuelling. Just food for thought.

Tommy, very good point about the colder air.

i had it directly in the middle of the silicone join on an angle so it was receiving air flow for sure.

thing is that right from the start after i let the car idle for 5min when i turned it on, it just shot off.

and stand still take offs dont really work on the theory of colder air flow as your not really moving much.

it's just such a large improvement which is why i'm confused.

who knows?

Could you post a photo of your set up under the hood, and post what pod you used with part numbers.

Cheers
STC

sorry but dont have any photos of the set up.

i basically had a 2.5 inch to 3 inch elbow from the turbo which pointed towards the passenger side, then ran a 3 inch metal pipe about a foot across which ended with a 3 inch elbow with the opening of that elbow facing the front of the car, which then had a half a foot of 3 inch metal pipe where it finally ended with a 3 inch pod filter from super cheap auto (i know i know but no one else had one). i had the filter set up in a box to keep out warm engine air and the start of the filter was pressed into the hole for the front left head light where air flow entered.

part numbers? got no idea...

might i also add that i have been running the pod setup for around 5 months and all was fine.

i had plenty of juice and power at the time and i've never had issues of speed being limited or revs being reduced. it served me very well all that time.

but now, it seems as if the car was chipped and tuned or something.

strange...

maddogrc said:

and stand still take offs dont really work on the theory of colder air flow as your not really moving much.

Click to expand...

He means the weather is getting colder, so the air is more dense. No matter what speed you're doing the temperature doesn't change, but the difference between engine bay temp and outside temp wouldn't be enough to give you impressive gains.

If your standing start performance is enhanced, it sounds like you're just coming on boost earlier. That's a result of reduced intake pressure drop, from a less restricted intake path. Is it still performing this way if you go out and do the same test now?

Maybe the hamstring in your right leg has stretched due to all the stretching over into your engine bay swapping pod filters ect.

This will have caused your right food to be able to move quicker onto the loud pedal causing the engine to unleash all its power instantly thus causing the side effect of you giggling like a schoolboy in a billycart.

I'm off to start stretching

even after a day of rest it still is acting so much more powerful.

i now have to be careful on the throttle around corners!

i plan to chuck in the pod filter into the original box sometime and see if that makes a difference.

well i chucked the pod filter inside the stock filter holder and it still FLIES!

i then chucked back in the stock filter and still flies!

its odd though, seems to be power instantly. maybe the variable part of the turbo never worked til now?

hmm...

all i know is that i aint going to reset it as its just perfect for me now

Right, odd. Ah well, enjoy it!

you know how they say these engines are supposed to be a detuned engine of the d40 or something, right?

perhaps i somehow managed to restore the original tune like the d40's have? who knows...

perhaps the chip never actually reset all those bloody times i undid the battery and left for 24 hours? though i did pump the brake n all to make sure. hmm

It is possible to change some settings in the factory ECU using an OBD interface for many cars, but how you'd do that just by clearing the flash memory, I don't know.

Surely if you can change the mapping in the ECU, there'd be guides all over the internet on the cheapest mod you could ever perform? Gotta love it when a car isn't as powerful as it possibly could be, just for the sake of marketing. Like the Porsche Cayman.

well to guarantee a chip reset:

disconnect negative terminal
pump brake til it locks up
flick headlights on a few times
turn the key to on then off
reconnect
turn on and let idle for 5min
during that idle quickly rev it to 4K and let it drop back down

drive away!