Mick Bateup (Richardson, ACT)

010713-dieselHi Allan, I’ve been 4WDing and camping for 12 years and been to Fraser Island, the Vic High Country, Bendethra and other national and state parks around Canberra. My most enjoyed place would have to be the Vic High Country and looking forward in doing more in the near future.

My truck has a heap of mods, but I’ll stick to the engine related mods for the purpose of this question. The engine its running is a Steinbauer performance module and an upgraded Cross Country intercooler.

The problem that I have is that the truck has a surge or a delay in power from 1800rpm to 2100rpm then the acceleration is fine after that. It cruises fine, but when you put your foot down to overtake or even when you slow down a bit then try to speed up again the surge or power delay is there.

I’ve had three good mechanics look at it and Nissan told me that there’s nothing wrong with my truck and it’s been doing it since 16,000kms old, even before the performance module was put on. I’ve had lots of different things said to me about what it could be like the ECU, fuel pump, the original intercooler that was cracked, the accelerator pedal that I have also replaced lately. There was an earth problem, which I have replaced the main earth cable and still the problem accelerating is still there and I’ve now run out of ideas. Allan SAVE ME!

Allan

Well Mick, without driving your Patrol, I’d suspect that the problem is being aggravated by driving it at too low engine revs or a low engine temperature. I’d check the temperature with a master gauge in the radiator and just make sure that it’s not something silly like a jammed open thermostat. Look up the factory specifications on engine revs and the running temperature. With the characteristics of the 3.0L engine indicate that it may be better to use 2000rpm as the lowest that you would allow the engine to run when you change into the higher gears.

From memory redline is up around the 3500-4000rpm mark. I’d just make sure that 2000rpm was the lowest when driving and I think that will overcome your problem. But I do suspect that your radiator is running too cold. Thanks Mick.