New engine isnt as great as I was hoping.

[muddyjames]

I have just come back from running a muddy traders car park at a festival and I managed to tow out a 4.5tonne van first go out of very sticky goo that a tellehandler struggled to tow out a 3.5tonne transit. The disco was brilliant and not 1 bogged down van/car was beyond my grasp. Even managed a 2 tonne trailer with the hand break still on (someone else hooked it up for me!) and towed it out of some mud that a 90 with mud tyres on failed to tow. So quiet happy.

Towing caravan home it was spot on. I had my mud tyres in the boot so extra weight was handy! I did notice though some black smoke coming out the back when I was going up hills in 3rd at 3000rpm. I could just make it out againt the white of the caravan. Is this normal or right?

[bilge rat]

you could just make it out ,  sounds good to me . on red i'd get the same. blue you wouldnt see the caravan  :-k sounds like yopu got it sorted ..alan....

[muddyjames]

it was just visible. There is alot of oily looking but doesnt smear when touched scank on the caravan though. I am just guessing it is the residue from being diesel and the last bit of the exhaust that points the fumes down to the ground has droped off so the fumes go directly out. Once I drop it back into 4th the smoke goes. It is only at 3k rpm.

Just run past my last tank fill up and towing the caravan 160miles ish and a bit of other pootling about it came to 24mpg. I'm happy with that. will see what happens to this tank when I fill up soon and that will be towing caravan 80miles and 65miles on rizzlies on road and towing stuck cars / vans off road. I'm not paying for this tankfull sodont care to be honest!!! :lol:

[bilge rat]

i get an average of 27 thats a manual so that does sound good .. nice one

[Rich_P]

I couldn't find this mentioned earlier in the topic, so I'll mention it now.  The 300TDi automatics had a greater output than the manual varients, they were "tweaked" slightly already from the factory to make better use of the automatic gearbox.  With your engine having come from a manual vehicle, that means it will not be giving the same performance that another 300TDi auto would be.  Although we're only talking about 5-10bhp, but that can make all the difference I think.

[muddyjames]

But as mine was from an ex police vehicle would it have had the tweak done to it anyway?

It certainly goes alot better than the old engine and is more quiet too.

[Rich_P]

But as mine was from an ex police vehicle would it have had the tweak done to it anyway?

I doubt it, particularly if it was a support vehicle.

It possibly goes quicker because this engine is in a bit better health than the last one.  After all, you did replace the old one because I presume it was a bit tired?

[muddyjames]

I replaced the old engine as it had overheated and the advise to me was to change it instead of trying to look at heads and pressure testing etc as I dont know where to start on any of internal engine bits and to send to a garage would have cost the same as an engine replacement which with a few friends we did do and worked out slightly cheaper.